Chapter 8
Moses continues his address to the people.
And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not.
Deuteronomy 8:2 ESV
So it is not a question of whether they can take care of themselves now, not about whether they turned from a nation of slaves dependent on their masters to a self-motivated nation of proud people. It was about whether they would see God in all that happened, praise Him for the good, and submit humbly to the bad He saw fit to allow, without ever questioning His motives. They would praise Him for His blessings, and praise Him for the times of testing, knowing that by testing - by exercising faith in the dark - one grows stronger.
This verse also, about the testing. How seldom we see the bad things as tests of our faith, as opportunity to grow:
3 And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. [Deu 8:3 ESV]
The MSB note says manna was previously unknown, and it appeared because God commanded it with his word. God sent it. It didn't just start showing up. So the manna that fed them was there by the word of God. It was God's word that caused the bread that fed the people.
2024 - But look at what else vs 3 says. God knew they were getting thirsty at Mara. He knew they were hungry before the manna. God let that happen to see if they would look to him in faith, if they would trust him to supply their needs when they had no resources of their own. When we have no food or water - which very few of us have experienced at all - we are humbled. We are reduced to a state where our whole ambition, our only goal, is to eat and drink. The bad things that happen to us sometimes are testing us to find out on what we really depend. God already knows, of course, so really God tests us so WE will know whether we truly depend on him or, sadly I think in most cases, on our own resources. When things go badly, don't ask God to take it away, but ask him to help us truly KNOW that the Word is life, now bread.
Possible FB post. Needs a little work, but a good one for Monday.
2026 - Dt 8:3 says he let them get hungry. Physical evil per Geisler. Kids were hungry and thirsty too. So sometimes physical evil serves God's purpose directly...out here in the middle of Deuteronomy!
2026 - This vs also.
Deuteronomy 8:5 LSB
[5] Thus you shall know in your heart that Yahweh your God was disciplining you just as a man disciplines his son.
Physical evil as discipline.
It mentions disease also as something He will use as discipline. How often is it that?
2025 - Not by bread but by every word. I think there might be an implication here that the repetitive nature of eating nothing but manna every day for 40 years would have reduced eating to it's most fundamental. They ate for the calories they needed to survive. They didn't crave food, they didn't have special dishes, they didn't have various spices...they had the plainest food, perfect in every way for sustaining them, but not for their pleasure. There were no "favorite dishes". The variety they craved was in the word. Their purpose was not to eat well but to serve well. Perhaps this is a passage on which the asceticists based their gruel, their bread and water, their fasting.
The text continues with God showing His people His power in the desert, preserving them and their goods, chastening and sustaining. The fact that they have come to this point, about to enter the promised land, indicates that this second generation from Egypt has learned their lessons, they are looking to God, they have passed their tests. Moses is reminding them how they got here, and why they are here and not their parents.
who fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end.
Deuteronomy 8:16 ESV
The point of testing is to do you good in the end.
2024 - And these verses:
17 Beware lest you say in your heart, 'My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.' 18 You shall remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day. [Deu 8:17-18 ESV].
Look at how this is worded! This implies that it is by our own power that we get wealth. Of course we have a hand in it. We don't just sit home and wait for God to dump pots of gold on the lawn. We work. What we have to remember though, is that God GAVE US THE POWER to get wealth, it is God that makes our labor productive, and even that is not because we are so cool, or so pious, or so charitable to others. It is because God is/will/must fulfill HIS PROMISES made to those who came before us. We are links in the chain, far removed from the location to which the chain is attached.
This also means that promises like this are for the descendants of Abraham. NOT for the Gentiles. I do not think the Land promises are for us. Israel will return to the land for a thousand years, and all these promises will be true during that time. No disease, no sterility, explosion of population and livestock and food and drink of all kinds, likely sold to the rest of the planet at that time for great wealth.
Possible FB posts. The first one to show that God "empowers" our work or no amount of labor would be productive. Second, this only applies to us in a general way. In principle, but not in promise. Might not do this second part because it is about whether Israel and the church are separate. I surely believe they are, but a lot of people do not.