WATCHMAN33
Moses points across Jordan toward green Gerizim in sunlight and austere Ebal beneath shadow.
KING JAMES VERSION

DEUTERONOMY 11

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CHAPTER VISUAL

Deuteronomy 11 — Israel must love and obey the LORD in the rain-watered land and receive the set choice of blessing or curse.

About this illustration

The mountains are shown as a forward-looking contrast from Moab; Israel has not yet crossed the Jordan.

Scripture basis: Deuteronomy 11:1–32
  1. 1Therefore thou shalt love the LORD thy God, and keep his charge, and his statutes, and his judgments, and his commandments, alway.
  2. 2And know ye this day: for I speak not with your children which have not known, and which have not seen the chastisement of the LORD your God, his greatness, his mighty hand, and his stretched out arm,
  3. 3And his miracles, and his acts, which he did in the midst of Egypt unto Pharaoh the king of Egypt, and unto all his land;
  4. 4And what he did unto the army of Egypt, unto their horses, and to their chariots; how he made the water of the Red sea to overflow them as they pursued after you, and how the LORD hath destroyed them unto this day;
  5. 5And what he did unto you in the wilderness, until ye came into this place;
  6. 6And what he did unto Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben: how the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their households, and their tents, and all the substance that was in their possession, in the midst of all Israel:
  7. 7But your eyes have seen all the great acts of the LORD which he did.
  8. 8Therefore shall ye keep all the commandments which I command you this day, that ye may be strong, and go in and possess the land, whither ye go to possess it;
  9. 9And that ye may prolong your days in the land, which the LORD sware unto your fathers to give unto them and to their seed, a land that floweth with milk and honey.
  10. 10 For the land, whither thou goest in to possess it, is not as the land of Egypt, from whence ye came out, where thou sowedst thy seed, and wateredst it with thy foot, as a garden of herbs:
  11. 11But the land, whither ye go to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven:
  12. 12A land which the LORD thy God careth for: the eyes of the LORD thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year.
  13. 13 And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently unto my commandments which I command you this day, to love the LORD your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul,
  14. 14That I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil.
  15. 15And I will send grass in thy fields for thy cattle, that thou mayest eat and be full.
  16. 16Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them;
  17. 17And then the LORD’s wrath be kindled against you, and he shut up the heaven, that there be no rain, and that the land yield not her fruit; and lest ye perish quickly from off the good land which the LORD giveth you.
  18. 18 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.
  19. 19And 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.
  20. 20And thou shalt write them upon the door posts of thine house, and upon thy gates:
  21. 21That 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.
  22. 22 For if ye shall diligently keep all these commandments which I command you, to do them, to love the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, and to cleave unto him;
  23. 23Then will the LORD drive out all these nations from before you, and ye shall possess greater nations and mightier than yourselves.
  24. 24Every place whereon the soles of your feet shall tread shall be yours: from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, even unto the uttermost sea shall your coast be.
  25. 25There shall no man be able to stand before you: for the LORD your God shall lay the fear of you and the dread of you upon all the land that ye shall tread upon, as he hath said unto you.
  26. 26 Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse;
  27. 27A blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you this day:
  28. 28And a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which ye have not known.
  29. 29And it shall come to pass, when the LORD thy God hath brought thee in unto the land whither thou goest to possess it, that thou shalt put the blessing upon mount Gerizim, and the curse upon mount Ebal.
  30. 30Are they not on the other side Jordan, by the way where the sun goeth down, in the land of the Canaanites, which dwell in the champaign over against Gilgal, beside the plains of Moreh?
  31. 31For ye shall pass over Jordan to go in to possess the land which the LORD your God giveth you, and ye shall possess it, and dwell therein.
  32. 32And ye shall observe to do all the statutes and judgments which I set before you this day.

King James Version · Standardized 1769 text with Strong’s numbering · Public domain outside the United Kingdom

EXPLORE THE MESSAGE

Related Watchman 33 Resources

Archaeological Evidence

ARCHAEOLOGY EVIDENCEArchaeological site
Early Iron Age I, approximately thirteenth–twelfth centuries BC

The Mount Ebal Stone Installation

An isolated early Iron Age complex on Mount Ebal contains a large stone installation, enclosure walls, ash, selected animal bones, pottery, and Egyptian scarabs; cultic use is plausible, but its function and identification as Joshua’s altar remain contested.

Deuteronomy 27:4–8 · Joshua 8:30–35 · Deuteronomy 11:29
Open evidence file
ARCHAEOLOGY EVIDENCEArtifact
Second century BC to first century AD

Tefillin from the Qumran Caves

Leather cases and miniature Scripture slips from the Judean Desert document varied material forms of tefillin centuries before the later rabbinic evidence.

Exodus 13:6–16 · Deuteronomy 6:4–9 · Deuteronomy 11:13–21
Open evidence file
ARCHAEOLOGY EVIDENCEArtifact
Hasmonean to Herodian periods

Mezuzah Manuscripts from Qumran

Minute Deuteronomy manuscripts identified as mezuzot show that doorpost Scripture was practiced in the Second Temple period, though fragmentary contexts leave placement and ownership uncertain.

Deuteronomy 6:4–9 · Deuteronomy 11:13–21
Open evidence file
ARCHAEOLOGY EVIDENCECult & worship
5th–2nd centuries BC, with later Roman and Byzantine phases

Mount Gerizim Samaritan Temple Precinct and Inscriptions

The fortified Hellenistic sanctuary and hundreds of dedicatory inscriptions on Mount Gerizim materially document the mountain's central place in Samaritan worship centuries before the New Testament.

Deuteronomy 11:29 · Deuteronomy 27:12 · Joshua 8:33
Open evidence file

Sermons

June 21, 2022Pastor Dean Odle

The Point of No Return

In “The Point of No Return,” Pastor Dean Odle presents a Scripture-centered message about prayer, repentance, the condition of the church. Drawing especially from Deuteronomy 11, Deuteronomy 32, Isaiah 13, Malachi 4, the teaching emphasizes that prayer expresses dependence on God and prepares believers to hear and obey Him. Odle connects that foundation with the conviction that repentance involves turning from known sin and bringing conduct into agreement with God’s word.

Doctrine and DiscernmentChristian LivingSpiritual Warfare
View sermon