Deuteronomy 11:1-12

1“You must love the Lord your God and always obey his requirements, decrees, regulations, and commands.

2Keep in mind that I am not talking now to your children, who have never experienced the discipline of the Lord your God or seen his greatness and his strong hand and powerful arm.

3They didn’t see the miraculous signs and wonders he performed in Egypt against Pharaoh and all his land.

4They didn’t see what the Lord did to the armies of Egypt and to their horses and chariots—how he drowned them in the Red Sea as they were chasing you. He destroyed them, and they have not recovered to this very day!

5“Your children didn’t see how the Lord cared for you in the wilderness until you arrived here.

6They didn’t see what he did to Dathan and Abiram (the sons of Eliab, a descendant of Reuben) when the earth opened its mouth in the Israelite camp and swallowed them, along with their households and tents and every living thing that belonged to them.

7But you have seen the Lord perform all these mighty deeds with your own eyes!

8“Therefore, be careful to obey every command I am giving you today, so you may have strength to go in and take over the land you are about to enter.

9If you obey, you will enjoy a long life in the land the Lord swore to give to your ancestors and to you, their descendants—a land flowing with milk and honey!

10For the land you are about to enter and take over is not like the land of Egypt from which you came, where you planted your seed and made irrigation ditches with your foot as in a vegetable garden.

11Rather, the land you will soon take over is a land of hills and valleys with plenty of rain—

12a land that the Lord your God cares for. He watches over it through each season of the year!