Deuteronomy 8

Moses has already emphasized God’s love for Israel and the importance of Israel’s love for God (4:32–43), and he will mention this topic several times before he concludes his address. If Israel obeyed the Lord, they would conquer the enemy, possess the land, multiply in the land, and enjoy a long life in the place of God’s blessing (6:1–3). At least six times in this book, Moses called Canaan “a land of milk and honey” (v. 3; 11:9; 26:9, 15; 27:3; 31:20), a phrase that describes the richness and fruitfulness of the land. Milk was a staple food and honey a luxury, so “a land of milk and honey” would provide all that the people needed. There would be adequate pastures for their flocks and herds and sufficient plants in the fields for the bees to obtain pollen. How could the people not love and obey Jehovah when He blessed them so abundantly?

Covenant (v. 3). There was always a danger that the new generation would become proud and think that God had blessed them because they were better than previous generations. Moses reminded them that all their blessings came from the Lord because of His covenant with their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. In fact, it was this truth that opened his address (1:8, 21, 35), and he would mention it again (6:10; 9:5, 27; 29:13; 30:20; 34:4; and see Ex. 6: and 33:1). God’s gracious promise to the patriarchs gave Israel ownership of the land, but it was their own obedience to the Lord that guaranteed their possession and enjoyment of the land. It’s unfortunate that after Israel had lived in the land, they took their blessings for granted, disobeyed God’s law, and had to be punished for their rebellion. First they were chastened in the land (described in the book of Judges) and then they were removed from the land and taken captive to Babylon.

Believers today need to be reminded that all our blessings come to us because of God’s eternal covenant with His Son (Heb. 13:20) and the new covenant which Jesus made through His sacrificial death on the cross (Luke 22:20; 1 Cor. 11:25; Heb. 8—9). We aren’t blessed because of what we are in ourselves but because of what we are in Christ (Eph. 1:3–14).

Confession (v. 4). The orthodox Jewish confession of faith is called “the Shema” after the Hebrew word which means “to hear.” This confession is still recited each morning and evening by devout Jews all over the world, affirming “Jehovah, our Elohim, Jehovah is one.” (See Matt. 22:37–38; Mark 12:29–30; Luke 10:27.) So important is this confession that Jewish boys in orthodox homes are required to memorize it as soon as they can speak. The nations around Israel worshipped many gods and goddesses, but Israel affirmed to all that there is but one true and living God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

The Hebrew word translated “one” (ehad) can also mean “a unity” as well as “numerical oneness.” It’s used that way in Genesis 2:24, describing the oneness of Adam and Eve, and also in Exodus 26: and 11 to describe “unity” of the curtains in the tabernacle (see niv). The word also carries the idea of “uniqueness.” In contrast to the many pagan gods and goddesses, Jehovah is unique, for there is only one true God; He is God alone and not part of a pantheon; and He is a unity, which Christians interpret as leaving room for the Trinity (Matt. 28:19–20; 3:16–17). When Israel began to put Jehovah alongside the false gods of the Gentile nations, they denied their own confession of faith. The Gentiles could renounce their false gods and trust the true God, the God of Israel, but a devout Jew could never put Jehovah on the same level as the gods of the Gentiles.

Commandment (v. 5). Is it possible to command somebody to love? Isn’t love a mysterious thing that just appears, a wonderful emotion that’s either there or it isn’t there? No, not according to Scripture. In the life of the believer, love is an act of the will: we choose to relate to God and to other persons in a loving way no matter how we may feel. Christian love simply means that we treat others the way God treats us. In His love, God is kind and forgiving toward us, so we seek to be kind and forgiving toward others (Eph. 4:32). God wills the very best for us, so we desire the very best for others, even if it demands sacrifice on our part. Love isn’t simply an exotic feeling; love leads to action. “God so loved … that he gave” (John 3:16). The virtues of love that are listed in 1 Corinthians 13:4–7 describe how we treat people and not just how we feel about them.

To love God and worship and serve Him is the highest privilege we can have, so when the Lord commands us to love, He is inviting us to that which is the best. But our love for God must involve the totality of the inner person—“with all your heart … soul … and strength.” It isn’t necessary to define and distinguish these elements, as though they were three different internal human functions. In some Scriptures only two are named (Deut. 4:29; 10:12; Josh. 22:5), while in other parallel Scriptures there are four (Mark 12:30; Luke 10:27). The phrase simply means “all that is within you” (Ps. 103:1), a total devotion to the Lord. If the inner person is completely yielded to the Lord and open to His Word as ministered by His Spirit, then the feelings will follow. But even if they don’t, we must still relate to other people as the Lord relates to us.

Communication (vv. 6–9). When we hear the Word of God and receive it into our hearts (1 Thess. 2:13), then the Holy Spirit can use the truth to transform us from within (2 Cor. 3:1–3; John 17:17). God “writes” the Word upon our hearts and we become “living epistles” that others may read, and our lives can influence them to trust Christ. How we live is important because it backs up what we say. Moses admonished parents to discuss God’s Word in the home, among the children, and to allow the Word to guide their minds and hands as they work throughout the day. The Word should even control who is permitted to go through the gate and come through the door into the house. The Jews took these commandments literally and wore portions of Scripture in little containers called phylacteries on their forehead and left arm (Matt. 23:5). They also attached a small container of Scripture, called a mezuzah, to the front door and on every door in the house. Each occupant touched the mezuzah reverently each time he or she passed through a door (Ps. 121:8). It was a sign that the house was to be a sanctuary for the Lord and a place where the Word was loved, obeyed, and taught.

We can’t help but admire such respect for the Word of God, but it’s likely that the emphasis of this commandment was obedience to God’s Word in all that we think and do rather than the actual wearing of the Scriptures on the forehead and the arm. At least that seems to be the emphasis in Deuteronomy 11:18–21. However, we agree wholeheartedly that God’s people ought to make their homes places where God dwells, where the Scriptures are honored, and we aren’t ashamed of our faith. It isn’t necessary to turn every room into a chapel, but a Bible on the table and a few Scripture texts on the wall at least bear witness that we belong to the Lord and desire to please Him.

Oliver Cromwell told the artist painting his portrait that he refused to pay even a farthing for the painting unless it truly looked like him, including “pimples, warts, and everything as you see me.” Apparently the Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland was as courageous sitting for a portrait as he was leading an army on the battlefield. Most of us aren’t that brave. We’re uncomfortable looking at unretouched proofs of our photographs, and we’d certainly willingly pay for a painting that improved our appearance.

In this part of his farewell address, Moses painted the people of Israel as they really were, “warts and all.” It was important for their spiritual life that Moses do this, for one of the first steps toward maturity is accepting reality and doing something about it. But let’s not point the finger at Israel and fail to look at ourselves, for the pictures that Moses painted apply to us today. We need to see ourselves as God sees us and then, by His grace, seek to become all that we can become in Jesus Christ.

The three essentials for Israel’s conquest and enjoyment of the Promised Land were: listening to God’s Word, remembering it, and obeying it. They are still the essentials for a successful and satisfying Christian life today. As we walk through this world, we can’t succeed without God’s guidance, protection, and provision, and it also helps to have a good memory. Four times in these chapters Moses commands us to remember (v. 2, 18; 9:7, 27), and four more times he admonishes us to forget not (8:11, 14, 19; 9:7). The apostle Peter devoted his second letter to the ministry of reminding God’s people to remember what the apostles had taught them (2 Peter 1:12–18; 3:1–2). Moses pointed out four ministries God performed for Israel and that He performs for us today as He seeks to mature us and prepare us for what He has planned for us.

God tests us (vv. 1–2). God knows what’s in the hearts of His children, but His children don’t always know—or want to know. “And all the churches shall know that I am He who searches the minds and the hearts” (Rev. 2: nkjv). Life is a school (Ps. 90:12), and we often don’t know what the lesson was until we failed the examination! People sometimes say, “Well, I know my own heart,” but the frightening fact is that we don’t know our own hearts. “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jer. 17: niv).

How we respond to the tests of life reveals what’s really in our hearts, especially when those tests involve the everyday experience of life. The people of Israel were frequently hungry and thirsty and weary from the journey, and it was on those occasions that they became fretful and critical. The devil tempts us to bring out the worst in us, but God tests us to bring out the best in us. When God allows a difficult circumstance to test us, we will either trust Him and become more mature, or we will tempt Him and become more miserable. The difference? Believing the promises of God and relying on the Lord to care for us and bring us through for His glory and our good.

God teaches us (v. 3). Each morning during their wilderness journey, God sent the Jewish people “angels’ food” (Ps. 78:21–25) to teach them to depend on Him for what they needed. But the manna was much more than daily physical sustenance; it was a type of the coming Messiah who is “the bread of life” (John 6:35). When Satan tempted Him to turn stones into bread (Matt. 4:1–4), Jesus quoted Deuteronomy 8: and indicated that the Word of God is also the bread of God, for we “feed on” Jesus Christ when we “feed on” the Word of God. God was teaching the Jews to look to Him for “daily bread” (Matt. 6:11) and to begin each day meditating on the Word of God. Those who obeyed God in the daily responsibility of gathering manna would be inclined to obey the rest of His commandments. Our relationship to the Word of God (manna) indicates our relationship to the God of the Word.

God cares for us (v. 4; 29:5). Not only did God feed the Jews “miracle bread” each morning, but He also kept their clothes from wearing out and their feet from swelling. The three pressing questions of life for most people are, “What shall we eat? What shall we drink? What shall we wear?” (Matt. 6:25–34) and the Lord met all these needs for His people for forty years. “Casting all your care upon Him; for He cares for you” (1 Peter 5: nkjv). “For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things” (Matt. 6: nkjv). God doesn’t miraculously deliver bread, water, and clothing to our front doors each day, but He does give us jobs and the ability to earn money (Deut. 8:18) so we can purchase what we need. The same Lord who provided Israel’s needs without human means can provide our needs by using human means.

God disciplines us (v. 5). God saw the children of Israel as His own children whom He greatly loved. “Israel is my son, even my firstborn” (Ex. 4:22; see Hos. 11:1). After years of slavery in Egypt, the Jews had to learn what freedom was and how to use it responsibly. We commonly think of “discipline” only as punishment for disobedience, but much more is involved. Discipline is “child training,” the preparation of the child for responsible adulthood. A judge justly punishes a convicted criminal in order to protect society and uphold the law, but a father lovingly disciplines a child to help that child mature. Discipline is an evidence of God’s love and of our membership in God’s family (Heb. 12:5–8; Prov. 3:11–12).

When you think of the Lord’s discipline of His children, don’t envision an angry parent punishing a child. Rather, see a loving Father challenging His children to exercise their muscles (physical and mental) so they will mature and be able to live like dependable adults. When we’re being disciplined, the secret of growth is to humble ourselves and submit to God’s will (Deut. 8:2–3; Heb. 12:9–10). To resist God’s chastening is to harden our hearts and resist the Father’s will. Like an athlete in training, we must exercise ourselves and use each trial as an opportunity for growth.

“And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way.” God didn’t desert Israel when they came out of Egypt, but led them by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. The Jews didn’t always understand the route that the Lord took, but He never led them astray. We can be sure that the will of God will never lead us where the grace of God cannot keep us or the power of God enable us to glorify the Lord.

One of the hardest lessons God’s people must learn is to accept God’s will and obey Him without protest or complaint. If the Jews had taken time to look back and recall their journey from Egypt to Canaan, they would have seen that each stage in the journey taught them more about themselves and about the Lord. They would see themselves as living in the past and afraid of the future, doubting God’s love and His ability to see them through. Their frequent complaining revealed their lack of love for the Lord, and their rebellion showed their lack of submission to His will.

Wherever he lived, missionary J. Hudson Taylor put up a plaque that read: “Ebenezer—Jehovah-Jireh.” These Hebrew words mean, “Hitherto the Lord has helped us—The Lord will see to it” (1 Sam. 7:12; Gen. 22:14). As God’s people look back, we see that the Lord has been faithful, and as we look ahead, we know He will provide; so, why worry and fret?

After being set free from Egypt, Israel’s destination wasn’t the wilderness; it was the Promised Land, the place of their inheritance. “And he [God] brought us out from there [Egypt] that he might bring us in” (6:23). So with the Christian life: being born again and redeemed from sin is only the beginning of our walk with Christ, a great beginning, to be sure, but only a beginning. If like Israel at Kadesh-Barnea, we rebel in unbelief, then we will wander through life and never enjoy what God planned for us (Eph. 2:10; Heb. 3— 4). But if we surrender to the Lord and obey His will, He will enable us to be “more than conquerors” (Rom. 8:37) as we claim our inheritance in Christ and serve Him.

Enjoying God’s blessing (vv. 6–9). The “key” that opened the door to the Promised Land was simple: obey God’s commandments, walk in His ways, and reverence Him (v. 6). If the people of Israel disobeyed God’s Word, walked in their own way, and showed no fear of the Lord, this would invite the judgment of God on the nation. But why would Israel not want to enter and enjoy the Promised Land, the good land that God had prepared for them? It was a land that offered them all that they could want or need to lead a happy life.

Since water is a precious commodity in the East, Moses mentions it first: streams, pools, and springs flowing in the hills and valleys. Later he will mention God’s promise to send the rains each year (11:14), the early rain in autumn and the latter rain in spring. With God’s blessing, an abundance of water would make possible an abundance of crops, and the Israelites would harvest grain, grapes, figs, and olives, and they would also find honey. There would be plenty of pasture for flocks and herds, and copper and iron were buried in the rocks and the hills. Indeed, it was a land of milk and honey, a land where nothing was lacking. All of this typifies for believers today the spiritual wealth we have in Christ: the riches of His grace (Eph. 1:7; 2:7), the riches of His glory (1:18; 3:16), the riches of His mercy (2:4), and “the unsearchable riches of Christ” (3:8). We are complete in Christ (Col. 2:10) in whom all fullness dwells (1:19), and therefore we have everything we shall ever need for living a full Christian life to the glory of God. God has a wonderful life planned for each of His children (Eph. 2:10) and He provides all we need to fulfill that plan.

Forgetting God’s goodness (vv. 10–18). There’s peril in prosperity and comfort, for we may become so wrapped up in the blessings that we forget the One who gave us the blessings. For this reason, Moses admonished the Jews to praise God after they had eaten their meals so they wouldn’t forget the Giver of every good and perfect gift (v. 10; James 1:17). When I was a lad, my Uncle Simon—my Swedish “preacher uncle”—occasionally visited our home, and I recall that he not only gave thanks at the beginning of the meal, but he always closed the meal with a prayer of thanksgiving. I didn’t know until years later that he was obeying Deuteronomy 8:10. It’s natural to give thanks for food when we’re hungry, but it’s also wise to give thanks after we’re full.

Moses spelled out the dangers involved in forgetting that God is the source of every blessing that we enjoy. If we forget God, then success has a way of making us proud (v. 14), and we forget what we were before the Lord called us. The Jews had been slaves in Egypt, and now they would be living in fine houses, watching their flocks and herds increase, gathering gold and silver, and forgetting what the Lord had done for them. They had been nomads in the wilderness, and now they would be settled down in a rich land, enjoying peace and prosperity with their children and grandchildren. How easy it would be for Israel to become proud, to forget how helpless they were before the Lord rescued them, and to think that their success was due to their own strength and wisdom—and that they deserved it! “But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth” (v. 18).

Rejecting God’s authority (vv. 19–20). The climax of this spiritual declension is that the “wealthy Israelites” would turn from the Lord, the true and living God, and start worshipping the false gods of their neighbors. Idolatry begins in the heart when gratitude to the Giver is replaced by greediness for the gifts. “Because, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful” (Rom. 1:21). An ungrateful heart can quickly become a haven for all sorts of sinful attitudes and appetites that cater to the flesh. What would the Lord do? He would treat His own people’s idolatry the way He treated the idolatry of the nations that they dispossessed, and He would destroy Israel and their false gods. Before Moses finished his speech, he outlined the terms of God’s covenant with Israel and the chastening God would send if the people persisted in worshipping idols.

Prosperity—ingratitude—idolatry: three steps toward ruin. But these aren’t ancient sins, for they’re present in hearts, homes, businesses, and churches today.

The Word of God was given so that we might better know the God of the Word. Everything that Moses declared to the people was a revelation of the mind and heart of God. Each law, each ceremony, each prohibition, and each memory of past events pointed to Jehovah, the God of the Israelites. In mighty deeds of power and gracious words of truth, the Lord had revealed Himself to Israel as He did to no other nation, and Moses recorded these words and deeds for us to read today. The knowledge of God is life’s most important knowledge.

Israel was to remember that the Lord was one Lord (6:4). They lived in a world of superstitious idolatry in which each nation had its own gods and goddesses, and when you moved from nation to nation, you changed your gods! But the people of Israel believed that there was one supreme God, the true and living God whose name was Jehovah—“I am that I am.” The first commandment said, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me” (Ex. 20:3), and the second commandment prohibited the Jews from making an image of their God or of any other thing in the universe that they might worship as a god.

This one Lord is the reator of all things and possesses unlimited power. He demonstrated that power in sending the plagues to Egypt and then opening the Red Sea so that Israel could depart. He revealed His glory at Mount Sinai, but He also revealed His grace and mercy as He entered into a covenant with Israel (Deut. 4:32, 37). The Lord is the faithful God who keeps His word and will not be false to His people. The God of Israel loves His people and wants them to love Him. He is jealous over His people (v. 24; 5:9; 16:16), the way a husband is jealous over his wife.

The God of Israel is the God who chastens His people if they disobey Him. His covenant makes it clear that He will bless when His people obey Him and send chastening when they disobey Him, and both activities are evidences of His love and faithfulness. In His mercy, He will forgive if the people repent and return to Him, but He will not tolerate rebellion.

God declares His Word through chosen servants like Moses, and He expects His people to listen to the Word, remember it, and obey it. Just as Israel is a people of the Word, so the church today is a people of the Word. Our faith isn’t something that we manufactured ourselves, because it was graciously given to us in the Word of the Lord. God’s Word is our life, and apart from that Word, we cannot know God, know the will of God, or worship and serve God acceptably. God’s commandments are God’s enablements. We’re privileged to have the written Word in our own language and to enjoy the freedom to read it and share it with others. Like Israel, the church must be a “people of the Word,” for everything we need for life and godliness is found in the inspired Word of God (2 Peter 1:3; 2 Tim. 3:16–17).