then the LORD will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and stronger than you. then the LORD will drive out all these nations before youThis phrase emphasizes the divine intervention and sovereignty of God in the conquest of Canaan. The Israelites were not to rely on their own strength but on God's promise and power. This reflects the covenant relationship where God acts on behalf of His people. Historically, the Canaanite nations were known for their fortified cities and military prowess, yet God assured Israel of victory. This mirrors the earlier promise in Exodus 23:27-30, where God promised to send His terror ahead of Israel to drive out the inhabitants. It also foreshadows the spiritual battles believers face, where reliance on God's power is crucial ( Ephesians 6:10-18). and you will dispossess nations greater and stronger than you
This highlights the miraculous nature of Israel's conquest. The Canaanite nations were advanced in terms of military and infrastructure, often possessing chariots and fortified cities. The Israelites, having been nomadic for 40 years, lacked such resources. This scenario underscores the theme of God's strength being made perfect in human weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9). It also serves as a type of Christ, who through apparent weakness (His crucifixion) triumphed over the powers of sin and death (Colossians 2:15). The dispossession of these nations is a fulfillment of God's promise to Abraham in Genesis 15:18-21, demonstrating God's faithfulness across generations. Persons / Places / Events 1. The LORD (Yahweh)The covenant-keeping God of Israel, who promises to act on behalf of His people. 2. IsraelitesThe chosen people of God, who are being prepared to enter the Promised Land. 3. NationsRefers to the Canaanite nations inhabiting the Promised Land, which Israel is commanded to dispossess. 4. Promised LandThe land of Canaan, promised by God to Abraham and his descendants. 5. MosesThe leader of the Israelites, delivering God's commandments and promises to the people. Teaching Points God's Sovereignty and FaithfulnessTrust in God's promises, as He is sovereign and faithful to fulfill His word, even when circumstances seem daunting. Divine Assistance in Overcoming ChallengesRecognize that God equips and empowers His people to overcome obstacles that appear insurmountable by human standards. The Importance of ObedienceObedience to God's commands is crucial for experiencing His promises and blessings, as seen in the context of Deuteronomy 11. Faith Over FearEmbrace faith over fear, knowing that God is greater than any challenge or adversary we may face. Spiritual WarfareUnderstand that spiritual battles require reliance on God's strength and not our own, paralleling Israel's conquest of Canaan. Bible Study Questions 1. How does the promise in Deuteronomy 11:23 encourage you to trust God in your current challenges? 2. In what ways can you see God's faithfulness in your life, similar to His faithfulness to Israel? 3. How does the concept of divine assistance in Deuteronomy 11:23 relate to the New Testament teaching of God being for us (Romans 8:31)? 4. What are some "nations" or obstacles in your life that seem greater and stronger than you, and how can you apply this scripture to those situations? 5. How can the principle of obedience to God's commands, as seen in the context of Deuteronomy 11, be applied to your daily walk with Christ? Connections to Other Scriptures Joshua 1:5This verse echoes the promise of God's presence and support as Joshua leads Israel into the Promised Land, reinforcing the assurance given in Deuteronomy 11:23. Exodus 23:27-30God promises to send His terror ahead of Israel to drive out the nations, showing a consistent theme of divine intervention. Psalm 44:3Highlights that Israel's victories were not by their own strength but by God's power, aligning with the promise in Deuteronomy 11:23. Romans 8:31Paul speaks of God being for us, which can be seen as a New Testament parallel to God's support for Israel against stronger nations. Hebrews 11:30The faith of the Israelites in God's promises is exemplified in the fall of Jericho, a fulfillment of the promise to dispossess stronger nations. People Abiram, Canaanites, Dathan, Eliab, Moses, Pharaoh, ReubenPlaces Arabah, Beth-baal-peor, Egypt, Euphrates River, Gilgal, Jordan River, Lebanon, Moreh, Mount Ebal, Mount Gerizim, Red SeaTopics Dispossess, Dispossessed, Drive, Flight, Greater, Lands, Larger, Mightier, Nations, Possess, Possessed, Possession, Stronger, YourselvesDictionary of Bible Themes Deuteronomy 11:22 8208 commitment, to God Library Canaan on Earth
Many of you, my dear hearers, are really come out of Egypt; but you are still wandering about in the wilderness. "We that have believed do enter into rest;" but you, though you have eaten of Jesus, have not so believed on him as to have entered into the Canaan of rest. You are the Lord's people, but you have not come into the Canaan of assured faith, confidence, and hope, where we wrestle no longer with flesh and blood, but with principalities and powers in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus--when …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 2: 1856The God of the Rain
(Fifth Sunday after Easter.) DEUT. xi. 11, 12. The land, whither ye go to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven. A 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. I told you, when I spoke of the earthquakes of the Holy Land, that it seems as if God had meant specially to train that strange people the Jews, by putting them into a country where they …
Charles Kingsley—The Gospel of the Pentateuch Gilgal, in Deuteronomy 11:30 what the Place Was.
That which is said by Moses, that "Gerizim and Ebal were over-against Gilgal," Deuteronomy 11:30, is so obscure, that it is rendered into contrary significations by interpreters. Some take it in that sense, as if it were near to Gilgal: some far off from Gilgal: the Targumists read, "before Gilgal": while, as I think, they do not touch the difficulty; which lies not so much in the signification of the word Mul, as in the ambiguity of the word Gilgal. These do all seem to understand that Gilgal which …
John Lightfoot—From the Talmud and Hebraica Josiah, a Pattern for the Ignorant.
"Because thine heart was tender, and thou hast humbled thyself before the Lord, when thou heardest what I spake against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and hast rent thy clothes, and wept before Me; I also have heard thee, saith the Lord. Behold therefore, I will gather thee unto thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered into thy grave in peace; and thine eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place."--2 Kings …
John Henry Newman—Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VIII The Blessings of Noah Upon Shem and Japheth. (Gen. Ix. 18-27. )
Ver. 20. "And Noah began and became an husbandman, and planted vineyards."--This does not imply that Noah was the first who began to till the ground, and, more especially, to cultivate the vine; for Cain, too, was a tiller of the ground, Gen. iv. 2. The sense rather is, that Noah, after the flood, again took up this calling. Moreover, the remark has not an independent import; it serves only to prepare the way for the communication of the subsequent account of Noah's drunkenness. By this remark, …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament Subjects of Study. Home Education in Israel; Female Education. Elementary Schools, Schoolmasters, and School Arrangements.
If a faithful picture of society in ancient Greece or Rome were to be presented to view, it is not easy to believe that even they who now most oppose the Bible could wish their aims success. For this, at any rate, may be asserted, without fear of gainsaying, that no other religion than that of the Bible has proved competent to control an advanced, or even an advancing, state of civilisation. Every other bound has been successively passed and submerged by the rising tide; how deep only the student …
Alfred Edersheim—Sketches of Jewish Social Life In the Fifteenth Year of Tiberius Cæsar and under the Pontificate of Annas and Caiaphas - a Voice in the Wilderness
THERE is something grand, even awful, in the almost absolute silence which lies upon the thirty years between the Birth and the first Messianic Manifestation of Jesus. In a narrative like that of the Gospels, this must have been designed; and, if so, affords presumptive evidence of the authenticity of what follows, and is intended to teach, that what had preceded concerned only the inner History of Jesus, and the preparation of the Christ. At last that solemn silence was broken by an appearance, …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah The Worship of the Synagogue
One of the most difficult questions in Jewish history is that connected with the existence of a synagogue within the Temple. That such a "synagogue" existed, and that its meeting-place was in "the hall of hewn stones," at the south-eastern angle of the court of the priest, cannot be called in question, in face of the clear testimony of contemporary witnesses. Considering that "the hall of hew stones" was also the meeting-place for the great Sanhedrim, and that not only legal decisions, but lectures …
Alfred Edersheim—Sketches of Jewish Social Life Among the People, and with the Pharisees
It would have been difficult to proceed far either in Galilee or in Judaea without coming into contact with an altogether peculiar and striking individuality, differing from all around, and which would at once arrest attention. This was the Pharisee. Courted or feared, shunned or flattered, reverently looked up to or laughed at, he was equally a power everywhere, both ecclesiastically and politically, as belonging to the most influential, the most zealous, and the most closely-connected religions …
Alfred Edersheim—Sketches of Jewish Social Life Covenanting Confers Obligation.
As it has been shown that all duty, and that alone, ought to be vowed to God in covenant, it is manifest that what is lawfully engaged to in swearing by the name of God is enjoined in the moral law, and, because of the authority of that law, ought to be performed as a duty. But it is now to be proved that what is promised to God by vow or oath, ought to be performed also because of the act of Covenanting. The performance of that exercise is commanded, and the same law which enjoins that the duties …
John Cunningham—The Ordinance of Covenanting The Old Testament Canon from Its Beginning to Its Close.
The first important part of the Old Testament put together as a whole was the Pentateuch, or rather, the five books of Moses and Joshua. This was preceded by smaller documents, which one or more redactors embodied in it. The earliest things committed to writing were probably the ten words proceeding from Moses himself, afterwards enlarged into the ten commandments which exist at present in two recensions (Exod. xx., Deut. v.) It is true that we have the oldest form of the decalogue from the Jehovist …
Samuel Davidson—The Canon of the Bible Deuteronomy
Owing to the comparatively loose nature of the connection between consecutive passages in the legislative section, it is difficult to present an adequate summary of the book of Deuteronomy. In the first section, i.-iv. 40, Moses, after reviewing the recent history of the people, and showing how it reveals Jehovah's love for Israel, earnestly urges upon them the duty of keeping His laws, reminding them of His spirituality and absoluteness. Then follows the appointment, iv. 41-43--here irrelevant (cf. …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament Links Deuteronomy 11:23 NIVDeuteronomy 11:23 NLTDeuteronomy 11:23 ESVDeuteronomy 11:23 NASBDeuteronomy 11:23 KJV
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