Deu 8:7-9 | KingComments | STEP | The waters of the land we find in the Gospel of John. There the Lord Jesus speaks of “rivers of living water”, that is the Holy Spirit ( ). The waters – “the brooks, fountains and springs” – are needed to bring out the fruit of the land. We need the Holy Spirit to understand the blessings. The Lord Jesus came to declare us the Father. Knowing the Father, that is eternal life ( ). The Holy Spirit has come to be in us “a well of water springing up to eternal life” ( ). The Holy Spirit is in us to give us the enjoyment of eternal life. The “brooks of water” are the streams that flow out of our innermost being by the power of the Holy Spirit ( ). We do not keep the blessings of the eternal life for ourselves, but pass them on to others. The “fountains and springs” are found in everything the Lord Jesus speaks to His disciples in the upper room and then to His Father (John 14-17). In those chapters he says a lot about the Holy Spirit. These are all waters other than those of Deuteronomy 6 ( ). There it is about self-dug wells with a collection of water that is from what others have drawn. Here too we can refresh ourselves. Now in Deuteronomy 8 it is directly the Holy Spirit. These waters are in valleys and hills, in the depths and on the heights of faith. The fruit in the land is everything that we learn to distinguish from the blessings of the land by the Holy Spirit. Moses in his speech repeatedly speaks to the Israelites in the plains of Moab about “the good land” they will inherit ( ). After exploring Canaan, Caleb even speaks of an “exceedingly good land” ( ). It is “a land flowing with milk and honey” ( ). The good land forms a great contrast with the great and terrible wilderness through which they have gone. Here we find a detailed description of the land in which the LORD will bring them. In this description, the word “land” is mentioned seven times, indicating that it is a land where God gives perfect blessing. The land is: 1. a good land ( ); 2. a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs ( ); 3. a land of wheat and barley, of vines, fig trees and pomegranates ( ); 4. a land of olive oil and honey ( ); 5. a land where there will be no poverty and no want of anything ( ); 6. a land whose stones are iron and where one can dig copper out of the hills ( ); 7. a land worthy of praise for rich blessing – the abundance which God has given them ( ). Life in the promised land is a richly blessed life. Thus Christ now gives life and abundance to His own. He says: “I came that they may have life, and have [it] abundantly” ( ). For that they may thank Him also. This blessing of the land gives a picture of the multitude of blessings that the Christian finds in the heavenly places. “The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly [places] in Christ” ( ). Our blessings are related to the knowledge of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Our position as children, sons and heirs is based on this. This should also result in great gratitude and praise with us for the Source of our blessing, as the Apostle also clearly states: “Blessed [be] the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” ( )! The land is well supplied with water. God takes care of that. The streams of water are a picture of the heavenly gift we have received as believers in the Holy Spirit of Whom we are “given to drink” ( ). It is the Spirit who opens up to us and makes fruitful the good land which we have received as Christians, the land of blessing in the heavenly realms. If we sow in this “field”, we will “reap eternal life out of the Spirit” ( ). Eternal life, the precious fruit of the good land promised to us, is the knowledge of and the life community with the Father and the Son: “This is eternal life, that they know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ Who sent You” ( ). That there is “a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs” is a sign of the abundance and rich working of the Spirit. When we think of “brooks of water”, we should not think of small, shallow waters, but of rivers ( ). The Spirit is the “well of water springing up to eternal life” ( ). The “springs” are deep waters, floods of water, originating from subterranean water reservoirs – see the blessing of Joseph ( ; ). Here we can think of “the depths of God” ( ), the mysteries of the wisdom of God, as revealed by the Spirit and recorded in the scriptures of the New Testament. The waters can be found everywhere in the land, on the mountains and in the valleys. They appear in the valleys, but also in the mountains ( ). God “does not give the Spirit in moderation” ( ). If we cannot perceive the working of the Spirit in our lives, we must first seek the cause of it in ourselves. We can grieve the Spirit ( ) and even extinguish Him ( ). The fountains in the valleys point more to the working of the Spirit here below, on earth. He dwells in us on earth and fills our hearts and our lives. The springs on the hills remind us of Christ in glory Who has clothed us with power from on high ( ). The fruit that the land produces is seven-fold. Egypt has only six ‘fruits’: “The fish …, the cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the onions and the garlic” ( ). The first fruits of the land that are mentioned are “wheat and barley”. In Leviticus 23 is the sheaf of the first fruits of the barley harvest. The two wave breads at the Feast of Weeks are of the wheat harvest. The sheaf of the first fruits speaks of the Lord Jesus in the resurrection. The wave breads speak of the church – the heavenly fruit of the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Barley and wheat appear in the Gospel according to John. In John 6 we read of “five barley loaves” ( ). That makes us think of the resurrection. Four times in that chapter the Lord Jesus speaks about the resurrection and that in connection with eternal life. He is the bread that descended from heaven. Eternal life is resurrection life that we can possess because the Lord Jesus passed through death and rose. In John 12 we read about the wheat: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” ( ). There we see that life is not only resurrection life, but that it is heavenly life. The Lord Jesus speaks there about life to “keep it to life eternal” ( ), which is enjoyed when we are with Him and the Father. Death then has no more power over us. The third fruit comes from the “vines”. The wine is a picture of joy. In John 15, the Lord Jesus speaks of true, complete joy. The result of the connection with the Lord Jesus and the keeping of the commandments is joy ( ). The bond of love and fellowship comes through knowing each other and leads to keeping the commandments that are characteristic of eternal life. Complete joy is the joy of knowing the Father and the Son. The fourth, fifth and sixth fruits come from “fig trees and pomegranates” and “olive oil”. These fruits we find in the letters of Paul. The fig tree speaks of the “peaceful fruit of righteousness” ( ), the pomegranate of the “fruit of sanctification” ( ) and the olive tree of “the fruit of the Spirit” ( ). The fig tree is a picture of the people of God from whom God could expect fruits. However, the fig tree has not given fruit and is cursed ( ). After their sin, Adam and Eve “sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings” ( ), as if they could exist for God. But a self-made garment, a garment of one’s own righteousness, is reprehensible. The fruit of righteousness originates from chastisement. Chastisement is the part of sons in whom the Father has a singular pleasure. He uses chastisement to remove what is not to His pleasure in those sons. The Father wants us to become conformed to the image of His Son ( ). Chastisement is not pleasant, but gives that fruit of righteousness ( ). Pomegranates have to do with the high priest, the sanctuary and a closed garden: 1. They are on the high priest’s garment ( ). 2. They are also on the capitals of the pillars in the temple ( ). 3. They are mentioned when the bridegroom compares his bride to a garden with pomegranate trees that is locked and is only open for him ( ). It is a fruit that speaks of sanctification. Olive trees speak of an abundance of activity of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is the fruit of the land ( ). There is no law – which is given to man in the flesh on earth – against such things. “The one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life” ( ). The seventh and last fruit, the “honey”, is not a fruit of trees, but a fruit produced by the zeal of bees. It is the sweetness of the affection of believers among themselves. It proposes to enjoy together with all believers the blessing of eternal life. God wants to gather His people together to enjoy with them of the Lord Jesus. In his first letter John speaks first of fellowship with the apostles and then of fellowship with the Father and the Son ( ). The mineral resources ( ) are the most difficult to discover. To deepen this, a lot of effort is required. Not all blessings are on the surface. “Iron” and “copper” speak of strength. Iron speaks of victory; copper speaks of a righteousness so great that it can endure the judgment of God ( ). In the blessing which Moses pronounces on Asher, he says that his bars will be iron and bronze ( ). When the wall around Jerusalem is rebuilt, the bars for the sheep gate are not mentioned; apparently, they are forgotten to be placed ( ; cf. ). If the bars are not on the doors, the enemy can enter and rob us of the blessings. In Job 28 we see the bars on the doors. They are hidden and the eye of the raptor has not discovered them. Iron and copper can be found, but wisdom, where is she found? But God knows, “God understands its way” ( ). The answer comes some verses further: “And to man He said, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; And to depart from evil is understanding’” ( ). For the avoidance of evil, to forbid it entrance, iron and copper are suitable. True wisdom and real understanding are awe and wonder for the Lord, and to depart from evil – they are the basic elements to preserve the blessing of the land. It is a land of abundance, where the believer has no shortage of anything. The effect of all the blessings enjoyed must be that we praise God for it. Praising the Lord for all His blessings also prevents us from forgetting Him. If all Christians knew and appreciated the blessing of the land, the land would be full of praise ( ). Heaven shall be full of praise to God, the Giver of every blessing, and to the Lamb, by Whom it has become possible for us to receive the full blessing.

‏ Deuteronomy 8:7-9

Blessings and Gratitude

The waters of the land we find in the Gospel of John. There the Lord Jesus speaks of “rivers of living water”, that is the Holy Spirit (Jn 7:37-39). The waters – “the brooks, fountains and springs” – are needed to bring out the fruit of the land. We need the Holy Spirit to understand the blessings.

The Lord Jesus came to declare us the Father. Knowing the Father, that is eternal life (Jn 17:3). The Holy Spirit has come to be in us “a well of water springing up to eternal life” (Jn 4:14b). The Holy Spirit is in us to give us the enjoyment of eternal life. The “brooks of water” are the streams that flow out of our innermost being by the power of the Holy Spirit (Jn 7:38). We do not keep the blessings of the eternal life for ourselves, but pass them on to others. The “fountains and springs” are found in everything the Lord Jesus speaks to His disciples in the upper room and then to His Father (John 14-17). In those chapters he says a lot about the Holy Spirit.

These are all waters other than those of Deuteronomy 6 (Deu 6:11). There it is about self-dug wells with a collection of water that is from what others have drawn. Here too we can refresh ourselves. Now in Deuteronomy 8 it is directly the Holy Spirit. These waters are in valleys and hills, in the depths and on the heights of faith. The fruit in the land is everything that we learn to distinguish from the blessings of the land by the Holy Spirit.

Moses in his speech repeatedly speaks to the Israelites in the plains of Moab about “the good land” they will inherit (Deu 1:35 ; Deu 3:25 ; Deu 4:21-22 ; Deu 6:18). After exploring Canaan, Caleb even speaks of an “exceedingly good land” (Num 14:7). It is “a land flowing with milk and honey” (Deu 6:3). The good land forms a great contrast with the great and terrible wilderness through which they have gone.

Here we find a detailed description of the land in which the LORD will bring them. In this description, the word “land” is mentioned seven times, indicating that it is a land where God gives perfect blessing. The land is:

1. a good land (Deu 8:7a ; 10b);

2. a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs (Deu 8:7b);

3. a land of wheat and barley, of vines, fig trees and pomegranates (Deu 8:8a);

4. a land of olive oil and honey (Deu 8:8b);

5. a land where there will be no poverty and no want of anything (Deu 8:9a);

6. a land whose stones are iron and where one can dig copper out of the hills (Deu 8:9b);

7. a land worthy of praise for rich blessing – the abundance which God has given them (Deu 8:10).

Life in the promised land is a richly blessed life. Thus Christ now gives life and abundance to His own. He says: “I came that they may have life, and have [it] abundantly” (Jn 10:10). For that they may thank Him also.

This blessing of the land gives a picture of the multitude of blessings that the Christian finds in the heavenly places. “The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly [places] in Christ” (Eph 1:3). Our blessings are related to the knowledge of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Our position as children, sons and heirs is based on this. This should also result in great gratitude and praise with us for the Source of our blessing, as the Apostle also clearly states: “Blessed [be] the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Eph 1:3a)!

The land is well supplied with water. God takes care of that. The streams of water are a picture of the heavenly gift we have received as believers in the Holy Spirit of Whom we are “given to drink” (1Cor 12:13). It is the Spirit who opens up to us and makes fruitful the good land which we have received as Christians, the land of blessing in the heavenly realms. If we sow in this “field”, we will “reap eternal life out of the Spirit” (Gal 6:8). Eternal life, the precious fruit of the good land promised to us, is the knowledge of and the life community with the Father and the Son: “This is eternal life, that they know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ Who sent You” (Jn 17:3).

That there is “a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs” is a sign of the abundance and rich working of the Spirit. When we think of “brooks of water”, we should not think of small, shallow waters, but of rivers (Psa 65:9-10). The Spirit is the “well of water springing up to eternal life” (Jn 4:14). The “springs” are deep waters, floods of water, originating from subterranean water reservoirs – see the blessing of Joseph (Gen 49:25; Deu 33:13). Here we can think of “the depths of God” (1Cor 2:10), the mysteries of the wisdom of God, as revealed by the Spirit and recorded in the scriptures of the New Testament.

The waters can be found everywhere in the land, on the mountains and in the valleys. They appear in the valleys, but also in the mountains (Eze 31:3-4). God “does not give the Spirit in moderation” (Jn 3:34). If we cannot perceive the working of the Spirit in our lives, we must first seek the cause of it in ourselves. We can grieve the Spirit (Eph 4:30) and even extinguish Him (1Thes 5:19).

The fountains in the valleys point more to the working of the Spirit here below, on earth. He dwells in us on earth and fills our hearts and our lives. The springs on the hills remind us of Christ in glory Who has clothed us with power from on high (Lk 24:49).

The fruit that the land produces is seven-fold. Egypt has only six ‘fruits’: “The fish …, the cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the onions and the garlic” (Num 11:5).

The first fruits of the land that are mentioned are “wheat and barley”. In Leviticus 23 is the sheaf of the first fruits of the barley harvest. The two wave breads at the Feast of Weeks are of the wheat harvest. The sheaf of the first fruits speaks of the Lord Jesus in the resurrection. The wave breads speak of the church – the heavenly fruit of the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus.

Barley and wheat appear in the Gospel according to John. In John 6 we read of “five barley loaves” (Jn 6:9). That makes us think of the resurrection. Four times in that chapter the Lord Jesus speaks about the resurrection and that in connection with eternal life. He is the bread that descended from heaven. Eternal life is resurrection life that we can possess because the Lord Jesus passed through death and rose.

In John 12 we read about the wheat: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (Jn 12:24). There we see that life is not only resurrection life, but that it is heavenly life. The Lord Jesus speaks there about life to “keep it to life eternal” (Jn 12:25), which is enjoyed when we are with Him and the Father. Death then has no more power over us.

The third fruit comes from the “vines”. The wine is a picture of joy. In John 15, the Lord Jesus speaks of true, complete joy. The result of the connection with the Lord Jesus and the keeping of the commandments is joy (Jn 15:10-11). The bond of love and fellowship comes through knowing each other and leads to keeping the commandments that are characteristic of eternal life. Complete joy is the joy of knowing the Father and the Son.

The fourth, fifth and sixth fruits come from “fig trees and pomegranates” and “olive oil”. These fruits we find in the letters of Paul. The fig tree speaks of the “peaceful fruit of righteousness” (Heb 12:11), the pomegranate of the “fruit of sanctification” (Rom 6:22) and the olive tree of “the fruit of the Spirit” (Gal 5:22-23).

The fig tree is a picture of the people of God from whom God could expect fruits. However, the fig tree has not given fruit and is cursed (Mt 21:18-19). After their sin, Adam and Eve “sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings” (Gen 3:7b), as if they could exist for God. But a self-made garment, a garment of one’s own righteousness, is reprehensible.

The fruit of righteousness originates from chastisement. Chastisement is the part of sons in whom the Father has a singular pleasure. He uses chastisement to remove what is not to His pleasure in those sons. The Father wants us to become conformed to the image of His Son (Rom 8:29). Chastisement is not pleasant, but gives that fruit of righteousness (Heb 12:11).

Pomegranates have to do with the high priest, the sanctuary and a closed garden:

1. They are on the high priest’s garment (Exo 39:24-26).

2. They are also on the capitals of the pillars in the temple (1Kgs 7:18 ; 20 ; 42).

3. They are mentioned when the bridegroom compares his bride to a garden with pomegranate trees that is locked and is only open for him (Song 4:12-13).

It is a fruit that speaks of sanctification.

Olive trees speak of an abundance of activity of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is the fruit of the land (Gal 5:22-23). There is no law – which is given to man in the flesh on earth – against such things. “The one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life” (Gal 6:8).

The seventh and last fruit, the “honey”, is not a fruit of trees, but a fruit produced by the zeal of bees. It is the sweetness of the affection of believers among themselves. It proposes to enjoy together with all believers the blessing of eternal life. God wants to gather His people together to enjoy with them of the Lord Jesus. In his first letter John speaks first of fellowship with the apostles and then of fellowship with the Father and the Son (1Jn 1:3).

The mineral resources (Deu 8:9) are the most difficult to discover. To deepen this, a lot of effort is required. Not all blessings are on the surface. “Iron” and “copper” speak of strength. Iron speaks of victory; copper speaks of a righteousness so great that it can endure the judgment of God (Num 16:37-38).

In the blessing which Moses pronounces on Asher, he says that his bars will be iron and bronze (Deu 33:25). When the wall around Jerusalem is rebuilt, the bars for the sheep gate are not mentioned; apparently, they are forgotten to be placed (Neh 3:1; cf. Neh 3:3). If the bars are not on the doors, the enemy can enter and rob us of the blessings.

In Job 28 we see the bars on the doors. They are hidden and the eye of the raptor has not discovered them. Iron and copper can be found, but wisdom, where is she found? But God knows, “God understands its way” (Job 28:23). The answer comes some verses further: “And to man He said, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; And to depart from evil is understanding’” (Job 28:28). For the avoidance of evil, to forbid it entrance, iron and copper are suitable. True wisdom and real understanding are awe and wonder for the Lord, and to depart from evil – they are the basic elements to preserve the blessing of the land.

It is a land of abundance, where the believer has no shortage of anything. The effect of all the blessings enjoyed must be that we praise God for it. Praising the Lord for all His blessings also prevents us from forgetting Him. If all Christians knew and appreciated the blessing of the land, the land would be full of praise (Eph 3:21). Heaven shall be full of praise to God, the Giver of every blessing, and to the Lamb, by Whom it has become possible for us to receive the full blessing.