Deuteronomy 8:1 Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today, (We often think of God's commands as onerous and restrictive, a demanding list of "do's and don'ts" only emphasizing the negative, much too difficult and numerous to pay attention to. In reality, they are a protective hedge around us to keep us from self-destruction. When He charges us to observe His Law, so that it will be a hedge around us, in the Hebrew, the reference is to an encompassing hedge of thorns that guards and protects us so that nothing can penetrate to harm us.) so that you may live and increase and may enter and possess the land (An echo of the Lord's earlier charge to Adam and Eve to be fruitful and increase in number, to fill the earth and subdue it, the Lord is giving His people the opportunity to try again, this time in the power of His strength. This mandate is also a first articulation of Jesus' Own later promise of a rich and abundant life when the Lord vows that we will not only enter into the full and satisfying rest of His presence, but that we will grow and mature and expand in His plans for us.) the Lord promised on oath to your ancestors. (This vow in the original Hebrew means to "seven" oneself. With seven being the number of perfection, the idea is that the Lord has made a complete, perfect, and fulfilled promise to us. The Lord has sworn, has avowed, has charged Himself to keep His Own Word. This oath cannot be compromised or taken back or renounced. No matter what our circumstances, He has promised us an abundant and victorious life in Him.)
