Bible Discussion Thread

How to understand Deuteronomy 6:10-11

"And it shall be, when the LORD thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities, which thou buildedst not, And houses full of all good things, which thou filledst not, and wells digged, which thou diggedst not, vineyards and olive trees, which thou plantedst not; when thou shalt have eaten and be full;"

While Deuteronomy 5:21 stating:

"neither shalt thou covet thy neighbour's house, his field, or his manservant, or his maidservant, his ox, or his ass, or any thing that is thy neighbour's."

Is it controversial?

Victor, I don't believe there is anything contradictory between these passages. Deuteronomy 6:10,11 is God's Promise to His people that according to His Promise to their forefathers to give them the land of Canaan, He would also provide them with all that they need, even from the houses, lands, vineyards & wells that the previous inhabitants owned. And of course, the warning that all this provision shouldn't 'go to their heads' & they begin to saturate themselves with such blessings & comforts and forget the Lord Who brought them out of Egypt.

So Israel wasn't coveting these things, rather God chose to give them all things that they needed because of His Promise. But if after all this, they began to look to the things of the heathen, i.e. false gods, intermarriage, heathen practices, etc., that would be coveting, as they lusted after more than was rightfully given by God or allowed by Him.

thanks for your explanation. I believe this also indicates anything from God are good!

it's sort of sad to read some verses here, such as Deuteronomy 3:26 "the LORD said unto me, Let it suffice thee; speak no more unto me of this matter." when Moses was pleading to Lord to let him into Canaan.

like his forefathers(Abraham, Isaac, Jacob) prophesying/blessing their descendants before death, was verses of Deuteronomy 4:25-30 from Moses that prophesying future of Israelites? was he able to tell something good only?

It is indeed sad to read Deuteronomy 3:26 with Moses feeling cut off from the Lord. All he wanted was to enter the Promised Land which he yearned for but was denied this before his death. And so it is when we enter into a state of wilful disobedience, grieving the Lord, especially when that disobedience is prompted by unrighteous anger & self-elevation ( Numbers 20:7-13).

And then we read Deuteronomy 4:21-31, a part of Moses' final message to the children of Israel. We do read here of Moses' warning to them if they should reject the Lord by serving other gods. That if they did so, God would reject them by scattering them amongst the nations (as happened in the Assyrian & Babylonian captivity and also at the Jewish Diaspora resulting from Roman rule). So yes, this was a prophetical message by Moses, which ultimately Israel did not heed & so suffered terribly. But Moses also rehearsed before the people of God's goodness towards them in bringing them out of bondage in Egypt & into a land that flowed with milk & honey ( Exodus 3:16,17; Deuteronomy 1:6-8), but this generally came with a warning to remain faithful to the Lord.