Did God expect Israel to choose between two ways? Were they to bear the fruit of obedience, love and service to God to be blessed in the land? Are we to bear fruit? Let’s look at Deuteronomy 11.
What did Moses preach to Israel about their relationship with God?
The Lord is your God, so you must always love him and obey his laws and teachings. Remember, he corrected you and not your children. You are the ones who saw the Lord use his great power when he worked miracles in Egypt, making terrible things happen to the king and all his people. And when the Egyptian army chased you in their chariots, you saw the Lord drown them and their horses in the Red Sea. Egypt still suffers from that defeat! (Deuteronomy 11:1-4 CEV)
What else did Israel experience of God’s mighty hand in the wilderness?
and what he did to you in the wilderness, until you came to this place, and what he did to Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, son of Reuben, how the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households, their tents, and every living thing that followed them, in the midst of all Israel. For your eyes have seen all the great work of the Lord that he did. (Deuteronomy 11:5-7 ESV)
How is the land of Israel very different to Egypt, their former residence?
Keep every command I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to cross into and possess the land you are to inherit, and so that you may live long in the land the Lord swore to your fathers to give them and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey. For the land you are entering to possess is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and irrigated by hand as in a vegetable garden. But the land you are entering to possess is a land of mountains and valleys, watered by rain from the sky. It is a land the Lord your God cares for. He is always watching over it from the beginning to the end of the year. (Deuteronomy 11:8-12 HCSB)
Was it a land that would only produce if they carefully observed the Lord’s commands?
If you carefully observe the commands that I’m giving you today—that is, to love the Lord your God and serve him with all your heart and soul— then he will send rain on the land in its season (the early and latter rains) and you’ll gather grain, new wine, and oil. He will provide grass in the fields for your livestock, and you’ll eat and be satisfied. Be careful! Otherwise, your hearts will deceive you and you will turn away to serve other gods and worship them. The wrath of God will burn against you so that he will restrain the heavens and it won’t rain. The ground won’t yield its produce and you’ll be swiftly destroyed from the good land that the Lord is about to give you. (Deuteronomy 11:13-17 ISV)
How could they be sure that they and their children were obedient to God?
Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes. And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt write them upon the door posts of thine house, and upon thy gates: That your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon the earth. (Deuteronomy 11:18-21 KJV)
What blessings would flow from God to an obedient nation?
For if you are careful to keep this entire commandment which I am commanding you to do, to love Yahweh your God, to walk in all His ways, and to cling to Him, then Yahweh will dispossess all these nations from before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and mightier than you. Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours; your border will be from the wilderness to Lebanon, and from the river, the river Euphrates, as far as the western sea. No man will be able to stand before you; Yahweh your God will put the dread of you and the fear of you on all the land on which you set foot, as He has spoken to you. (Deuteronomy 11:22-25 LSB)
Did they have a free will choice between two end results?
See, I am placing before you today a blessing and a curse: the blessing, if you listen to the commandments of the Lord your God, which I am commanding you today; and the curse, if you do not listen to the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way which I am commanding you today, by following other gods which you have not known. (Deuteronomy 11:26-28 NASB)
What were they to ceremonially proclaim from two mountains in the land?
When the Lord your God has brought you into the land you are entering to possess, you are to proclaim on Mount Gerizim the blessings, and on Mount Ebal the curses. As you know, these mountains are across the Jordan, westward, toward the setting sun, near the great trees of Moreh, in the territory of those Canaanites living in the Arabah in the vicinity of Gilgal. You are about to cross the Jordan to enter and take possession of the land the Lord your God is giving you. When you have taken it over and are living there, be sure that you obey all the decrees and laws I am setting before you today. (Deuteronomy 11:19-32 NIV)
As God chose ancient Israel, had Jesus chosen His disciples? Were they to bear fruit?
You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. (John 15:16 NKJV)
How can we bear fruit? What happens to those who do not remain in Christ Jesus?
I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me. Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned. (John 15:1-6 NLT)
Did God expect Israel to choose between two ways? Were they to bear the fruit of obedience, love and service to God to be blessed in the land? Are we to bear fruit? You decide!
