Commentary - Deuteronomy 11:1-7

Bird's-eye view

In this section, Moses lays the foundational premise for all covenant faithfulness: love for God is inextricably linked to the memory of God's mighty acts. This is not an appeal to abstract principles or a philosophical concept of the divine. It is a summons to the generation standing on the banks of the Jordan to remember what their own eyes have seen. The command to love and obey is not arbitrary; it is the only sane and reasonable response to the God who has personally demonstrated His greatness, His saving power, His provision, His justice, and His holiness before their very faces. Moses is grounding their future obedience in their past, undeniable experience. He is telling them that spiritual amnesia is the first step toward apostasy and that a vibrant faith is fueled by a constant recollection of God's redemptive history.

The argument is structured as a direct appeal to eyewitnesses. Moses deliberately excludes the next generation from this particular address in order to emphasize the unique responsibility of those who walked through the sea and ate the manna. He recounts God's works in four categories: judgment on Israel's external enemies (Egypt), salvation for Israel at the Red Sea, provision for Israel in the wilderness, and judgment on Israel's internal enemies (Dathan and Abiram). This comprehensive resume of God's character proves He is worthy of their total love and allegiance, "all your days."

Outline

Context In Deuteronomy

This passage sits within the second major discourse of Moses (Deuteronomy 5-26), which functions as an exposition of the Ten Commandments. Having reiterated the Decalogue in chapter 5 and the great Shema ("Hear, O Israel") in chapter 6, Moses is now applying these foundational laws to the life of the nation. Chapter 11 serves as a concluding exhortation to this section, summarizing the choice set before Israel: obedience leading to blessing in the land, or disobedience leading to curse and exile. This specific section (vv. 1-7) provides the historical rationale for why they should choose obedience. It is a call to remember the mighty acts of Yahweh that formed them as a people, establishing the basis for the detailed statutes that will follow in chapters 12-26. It is the "why" before the "what."

Key Issues

The Obedience of Memory

The Christian life is a fight against forgetfulness. Our sinful nature is a leaky bucket, and the first thing to leak out is a sense of gratitude and awe for what God has done. This is why the Scriptures are so insistent on the duty of remembrance. Moses, in this great sermon, is functioning as Israel's pastor, calling them to remember. He is not just giving them a history lesson. He is telling them that their future depends on how they process their past.

The command to love God is not a sentimental suggestion. It is the first and great commandment, and here it is presented as the engine of all true obedience. But this love is not generated in a vacuum. It grows in the soil of memory. Moses is saying, "Look back. Remember Egypt. Remember the Red Sea. Remember the wilderness. Remember the rebels. The God who did all that is the God who commands you now. Therefore, love Him. Therefore, obey Him." For the Christian, the principle is identical. We look back to a greater exodus, a greater judgment, and a greater salvation. We look to the cross and the empty tomb, and we say, "The God who did all that is the God who commands me now. Therefore, I will love Him. Therefore, I will obey Him." All our obedience is the obedience of memory.

Verse by Verse Commentary

1 “You shall therefore love Yahweh your God, and keep His charge, His statutes, His judgments, and His commandments all your days.

The word therefore connects this foundational command to everything that has come before, particularly the proclamation of the law. Because God is who He is, and because He has given His good law, the only logical and right response is love. And this love is not a floaty, ethereal emotion; it is a rugged, practical, and active thing. How do you love God? By keeping His stuff. Moses piles up the synonyms: charge, statutes, judgments, commandments. This covers the whole shooting match of God's revealed will. This is a call to total allegiance, and it is not a temporary commitment. It is for all your days. This is a covenant vow, a pledge of lifelong fidelity. Love is the root, and obedience is the fruit.

2 So know this day that I am not speaking with your sons who have not known and who have not seen the discipline of Yahweh your God, His greatness, His strong hand and His outstretched arm,

Moses now sharpens his focus and identifies his audience with striking precision. He says, in effect, "I'm talking to you, the ones who were there. Not your kids who only heard the stories. You." The generation that came out of Egypt as adults had perished in the wilderness because of their unbelief. This current generation was composed of those who were children during the exodus and those born in the wilderness. They had seen it. The word discipline here is key. It includes both God's acts of salvation and His acts of judgment. It is His fatherly training, His education of His people. They saw His greatness, His power (strong hand), and His sovereign reach (outstretched arm). This is an appeal to direct, personal experience. They are without excuse.

3 and His signs and His works which He did in the midst of Egypt to Pharaoh the king of Egypt and to all his land;

The first item on the remembrance list is the judgment on Egypt. These were not random acts of nature; they were signs. They pointed to a reality beyond themselves: that Yahweh, the God of slaves, was sovereign over the gods of the world's superpower. They saw God dismantle the entire Egyptian pantheon, plague by plague. This was God's declaration of war against a hostile world system, and He won decisively. Remembering this was meant to instill in Israel a holy confidence. The God who broke Pharaoh is more than capable of dealing with the Canaanites.

4 and what He did to Egypt’s army, to its horses and its chariots, when He made the water of the Red Sea to engulf them while they were pursuing you, and Yahweh made them perish utterly;

The second memory is the flip side of the first. In Egypt, God showed His power in judgment. At the Red Sea, He showed that same power in salvation. Notice the emphasis: God did it. He made the water engulf them. He made them perish utterly. Israel did nothing but walk. This event was the defining act of redemption for the old covenant. It was a baptism of the nation, a passage from death to life through water, with their enemies being destroyed behind them. To forget this was to forget their very identity as a redeemed people.

5 and what He did to you in the wilderness until you came to this place;

The third memory shifts from spectacular, one-time events to the long, grinding faithfulness of God over forty years. For an entire generation, God sustained millions of people in a place with no food and little water. He provided manna every morning and water from a rock. He led them with a pillar of cloud and fire. This was not a distant God; this was a God who was intimately involved in their daily grind. He was their caterer, their guide, and their protector. This memory was meant to teach them dependence. The God who sustained them in the barren wilderness could surely provide for them in the land of milk and honey.

6 and what He did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben, when the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, their households, their tents, and every living thing that followed them, among all Israel,

This fourth memory is the most sobering. All the previous examples involved God's power over external forces: Egypt's gods, Egypt's army, and the harshness of the wilderness. This one is about God's judgment on rebellion from within. Dathan and Abiram challenged the authority of Moses, which was to challenge the authority of God Himself. God's response was swift, terrifying, and public. The earth itself executed judgment. This was a permanent object lesson: Yahweh is a holy God who will not tolerate rebellion in the camp. Loving God also means fearing God. It means understanding that covenant membership is not a trivial thing and that apostasy has dire consequences.

7 but your own eyes have seen all the great work of Yahweh which He did.

Moses brings it all home with this concluding statement. This is not hearsay. This is not second-hand information. "Your own eyes have seen it." He grounds their entire future responsibility in the certainty of their past experience. They are eyewitnesses. In a courtroom, an eyewitness bears the heaviest responsibility to tell the truth. Moses is charging them to live out the truth of what they have seen. They cannot plead ignorance. They saw God's power, His salvation, His provision, and His holiness. The evidence has been presented. A verdict is now required, and that verdict is a life of loving obedience.

Application

We who live under the new covenant have not seen the plagues on Egypt or the parting of the Red Sea with our physical eyes. But we have been given something far greater to remember. We have the apostolic testimony, the eyewitness accounts of those who saw the ultimate "great work of Yahweh." We have seen, through their eyes, God made flesh in the person of Jesus Christ.

Our command is the same: "You shall therefore love the Lord your God." And the basis is the same: the memory of God's mighty acts. We are to remember His signs and wonders: turning water to wine, healing the sick, raising the dead. We are to remember His ultimate victory over our great enemy, Satan, sin, and death, accomplished at the cross. We are to remember our Red Sea moment, our baptism, where we passed from death to life and our sins were drowned behind us. We are to remember His provision in our own wilderness wanderings, how He has sustained us with the true manna from heaven. And we are to remember His warnings of judgment on those who profess faith but live in rebellion.

Like the Israelites, we are without excuse. We have seen the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. The entire Christian life is therefore an exercise in remembering the gospel and living accordingly. When we are tempted to disobey, we must look back to the cross. When we are tempted to despair, we must look back to the empty tomb. When we are tempted to think God has forgotten us, we must remember His daily provision. Our eyes have seen the salvation of the Lord, and the only proper response is to give Him our love and our obedience, all our days.