The third blessing is the blessing of rain, the blessing of the heavenly watering of everything in their realm. Concerning this, verses 14 and 15 say, "I will give rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the late rain, so that you may gather your grain and your new wine and your fresh oil. And I will put grass in your field for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied." Because of the rain, they would have a harvest of grain, new wine, and fresh oil. For us as believers in Christ today, the rain is the Spirit. Under the heavenly watering of the Spirit, we are not dry.
In verses 16 and 17 there is a warning. "Be careful lest your heart is deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and bow down to them. And the anger of Jehovah burns against you and He shuts up heaven, so that there is no rain and the earth does not yield its produce and you perish quickly from off the good land which Jehovah is giving to you." If the children of Israel turned away to other gods, they would no longer be under God's care. Instead, His anger would burn against them, heaven would be closed to them, and there would be no rain. We need to apply this warning to ourselves today. We should be careful lest our hearts are deceived, and we turn aside to other gods, such as education, success in business, or having our own preferences. If we turn aside from God and serve other gods, we will no longer enjoy the heavenly watering.
The children of Israel were to lay the words of Moses on their heart and on their soul, bind them on their hand as a sign, wear them as frontlets between their eyes, teach them to their children, speaking about them when they sat in their house, when they journeyed on the way, when they lay down, and when they rose up, and write them on the doorposts of their house and on their gates (vv. 18-20). They were to do these things that their days, as well as the days of their children, might be multiplied upon the promised land, as long as the days of heaven are above the earth (v. 21). We today should lay Christ on our heart and on our soul. We should bind Christ on our hand as a sign or symbol; that is, we should bind Christ to everything related to us and to everything that is an expression of us. We should also wear Christ as a frontlet between our eyes and teach Christ to others, speaking of Christ wherever we may be. This means that all the time and everywhere we should be occupied with Christ.
The blessing in these verses is the blessing of loving God. The blessing in verses 14 through 17 is the blessing of rain, which comes to us from God. The blessing in verses 18 through 21 is the blessing of the love which returns to God from us. We should love Him just as a woman loves the man to whom she is engaged to be married. In Deuteronomy, God was actually "courting" His people, loving them and setting His affection upon them. His people should then love Him in return. Today we need to love the Lord by laying Christ as the word on our heart and on our soul and by binding this word to everything related to us.