The eternal God is your dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms. And he thrust out the enemy before you and said, Destroy. So Israel lived in safety, Jacob lived alone, in a land of grain and wine, whose heavens drop down dew.
Deuteronomy 33:27-28
This blessing was uttered by Moses as Israel prepared to enter Canaan and by divinely led conquest, take the land that God had promised to them. God had prepared the nation to possess the land. These words are in the last recorded speech of Moses in the Pentateuch. In it, Moses has a signature blessing for each individual tribe, and then, in this passage, he is issuing an overall blessing the entire nation of Israel, with the intent of encouraging them to be a people of the covenant who keep God's Law and are blessed in relationship with God.
He reminds them that the land is only one of God's gift, but their relationship with God Himself is the REAL blessing. God is the true dwelling place for Israel, not the land itself. God's powerful arms will undergird the nation. God created the means for the Canaanites to be vulnerable and for Israel to come in to possess the land of Canaan.
God also kept them in the land He gave them. Israel would be safe in this land of blessing and plenty because God had brought them there and kept them. The land would produce crops because He controlled even the dew of heaven. If they followed His commands, the a land would provide for them. The covenant blessings extended to family, to farm, and to homestead.
- Posted with my iPad. The Apple Kool-Aide tastes fine.
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