Deuteronomy - Lesson 14

Our topic in this session continues the theme of testing. We've seen in chapter 7 the external test represented by the Canaanites. Will they trust God to deliver the land into their hands? And will they confirm their trust in God by doing that which God asks them to do with the Canaanites? 

In this text, the assumption is our text today, Deuteronomy chapter 8. They are now in the land, and once they're in the land, they are faced with a new test that I call the internal test. It's no longer external enemies that challenge your faith and test your faith. It is what happens when everything goes right. Where do we land up then? So, this internal test is all about not living by bread alone. 

I remind you of the structure of this shema text that starts with, “Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord alone,” and it takes us all the way through to chapter 9:1, where we have the next shema. 

We've worked our way through the internal and external tests. chapter 6, chapter 7, the external test. And now we're into chapter 8, the internal test, which he drew our attention to already in chapter 6, verses 10-25. We didn't spend a lot of time on it there, but we will here. What do you do when everything goes right, when prosperity strikes? And I use the language intentionally, we always…we tend to think of when disaster strikes. But here the case is prosperity striking. And the structure of this passage is similar to what we've had before. 

You've got the nature of the test 1-16, and then the conclusion by somebody in the audience who says, See what I have accomplished. And that leads to Moses’ reminder and warning, You don't want to go there. 

Another way of looking at this passage, this chapter 8 verses 1-20, is to recognize its chiastic structure. It begins and ends with an exhortation. Then you have a discussion of what happened in the wilderness, the desert, at the beginning and at the end. And then you have what happens in the land, the arable land. Now we're settled versus 7-10 and verses 12-13. And then right in the middle, the exhortation, “Lest you forget.” Watch it. That's the big problem here. 

Deuteronomy is all about a theology of remembrance. If we forget how we got here, if we forget the Lord who brought us here, if we forget the Lord who gave us the land, then we are in trouble. 

So, let's set the context first in verse 1, “The entire command that I command you.” I mean, this is interesting language. He uses the singular for the command. We tend to think of all the commands. No, it's a whole package. This entire covenantal charge that I charge you with today “you shall keep by doing.” Again, that construction is all the way through Deuteronomy. How do you keep the Torah? How do you keep the law? Not by putting a fence around it. But “by doing it that you may live and multiply and go in and possess the land that Yahweh swore to give to your ancestors.” This is the dream. This kind of structure to these things you find all over the book. When we get to chapter 30, we will see that this chapter 8:1, he unpacks with more detail but the structure is the same. 

But he begins by talking about the way of the Lord in the desert, verses 2-3. “And you must remember the whole journey on which Yahweh your God has enabled you to walk these forty years in the desert, to humble you, to test you, to prove what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep His commands.” And so, of course, he's taking a backward look. This is the significance of the desert experience - Will you trust God to provide for you when there are no resources around? What will you do? 

Then he goes on, “He humbled you and made you go hungry and then fed you the manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to make you know that it is not on bread alone that a person lives; but it is on all that comes from the mouth of Yahweh that a person lives.” It's not what goes into your mouth that makes you, brings you alive. It’s what comes out of God's mouth. 

Well, notice what God has done. The way of the Lord in the desert. What does He do in the desert? He led Israel for 40 years. He humbled Israel. He caused them to hunger. He fed them the manna. Who is the subject of all of these verbs? It is God. God was leading them along deliberately, into trying circumstances, causing them to hunger, that's what the text says. And then he fed them manna, and the manna becomes a test. Will you be satisfied with the manna? 

But then we need to ask, What is this manna? Mystery food. Really, that's what it is. But there are several clues that we get from Exodus chapter 16, where the Lord confirms His provision by talking about the manna that's coming. We learn that:

It is from heaven, from Exodus 16:4.

It's called leḥem. Usually that's translated, bread. Man does not really live by bread alone, but the Hebrew word is a general word for food. It's often simple, plain food. So, this isn't actually bread. It's manna, not bread. So, it's food. 

It's the residue of dew on the desert floor, Exodus 16:14. 

It's a fine, flaky substance. 

It's like frost on the ground. 

It bred maggots overnight if you tried to store it for the next day, that's an act of unbelief. And the Lord sent maggots, there they were the next morning. And except on the eve of the Sabbath, it didn't breed maggots. There was always enough for the next day, enough on Saturday without the maggots. 

It melted in the hot sun. 

It's white, like coriander seed. 

It tastes like wafers and honey. 

It's like the bdellium, an aromatic gum. 

It's like myrrh exuded from a tree. 

Well, what is it? We're still debating. What is it? I wish they had kept that jar of manna that they put in the Ark of the Covenant. But it's gone. The ark is gone. Everything is gone. 

And so, what they called it was mān hû'. That's the question. What is it, mān hû’. What is it? And the answer? It's manna. It's whatchamacallit. That's the best translation I know for manna: whatchamacallit.

It's absolutely unknown. Unknown. It's miracle food. It's never been heard of before. They'd never seen anything like it. Nobody has. But what is the point? “That you may know that I am Yahweh.” That's what the signs and wonders in Egypt were about. “That you may know that I am Yahweh.” Well, the manna has the same function. It's revelatory that the people might know. 

But there's a second function, its testing function. He sent it to test you. “Look, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day's portion every day, that I may test them, whether or not they will walk in my Torah.” What's that got to do with the Torah? And of course, it is a matter of recognizing Yahweh as the suzerain who takes care of us. He's our patron. But that means also He is our suzerain and we are His vassals. We live for Him. And so, you've got the link here between provision and obedience. The two are intricately linked. 

Well, in what ways was the manna a test? We can suggest several. One, would they believe God when He said it would be there for them every day in the morning? That was the test. And of course, you remember the story, some gathered more than they needed for one day because they didn't believe it would be back tomorrow. And of course, that turns out to be an act of unbelief. 

The people's response in Exodus 16, “Some of them didn't listen and some kept some of it until morning, but then it was all full of maggots and had a terrible smell. And Moses was very angry with them. After this, the people gathered the food morning by morning, each family according to need. And as the sun became hot, the flakes they had not picked up, melted and disappeared.” It's amazing. This is magical food. You can’t go in the afternoon and get some more. It's gone. It's like a special effects cartoon. That hole that the Roadrunner and the Coyote. That hole shows up and he falls into it. Next thing you know, it's gone. 

The question is, would they believe? The second test: would they believe God when he said there would not be any on the Sabbath (verses 22-26 of Exodus)? But look what the people did, “Some of the people went out anyway on the seventh day, but they found no food.” And so, Yahweh asks Moses, “How long will these people refuse to obey My commands and My instructions? Why can't they listen to Me?” They're not because they are a hard-hearted lot. They must realize that the Sabbath is Yahweh’s gift to you. That's why He gives you a two-day supply on the sixth day. So, there will be enough for two days on the Sabbath day you must each stay in your place. Don't go out and pick food on the seventh. You're violating the Sabbath. 

And everybody asks, “Well, what's the Sabbath? Never heard of that.” There's an interesting concept here. They are keeping the Sabbath long before there was a Sabbath (or before we know there was), before the Sabbath was legislated, which we may get to discussing the significance of that later. 

Well, the interesting thing, Joshua 5:12, while the Israelites were camped at Gilgal, they had just crossed the river. And they camped at Gilgal on the plains of Jericho, west of the Jordan. They celebrated the Passover on the evening of the 14th day of the first one. That's amazing, the timing here. They crossed the river just in time for Passover. The very next day, they began to eat unleavened bread and roasted grain harvested from the land. It's harvest time and they immediately have food there. No manna appeared on the day they first ate from the crops and it was never seen again. “So, from that time on, the Israelites ate from the crops of Canaan.” It’s over. That period of testing is done. We are now setting up for a new test. So that manna functions as a foil for the future test. 

The desert experience represented one test: will you trust God in times of deprivation and want? “You will remember the whole way that Yahweh your God has led you these forty years in the desert that He might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep His commands. He humbled you, let you hunger, and fed you with manna which you didn't know, nor did your fathers know that He might make you know, that man does not live by bread alone, but every word that comes from the mouth of God.” That's the traditional translation. We'll have to fix it in a moment. But in any case, “Your clothes didn't wear out, your feet didn't swell during forty years. So, know in your mind that just as a man disciplines a son, so Yahweh your God disciplines you.” 

This is an amazing story. They had enough food to live those 40 years. Their clothes didn't wear out. They never had to go to the store to get new shoes. But they died. And the point of 40 years was that they die. And of course, they didn't die because of the external circumstances. Their death was totally other. They didn't starve to death. Their clothing didn't wear out. “So, know in your mind (heart) that just as man disciplines a son, so, the Lord your God was disciplining you.” And here again, it's not necessarily beating you up. It's teaching you stuff. Instructing you in the way of faith. 

Raises the question: why did Yahweh treat Israel this way? The text tells us to keep them humble, to test them, to expose the depth of Israel's commitment. Or should we say, to expose the shallowness of Israel's commitment? That would be better here. And to teach Israel that people do not live only by eating physical food. We've had more than our share here as we have been working through these sessions, and we are very grateful for everything that the hosts and the Lord has provided. But that's not what gives us life. They do not live by eating physical food, “but by everything that comes from the mouth of God.” 

Which raises the question: what is it that comes from God's mouth? Well, the Septuagint guys, they knew what it was. “That which comes from the mouth of God” is the Word of God. So, they translate, “Every word that comes from the mouth of God.” That's what nourishes the inner spiritual self in contrast to physical food with which we feed the body. So, I guess that's what they were thinking here. So “that which comes from the mouth of God” is what He speaks. The Lord spoke these words and the Decalogue is the effect of that. 

Second, “that which comes from the mouth of God” is every provision decreed by Yahweh, in contrast to that which we gain through human effort. The rest of this chapter will be all about what is the role of human effort in our prosperity. But here they learn you live because God has decreed your life in contrast to that which we earn ourselves. 

Third, “that which comes from the mouth of God” turns out to be His revealed will as represented by the Supreme Command and all the statutes and the ordinances, and stipulations. The law. If you want to use the old traditional language, people live by keeping the law. Except that isn't what the text says. The text says simply, “Whatever comes out of the mouth of God,” it doesn't specify. The Hebrew simply has the verb, “Whatever comes out of the mouth of God.” Well, which raises, I think, the best possibility. The most natural thing that comes out of a person's mouth is breath, so that when a baby is born, the first thing they have to do is be sure that the windpipes are open and clear and they're catching breath and they are breathing. It is the life-giving breath of God. That which gave life to that piece of clay in Genesis 2:7, “He breathed into it His breath and it became a living being.” 

Or as Ezekiel has it in chapter 16 to this little foundling, whom God discovered out there just before the vultures got her, “He said to her, ‘In your blood, live.’” This is the call to life. And when something that is inanimate receives the breath of God, it comes to life. And Ezekiel's wheels, his chariot, those were living wheels because the text says the breath of God was in the wheels, therefore they were alive. And I actually think this is when God breathes His breath, and when God withdraws His breath, things die. And so, in response to disobedience, God's breath is withdrawn. 

So, there are lots of references. Ezekiel 34:27, “I will put my breath in you,” Spirit ruach, it's all the same word, “...so that you will obey.” Oh, really? When we receive the breath of God, we follow His ordinances and keep His stipulations. That's been Israel's problem all along. They've been physically alive, but spiritually dead. And that as a result, they were not obeying Him. 

Well, that generation, the previous generation, was living proof that lots of bread, but no breath of God is a recipe for disaster. They expired in the desert, but who needed to know, that we might know? He did it to know whether you would live by bread or whether you would keep the ordinance. Who needs to know this? And of course, he doesn't actually answer the question. 

Is it that God Himself might discover? Does He give this test that He might discover what's in there? He knows everything. He doesn't actually need to do that. But now we recognize that it is the appropriate action of the suzerain regularly to test the loyalty of the vassal. And in this case, He is testing the loyalty of the vassal, I think, to prove to the vassals what's really in your heart. That we might know, that we all might know, who is the problem. We should probably interpret to know instead as to prove, to demonstrate, cause to know, to expose, bring to light what is in people's heart. 

Well, in verses 6-9, he shifts the subject from the past test of the desert, which God did to demonstrate that if the people died in the desert, it was because they didn't walk by whatever comes out of the mouth of God, nor did they keep the commands. But now, in verse 6, he shifts to the future. We are at the Jordan River. The past is behind us. The desert is behind. All those people are buried. We're looking to a new life on the other side.

“So, keep the commands of Yahweh your God by walking in His ways and fearing him.” Now we're back to the old formula, these regular expressions we'll see over and over again. But notice the logic. The commands are kept not by reciting them with our lips; not by creedal statements; but by life. “Therefore, be careful how you walk. Not as fools, but as wise.” That's Paul, isn't it? In Ephesians. Walking, life is a journey. And here, walking in the Lord's ways. We'll have more to say about this in chapter 10. What does it mean to walk in the ways of God? It could be to walk the way God tells you to walk. It could also mean to walk the way God walks. Imitatio dei, the imitation of God. 

And then, of course, by fearing Him, as elsewhere. Both expressions are ambiguous. Fearing Him probably involves again awed trust. Wow! Yahweh has provided for us again. We trust in Him to carry on with this. 

But now we're dealing with the future. We're dealing with a triangle: Yahweh, the people, and the land will all be together on the other side of the river. This is why Moses is so upset that he can’t cross. He can’t participate in the triangle flourishing. But it will come. This is the context in which the covenant triangle will be functioning perfectly, but that will be the context of the new sort of test. The reward for a passing grade in the future will not be simply life, but life abundant. Prospering in the land. 

The logic of verse 6 goes something like this: Faithfulness yields eating which yields satisfaction which yields blessing. “You shall bless the Lord who gave you all these things.” That's the passing grade here.

And of course, blessing carries two different sorts of connotations. It depends on who blesses whom. “The greater blesses the lesser.” That's normal, isn't it? When the greater blesses the lesser, the greater bestows upon the lesser wonderful things, as opposed to tragedies and curses, whatever. But when the lesser blesses the greater – “Bless the Lord, O my soul and all that is within me.” I mean, God doesn't need our blessing in that other sense. He doesn't need us to bestow all good, any good things on Him. He is the self-existent one (or whatever else), He needs nobody. 

So, what does that mean? Well, when the lesser is blessing the greater, it's a virtual synonym for praise. Bless the Lord. “Praise God from whom all blessings flow.” That's the blessing from the lesser to the greater. It's very common language though it is technically and literally odd for a lesser to bless the greater.

Well, this leads then to what I call ‘Moses’ Ode to the Good Land.’ I love this. He waxes poetic as he begins talking about the land that lies ahead, verses 7-9. “Yahweh is bringing the people to a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing out in the valleys and the hills. It's a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates. It’s a land of olive trees and honey, a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing.” Now, in the desert, they lacked everything. There was nothing there. But here it's the opposite. “A land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper.” It's the good land. 

And of course, those of you who have been to the Holy Land, I asked myself the first time when I landed there and we drove through the Judean hills, “What was Moses smoking? What was he smoking? A good land?” And if you're looking from the Jordan across the river, if you're standing here and looking across and you see Jericho, on the other side of Jericho, what is this: barren hills? It is just barren hills. But this is his Ode to the Land, a land of brooks of waters and fountains and springs and valleys and hills. It's amazing. This is a veritable Eden. A land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates and grain and grapes. It's all there. 

A land of olive trees and honey. Now, what's that got to do with agriculture? And all of a sudden, we run into bees in this, a land flowing with milk and honey. Is it literal honey? Probably not. The word is also used more generically as a word for sweetener. And so, a lot of people think, and I think quite rightfully so, this is actually the date palm fruit that he's talking about here, which was used as a sweetener. 

A land in which you eat bread without scarcity, you lack nothing. And of course, these are modern pictures, but of course, it's always been. 

A land whose stones are iron. Do you know of any iron mines in the land of Israel? Well, of course, this is just before the beginning of the Iron Age. And in that time, 13-1400 B.C., iron was more precious a metal than gold. So that when the Egyptians had iron chariots, it's not that the chariots were made of iron, but they were wooden chariots decorated with iron. It's their decoration. It's a precious metal. It's the end of the Bronze Age. It's the beginning of the Iron Age. 

So, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. Well, with reference to copper, I don't know that they found any of it in Palestine proper. But south of Palestine in the Arava, the valley that leads down to the Red Sea, there was lots of copper in Solomon's time, so that one looks like it's realistic. 

But when I see the land, this is what I see. When I think of the land of Israel, it's scarcely what he has been describing, this ode to the land. Whatever Moses’ personal feelings about not being permitted to enter the land, and he is a bitter man at this point, well, actually, once we get rolling, the bitterness is all gone. Once we're out of that first address, we never hear that from Moses again. Never. Not from Moses. At the end of chapter 32, we'll hear it from God, reminding him, “You're not crossing over.” But that's not Moses’ complaining. Moses is compliant, completely compliant by then. But here, whatever his personal feelings about not being permitted to enter the land, his literary style rises to semi-poetic register here. As he describes the Edenic world that awaits his people on the other side of the Jordan. This is what they're facing. 

Well, this style of description is scarcely the objective report of a surveyor who has personally explored the land. In fact, I think it's very obvious here, Moses has never been there. If you had been to the Promised Land, you wouldn't describe it this way. But this is the world of a man dreaming; the wistful dreaming of a man who has spent four decades fixated on home. grousing because of the people, they wouldn't enter the Land and he has missed it. This is the home that Yahweh had reserved for His people centuries earlier, but he can only imagine what it must be like. He's dreaming. No doubt his imagination was fed by concrete evidence of the land's fertility when the scouts came back 38 years ago. The pomegranates, figs, and cluster of grapes so huge they had to hang them from a pole and carry them by two men. Your Sunday school pictures had all of that imagery here. That's undoubtedly in his mind. They know compared to the desert they've been walking through, this is a paradise. 

And even in chapter 11, we will encounter this, compared to Egypt, where the only way to get food is for you physically to move the water to where it can. There are no trees in Egypt, naturally, and it's just this barren desert. But if you work it, you can get good fruit, good food. But that's all man made. Here the picture is, though, the land is just oozing productivity, and that's what they're about to experience. And of course, with time, the memory idealizes and exaggerates the reality. You know how it is. The world in which you grew up when you think back on what that was like. Well, that was so beautiful. When you're a kid, you've got all these wonderful memories and you imagine it still to be that way. But you go back 50 years later and it’s just, “Oh, what's happened here. This is not the world I grew up in here.” Moses’ description is idealized and idyllic. It's obvious he's never been there. But this is the land that is the gift from God and that is paradise. “Today you will be with me in paradise,” Jesus tells the thief on the cross. To be with God is paradise, to be in the triangle that God has created in that covenant relationship, that is paradise. This is the dream. 

Well, that's the test. What will you do when everything’s going well? The possible responses are described then in verses 10-18. And here's an ABB, or an ABA pattern. He starts with a correct response, verse 10. Then the flunking response, the failure wrong response, 11-17, and then the correct response again at the end. So, what's the correct response? Verse 10, “When you have eaten and are satisfied, then give praise to Yahweh, your God for the good land He has given you.” That's the right response. “Wow. Aren't we privileged? God is giving us this all.” 

When we get to chapter 26, the little ritual at the central sanctuary, a private ritual in which the worshiper recites what we call the Deuteronomic Creed, he recites the creed. There he will distinguish between how a fertility religion operates and how true religion operates. And here this is the opposite of fertility religion. It's not that when you have eaten and are satisfied, then you will exhibit the Jack Horner theology. “Little Jack Horner sat in the corner eating his Christmas pie, he stuck in his thumb and pulled out a plum and said, ‘See, what a good boy am I?’” No, no, no, no, no, no, no. It has nothing to do with ‘what a good boy am I,’ it's the gift of God, the land as a gift. 

But what's the wrong response? Well, then, in verses 11 and following, he says, “Watch yourselves,” Notice. Beware. Guard yourselves. “…Lest…” And what is the ‘lest’ about? And then he has a whole list of ‘lests’:

“Lest you forget Yahweh your God, 

Lest you eat, 

Lest you are satisfied, 

Lest you build nice houses, 

Lest you live in them, 

Lest everything you own multiplies, 

Lest your heart becomes proud. 

And lest you forget Yahweh

And lest you say…”  

You see what happens? The progression. And of course, where does it start? Lest you forget Yahweh your God. That's the problem. When things go well, you, we, all know people like this, don't we? When people flourished, it went to their heads and they forgot that every benefaction that we received is a gift. Nothing is deserved. So, it opens with a warning. Guard yourself, lest you forget Yahweh your God. Oh, really? How do we demonstrate forget?

But now we have to talk about what ‘forget’ means. In Hebrew, ‘forget’ does not mean amnesia, your memory fails. Nor does ‘remember’ mean your memory is alive and well. It's different from that. To remember means to take into account past events. To forget means not to take into account past events. And that's what happens here. “Guard yourselves, lest you forget.” How do you demonstrate love? By action. How do you demonstrate a failed memory? It's by action. How do you demonstrate memory? By keeping His commands, His stipulations, “His ordinances with which I am charging you today.” 

Now, this is anything, again, it's anything but legalism. It is remembering that everything we have is a gift. The land is gift. Life is gift; Yahweh is gift. Knowing the will of God is gift. Everything is gift. But that's what happens when you prosper, you forget it's all gift. And all of a sudden something else happens. 

“Guard yourselves,” there is a second guard yourself, “lest you forget Yahweh your God,” or as elsewhere it's not amnesia, by not keeping His statutes and in ordinances. 

And then in verse 14b-16, a whole bunch of “lest you forget Yahweh your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, who led you through the fearful desert, who provided water from the rock, who provided manna from heaven.” 

I mean, all of these wonderful memories take them into account. Not to pass a test at the end of a course, but to change your life. God has given us everything we have. Everything. Yahweh Himself is the source of every benefaction. To forget is to imagine or act as if none of that matters. None of it matters. And it's to become practical atheists. God has had no part of it in our lives. We live as if we are self-sufficient. 

This ends then with a correct response. We saw it in verse 10, the correct response. A wrong response, 11-17, and then the correct response, verse 18, ending then with a final warning. 18 he brings us back home, “But you shall remember Yahweh your God, for it is He who has given you power to make wealth that He may confirm His covenant that He swore with your ancestors as it is this day.” That's what you should remember. We are the covenant people. This is the covenant triangle. Everything is happening. 

But we’ve got to go back to verse 17, because here he introduces that interlocutor again. He imagines somebody in the audience in the moment of flourishing, you will say, “Guard yourselves, lest you say to yourself, ‘Oh, you would never really brag about it publicly, but in your heart. My own power and the strength of my hand have produced this wealth for me. I've done a great job.’” 

I worked for a farmer like that early on in my life; for four summers I worked for him. The first summer, he farmed eight quarters of land, half mile by half mile by half a mile. The second summer, 12; the third summer, 21; the fourth summer, 32 quarters of land. He was such a good farmer that everybody in the neighborhood wanted him to farm their land for them and give him one third of the crop. And they would make more than if they farmed it themselves. Everything turned green. Everything turned green. 

Now, the first summer I worked for him, I was like family. He had six kids and the oldest was 16. And we shared a bedroom in the house. I lived with them. They went fishing for three or four days at the end of June. They took me along as if I was one of the family. I had never fished in my life. We were too poor and, you know, lots of fish up in northern Saskatchewan, but never, never got out there. And my first fish was a 14-pound jack. Well, that was, what a moment, what a moment, it was a joy. That first summer, he was active in the church and an elder; he preached regularly, taught us Sunday school class and in the community. 

But five years later when he didn't get Saskatchewan Farmer of the Year award, he was angry. The whole world was against him. And by then he had become so paranoid; the pressures were so great. Earlier everything he touched turned green, literally. John Deere tractors. Big John Deere tractors. I'd never driven tractors like that. On my farm that I grew up, everything was junk. But this was a dream world. Everything turned green. He died a bitter old man, lost everything, a 350-pound overweight alcoholic. Lost it all. One doesn't live by bread alone. He forgot. He discovered, I'm a really good farmer. He believed the advertising. It's a problem. It's a problem. Watch out lest you say, how good I am. 

That's why I mentioned earlier at our house, we were never allowed to say, I did a good job. We were encouraged to say, “Ben did a good job.” That's good, Ben, you did really well. But you don't say it yourself. Keep yourself humble. I am not a self-made person. Everything I am and have I owe to the Lord and to His grace. 

Which leads to verse 18, the appropriate rebuff, and he declares again, satisfaction. “You shall remember Yahweh your God,” when everything goes right, praise God from whom all blessings flow. “That He may confirm His covenant…” Well He is confirming His covenant by giving you prosperity, but watch it. This could go off the cliff. If you don't respond rightly. So, prosperity is the test. 

So, we have two formulas in Moses’ lesson on testing. In the past, miraculous provision combined with obedience yielded life. That's the desert. In the future, the bounty of the land plus gratitude yields life. Of course, this is Paul and Romans, isn't it? “They forgot to be thankful,” and that's the beginning of the downward skid. 

Well, what lessons do we learn from Deuteronomy 8? Well, of course, we learned that “people don't live by bread alone, but of whatever comes from the mouth of God,” and there's nothing we can do about it.

Two, success may be a greater challenge to our faith than deprivation. You know, it's often not hard to trust God when you have nothing that you can create yourself and you're absolutely dependent on him. When we were students in university, some of us remember those days, dirt poor, and we trusted God for everything. And He provided. 

But what happens when everything goes our way? Causes us to become proud, smug, self-sufficient, and applied to the church, of course. Effectiveness in ministry is not based on ability, opportunity, pre-qualifications, giftedness. These lead to arrogance. Did you notice even the gifts we have for ministry are gifts from God? 

Watch out lest you forget that I gave you the hands to make wealth. “Where would you be without the hands I gave you?” My translation has power, but interpret it more literally, I gave you the hands “that He may confirm His covenant for you.” 

And finally, what shall it profit if we gain the whole world and lose our own souls? If we are preoccupied with bread, we too will perish because the bread becomes the idol, displacing God. The test of comfort. 

But I've never heard a sermon on this text other than what I've preached. Never heard a sermon on this text. But in these opening 10,11 chapters, all the way through the sermon for today is right on the surface. You don't have to scratch at all to see the relevance. This is the eternal Word of God. For me, it's my scripture. It teaches me how to live. Thanks be to God. 

Student: I've just a couple of clarification questions. I want to make sure I understand a couple of things. I know there's verses like the cedars of Lebanon, the lions in the jungle. And when I first went to Israel, too, I was looking to go, where did the lions go? I mean, is it possible that the land substantively changed and that it used to be literally flowing with milk and honey? 

Dr. Block: The answer to that question has the land and the climate changed, and the answer to that is, yes. But at what point? What happens? When the Canaanites began populating this land, they were building cities. And what did they do? They cut down the trees. And what happens when you cut down the trees in a Mediterranean climate? Now, here in the west coast, northern west coast, you know, trees just grow magnificent. The cedars of Lebanon. 

But have you seen pictures lately of the parts of Lebanon where the cedars used to be? You can scarcely find the cedar left. They've denuded it all. And the people are destitute, destitute. They are artificially planting some, trying to recover. But the economy is such a disaster they’re just eking out a living. That country used to be the paradise of Europe. They go there for their vacations. But it's all–it's largely gone. 

But it didn't happen as quickly as with our massive equipment we have to denude a mountain in a hurry. But yes, the climate, the landscape was treed much more than it is today. When you remove the trees, the climate also changes. It becomes more arid. And so, the rainfall was probably a little bit less. But if you've got trees on the hillsides, then it preserves your soil structures and everything else. And it's been a disaster. That's what human occupation without God does. Human occupation with God creates a paradise. But without God, it creates a desert. Hmm. 

Student: My other questions had to do with the manna. Okay, I love bread, but I can't imagine eating bread for 40 years. And so, I want to make clear. So, when you have manna introduced, it's this whatchamacallit, it's like this mystery food. Yes. And then in verse four, Man does not live on bread alone. That's the actual Hebrew word for bread, right? 

Dr. Block: It is, but it's a Hebrew word for food. ‘Olam’ is food in general and food in general. Okay. 

Student: So, it's not defining manna as being bread? 

Dr. Block: No, it's not defining it as bread. No, it's, it's physical food. That's the point. Manna was physical food. You don't live by. You can have all the manna you want, they still died. They all died because they didn't have the other thing that comes from the breath, from the mouth of God, which is namely, His breath, His Spirit, willingness to obey.