Deuteronomy 11:18

Commentary on Deuteronomy 11:18

“Therefore you shall lay up these words of Mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.”

1. Context of Deuteronomy 11

Deuteronomy 11 [i] is the heart of Moses’s second address to Israel on the plains of Moab. Having recounted God’s mighty acts—deliverance from Egypt, wilderness provision and judgement on rebels—Moses exhorts the people to wholehearted obedience. Verses 13–17 promise land-ward blessings for faithfulness; verses 18–21 repeat and expand the command to internalise and teach God’s law; verses 22–25 forecast military victory; and verses 26–32 set before the nation the choice of blessing or curse. Within this covenantal framework, verse 18 introduces the means by which Israel is to secure the blessings: by inscribing God’s words on their hearts, on their bodies and in their domestic life.

2. Exegesis of Deuteronomy 11:18

“Lay up these words of Mine in your heart and in your soul”
- The Hebrew verbs connote treasuring, meditating and internalising.
- “Heart” (לֵבָב) points to intellect and affections; “soul” (נֶפֶשׁ) embraces life-force and will.
- Together they demand total commitment: Scripture is to become the locus of inner life.
“Bind them as a sign on your hand”
- In Near Eastern practice a visible sign on the hand symbolises that our deeds are controlled by what we believe.
- In Jewish custom this was later literalised in phylacteries (tefillin).
“And they shall be as frontlets between your eyes”
- The forehead location signifies that all one’s vision—one’s priorities, perceptions and decisions—is governed by God’s Word.
- It pictures a constant, unobtrusive reminder of covenantal obligations.

3. Themes

Covenant Sovereignty
God’s promises to Abraham (Genesis 17) are corporate and generational. Deuteronomy 11:18–21 underscores covenant succession: each believer must internalise Scripture so that faith is lived and passed on.
Sola Scriptura
The primacy of the written Word is central. Binding Scripture on hand and forehead affirms its sufficiency and authority over conscience, conduct and corporate worship.
Total Depravity and Grace
Our hearts and souls, left to themselves, rebel. The command presupposes indwelling grace—God graciously enables us to treasure and obey His Word.
Perseverance and Sanctification
Regular meditation and memorisation feed the Spirit-wrought process of sanctification. By keeping God’s Word ever before us, we guard against apostasy (cf. John 8:31–32).
Generational Discipleship
Verse 19 extends the injunction to parent and child “when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way…” Christians reclaim robust family worship as the primary milieu for spiritual formation.

4. Application to Modern Christian Living

Personal Meditation and Memorisation
- Establish a daily rhythm of meditating on Scripture passages.
- Use memorisation tools (verse-cards, mobile apps) to “bind” God’s Word on your hand (actions) and between your eyes (thoughts).
Symbolic Reminders
- Adopt practices such as placing short Scripture verses on your desk, refrigerator or wardrobe.
- Wear a wedding-band-style token inscribed with a key verse as a tactile cue.
Family Worship and Catechesis
- In homes, lead children through age-appropriate catechisms that echo themes from Deuteronomy 11:18 (for example, the Westminster Shorter Catechism).
- Pray Scripture at morning devotion and at bedtime, modelling how God’s Word shapes daily life.
Corporate Liturgical Integration
- Incorporate Scripture reading and recitation into corporate services, ensuring God’s Word is not merely read but enshrined in the liturgy.
- Encourage memorisation verses in small groups and sermon series.
Vigilant Heart Examination
- Weekly examine your heart and soul before the Lord, asking: “Have I treasured Your Word this week?”
- Confess any drift from Scripture-centred living and renew commitment to God’s statutes.

5. Teaching from Deuteronomy 11:18

Believers are commanded to internalise God’s Word—embedding it in thoughts, affections and will—so that every action and decision is governed by Scripture. This internalisation is both individual and communal, personal and generational, sealing the covenant promise as an enduring way of life.

[i] Deuteronomy 11

New King James Version

Love and Obedience Rewarded

11 “Therefore you shall love the Lord your God, and keep His charge, His statutes, His judgments, and His commandments always. 2 Know today that I do not speak with your children, who have not known and who have not seen the [a]chastening of the Lord your God, His greatness and His mighty hand and His outstretched arm— 3 His signs and His acts which He did in the midst of Egypt, to Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to all his land; 4 what He did to the army of Egypt, to their horses and their chariots: how He made the waters of the Red Sea overflow them as they pursued you, and how the Lord has destroyed them to this day; 5 what He did for you in the wilderness until you came to this place; 6 and what He did to Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben: how the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, their households, their tents, and all the substance that was [b]in their possession, in the midst of all Israel— 7 but your eyes have seen every great [c]act of the Lord which He did.

8 “Therefore you shall keep every commandment which I command you today, that you may be strong, and go in and possess the land which you cross over to possess, 9 and that you may prolong your days in the land which the Lord [d]swore to give your fathers, to them and their descendants, ‘a land flowing with milk and honey.’ 10 For the land which you go to possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and watered it by foot, as a vegetable garden; 11 but the land which you cross over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water from the rain of heaven, 12 a land for which the Lord your God cares; the eyes of the Lord your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the very end of the year.

13 ‘And it shall be that if you earnestly [e]obey My commandments which I command you today, to love the Lord your God and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, 14 then I[f] will give you the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil. 15 And I will send grass in your fields for your livestock, that you may eat and be [g]filled.’ 16 Take heed to yourselves, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them, 17 lest the Lord’s anger be aroused against you, and He shut up the heavens so that there be no rain, and the land yield no produce, and you perish quickly from the good land which the Lord is giving you.

18 “Therefore you shall [h]lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 19 You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 20 And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, 21 that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, like the days of the heavens above the earth.

22 “For if you carefully keep all these commandments which I command you to do—to love the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, and to hold fast to Him— 23 then the Lord will drive out all these nations from before you, and you will dispossess greater and mightier nations than yourselves. 24 Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours: from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the River Euphrates, even to the [i]Western Sea, shall be your territory. 25 No man shall be able to stand [j]against you; the Lord your God will put the dread of you and the fear of you upon all the land where you tread, just as He has said to you.

26 “Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse: 27 the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you today; 28 and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way which I command you today, to go after other gods which you have not known. 29 Now it shall be, when the Lord your God has brought you into the land which you go to possess, that you shall put the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal. 30 Are they not on the other side of the Jordan, toward the setting sun, in the land of the Canaanites who dwell in the plain opposite Gilgal, beside the terebinth trees of Moreh? 31 For you will cross over the Jordan and go in to possess the land which the Lord your God is giving you, and you will possess it and dwell in it. 32 And you shall be careful to observe all the statutes and judgments which I set before you today.

Footnotes

Deuteronomy 11:2 discipline

Deuteronomy 11:6 at their feet

Deuteronomy 11:7 work

Deuteronomy 11:9 promised

Deuteronomy 11:13 Lit. listen to

Deuteronomy 11:14 So with MT, Tg.; Sam., LXX, Vg. He

Deuteronomy 11:15 satisfied

Deuteronomy 11:18 Lit. put

Deuteronomy 11:24 Mediterranean

Deuteronomy 11:25 before