Ouch!  Some powerfully stinging words in today's reading!  God reminds the people that He will go before them and subdue their enemies in the land.  But...He also reminds them that He is doing this NOT because of their righteousness or integrity. Great lesson for us as well.

The people are reminded of their past sins and rebellions against God and the consequences of those sins of disobedience.

Another reminder: Moses stayed on the mountain with God for 40 days and 40 nights. He ate no food and drank no water. Not once, but this visit to the mountain for 40 days and nights without food and drink was done twice!  Normally an average person can survive only 30 days without food and ten days without water. What confirmation of how God can miraculously take care of the physical needs. Should we even think about doubting that He can take care of us?

Listed in the reading today is a Summary of God's Will:
1. Fear the Lord
2. Walk in His ways
3. Love Him
4. Serve Him
5. Observe His commands

We are told that these commands that we are to observe, this summary of God's will are for our own good.

Deuteronomy 11 reminds us that His blessings upon us are contingent.  We must faithfully obey the commands.  The only command listed here is "to love the Lord your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul".  And then the blessings will come.  God promised to send rain so that they would enjoy abundant harvests.  However the Lord's anger will burn against them if they turn away from Him and worship other gods.  We need only look around at our world today and see that there is a famine in the land - a famine of hearing God's truth.

Again God gives this admonition. It is such an easy thing to do, just teach the children... and look at the promise at the end if we do!
Deuteronomy 11:18-21
Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land that the LORD swore to give your forefathers, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth.

Another reminder: God told the Israelites that He would give them every place they set their foot.
Deuteronomy 11:24-25
Every place where you set your foot will be yours: Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the Euphrates River to the western sea. No man will be able to stand against you. The LORD your God, as he promised you, will put the terror and fear of you on the whole land, wherever you go.
This area is much larger than the area of Israel today. God promised them that He would give them all the land where they would set their foot. Way back to Abraham, God told him to walk the land and He would give him every place he set his foot. The land that He offered Abraham is larger than the land promised to the Israelites in the reading for today in Deuteronomy, because Abraham did not walk the entire land that God promised him. God makes the same offer again, of walking the land, but with a smaller territory.

Interestingly, the boundaries of the present day Israel are the boundaries of the battle of Armageddon.  For more information, click on this link and read Link 3. It shows where the final battle will take place.
https://sites.google.com/a/philandpatti.com/www02/mapsfortheselastdays

Again the people are given a warning against worshiping other gods in the land.  These words are not just for those people 3,500 years ago.  They are equally applicable today.  Do we worship other gods? What form do these gods take? Anything that replaces God in our lives is an idol. That can take many forms.

God sets before us blessing and curse, life and death...that we may choose life!