NOTES for Deu 11:1-32

The blessing and curse of which God speaks are expressed with utmost simplicity in the Book of Deuteronomy: they are life and death. We rarely discuss religion in such terms. We better understand talk of peace of mind, a moral foundation, and so on. Nevertheless, the nature of the relationship with God has not changed in three and a half thousand years: with Him there is still life, and without Him death. We begin to understand this only in extreme situations, when we have to cry out, “Lord, save me!” Then the question of religion moves from the plane of “how to fast,” or even “how to pray,” to the plane of “to be or not to be.”