EXPLORE THE TEXT
God blesses those who faithfully observe His commands.
3 “If you follow my statutes and faithfully observe my commands,
4 I will give you rain at the right time,
and the land will yield its produce, and the trees of the field will bear their fruit.
5 Your threshing will continue until grape harvest,
and the grape harvest will continue until sowing time;
you will have plenty of food to eat and live securely in your land.
6 I will give peace to the land, and you will lie down with nothing to frighten you.
I will remove dangerous animals from the land, and no sword will pass through your land.
7 You will pursue your enemies, and they will fall before you by the sword.
8 Five of you will pursue a hundred, and a hundred of you will pursue ten thousand;
your enemies will fall before you by the sword.”
The terms used here to reveal God’s will
define not only Israel’s covenant faithfulness,
but also the divinely marked pathway of human fulfillment,
satisfaction, flourishing, and joy.
In other words, these are what lead believers to real life.
“I will,” “You will,” and “It will.”
identify statements that fit under each column.
literally, “live in.”
God’s people conduct their lives according to His revealed will,
as expressed by words such as
statutes (hoq),
commands (mitswah), and
ordinances (mishpat, see v. 15).
faithfully observe, is more literally “practice.”
guard” or “watch,” which implies the need for vigilance and diligence.
material and nonmaterial benefits of obedience.
These are the blessings, although the term “bless” is not used here.
The Hebrew word for rain is plural because it refers to the two rainy seasons in Canaan-autumn/early rain and spring/late rain (Deut. 11:14; Jer. 5:24).
The blessing of rain means the blessing of crops
After the conquest of Canaan, it became apparent that the different tribes would not have equal rainfall.
The result would be the necessity of interdependence.
The land would be good (Ex. 3:8; Num. 32:1; Deut. 8:7),
but not in the same way for each tribe or each person.
Also, the blessings were promised to Israel as a whole, not necessarily to individuals,
some of whom would be poor and dependent on the compassion of others (Lev. 19:10,15; 23:22; Deut. 15:7).
In addition to promising an abundance of food, God also offered them peace (shalom, v. 6).
Practically, this security would include the absence of dangerous animals and the sword of an enemy.
Although Israel would soon and did often break the covenant, God’s promises persevered.
Their sin did not annul His faithfulness.
This is the first of many uses of this idiom that means to be killed in battle.
The divine blessing of God being on their side would mean that the size of armies did not matter (v. 8).
So, the Lord promised to provide agricultural blessings and security,
but that wasn’t all.
God had even more blessings to share with His people if they would obey Him.