Deeper Commentary
Deu 8:1 You must observe to do all the commandments which I
command you this day, that you may live and multiply and go in and possess
the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers-
Again we perceive God's grace. They were not obedient, and yet by
grace they did go in and possess the Kingdom. We cannot presume upon such
grace, but we can note the deep good pleasure and will of God that His
people inherit His Kingdom, despite their weaknesses.
"Drive out" is s.w. "possess". We must note the difference between the
Canaanite peoples and their kings being "struck" and their land "taken" by
Joshua-Jesus; and the people of Israel permanently taking possession. This
is the difference between the Lord's victory on the cross, and our taking
possession of the Kingdom. Even though that possession has been "given" to
us. The word used for "possession" is literally 'an inheritance'. The
allusion is to the people, like us, being the seed of Abraham. The Kingdom
was and is our possession, our inheritance- if we walk in the steps of
Abraham. But it is one thing to be the seed of Abraham, another to take
possession of the inheritance; and Israel generally did not take
possession of all the land (Josh.
11:23 13:1; 16:10; 18:3; 23:4). The language of inheritance / possession
is applied to us in the New Testament (Eph. 1:11,14; Col. 3:24; Acts
20:32; 26:18; 1 Pet. 1:4 etc.). Israel were promised: "You shall possess
it" (Dt. 30:5; 33:23). This was more of a command than a prophecy, for
sadly they were "given" the land but did not "possess" it. They were
constantly encouraged in the wilderness that they were on the path to
possessing the land (Dt. 30:16,18; 31:3,13; 32:47), but when they got
there they didn't possess it fully.
Deu 8:2 You shall remember all the way which Yahweh your God has led you
these forty years in the wilderness, that He might humble you-
Recollection of our spiritual biography is intended to humble us. And
the intention of our wilderness walk is to humble us; for humility is one
of the most critical characteristics which God seeks to develop in His
children. We must be humbled beneath His mighty hand, that we might be
exalted in due time (1 Pet. 5:6). And so life's really a race to the
bottom; by the end of our days, the intention is that we have been
suitably humbled. So that we might be exalted at the resurrection. It's no
surprise, therefore, that life often doesn't work out- so that we are
humbled.
We must remember that the 40 years wandering were punishment
for sin, it was the experience of condemnation, and serves as the basis
for later Biblical pictures of the rejected. Unable to enter the Kingdom
they so wanted to enter, wandering until they died. But Moses in
Deuteronomy perceives that God wanted to humble them and give them even
another chance. For this was why He led them 40 years...
"Who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers
didn’t know, that He might humble you and that He might prove you, to do
you good at your latter end" (:16). But they didn't want that and perished
in the desert.
To prove
you, to know what was in your heart-
The original is ambiguous. It was to reveal to God what was the state
of their hearts; and yet God knows the human heart without the need for
experimentation. But it can also imply that the experiences were so that
they knew what their heart was. Hence LXX "that the things in thine heart
might be made manifest". The idea may be that man's self examination is in
fact God's examination of that heart; hence Prov. 20:27: "The spirit of
man is the candle of Yahweh, searching all the inward parts of the belly".
Our wilderness journey is therefore partly intended for us to come to
fuller self knowledge, as to whether or not we have a heart for God. At
the start of our journey, we may simply hope we have a heart for God; but
in maturity, we are intended to know for sure that we do, despite many
imperfections.
Alternatively, it could be argued that it was the Angel gave them trials
in order to find out what was in their heart. God "knows the
secrets of the heart" (Ps. 44:21); "I Yahweh search the heart"
(Jer. 17:10), and therefore He does not have to test us in order to know what is in our
hearts. But His Angels do. Abraham and Hezekiah are other examples; see on
2 Chron. 32:31.
We know that Angels can’t sin: and yet they are limited in knowledge (e.g.
Mt. 24:36). an Angel commented that now he knew that Abraham feared God,
after he had seen his willingness to offer Isaac (Gen. 22:12); Israel’s
guardian Angel lead them through the wilderness in order to learn about
Israel’s spirituality (Dt. 8:2,3). God Himself, of course, already knew
the hearts of men. The “sons of God”, in the context of the book of Job,
refer to the Angels (Job 38:7), and Job's 'satan' may have likewise been
an Angel testing him to see his response.
Whether you would keep His
commandments or not-
The grace of all this is that the forty years wanderings showed what was
the heart of Israel- that they were disobedient. But all the same, God
brought them in to the promised land.
Deu 8:3 He humbled you-
Perhaps we find ourselves facing a situation that our
upbringing and culture never addressed; we are alone, humiliated, before
our God. This is what happened to Israel and to the Lord in the
wilderness. The tragedy is that so many fail to respond as intended to the
humbling hand of God as a loving Father. The Hebrew word there translated
“humbled” is so often used about the afflictions of Israel- in Egypt, in
the wilderness, at the hands of their invaders. But they wriggled against
it, their bitterness driving them deep within themselves rather than to
God and His Son. This is the enduring tragedy of Israel, and Jewish
history. And it is the same with so many lives today.
And allowed you to suffer hunger-
How God works through sin is revealed in the way that although God
always provided food for Israel in the wilderness, He ‘suffered them to
hunger’ for 40 years, in order to try to teach them that man lives not by
bread alone, but by God’s word (Dt. 8:2,3). The Jews in the wilderness
despised the food God gave them as worthless (Num. 21:3); they went hungry
not literally, but in the sense that they despised the manna of God’s
provision. And He allowed them to have that hunger, in order that He might
[try to] teach them about the value of His word. He didn’t simply punish
them for their ingratitude. He sought to work through it in order to teach
them something. Even the process of rejection results in the victims
coming to ‘know the Lord’.
And fed you with
manna-
Israel were to be filled with the manna, so that they would know that "I
am Yahweh your God" (Ex. 16:12). This was to be the meaning of the manna.
There was a daily manifestation of God's glory along with the manna (Ex.
16:7 cp. 12). The daily sense of living with God's glory is so vital for
each of us in our deeply personal spirituality. We know that faith comes
from hearing God's word; so our feeding on God's word should lead us to
know Yahweh. There was something intensely personal about the teaching of
the manna: "He fed thee (singular- not "ye") with manna, that he might
make thee know that (every) man (lives spiritually) by every word that
proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord" (Dt. 8:3 AV).
Which you didn’t know, neither did your fathers know-
Part of our humbling process is to be given experiences and situations
which neither we nor our fathers knew. On one hand, the essence of all
situations and temptations has been experienced before at some point in
Biblical history. But on the other, we are tested by experiences which are
unique to us, without known precedent; that we might be brought to God in
trust and humility.
That He might
make you know that man does not live by bread only, but by every word that
proceeds out of the mouth of Yahweh-
Every gift of manna was the result of a specific Divine word of
command being given. And this was to teach the wider lesson- that God's
word is to be engaged with by us every day, and by this we shall
spiritually live. Whilst the manna appeared the same old, same old thing-
it actually was uniquely created by a specific, consciously given word
from God. And so it is with our spiritual food, given daily.
The passages quoted by Jesus in the desert to strengthen Himself against
His human desires (“the devil”) are all from the same part of Deuteronomy,
regarding Israel’s experience in the wilderness. Jesus clearly saw a
parallel between His experiences and theirs. The description of Him as
being in the wilderness with beasts and Angels (Mk. 1:13) is another
connection with Israel’s experience in the wilderness- they were plagued
there by “wild beasts” (32:19-24). Jesus was led up of the spirit for
forty days in the wilderness, as Israel were led forty years by a
Spirit-Angel. The mind of Jesus was likewise proved by the temptations.
Jesus overcame by quoting the Scriptures that were in His heart (Ps.
119:11). Jesus also was allowed to hunger, to reinforce His understanding
of the fact that we are to live not by physical food but by the word of
God. The reference to Israel being ‘chastened’ (:5) in the desert recall
how God chastened His Son, Jesus (2 Sam. 7:12; Ps. 89: 32). Thus Jesus
showed us how to read and study the Word - He thought Himself into the
position of Israel in the wilderness, and therefore took the lessons that
can be learnt from their experiences to Himself in His wilderness trials.
The fact that God’s word is true means that we also ought to be
truthful- for we should speak “as oracles of God”. Moses surely intended a
connection between his words recorded in Dt. 8:3 and Dt. 23:23- for they
are the only times he uses a particular Hebrew word translated “proceed”
or ‘go out’, within the same speech uttered the same day: “By every word
that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord does man live… that
which goes forth [s.w. “proceeds”] out of your lips /
mouth you shall keep and perform”. The influence of continually hearing
God’s word should be that our words are likewise
truthful and trustworthy. The fact that the Bible as God’s word is true
has implications for our own truthfulness. Pistos is listed as a
fruit of the spirit in Gal. 5; but the idea it can carry is not so much of
faith in the sense of belief, but of faithfulness, loyalty, reliability,
utter dependability. If this is how God’s words are to us, then this is
how we and our words should be to others.
Exactly because the Lord Jesus was human, and yet perfect, He was so
exalted. It's perhaps noteworthy that in the wilderness temptation, Jesus
was tempted "If you are the Son of God..." (Mt. 4:3), and He
replies by quoting Dt. 8:3 "man shall not live by bread alone"-
and the Jonathan Targum has bar nasha [son of man] here for
"man". If we are correct in understanding those wilderness temptations as
the Lord's internal struggles, we see Him tempted to wrongly focus upon
His being Son of God, forgetting His humanity; and we see Him
overcoming this temptation, preferring instead to perceive Himself as Son
of man. Twice in Mark, Jesus is addressed as "Messiah" but He
replies by calling Himself "the Son of man" (Mk. 8:29-31; 14:61,62). If
this was His preferred self-perception, should it not be how we perceive
Him?
Deu 8:4 Your clothing didn’t grow old on you, neither did your foot swell,
these forty years-
God has likewise promised to provide us on our wilderness journey with
basic clothing and food (Ps. 37:25). We should be content with this, and
instead of giving our strength to earn money to tickle our taste buds and
buy fine clothing, instead give our lives to serving God.
Apart from the jewellery taken from the Egyptians for the construction of
the tabernacle, the total unmaterialism of Israel on Passover night is
something to be marvelled at. They only had the clothes they
wore, and just the one pair of shoes. This is confirmed by the reminder
that these things were miraculously preserved throughout the wilderness
journey (Dt. 8:4). It is also highlighted that they had no food when they
left - they just grabbed some dough which later they baked into
"unleavened cakes" (Ex. 12:34,39).
We must remember that the 40 years wandering were punishment
for sin, it was the experience of condemnation, and serves as the basis
for later Biblical pictures of the rejected. Unable to enter the Kingdom
they so wanted to enter, wandering until they died. But Moses in
Deuteronomy perceives that even for those condemned people, Yahweh
provided and they "lacked nothing" by His grace. We see something of God's
essence here- that He cares even for the condemned. Such a far cry from
the classical picture of "hell".
Deu 8:5 You shall consider in your heart that as a man chastens his son,
so Yahweh your God chastens you-
Dt. 8:2-7 describes God leading Israel through the
wilderness for 40 years so that they could then enter the land.
'Israel' here must refer to the under 20s, Joshua, Caleb and the Levites.
It was only they who went through the wilderness for 40 years. It was
'Israel' in this sense with whom God was in love. They considered in their
heart, that God was treating them as a father does his son (Dt. 8:5). This
has a practical significance to it; the under 20s would have been at
variance with their natural parents, who knew they were condemned to death
in the wilderness, and who refused to take their covenant with God
seriously. That young remnant were led to meditate that God was their
Heavenly Father; natural relationships that were not based around a true
love of God, paled into insignificance as they spiritually matured.
Dt. 8:3 says that they learnt to live by every word of God during those 40
years. This is just not true of rebellious Israel generally. But the under
20s, Levites, Joshua and Caleb all developed into keen lovers of the word
during that time. They are classic Biblical examples for young
people.
Deu 8:6 You must keep the commandments of Yahweh your God, to walk in His
ways and to fear Him-
Whilst there are of course conditions for entry into the Kingdom, it must
ever be remembered that it is not right to therefore reason that if we
do certain things, then we will be in the Kingdom. For this would be
justification by works and not by faith. However, because we believe we
will be in the Kingdom, we will therefore naturally respond by living
according to God’s precepts. Moses encouraged Israel to keep the Law
exactly because God would surely give them the promised land- not so
that they would enter the land but because He would give them the
land: "For Yahweh your God brings you into a good land" (:7).
Deu 8:7 For Yahweh your God brings you into a good land-
The Hebrew word for "spied out" in Dt. 1:24 also means 'to slander'
(s.w. 2 Sam. 19:27; Ps. 15:3). Their slander of the land was in that they
misrepresented the strength of the people there, who were in fact fearful
of the Israelites. They brought up an evil report of the land (Num.
13:32), characterizing it as not "good" but "evil", as if inhabited by
insuperable forces of cosmic evil. They disbelieved God's simple statement
that He was bringing them a "good land" (Ex. 3:8). Moses therefore
repeatedly calls the land a "good land", denying their wrong idea that the
land was inhabited by 'evil spirits' (Dt. 3:25; 4:21,22; 6:18; 8:7; 9:6;
11:17). We see here how belief in 'evil spirits' or 'demons' militated
against their faith in God and His eagerness to give His good Kingdom to
His people. That continues to be His "good pleasure" (Lk. 12:32) toward
us, but like Israel, we are tempted to disbelieve this and allow our own
perceptions and empirical conclusions to lead us away from simple faith in
this.
A land of brooks
of water, of springs and underground water gushing into valleys and hills-
A land of brooks of water" is precisely the phrase used of a place
they stopped at on the way to Canaan (Dt. 10:7). They were constantly
given foretastes of the Kingdom before entering it, just as we are on our
wilderness journey.
Deu 8:8 a land of wheat and barley, vines, fig trees and pomegranates; a
land of olive trees and honey-
Rabshakeh alluded to this: "Make an agreement with me... and then eat ye
every man of his own vine, and every one of his fig tree... until I come
and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of corn and wine, a
land of bread and vineyards, a land of oil olive and of honey" (2 Kings
18:31-32). The repetition of the word "land" and the evident allusions to
the description of the promised land Israel would have if they were
faithful, show that Rabshakeh was offering the Jews a fake kingdom of God.
The reference to each man eating his own vine and fig tree is alluding to
Mic. 4:4, a prophecy which was uttered during this period, and doubtless
repeated by the prophets within Jerusalem: "They shall sit every man
under his vine and... fig tree". The world likewise offers us a fake
kingdom of God. We have a choice between the kingdoms of men now, and
God's true Kingdom.
Deu 8:9 a land in which you shall eat bread without scarcity. You shall
not lack anything in it-
There can be little doubt that standing on a mountain looking out over
God’s Kingdom would have reminded Christ of Moses on Nebo, who for one
slip was denied it all. And that must have sobered Him (Dt. 34:1). And
having quoted Dt. 8:3 to Himself about living on the bread / word of God,
His mind would have gone on to Dt. 8:9 with its description of eating
bread without scarceness in the Kingdom – i.e. feeding fully on spiritual
things, in the allegory.
The connection is with how in the wilderness years, they were made to
hunger (:3)- so that they might better appreciate the fertility and food
of the promised land. We too suffer deficits in our journey, perhaps of
fellowship, of acceptance... to prepare us for the fullness of those
things in the Kingdom.
But when under judgment for sin, the bread of the land was scarce
(Ez. 4:17; Am. 4:6), and they lacked all things (Dt. 28:48,57). This
promise is therefore conditional upon their obedience- it was what was
potentially possible.
A land whose stones are iron and out of whose
hills you may dig copper-
They
would inherit a land which was blessed with iron, and from whose hills
“you
may dig brass”; and yet
they failed to make the effort to dig this out, and therefore they were
dominated by the Canaanite tribes who had iron weapons. The Angels had
made it potentially possible, but the realization of their potential plans
depended upon Israel’s freewill effort.
But in Judges and 1 Samuel we read several times of how Israel hardly had
any iron weapons and were dominated by the Philistines who did. So this
was a potential for them- they could
have had this blessing, but like us so often, they chose to be satisfied
with the minimum and didn’t realize it for themselves.
The men of Dan quote the words of Dt. 8:9 in Jud. 18:10, but out of
context. Those words were true of the entire land promised to Abraham. But
the men of Dan didn't drive out the tribes from the land. Instead, they
applied these words to a tiny, remote part of it in Laish, and encouraged
themselves on the basis of these words to go and massacre a group of
unsuspecting people and take their land- with the blessing of Micah's
false gods.
Deu 8:10 When you shall eat and be full, then you shall bless Yahweh your
God for the good land which He has given you-
Israel were given manna in the wilderness, and they ate it and were
full (Ex. 16:8,12). But they were promised that in the promised land of
the Kingdom, they would likewise eat and be full, again from blessing
given by God (s.w. Dt. 8:10; 11:15; 14:29; 26:12; 31:20). After our Red
Sea baptism, we are now in the wilderness; but by feeding on the manna,
the word of God in the Lord Jesus, we have a foretaste of the Kingdom
experience. But the curse for disobedience was that they would eat and not
be full / satisfied (Lev. 26:26).
"The good land" uses the same words as in the creation account (Gen.
1:10). Their entry into Canaan is being cast as a new creation, a
possibility of attaining some form of the Kingdom of God.
Deu 8:11 Beware lest you forget Yahweh your God-
They never literally forgot Yahweh. Indeed they always professed
loyalty to Him. But God sees to the essence, and considered they
effectively were acting without Him present in their conscience. And He
counts that as having forgotten Him. The same warning is in Dt. 6:12;
25:19; Hos. 2:13- to not allow material blessing to lead us to forget
Yahweh. Seeing that such blessing clearly leads to forgetting Yahweh, we
wonder why ever He gives any of His children such blessing. It is given as
a test; or, perhaps it is simply a case of a doting Father giving us what
He knows we will like, although it is not good for us. The connection
between material blessing and forgetting God is very strong; to seek for
material blessing is spiritual suicide.
In not keeping His
commandments-
The word so often used for "keeping" / "diligently observing"
Yahweh's commandments is from the word meaning a thorn hedge; the idea
originally was to hedge in. Taking this too literally led Judaism to all
their endless fences around the law, i.e. forbidding this or that because
it might lead to doing that or this, which in turn would then lead to
breaking an actual commandment. And those various fences become elevated
to the level of commandments. But this is not the idea. We are indeed to
hedge ourselves in ("take heed to yourself", Dt. 11:16; 12:13,19,30,32
s.w.), so that we may keep / hedge ourselves in to keep the commandments
of God (Lev. 18:4,5,26,30; 19:19,37; 20:8,22; 22:9,31; 25:18; 26:3; Num.
28:2; Dt. 7:11,12; 8:1,11 [s.w. "beware"]; 10:13;
11:1,8,22,32; 12:1; 13:4,18; ; 15:5,9 ["beware"]; 17:19; 19:9; 23:9
["keep yourself"]; 24:8; 26:16-18; 27:1; 28:1,9,13; 29:9; 30:10,16; 31:12;
32:46). And without falling into the legalism of Judaism, self discipline
does require a degree of fencing ourselves in to the one way. Thus the man
struggling with alcoholism avoids the supermarket where alcohol is pushed
in front of the eyes of the shoppers; the married woman struggling with
attraction to another man makes little laws for herself about avoiding his
company. And if we do this, then the Lord will "keep" us, will hedge us in
to keeping His way (s.w. Num. 6:24).
His ordinances and His statutes which I command you this
day-
The Hebrew mishpat, "ordinances", has a wide range of meaning.
The idea is of judgment, as if God and His Angels gave these laws as their
considered judgment after considering the human condition, and Israel were
to abide by them. But the word also the idea of a right or privilege; and
that is how we should see God's laws. They are only felt as a burden
because of human hardness of neck towards God's ways. His laws are not of
themselves burdensome, but rather a privilege and blessing. The law was
indeed "holy, just and good" (Rom. 7:12), designed to inculcate a holy,
just and good life (Tit. 1:8), a way in which a man should "walk" in daily
life (Lev. 18:4), a culture of kindness and grace to others which
reflected God's grace to man. If we dwell upon the idea of "rights"
carried within the word mishpat, we note that the law begins in
Ex. 21:1,2 (also Dt. 15:12-18) with the rights of a slave- those
considered to have no rights in the society of that day. The "rights" to
be afforded by us to others are the essence of God's rightness / justice.
Deu 8:12 lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses
and lived therein-
When they had eaten and were full (Dt. 8:10), they were to beware
"lest" the prosperity made them forget God (Dt. 8:12,13). This is a
profound warning to all afflicted with prosperity in this life. Dt. 31:20
states that when they had "eaten and are full" (s.w.) they would certainly
forget Yahweh and turn to other gods; but this prophecy was conditional,
for it was by no means bound to happen. For the appeal in Dt. 8:10-13 had
been not to let this happen. So much of Bible prophecy is not so
much prediction as stating conditional situations, with the implicit
appeal that in the gap between pronouncement and fulfilment, we can change
the outcomes by prayer and changed behaviour.
We note that God promised them to eat and be full, and also to be
given houses in Canaan which they didn't build (Dt. 6:11). God foresaw
that they would follow the addictive, insatiable path of materialism in
then wanting to build additional homes. Materialism is by nature
addictive; and it is foolhardy to consider we can dabble in it without
becoming addicted.
Deu 8:13 and when your herds and your flocks multiply and your silver and
your gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied-
They had left Egypt with great riches of silver and gold, and this is
"your silver and gold" which was to be multiplied even more (Dt. 8:13).
The multiplication of Abraham's seed promised to him clearly meant not
simply numerical multiplication, but material multiplication too. That is
the sense too in Lev. 26:9; Dt. 30:5. We wonder why God gave them all this
blessing, knowing that it would lead to such spiritual temptation and
failure. We wonder why He gives so many of His people today the same huge
blessings, however unappreciated they are. One simple answer is that it is
because He loves us with all the love of a father for his children; He
rejoiced to multiply them (Dt. 28:63). The king of Israel was warned in
the same words not to multiply silver and gold lest his heart turn away
(Dt. 17:17). The idea may be that we are to leave God to multiply our
silver and gold if He wishes, and not set our heart to doing so.
Deu 8:14 then your heart be lifted up-
There is a clear connection between material success and pride, a
lifted up heart. Yet humility is clearly of the essence to God. If we
accept this, we will not seek material success. We will value humility and
covet it.
And you forget Yahweh your God, Who brought you forth out of the
land of Egypt-
Israel never became atheists, they never formally abrogated Yahweh,
never formally rejected Him. But they forgot Him, in that in daily life
they forgot the wonder of His grace, especially in His historical
salvation of them. And it is day by spiritual mindedness which is of the
essence. The exit from Egypt is described as a jail break, from the house
of bondage. Their desire to return to it was strong, and so Moses
continually stresses the true and awful nature of Egypt / the world. The language echoes that of God to Abraham: "I am Yahweh who brought
you out of Ur" (Gen. 15:7). They were being asked to act as Abraham's
seed, and respond as He did to the Divine initiative in separating them
from the world- by following His commandments.
Out of the house of bondage-
They were continually reminded of how awful Egypt was; this phrase is
often used (e.g. Ex. 13:3,14; 20:2; Dt. 5:6; 6:12). For there is a strong
human tendency to consider the past as halcyon and wonderful. When for the
believer, the past is awful, and the best is ahead, in God's Kingdom.
Deu 8:15 Who led you through the great and terrible wilderness-
From the perspective of God's Kingdom, we will look back upon our
wilderness journey in this life as having been extremely dangerous. We
could have wandered so easily from the pathway or been spiritually
consumed. In spiritual terms, our journey right now is intense and very
dangerous.
With fiery
serpents, scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water; Who
brought you forth water out
of the rock of flint-
The records make it clear enough that the miraculous provision of
water was in the same context as God's constant provision of food and
protection to the people (Dt. 8:15,16). The rock gave water throughout the
wilderness journey (Is. 48:21). This would surely necessitate that the
giving of water at Horeb was not a one-off solution to a crisis. There is
a word play in the Hebrew text of Is. 48:21: "He led them through the
Horebs [AV 'desert places']" by making water flow from the rock. The Horeb
experience was repeated for 40 years; as if the rock went on being
smitten. Somehow the water from that smitten rock went with them, fresh
and bubbling as it was the first moment the rock was smitten, right
through the wilderness. It was living, spring water- not lying around in
puddles. The water that came from that one rock felt as if God had opened
up fresh springs and torrents in the desert (Ps. 74:15 NAS). It always
tasted as if it was just gushing out of the spring; and this wonder is
commented upon by both David and Isaiah (Ps. 78:15,16,20; 105:41; Is.
48:21). It was as if the rock had just been struck, and the water was
flowing out fresh for the first time. In this miracle, God clave the rock
and there came out rivers (Hab. 3:9; Ps. 78:16,20; Is. 43:20). Each part
of Israel's encampment had the water as it were brought to their door. And
so it is in our experience of Christ, and the blessing enabled by His
sacrifice. The blessings that come to us are deeply personal, and directed
to us individually. He died once, long ago, and yet the effect of His
sacrifice is ever new. In our experience, it's as if He has died and risen
for us every time we obtain forgiveness, or any other grace to help in our
times of need. We live in newness of life.
Deu 8:16 Who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers
didn’t know, that He might humble you and that He might prove you, to do
you good at your latter end-
"Humble you" is the word used of how the Egyptians had afflicted the
Hebrews (Ex. 1:11,12). Repeatedly, Israel were taught that they were to
remember the state they had been in prior to their redemption from affliction; and redeem others from their
affliction on that basis, and never to afflict people as Egypt had done to
them. All this is an abiding principle for us. True redemption of others
has to be rooted in an awareness of our own affliction. This is
particularly necessary for those who were as it were schooled into Christ
by reason of their upbringing.
The humbling and testing was through testing how deeply they believed
that it was God's intention to do His people eternal good in the end-
through present suffering.
Deu 8:17 and lest you say in your heart, My power and the might of my hand
has given me this wealth-
Time and again, Moses speaks of the state of their heart. He warns them
against allowing a bad state of heart to develop, he speaks often of how
apostasy starts in the heart. Moses makes a total of 49 references to the
heart / mind of Israel in Deuteronomy, compared to only 13 in the whole of
Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers. This indicates the paramount importance
which our Lord attaches to the state of our mind. This was perhaps his
greatest wish as He faced death; that we should develop a spiritual mind
and thereby manifest the Father and come to salvation. Moses likewise saw
the state of our mind as the key to spiritual success. But do we share
this perspective? Do we guard our minds against the media and influence of
a mind-corrupting world? It's been observed that the phrase "The God of
[somebody]", or similar, occurs 614 times in the Old Testament, of which
306 are in Deuteronomy. Our very personal relationship with God was
therefore something else which Moses came to grasp in his spiritual
maturity. Statistical analysis of the word "love" in the Pentateuch
likewise reveals that "love" was a great theme of Moses at the end of his
life (Moses uses it 16 times in Deuteronomy, and only four times in
Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers).
Deu 8:18 But you must remember Yahweh your God, for it is He who gives you
power to get wealth that He may establish His covenant which He swore to
your fathers, as at this day-
“The
liberal deviseth liberal things; and by liberal things shall he stand”
(Is. 32:8) may suggest that the generous will “stand” in the last day
because of their generous spirit. Indeed, being in covenant with God may
even depend upon our recognition of the fact that all human wealth is from
God. The power to get wealth, be it education, intelligence or hard work
(or 'good luck' in a secular sense) is all from God. It is not our "power"
(:17) but God's.
Moses urges the peoples' faithfulness so that Yahweh might "establish
His covenant" with them (Dt. 8:18); and we note that despite their
disobedience, He still "established" the covenant with them, by grace
alone (Dt. 9:5).
"That He may establish His covenant" could suggest that ultimate,
eternal covenant relationship is for those who have been prepared through
a correct response to wealth. If we accept that any wealth we have is from
God and not our own efforts- then we are ready for Him to establish His
covenant with us. That seems to be the force of the unusual language here,
although GNB glosses it with "Remember that it is the LORD your God who
gives you the power to become rich. He does this because he is still
faithful today to the covenant that he made with your ancestors".
Deu 8:19 If you forget Yahweh your God, and walk after other gods and
serve them and worship them-
"Go after" is a phrase Moses frequently uses in his last speech in
Deuteronomy, but not elsewhere. It means literally to follow or walk
after. He warns against going after other gods (Dt. 4:3; 6:14; 8:19;
11:28; 13:2; 28:14), and urges following / walking behind / going after
Yahweh alone (Dt. 13:4). I suggest he was reflecting upon how by following
after Yahweh in the Angel, the people had been brought out of Egypt,
through the wilderness and to the promised kingdom. Caleb had faithfully
followed / walked after Yahweh, and so entered the land. The phrase is
used of the people following after the ark to enter Canaan (Josh. 3:3;
6:9). Following after idols led them just to pointless wandering in
circles. And so it is in human life today. Following idols leads to
pointless wandering, whereas following Yahweh has a specific destination
in view- possession of the Kingdom. Elijah uses the phrase when telling
Israel they could either follow after Baal, or Yahweh; and if Yahweh is
God, then we are to follow Him (1 Kings 18:21). We cannot follow two
directions. But Israel followed after (s.w.) vanity and thereby became
vain (2 Kings 17:15). They carried the tabernacle of Moloch and also of
Yahweh, throughout the wilderness journey (Acts 7:). Following after Baal
is paralleled with following / walking after the imagination of their own
evil heart (s.w. Jer. 3:17; 9:14; 13:10), walking after their own spirit
rather than God's (Ez. 13:3 s.w.) and their own covetousness (s.w. Ez.
33:31). To walk / live just according to the word of our own imaginations
is our great temptation. But we are to instead follow God's imaginations
and heart, as revealed in His word (Ez. 20:16 s.w.). This is where our
acceptance of the word of God as indeed His word... has endless
implications.
I testify against you this day that you shall
surely perish-
Always in the OT, “I say unto you this day" was used as a Hebraism to
bring home the utter solemnity of some great truth (e.g. Dt. 4:26,39;
8:19). The Lord used this idiom in assuring the thief on the cross that he
could solemnly assure him, that he would share His Kingdom with Him. It's
worth noting that the comma is placed after 'today' in the Curetonian
Syriac version of the New Testament; the Syriac versions would reflect
better the original Aramaic in which the Lord likely spoke. Dt. 9:1 is
another example of where "this day" doesn't mean "today", but is rather a
way of signally a solemn statement.
Deu 8:20 As the nations that Yahweh makes to perish before you, so you too
shall perish, because you wouldn’t listen to the voice of Yahweh your God-
Israel did not obey / hearken to the voice of Yahweh, and
He did not hearken to their voice in prayer (Dt. 1:45; 9:23; 28:15; Josh.
5:6; Jud. 2:20; 6:10 cp. Dt. 8:20 s.w.). 2 Kings 18:12 states this
specifically. God hearkened to Joshua's voice in prayer (Josh. 10:14)
because Joshua hearkened to His voice. It was to be the same with Saul. He
didn't hearken to God's voice (1 Sam. 15:19) and God didn't hearken to
Saul's voice in prayer in his final desperation at the end of his life (1
Sam. 28:18). If God's word abides in us, then our prayer is powerful, we
have whatever we ask, because we are asking for things according to His
will expressed in His word (Jn. 15:7).
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