Romans 5:1-5 comments: building Christian character

 

Romans 5:1 ¶  Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: 2  By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3  And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; 4  And patience, experience; and experience, hope: 5  And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

 

Verse 1 is a very important point. We can have peace with God, who created all things, only by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Here in Ephesians is a statement on having peace with God.

 

Ephesians 2:11 ¶  Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands;

12  That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:

13  But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.

14 ¶  For he is our peace, who hath made both one [Jew and Gentile], and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; 15  Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; 16  And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: 17  And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh. 18  For through him we both [Jew and Gentile] have access by one Spirit unto the Father. 19  Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; 20  And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; 21  In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: 22  In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.

 

We have access to God by faith because of Christ.

 

John 14:6  Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

 

Ephesians 2:18  For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.

 

Tribulations are adversities, troubles, anguish, and distress involving problems of living and persecution and temptations to renounce by thought and deed Christ Himself, problems that arise from being a follower of Christ. When we face such things with faith we find patience grows within us.

 

Matthew 5:10  Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11  Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. 12  Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

 

Acts 5:41  And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name.

 

2Corinthians 12:9  And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10  Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

 

James 1:1 ¶  James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting. 2 ¶  My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; 3  Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. 4  But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

 

Patience is built and we are promised this.

 

1Corinthians 10:13  There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

 

With patience comes experience. We’ve “been there, done that, got the t-shirt.” We learn by experience and gain wisdom and understanding. Trouble teaches us more about life than ease of living does and we learn to trust in God’s mercy and comfort.

 

Genesis 30:27  And Laban said unto him, I pray thee, if I have found favour in thine eyes, tarry: for I have learned by experience that the LORD hath blessed me for thy sake.

 

Ecclesiastes 1:16  I communed with mine own heart, saying, Lo, I am come to great estate, and have gotten more wisdom than all they that have been before me in Jerusalem: yea, my heart had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.

 

And with experience comes hope. The majority of times salvation or saved is used in the Bible it means from some temporal danger or crisis, something in this life, not in the next. We can learn from experience and have hope of God’s immediate deliverance and trusting in His promises of eternal life.

 

Enduring tribulation in faith works and strengthens patience and gives birth to experience  which  enlightens us with hope because of God’s promises and His deliverance on those promises in our lifetime. Christians don’t have hope because of simply words written in an old book. We have hope because of God’s delivering on promises written in a living Book that He has given us from down through the ages. His Spirit , which indwells us, comforts, strengthens, advises, and never forsakes us in our time of need if we believe in faith expecting Him to lift us up in our adversity.

 

If we live in faith and suffer adversity in faith we see God’s deliverance and our faith in eternal life with Him is strengthened and made sure, established. There are two types of Christians in this regard. There is one who simply believes what they were told to believe and sees no power of God in their life because they live by a need to submit to others and the comfort of group belief and identification with a group for whatever reason. The other sees God’s hand in their daily life and that life is a continuous miracle to them. They believe God’s promises not because of some charismatic preacher who influences them but because they see God as real and involved with them.

 

One believes because they trust a person while the other believes because they trust God and have seen His power in their lives. They’ve had their own escape from Egypt, their own Red Sea crossing, their own wilderness wandering, and have seen their own Promised Land as they hope for eternal life and have no reason to not believe God because He is faithful.

 

We are not ashamed or bashful, as the word also meant at the time that this Bible was translated, and not inhibited to proclaim the gospel of Christ because it is in us swelling to come out of us. God’s love is shed abroad in our hearts because of the Holy Spirit. If you don’t have a hunger to tell others about your faith or to even show it to others and you insist that faith is a private matter that no one else should know about perhaps you need to examine your relationship with Christ more closely.

 

Of course, there are different ways to witness from standing unflinchingly on the principles that Christ has laid down for us to witnessing with words. For some it is in their manner of living that makes people know to whom they belong. I had a manager at a pizza place I worked at thirty years ago who said he knew I was a Christian by the way I talked. He wasn’t. Unbelievers seem to know more of what to expect from a Christian than we often do. Then, there were others who knew my faith by my words, strangers by my passing out gospel tracts, or acquaintances by my offering of the gospel to them after I had been saved. Both ways have plusses and minuses though. The plusses are obvious but in the first example my manager should not have had to guess my faith based on my behavior but it should be been declared in some way. In the second example I am sure I’ve been a total nuisance and a sanctimonious boor as well who drove some people away from the Cross rather than drawing them toward it. Being a Christian takes some maturity, some compassion, and some awareness of the limitations of a situation yet all the while being responsive to the Holy Spirit’s leading.

Deuteronomy 12:1-4 comments: an order for the Israelites to destroy Canaanite places of worship

 

Deuteronomy 12:1 ¶  These are the statutes and judgments, which ye shall observe to do in the land, which the LORD God of thy fathers giveth thee to possess it, all the days that ye live upon the earth. 2  Ye shall utterly destroy all the places, wherein the nations which ye shall possess served their gods, upon the high mountains, and upon the hills, and under every green tree: 3  And ye shall overthrow their altars, and break their pillars, and burn their groves with fire; and ye shall hew down the graven images of their gods, and destroy the names of them out of that place. 4  Ye shall not do so unto the LORD your God.

 

The Israelites are commanded to destroy the places of worship for the heathen gods in Canaan. There was to be nothing left behind of that worship of devils. Remember the command in Numbers and my comments on it.

 

“Numbers 33:50 ¶  And the LORD spake unto Moses in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho, saying, 51  Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye are passed over Jordan into the land of Canaan; 52  Then ye shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their pictures, and destroy all their molten images, and quite pluck down all their high places:

 

Verse 52 reminds us of the way images and idols were worshipped as the Hebrews are ordered to destroy the pictures of the Canaanites, defined by association as molten images of their gods. See other usages of pictures, of course, not referring to photographs or a child’s watercolor painting, or other relatively modern things like a Rembrandt painting unless you are going to worship those things as gods. Do not dumb down the commandments of God just because you don’t like modern art. Fundamentalists do the same thing with persecution in the New Testament when while those people were facing torture and death you gripe because your boss won’t let you put up Leviticus 20:13 in your office booth.

Proverbs 25:11  A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.

 

Isaiah 2:16  And upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all pleasant pictures.”

 

            The heathen Canaanites worshipped their gods in high places on the tops of hills and mountains and under trees and in groves of trees and Israel was seduced into doing so also.

 

1Kings 14:22  And Judah did evil in the sight of the LORD, and they provoked him to jealousy with their sins which they had committed, above all that their fathers had done. 23  For they also built them high places, and images, and groves, on every high hill, and under every green tree.

 

Jeremiah 3:6  The LORD said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king, Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done? she is gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there hath played the harlot.

 

            There were revivals, as in Hezekiah’s time, of sorts where right-minded Israelites destroyed the work of heathenized Israelites.

 

2Chronicles 31:1  Now when all this was finished, all Israel that were present went out to the cities of Judah, and brake the images in pieces, and cut down the groves, and threw down the high places and the altars out of all Judah and Benjamin, in Ephraim also and Manasseh, until they had utterly destroyed them all. Then all the children of Israel returned, every man to his possession, into their own cities.

 

            That, of course, does not justify you in burning down a Catholic church, a Jewish synagogue, or a Muslim Mosque. To think that shows a total lack of understanding of who Christians are as compared to who the ancient Israelites were. The weapons of our warfare do not involve physical destruction on our part.

 

2Corinthians 10:1 ¶  Now I Paul myself beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, who in presence am base among you, but being absent am bold toward you: 2  But I beseech you, that I may not be bold when I am present with that confidence, wherewith I think to be bold against some, which think of us as if we walked according to the flesh. 3  For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: 4  (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) 5  Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; 6  And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.

 

The last part of that passage is about church discipline not your going out into the world with a torch to burn down every church whose doctrine you do not accept.

 

Regarding verse 4, I think Matthew Henry explained it most clearly in his commentary which is free online.

 

You shall not do so to the Lord your God, that is, ‘you must not think to do honour to him by offering sacrifices on mountains and hills, erecting pillars, planting groves, and setting up images; no, you must not indulge a luxurious fancy in your worship, nor think that whatever pleases that will please God: he is above all gods, and will not be worshipped as other gods are.’

Deuteronomy 11:26-32 comments: the blessings of obedience for the Israelites

 

Deuteronomy 11:26 ¶  Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse; 27  A blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you this day: 28  And a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which ye have not known. 29  And it shall come to pass, when the LORD thy God hath brought thee in unto the land whither thou goest to possess it, that thou shalt put the blessing upon mount Gerizim, and the curse upon mount Ebal. 30  Are they not on the other side Jordan, by the way where the sun goeth down, in the land of the Canaanites, which dwell in the champaign over against Gilgal, beside the plains of Moreh? 31  For ye shall pass over Jordan to go in to possess the land which the LORD your God giveth you, and ye shall possess it, and dwell therein. 32  And ye shall observe to do all the statutes and judgments which I set before you this day.

 

In the conclusion to this chapter the Israelites are given a choice. They can obey God, the LORD Jehovah, or they can betray Him. If they obey Him they will have success as previous statements have said and if they choose to worship other gods they will suffer a curse.

 

This gives an opportunity to discuss the difference between the Law in the Old Testament for the Israelites, the Hebrews, the Jews and for Jew and Gentile Christian in the New. If the Israelites obeyed God they could expect a blessing, the blessing of success in the land. The blessings of the Law are temporal, earthly, and God’s blessing on the Israelites would guarantee them prosperity.

 

The Christian’s blessing is eternal life with Jesus Christ our Lord, the visible image of the God who created all things. The Christian has the blessing of a God who will neither leave them nor forsake them on this earth but gives them comfort and guidance.

 

The curse for the Israelites would be failure, famine, drought, conquest, and removal from the Promised Land. The curse for the Christian who deliberately disobeys the guidance God gives them in life is misery and suffering. As a result one way to know if a person who says they are saved but is living a life of sin and iniquity is that they will be miserable and unhappy and unsatisfied with their lifestyle choices if they are indeed a Christian. They will face disappointment, depression, and even suicide if they continue on their wicked path.

 

The similarity between the two is that God does not abandon the Israelites but promises to return them to their land at some point in the future after He has written His Law on their hearts. He also promises never to abandon the Christian and the person who is truly saved but falls short will still be saved and spend eternity with His or Her Maker.

Deuteronomy 11:18-25 comments: a command to remember God's words and a promise

 

Deuteronomy 11:18 ¶  Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes. 19  And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. 20  And thou shalt write them upon the door posts of thine house, and upon thy gates: 21  That your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon the earth. 22  For if ye shall diligently keep all these commandments which I command you, to do them, to love the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, and to cleave unto him; 23  Then will the LORD drive out all these nations from before you, and ye shall possess greater nations and mightier than yourselves. 24  Every place whereon the soles of your feet shall tread shall be yours: from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, even unto the uttermost sea shall your coast be. 25  There shall no man be able to stand before you: for the LORD your God shall lay the fear of you and the dread of you upon all the land that ye shall tread upon, as he hath said unto you.

 

A frontlet was a container that could carry bits of scripture or prayers and carried on the forehead. The point is that the Israelites were to always have the words of God present to remind them of who He is and who they were and of His commands and righteous expectations of them.

 

That they failed in this has been made clear previously.

 

Judges 2:8  And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died, being an hundred and ten years old. 9  And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnathheres, in the mount of Ephraim, on the north side of the hill Gaash. 10  And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the LORD, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel.

 

This was Israel’s curse on themselves to not pass on their knowledge of God to their children and grandchildren. This history was vital to the Israelites’ success and they failed to transmit it. It is also the curse of many Christians in America today whose children were not taught their faith. They did not attend church as a family, prayer was not done with their children in the home, and the Bible was not read in the home. The children of many self-identified Christians lead lives of debauched decadence and atheism which can be directly attributed to seeing no evidence of a living faith in their parents or being taught anything spiritual by them. The fact that these “Christian parents” complain when things go awry is astounding when they have no one to blame but themselves.

 

If they obeyed God promised that it would be He who would drive out the nations before them.

 

Exodus 23:27  I will send my fear before thee, and will destroy all the people to whom thou shalt come, and I will make all thine enemies turn their backs unto thee. :28  And I will send hornets before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee. 29  I will not drive them out from before thee in one year; lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee. 30  By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land.

Romans 4:23-25 comments: Christ was raised again for our justification

 

Romans 4:23 ¶  Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; 24  But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; 25  Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.

 

Paul makes note later why things were recorded, for our learning and edification.

 

Romans 15:4  For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.

 

Not imputing sin to someone who believes God through Jesus Christ is a promise that we all receive when we accept Christ as our Saviour and Lord. Here Paul promises that if we believe that Jesus rose from the dead sin is not imputed to us. This remarkable statement is fundamental to our salvation.

 

The Holy Spirit has laid out for us what it means to believe in and on Christ to be saved. Jesus said…

 

John 6:28 ¶  Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?

29  Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.

 

John 14:6  Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. 7  If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.8  Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us. 9  Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?

 

Belief in Jesus’ divinity, His being God in the flesh, in His sacrifice for our sins against Him, and believing in the resurrection of Jesus Christ justifies us legally before God and removes the taint of sin from us as we are made righteous in God’s eyes. Paul underscores here the gospel as he does elsewhere, what is required for salvation.

 

1Corinthians 15:1 ¶  Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; 2  By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. 3  For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; 4  And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:

 

Romans 10:9  That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10  For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

 

Remember this promise in the Old Testament?

 

Psalm 103:8  The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.

9  He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever. 10  He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. 11  For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. 12  As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.

 

We have this promise from the Old Testament as well which shows that salvation under the New Testament is available to the Jews.

 

Jeremiah 31:33  But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.

 

And this continuing promise to both Gentile and Jew who become the church from the New.

 

1John 1:9  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

 

We are also promised that the things that beset us that pull us away from God’s standards and expectations do not have to overwhelm us.

 

1Corinthians 10:13  There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

 

Indeed, whatever we suffer does not have to overcome us, even hunger and lack.

 

Philippians 4: 11  Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. 12  I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. 13  I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

 

None of these things are able to, on their own, or have to separate us from God’s love through Christ. Nothing and no one can condemn or accuse us before God.

 

Romans 8:33  Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth.

34  Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. 35  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36  As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. 37  Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. 38  For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39  Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 

In these verses it is clear that it is God who works on the sinner from the inside through His Spirit and by virtue of the sinner’s acceptance of Christ. All other efforts to deal with sin are mere self-help platitudes tossed out by supposed gurus with a money-making agenda or spurious philosophical pleas.

 

We are justified by Christ and we are not condemned by God. Because of that no one else or nothing else can condemn us.

Romans 4:17-22 comments: the Holy Spirit speaks well of His saints, regardless of how imperfect their faith

 

Romans 4:17 ¶  (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were. 18  Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be. 19  And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara’s womb: 20  He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; 21  And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform. 22  And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness.

 

Again, I want to quote the verse to which Paul is referring.

 

Genesis 17:4 ¶  As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations.

 

Here also are two important statements about God’s sovereignty over life and creation. God can make alive anyone or anything who is dead physically. Quickeneth means to make alive.

 

In addition, God has created all things out of nothing. Every thing that exists began with the Spirit of God, His mind, and was spoken into existence by His Word. It did not exist in the physical world before He spoke it into existence. All of the reality we know is a production of God although suffering from the taint of judgment for mankind’s rebellion. This must be sorted out.

 

Abraham believed, trusting God to be true, even though what He had promised Abraham did not seem to be in the realm of the possible. Although we know from his behavior that his belief and hope were imperfect, like ours, it was still there and God honored it. Even our little faith is recognized by God.

 

One of the characteristics of the Holy Spirit speaking about the saints of God in the Old Testament is His glowing report of their faith, as weak and imperfect as it might have been. We will see this again in Hebrews, chapter 11. Notice the background from Genesis of what actually happened…

Genesis 17:15 ¶  And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be. 16  And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her. 17  Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear? 18  And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee! 19  And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him. 20  And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation. 21  But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year. 22  And he left off talking with him, and God went up from Abraham.

For those of us who lament our weak and imperfect faith consider how the Holy Spirit extolls and lifts up the faith of His saints whose shortcomings are illustrated in the text of the Bible.

Deuteronomy 11:8-17 comments: a blessing and a warning to the Israelites

 

Deuteronomy 11:8 ¶  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; 9  And that ye may prolong your days in the land, which the LORD sware unto your fathers to give unto them and to their seed, a land that floweth with milk and honey. 10  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: 11  But the land, whither ye go to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven: 12  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. 13  And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently unto my commandments which I command you this day, to love the LORD your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, 14  That I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil. 15  And I will send grass in thy fields for thy cattle, that thou mayest eat and be full. 16  Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them; 17  And then the LORD’S wrath be kindled against you, and he shut up the heaven, that there be no rain, and that the land yield not her fruit; and lest ye perish quickly from off the good land which the LORD giveth you.

 

Notice how the strength of the Israelites, their ability to take the land, is contingent upon their obedience. It is the same with their success in the land. Notice from verse 10 a reference to Egypt depending on the flooding of the Nile for its water while Canaan is said to be a place of abundant rainfall.

Josephus, chronicler of the war against the Romans, tells of the climate himself at Christ’s time.

Its nature is wonderful as well as its beauty; its soil is so fruitful that all sorts of trees can grow upon it, and the inhabitants accordingly plant all sorts of trees there; for the temper of the air is so well mixed, that it agrees very well with those several sorts, particularly walnuts, which require the coldest air, flourish there in vast plenty; there are palm trees also, which grow best in hot air; fig trees also and olives grow near them, which yet require an air that is more temperate. One may call this place the ambition of nature, where it forces those plants that are naturally enemies to one another to agree together; it is a happy contention of the seasons, as if every one of them laid claim to this country; for it not only nourishes different sorts of autumnal fruit beyond men’s expectation, but preserves them a great while; it supplies men with the principal fruits, with grapes and figs continually, during ten months of the year and the rest of the fruits as they become ripe together through the whole year” (The Jewish War, Book 3, Chapter 10:8).

But, God says He can stop this beneficent climate and cause drought to afflict them if they disobey.