The start of Deuteronomy 11 starts with a very clear statement

Love the LORD your God and keep his requirements, his decrees, his laws and his commands always. Deuteronomy 11:1

This is a clear theme of the book and is something we repeated time and again throughout the book. After this opener there is this wonderful section which starts with an interesting refrain;

Remember today that your children were not the ones who saw and experienced……. Deuteronomy 11:2a

Then we see listed some of the things that their children had not seen. Here is that list in bullet form

• Experienced the discipline of the LORD your God
• His majesty
• His mighty hand
• His outstretched arm
• The signs He performed
• The things He did in the heart of Egypt, both to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his whole country
• What He did to the Egyptian army

He then repeats the refrain again; It was not your children who saw what he did for you… and talks about how the earth swallowed up those who had sinned against God. This section finishes with it being clearly stated

But it was your own eyes that saw all these great things the LORD has done.

Moses is making a clear point here. He is setting up the fact that the people can have no excuse for what he is about to say next. They can’t claim that they were unaware of Gods goodness and His mighty power. They saw it with their own eyes. I also think he is passing on once again the importance of them sharing this with their children but after he says all of this he goes on to say this;

Observe therefore all the commands I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to go in and take over the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, and so that you may live long in the land the LORD swore to your ancestors to give to them and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey. Deuteronomy 11:7-9

This is what it was building up to. There is 3 things I see emerging here.

• All we have seen should mean we want to devote ourselves to God – when we have tasted His goodness and experienced His majesty then why would we ever move away from making Him the centre of our lives? A modern day, and quite limited example, is to think of a long term friend who time and time again has proved themselves to be trustworthy. Because we have seen them prove their trust in the past we are more likely to commit ourselves to them in the future. It’s that x10000000000….
• All we have seen should mean we should have strength to achieve what seems impossible – the people were close to stepping into the Promised land. In one way this was the end of a very long journey for the people, but in another way it is the beginning of a pretty difficult task – overtaking the land that was inhabited by others. This would have been intimidating for the people, especially given the past reports regarding the people who lived there. However because of who they had seen God to be and all that He had done before them, then surely they should have strength and believe that He (and they) could do it.
• All of that means we will live long in the land God has given us – these instructions, these principles, mean that we and those who come after us will continue to live in that Promised Land of Gods blessing.