Deuteronomy 12:28 (ESV)
Be careful to obey all these words that I command you, that it may go well with you and with your children after you forever, when you do what is good and right in the sight of the LORD your God.
This is a good summary verse for this section of Deuteronomy. Moses, as his life is drawing to a close, is outlining and reviewing all the commands of God to the nation of Israel. Joshua will be taking the people into the promise land and Moses is laying out their requirements to continue to worship God. Moses started these chapters with these admonishments:
Deuteronomy 10:12 (ESV)
“And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul,
Deuteronomy 10:16 (ESV)
Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn.
God does not want them to enter the promise land and forget who He is. He is warning them to not take up the gods of the nations He is about to dispossess in the promise land. Note:
Deuteronomy 12:29-30 (ESV)
“When the LORD your God cuts off before you the nations whom you go in to dispossess, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land, take care that you be not ensnared to follow them, after they have been destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire about their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods?—that I also may do the same.’
God is a jealous God. He does not want us to worship anyone but Him. There is no need to worship anyone but Him, since He is the only true God. All other gods are the imagination of man’s evil heart. Yahweh is the only true God. In this section He makes it clear that if they obey Him, He will continue to bless them. But, if they disobey Him, He will bring cursing on them. That is the essence of God’s plan. Obedience equals blessings and disobedience equals cursing:
Deuteronomy 11:26-28 (ESV)
“See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you today, and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside from the way that I am commanding you today, to go after other gods that you have not known.
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