Again, the material contained in Deuteronomy 11:1-7 we have already talked about, so we will move on to verse 8.
Deuteronomy 11:8-11—8 “Therefore you shall keep every commandment which I command you today, that you may be strong, and go in and possess the land which you cross over to possess, 9 and that you may prolong your days in the land which the LORD swore to give your fathers, to them and their descendants, 'a land flowing with milk and honey.' 10 For the land which you go to possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and watered it by foot, as a vegetable garden; 11 but the land which you cross over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water from the rain of heaven.
In Egypt, water was abundant. Every spring the Nile River would overflow its banks, watering the ground surrounding it. The Egyptians built irrigation canals to bring that water further out from the river banks. Thus we see a difference between the people’s time in Egypt and their time in Canaan. Whereas during their time in Egypt they depended upon human labor for their water, now going into the land of Canaan they would be fully dependent on God providing rain to make their crops grow and to water their flocks and herds. We could almost—almost—say this is an allegory for the difference between the two covenants, that in the first they were depending on the works of their hands for their salvation and by the second one was all grace. It would be tempting to say that, but I won’t go that far. Suffice it to say it is an apt picture of the two covenants.
At any rate, God was leading the people into a land that was unusually arid, with not much rain. So they would have to learn to depend on God to send the rain at its due time in order to water the land and the animals. (We are no different today. We are still dependent on God for our food and water, even though we don’t acknowledge enough our thanks to Him for these things. Does the sun shine, keeping us warm? Let us thank God. Do we have food, even though it may not be a lot and some may have to get it from a local food pantry? Let us thank God. Does the rain fall, watering the vegetable plants that we use for food? Let us thank God. Are we still on this side of the dirt? Let us thank God. In all things, let us thank God. And if we are not thankful enough, let us ask God to grant us the thankfulness to Him that He deserves.) While it did not rain very much in Egypt, they had the water from the Nile River to rely on. In the land of Canaan, it would (and still does) rain about 12-40 inches per year. And in some of the drier areas, the yearly rainfall total was TWO INCHES! So the land would “drink” (verse 11) the rain—as soon as the rain fell on the hot, dry land, it would disappear, soaked in by the thirsty land. Ever spill some water on the sidewalk in the middle of summer? How quickly does it disappear? It’s gone almost instantaneously. The same is true of a desert land. As soon as the rain ends, there is no visible evidence that it ever fell. So the people would have to watch for the rain to come and be ready for when it did come, that they could gather some up to have something for them and for their animals to drink.
Another option for drinking water was the digging of wells. In the movie “Lawrence of Arabia” we first meet Omar Sharif’s character Sharif Ali bin el Kharish when he kills TE Lawrence’s guide for drinking from Ali’s well without permission or payment. This was not uncommon in desert lands.
Many quarrels and feuds arose from people of one tribe or nation drinking water from a well of another tribe or nation. In Genesis 26:18-21, Isaac’s servants argued with the herdsmen of Gerar over some wells which Abraham had dug but the Philistines had stopped up. Isaac and his servants did the work of reopening the wells, and the herdsmen of Gerar said, “Hey, wait a minute! Those are OUR wells!” Even though they had left them stopped up, and it was Isaac and his servants who reopened them. Genesis 26:18-21—18 And Isaac dug again the wells of water which they had dug in the days of Abraham his father, for the Philistines had stopped them up after the death of Abraham. He called them by the names which his father had called them. 19 Also Isaac's servants dug in the valley, and found a well of running water there. 20 But the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac's herdsmen, saying, "The water is ours." So he called the name of the well Esek (עֵשֶׂק [eseq], “contention”), because they quarreled with him. 21 Then they dug another well, and they quarreled over that one also. So he called its name Sitnah (שִׂטְנָה [sitnah], “strife”). After this quarrel, Isaac took his servants elsewhere, and they dug again another well, in an area over which there was no strife. Genesis 26:22—And he moved from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it. So he called its name רְחֹבוֹת (Rehoboth, “wide places or streets”) because he said, "For now the LORD has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land." Later in the chapter, Abimelech finds Isaac and makes an oath of truce with him. Isaac’s servants tell him of the well they dug, and Isaac names it שִׁבְעָה (shebah, “an oath”), and names the nearby city בְּאֵר שֶׁבַע (Beer Sheba, “city of the sevenfold oath”). Genesis 26:32-33—32 It came to pass the same day that Isaac's servants came and told him about the well which they had dug, and said to him, "We have found water." 33 So he called it Shebah. Therefore the name of the city is Beersheba to this day. This would eventually become the southern border of the nation of Israel, and you see many times that the entirety of the whole nation of Israel is described in ten verses as “from Dan to Beersheba”.
In Genesis 21 we see another instance of such a disagreement. Genesis 21:25—Then Abraham rebuked Abimelech because of a well of water which Abimelech's servants had seized. If you remember when we talked about Numbers 20, when the people of Israel were coming upon the land of Edom, and they sought permission to pass through the land, they promised “We will not pass through fields or vineyards, nor will we drink water from wells” (Numbers 20:17). “So how did people know where to dig a well?” Good question. People would see a place where birds and other animals would congregate, or where trees were growing, go to that spot (for it would usually be a place where there was water which these animals would drink and which would provide water for plants), and start digging until they got deep enough where they would find water. They would then shore up the walls of where they were digging, and build a support for a bucket they would lower into the hole and use to draw out the water. So you see now how precious commodity water was (and still is) in those places.
Deuteronomy 11:12-15—12 “A land for which the LORD your God cares; the eyes of the LORD your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the very end of the year. 13 And it shall be that if you earnestly obey My commandments which I command you today, to love the LORD your God and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, 14 then I will give you the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil. 15 And I will send grass in your fields for your livestock, that you may eat and be filled.'”. Ever hear of someone talking about a desert or a wilderness and call it “God forsaken”? This appellation is far from the truth. God cares about every inch of creation, including the desert and the wilderness. “A land for which the LORD your God cares; the eyes of the LORD your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the very end of the year”. Do you see much plant life in the desert? Not really, But you will occasionally see a tree growing up out of the rock. “How does it grow through the rock?” God gives it the strength to do so. Jonah 4:5-6—5 So Jonah went out of the city and sat on the east side of the city. There he made himself a shelter and sat under it in the shade, till he might see what would become of the city. 6 And the LORD God prepared a plant and made it come up over Jonah.
“Well, how does it grow with so little rain?” God has made it to require only as much water as He causes to fall from the sky. Matthew 6:28-30—28 “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; 29 and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?” Worried about everyday life? Don’t be. God makes all the flowers and trees and bushes and vines to grow by His perfect care. Will He not much more take care of you? Matthew 5:44-45—44 “But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, 45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” God takes care of all life. He causes good things to happen to bad people, and He causes bad things to happen to less-bad people (yeah, there are no “good” people. There is none good but God, see Matthew 19:17; Mark 10:18; Luke 18:9). He also causes bad things to happen to bad people and good things to happen to less-bad people. God is the Cause and Creator of everything, visible and invisible, living and non-living.
Even the rain. The rain that falls from the sky is at the beck and call of our Omnipotent Creator. He can shut off the water works if He decides to (Leviticus 26:19; 1st Kings 8:35; 2nd Chronicles 6:26). And Moses reminds the people of this in Deuteronomy 11:16-17—16 Take heed to yourselves, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them, 17 lest the LORD's anger be aroused against you, and He shut up the heavens so that there be no rain, and the land yield no produce, and you perish quickly from the good land which the LORD is giving you. Drought in the land was considered a curse from God (much like barrenness in women), and was usually preceded by widespread sin among the people. “But there wasn’t drought in the land of the Assyrians or the Hittites. And they were sinful nations.” But they were not God’s chosen people. This is an example of the rain falling on the unjust—to show them that He is God and is the Source of every blessing. If God caused it to rain on them—well. He would give them temporal blessings, but in the end they would be counted as unrighteous. And they would suffer eternal punishment for their sins. But if the people that God chose out of all the people—the people upon whom God would place His name—if they sinned a grievous sin against Him (in this case, the sin of idolatry), He would withhold the rain, and the drought in their land would certainly be a curse from God.
“And you perish quickly from the good land which the LORD is giving you.” Death comes quickly in the desert when there is no water. On average, a human being can survive up to 7 days without drinking water. This is owing to the fact that our bodies are 70% water, and if needed can wring out whatever water it needs to at any time. In the elderly this decreases to 3-5 days. In the desert, with no water to drink, the time it takes for even a healthy person to die without adequate hydration is about 1-2 days. What happens when someone dies of dehydration? Well, first the cells in the body will start to shrivel (usually in the limbs, since they are expendable. Skin will also shrivel). Water will be taken out of the blood to keep the organs functioning, which will make it harder for the heart to push the blood through the vessels. Because of the depleted volume of blood, the blood pressure will drop and cause the heart rate to increase to get the blood through the body. The kidneys will also be adversely affected, since the body will shunt most water away from them so as not to waste it, and the kidneys will begin to fail and will eventually shut down. The desert heat, coupled with the decreased blood volume, will make it difficult to breathe. The eyes will also experience a loss of fluids (since you don’t need your eyes to live), and will shrivel up. As blood is shunted to the brain and the core of the body (the heart and the lungs), the hands and feet will feel colder. Eventually the decreased fluid level in the body will cause brain cells to shrivel up and die, causing delirium. All these organ failures reach critical levels, which are incompatible with human life, bringing about death. In a day or two. Or as it says, “And you perish quickly.” (see https://www.popsci.com/dehydration-death-thirst-water/) This will not be the case in Hell. For the one who does not know Christ, their spirit will be surrounded by eternal flames, will not shrivel up and die, but will be in conscious torment for all eternity, with no hope of relief. What would take 1-2 days to accomplish in the body will last forever in Hell.
If the drought came because of the nation’s sin, there was a remedy—the manifold mercy of God. He is a merciful God, pardoning sins for no other reason than the sinner asking for forgiveness. Many times we read in the book of Judges how the nation would sin a grievous sin, God would allow them to be defeated by an evil nation, the people would cry out to God, and He would deliver them. God told Solomon the very same thing in 2nd Chronicles 7:13-14—13 “When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, 14 if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” What did the people have to do? Did they have to go into years of self-flagellation and darkness? Did they have to kill and burn thousands of bulls and goats? No. All they had to do was “Humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways”. This was the encouragement the prophet Joel gave the people in Joel 2:23—Be glad then, you children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God; for He has given you the former rain faithfully, and He will cause the rain to come down for you—the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month. And why would He do so? Because after He sent the judgment of the locusts upon the people and their crops, they would call upon Him because they would see their sin and repent of it. Joel 2:13—So rend your heart, and not your garments; return to the LORD your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness; and He relents from doing harm.
Good is the heavenly King,/Who makes the earth his care,
Visits the pastures every spring,/And bids the grass appear.
Like rivers raised on high,/The clouds, at thy command,
Pour out their blessings from the sky,/To cheer the thirsty land.
The hills, on every side,/Rejoice at falling showers;
The meadows, dressed in all their pride,/Perfume the air with flowers.
The ridges drink their fill,/And ranks of corn appear;
Thy ways abound with blessings still,/Thy goodness crowns the year.
(“The Blessings of Spring” by Isaac Watts)
Part 2 next week
Jesus Christ is Lord.
Amen.
