W. Robert Godfrey

Verse 10 of chapter 11, he's talking about the blessing of a land flowing with milk and honey.

And then he says, "...for the land that you are entering to take possession of is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come."

where you sowed your seed and irrigated it like a garden of vegetables.

But the land that you are going over to take possession of is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water by the rain from heaven, a land that the Lord your God cares for.

The eyes of the Lord your God are always upon it from the beginning of the year to the end of the year."

He's talking about the different kind of farming in Israel as opposed to Egypt.

In Egypt, farming was entirely dependent on the flooding of the Nile every year.

And there was a water works and irrigation works that was used to distribute that Nile flood water to the growing areas of Egypt.

And the flooding of the Nile was so significant

almost automatic, so reliable that it was very, very rare for there to be a year of drought.

And you apparently still visit Egypt and see where the priests measured the rise of the Nile every year.

The flooding was so predictable.

And they would know by the flooding of the Nile whether it would be a really prosperous year of crops or a moderate one or a dangerously low one.

But it was all done by irrigation.

Reminds me a little bit of California.

California is entirely dependent on irrigation.

There is no rain in California in the summer, just like Florida.

No, maybe Florida is a little different.

But in California, you could grow nothing in the Central Valley if you depended on rainwater.

It just doesn't rain in the summer.