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Spiritual Gifts, Volume 4a
no more unto me of this matter. Get thee up into the top of Pisgah,
and lift up thine eyes westward, and northward, and southward, and
eastward, and behold it with thine eyes; for thou shalt not go over this
Jordan. But charge Joshua, and encourage him, and strengthen him;
for he shall go over before this people, and he shall cause them to
inherit the land which thou shalt see. Now therefore hearken, O Israel,
unto the statutes and unto the judgments, which I teach you, for to
do them, that ye may live, and go in and possess the land which the
Lord God of your fathers giveth you. Ye shall not add unto the word
which I command you, neither shall ye diminish aught from it, that ye
may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command
you.”
Moses told them that for their rebellion the Lord had several times
purposed to destroy them. But he had interceded for them so earnestly
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that God had graciously spared them. He reminded them of the mira-
cles which the Lord did unto Pharaoh and all the land of Egypt. He
said to them, “But your eyes have seen all the great acts of the Lord
which he did. Therefore shall ye keep all the commandments which I
command you this day, that ye may be strong, and go in and possess
the land, whither ye go to possess it.”
Moses especially warned the children of Israel against being se-
duced into idolatry. He earnestly charged them to obey the command-
ments of God. If they would prove obedient, and love the Lord, and
serve him with their undivided affections, he would give them rain in
due season, and cause their vegetation to flourish, and increase their
cattle. They should also enjoy especial and exalted privileges, and
should triumph over their enemies. He related to them the advantages
of the land of Canaan over that of Egypt. In certain seasons of the
year, the cultivated lands in Egypt had to be watered from the river,
by machinery, which was worked by the foot. This was a laborious
process.
Moses said to them, “For the land, whither thou goest in to possess
it, is not as the land of Egypt, from whence ye came out, where thou
sowedst thy seed, and wateredst it with thy foot, as a garden of herbs.
But the land, whither ye go to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys,
and drinketh water of the rain of heaven. A land which the Lord thy
God careth for. The eyes of the Lord thy God are always upon it, from
the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year.”