so that as long as the heavens are above the earth, your days and those of your children may be multiplied in the land that the LORD swore to give your fathers. so thatThis phrase introduces a purpose or result, indicating that the actions previously mentioned are intended to lead to a specific outcome. In the context of Deuteronomy, it connects the obedience to God's commandments with the blessings that follow. The Hebrew word often translated as "so that" is "לְמַעַן" (lema'an), which conveys intention or purpose. This highlights the conditional nature of God's promises, emphasizing that the Israelites' adherence to His laws is crucial for receiving His blessings. as long as the heavens are above the earth
This phrase is a poetic expression denoting perpetuity and the enduring nature of God's promises. The imagery of the heavens above the earth is a common biblical motif used to describe something that is vast, unchanging, and eternal. In Hebrew, the word for "heavens" is "שָׁמַיִם" (shamayim), and "earth" is "אֶרֶץ" (eretz). This expression reassures the Israelites of the everlasting nature of God's covenant, as the heavens and earth are seen as constants in creation. your days and the days of your children
This phrase emphasizes the generational aspect of God's blessings. The Hebrew word for "days" is "יָמִים" (yamim), which can refer to both literal days and a more extended period or lifetime. The inclusion of "your children" underscores the importance of legacy and the transmission of faith and obedience from one generation to the next. It reflects the biblical principle that the faithfulness of one generation can impact the prosperity and spiritual well-being of future generations. may be multiplied
The concept of multiplication here refers to the increase and prosperity of life. The Hebrew root "רָבָה" (ravah) means to become many or great. This multiplication is not just in terms of numbers but also in the quality and richness of life. It signifies God's blessing of abundance and prosperity as a reward for obedience. This promise of multiplication is a recurring theme in the covenantal promises made to the patriarchs, highlighting God's desire to bless His people abundantly. in the land
The "land" refers to the Promised Land, Canaan, which God swore to give to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The Hebrew word "אֶרֶץ" (eretz) is used here, which can mean land, earth, or country. This land is central to the identity and faith of the Israelites, representing not just a physical territory but also a place of divine promise and blessing. The land is a tangible sign of God's faithfulness and the fulfillment of His promises. that the LORD swore to give your fathers
This phrase recalls the covenantal promises made by God to the patriarchs—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The Hebrew word for "swore" is "נִשְׁבַּע" (nishba), which conveys a solemn promise or oath. This underscores the faithfulness and unchanging nature of God, who binds Himself by His word. The reference to "your fathers" connects the current generation of Israelites to their ancestors, reminding them of their shared heritage and the continuity of God's promises through the ages. This serves as a powerful reminder of God's enduring commitment to His people. Persons / Places / Events 1. MosesThe author of Deuteronomy, delivering God's laws and promises to the Israelites. 2. IsraelitesThe chosen people of God, receiving the covenant and commandments as they prepare to enter the Promised Land. 3. The Promised LandThe land of Canaan, promised by God to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 4. The LORD (Yahweh)The covenant-keeping God who swore to give the land to the forefathers of Israel. 5. The Heavens and the EarthSymbolic of the enduring nature of God's promises, as long-lasting as the heavens above the earth. Teaching Points The Enduring Nature of God's PromisesGod's promises are as enduring as the heavens and the earth, reminding us of His faithfulness and the certainty of His word. Generational BlessingsThe promise of multiplied days in the land extends to the children, emphasizing the importance of teaching God's commandments to the next generation. Obedience and LongevityObedience to God's commandments is linked to the promise of longevity and prosperity in the land, highlighting the practical benefits of living according to God's ways. The Importance of Covenant FaithfulnessThe land is a gift from God, contingent upon Israel's faithfulness to the covenant, reminding us of the importance of remaining faithful to God in our own lives. The Role of Parents in Spiritual FormationParents play a crucial role in passing down the faith, ensuring that their children understand and live by God's commandments. Bible Study Questions 1. How does the promise of long life in the land relate to the concept of covenant faithfulness in Deuteronomy 11:21? 2. In what ways can we see the enduring nature of God's promises in our own lives today? 3. How can parents effectively teach their children to follow God's commandments, ensuring the continuation of generational blessings? 4. What are some practical ways we can demonstrate obedience to God's commandments in our daily lives? 5. How do the connections to other scriptures, such as Ephesians 6:2-3, enhance our understanding of the promise in Deuteronomy 11:21? Connections to Other Scriptures Genesis 12:1-3God's initial promise to Abraham about making his descendants a great nation and giving them the land. Exodus 20:12The commandment to honor one's parents, which is linked to the promise of long life in the land. Psalm 89:29A reference to the enduring nature of God's covenant, similar to the heavens and the earth. Matthew 5:18Jesus speaks of the enduring nature of God's word, paralleling the permanence of the heavens and the earth. Ephesians 6:2-3Paul reiterates the promise of long life associated with honoring one's parents, connecting to the idea of generational blessings. 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 Eternal, Fathers, Forefathers, Ground, Heaven, Heavens, Multiplied, Oath, Sons, Sware, Swore, SwornDictionary of Bible Themes Deuteronomy 11:13-21 7410 phylactery Deuteronomy 11:18-21 5302 education
5685 fathers, responsibilities
8313 nurture 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 11:21 NIVDeuteronomy 11:21 NLTDeuteronomy 11:21 ESVDeuteronomy 11:21 NASBDeuteronomy 11:21 KJV
Deuteronomy 11:21 Commentaries
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