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“You must love the LORD your God and always obey his requirements, decrees, regulations, and commands.
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Keep 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.
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They didn’t see the miraculous signs and wonders he performed in Egypt against Pharaoh and all his land.
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They 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!
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“Your children didn’t see how the LORD cared for you in the wilderness until you arrived here.
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They 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.
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But you have seen the LORD perform all these mighty deeds with your own eyes!
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“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.
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If 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!
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For 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.
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Rather, the land you will soon take over is a land of hills and valleys with plenty of rain—
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a land that the LORD your God cares for. He watches over it through each season of the year!
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“If you carefully obey the commands I am giving you today, and if you love the LORD your God and serve him with all your heart and soul,
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then he will send the rains in their proper seasons—the early and late rains—so you can bring in your harvests of grain, new wine, and olive oil.
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He will give you lush pastureland for your livestock, and you yourselves will have all you want to eat.
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“But be careful. Don’t let your heart be deceived so that you turn away from the LORD and serve and worship other gods.
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If you do, the LORD ’s anger will burn against you. He will shut up the sky and hold back the rain, and the ground will fail to produce its harvests. Then you will quickly die in that good land the LORD is giving you.
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“So commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these words of mine. Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders.
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Teach them to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up.
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Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates,
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so that as long as the sky remains above the earth, you and your children may flourish in the land the LORD swore to give your ancestors.