Deuteronomy 11: A New Land

(OK, really? Two full years without an update after one post's worth of content? That didn't go well. I think the key problem was with trying to do too much. So instead of tying myself down to any schedule here, I'm going to change the idea of the blog — it's now just for things that occurred to me during my usual daily Bible studying, as and when I spot them. I'll continue to tag posts appropriately, but don't expect one post to flow directly to the next.)

Deuteronomy 11 contains the following exhortation to the Israelites, as Moses tells them to obey God's laws once they move into the Promised Land:

The land you are entering to take over is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you planted your seed and irrigated it by foot as in a vegetable garden.

But the land you are crossing the Jordan to take possession of is a land of mountains and valleys that drinks rain from heaven.

It is a land the LORD your God cares for; the eyes of the LORD your God are continually on it from the beginning of the year to its end.

A great little bit, that. Notice a couple of things here: First, the land the Israelites are entering is easier than Egypt. Before, they had to work hard just to get water onto their crops; now, God will just provide it for them.

This ties in really nicely with Eden. One of the results of the Fall was God saying to Adam "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life." And here's God reversing some of that curse, saying that he's going to make things easier for his people because they're coming into a closer relationship with him.

Secondly, the Promised Land is unknown. The Israelites have lived in Egypt for over 400 years, then wandered in a desert for another 40. Not one among them has ever raised crops without having to irrigate the ground, and now God's going to do it for them — this concept is utterly alien to them, and they would never have thought of it themselves.

God is like that in all sorts of ways. He is constantly wanting to give us new things, things that will bless us and help us to live our lives for him. And yet we constantly cling tenaciously to the old ways of doing things, the comfortable ways. God is right there, saying "look, I've got this for you! It's easier! You'll love it!" And there we are, wanting to work in our own strength, unable to realise the power of what God has waiting for us.

How long are we going to keep irrigating our vegetable gardens by foot? God has a whole land of fruitful crops for us, and he's going to do the watering.