Deuteronomy 7:11, commentary and pictures

Thou shalt therefore keep means to actually do the commandments and the statutes and the judgments by putting them into practice and carrying them out with full surrender and careful obedience to all of the Lord's directions.
It was spoken by the Lord through Moses to Israel as a holy people chosen to be special unto Himself above all peoples, not because they were many but because He loved them and redeemed them with a mighty hand from bondage under Pharaoh to keep the oath sworn to their fathers.
Obedience is the required response to that love and covenant faithfulness and deliverance, given not by arbitrary authority but in love by the faithful God who keeps mercy to a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments.
Keeping them is the stated condition for God keeping the covenant and mercy sworn to the fathers, bringing love and multiplication and blessing of families and crops and flocks, taking away sickness and preserving health and life, while transgression brings disease and misery and certain perishing.
The commandments remain binding for a thousand generations for good always to preserve alive those who keep them, reaching into the kingdom of God, and they apply to God's people today in every principle He has laid down, including keeping the seventh-day Sabbath and guarding against idolatry and worldly confederacy as His witnesses to the nations.

Context and Divine Speaker

The charge to keep the commandments and statutes and judgments and to do them was spoken by the Lord through Moses to Israel as a holy people chosen to be special to Himself above all peoples on the earth. It set forth His purpose for His chosen people and the condition on which they would be prospered, requiring them to keep and to do what was commanded them that day. This duty followed from God's love and choice and from His faithfulness to the oath made to their ancestors, with Israel's small size never the reason for its calling.

Israel was chosen not because they were many, for they were the fewest of all people, but because God loved them and would keep the oath sworn to their fathers. That love was shown in bringing them out with a mighty hand and redeeming them from the house of bondmen, from bondage under Pharaoh king of Egypt. Their status as God's chosen people therefore rested on His love and covenant promise, not on their number or merit, making obedience the required response to His covenant love and deliverance.

The command rests on knowing the Lord as God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy to a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments. At the same time He repays those who hate Him to their face to destroy them, without slackness. These words are to be as distinctly stamped upon every soul as though written with a pen of iron.

The speaker was Christ Himself, enshrouded in the pillar of cloud as the invisible leader, guide and protector of the children of Israel. He was the same great Physician who healed the sick in Palestine, and Jesus Christ Himself was the definite teacher of the children of Israel, instructing them definitely what they should do. He gave the command to Moses for God's chosen people, with the richest blessings in store for them if they kept His commandments, statutes, and judgments.

Meaning of Keeping

To keep the commandments and the statutes and the judgments is to actually do them by putting them into practice and carrying them out. This keeping was what was required in order to be a holy people unto Himself, a separate and peculiar people chosen for Himself, on pilgrimage toward the heavenly Canaan and the inheritance prepared for those who love and obey Him. It stands now as preparation for the day of God's great final review, profiting those living in the time of investigation before every character is investigated and every case decided for eternity to answer before the Judge of all the earth. Obedience in this sense follows from covenant faithfulness and love and redemption, and is linked with loving, blessing, and multiplying the people and taking away all sickness, and with keeping the Sabbath as His sign and with proclaiming the third angel's message as the sign and seal of distinct identity.

It charges full surrender at the beginning and continuing simplicity of obedience to all of the Lord's commandments according to His special directions. It requires carefully obeying all His directions, including those that may seem least important, with none of the important things specified in His Word neglected. Doing what is commanded is to be made the special interest and lesson, with every soul searching the Scriptures for himself, making the Word of the Lord his study book, sanctifying himself daily according to the Word lest he be found in rebellion, and honoring God's instructions in conduct and service, especially by those entrusted with sacred responsibilities in His service for their good.

God means exactly what He says in requiring this keeping, and the requirement remains binding. The Ten Commandments express the character of God, so keeping them is duty and love to do His will, including keeping the seventh-day Sabbath because He commanded it, and every interpretation that makes disobedience a trifling matter must be refused. The chapter calls for submission to God's will rather than reliance on personal judgment, as instruction written for the admonition of those living at the end of the world.

Grounds for Obedience

Obedience to the commandments and the statutes and the judgments is the required response to God's love and covenant faithfulness and deliverance, following His choice of Israel and His redemption of them from Egypt. Israel's standing as His chosen people rested not on number or merit, for they were not numerous, but on His love and on His keeping the oath sworn to their fathers. Because He had redeemed them from bondage and slavery and faithfully kept His covenant, they were to keep and obey what He gave them by putting it into practice. He keeps covenant and mercy with those who love Him and keep His covenant, while He repays those who hate Him, and this obedience is the named condition for receiving the covenant mercy sworn to their ancestors.

The requirement is given not by arbitrary authority or compulsion but in love as one of God's expressed requirements. It is a condition to be strictly observed to preserve health and life and to ensure His favor, and failure to conform brings misery and suffering as the consequence of wrong action.

Forgetting God means failing to keep His commandments and statutes and judgments. That danger grows when the people have eaten and are full and have built houses and have multiplied flocks and silver and gold until the heart is lifted up. Turning from obedience to walk after other gods to serve and worship them brings certain perishing, just as the nations God destroyed perished for not being obedient to His voice. The surrounding instruction warns that making covenants with idolatrous peoples could turn Israel from God and bring judgment, so strict obedience rather than alliances with surrounding nations would bring prosperity and maintain the covenant relationship.

Blessings and Consequences

Keeping the commandments and statutes and judgments commanded that day, by doing them, is the stated condition for prosperity and for God keeping the covenant and mercy sworn to the fathers. That condition rests on love and faithfulness already shown, in choosing Israel though fewest, redeeming with a mighty hand from bondage under Pharaoh king of Egypt, and keeping covenant and mercy to a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments. Strict obedience rather than covenants and alliances with idolatrous surrounding peoples maintains that covenant relationship and brings prosperity, while turning aside brings judgment. Heeding and doing brings God's keeping of covenant and mercy, His love and multiplication of the people, blessing of families, crops and flocks, long life and salvation. It strengthens minds, displays God's glory and wisdom before other nations, marks Israel's distinction as chosen and blessed, and joins expanding possession of the land to the pilgrimage toward the heavenly Canaan and the inheritance for those who love and obey, continuing until Christ's kingdom extends over the earth.

Obedience brings taking away of all sickness and protection from disease, for God's requirements were given in love, not by arbitrary authority or compulsion, as barriers strictly to be observed to preserve health, holiness and life and to ensure His favor. Transgression of His law brings disease, and failure to conform brings misery and suffering as the consequence of wrong action. This keeping of covenant mercy with loving, blessing, multiplying, and removing sickness profits those living in the time of investigation before every character is investigated and every case decided for eternity before the Judge of all the earth. Obedience is not a burden but given for good to preserve physical, mental and moral health, and it endures through all time and eternity, with obedience leading to life and disobedience of God's law surely bringing death. Obedience brings its reward and disobedience its retribution, for God is faithful to keep covenant and mercy to a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments, while He repays those who hate Him to their face with destruction without slackness, so that by keeping His positive instruction and positive restrictions His people obtain a perfect experience to stand as overcomers before the heavenly universe and the fallen world. God's patience does not excuse continued rebellion, and when people persist past the boundary of His forbearance punishment follows.

If Israel had submitted to God's authority and walked in His ordinances, they would have entered Canaan long before as a prosperous, holy and happy people. Their distrust, pride and unbelief made them unfit to enter and delayed possession of the land, dishonoring God before surrounding nations. They were to reject the sins of the nations, maintain purity and holiness, and show by words and actions that they loved, feared and obeyed God.

Enduring Law and Life

The commandments are binding for a thousand generations, enduring through all time and eternity and reaching into the kingdom of God into the presence of God and His holy angels, where faithful obedience marks those loyal to His government. They take those who keep them by doing them into that kingdom, as the portion of a holy chosen people. Before the thousand generations are complete the Lord will come in the clouds, and His faithful people will be in His kingdom keeping His commandments.

They are not given as a burden but for good always, to preserve alive those who keep them in physical, mental, and moral health. Obedience leads to life, while disobedience of the law of God surely brings death. The thousand generations reaches to the mansions Christ has gone to prepare, where the covenant and mercy sworn to the fathers is kept toward those who hearken and keep and do these judgments.

God's law has not been changed, and He would not alter His laws of government to retain Satan and his sympathizers in heaven. Teaching children to oppose God's law contradicts His instruction for Israel and the world. Obedience brings blessing and prosperity, clear spiritual perception, sight of His grace and enjoyment of His infinite love, while walking contrary to His plain requirements removes clear perception and turns light to darkness. For Christ's sake God looks upon as righteous only those who have respect to His commandments, and those who obey through faith in Christ return to loyalty with assurance that they are sons and daughters of the heavenly King, members of the royal family, a sanctified and holy peculiar people.

Obedience is a lasting duty on which salvation depends and for which God blesses those who keep His covenant. Those who love God supremely and remain faithful through trial will be welcomed by Christ into the heavenly city. God will not admit anyone who would bring another rebellion into heaven.

Present Application and Witness

The word is written for the admonition of those upon whom the ends of the world are come, calling for submission to God's will rather than reliance on personal judgment. It stands now as preparation for the day of God's great final review, showing what is required in order to be a holy people unto Himself. Reading and heeding it profits those now living in the time of investigation, before every character has been investigated and every case decided for eternity, when all must stand before the Judge of all the earth to answer for deeds by actually doing the commandments and the statutes and the judgments. That instruction applies to God's people today as well as to ancient Israel, and obedience is required in every principle God has laid down, with guarding against worldliness.

That obedience includes keeping the seventh-day Sabbath as God's sign that He sanctifies His people and as the sign and seal of loyalty and distinct identity. It is to be taught diligently to children and followed in daily life, putting the commandments into practice rather than treating obedience to light received as a matter of little importance. Parents must heed it in training children from very infancy, a work for their children that nothing else should take the place of, in order to form characters that will meet the approval of God. This calling belongs to a separate and peculiar people, applied to those proclaiming the third angel's message.

It requires God's holy separate peculiar people to keep themselves from idolatry and worldly entanglements, taking special pains not to mingle or confederate with those who have no respect or appreciation for the truth. Obedience was part of Israel's trust as witnesses to the nations, displaying God's wisdom and righteous law. Through true worship and righteous lives they were to reveal the character of God, prospering and distinguished among the nations, with expanding possession of the land continuing until Christ's kingdom extends over the earth. Those who keep the charge mark God's loyal chosen people, who do not make this world their home but remain to witness for God with a living witness borne as long as probation lasts. They stand as champions of righteousness whom Satan and his angels with evil men oppose, striving to counteract their testimony and destroy them, just as Christ the Prince of Life was refused by His own, scorned and hunted when He came in mercy to save and not to condemn as the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.

The verse means Christians are to be laborers together with God, giving close attention to the reading and hearing of the Word and being earnest practical workers who constantly labor for the meat which endures unto eternal life. Every soul is to search the Scriptures for himself, make the Word his study book, and sanctify himself daily according to the Word, lest he be found in rebellion, with doing what is commanded made the special interest and lesson in full surrender at the beginning and continuing simplicity of obedience with none of the important things neglected. It is to be read carefully together with Deuteronomy chapters four, five, six and eight, and was to be read to believers meeting in the first church erected in Portland, Maine, as instruction for the place where the message is to be given in wisdom and in righteousness. By keeping God's positive instruction and positive restrictions His people obtain a perfect experience to stand before the heavenly universe and before the fallen world as overcomers, exalting God's law rather than manmade law as their only hope of salvation.