Deuteronomy 8

Deuteronomy 8:1 “Carefully do every command I am commanding you today, so that you may live and increase, and may enter and take possession of the land Yahveh swore to your fathers.

Deuteronomy 8:2 Remember that Yahveh, your God, led you on the entire journey these forty years in the open country so that he might discipline you and test you to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would watch his commands.

Deuteronomy 8:3 He disciplined you by letting you go hungry; then he gave you manna to eat, which you and your fathers had not known so that you might learn that a human does not stay alive on bread alone but stays alive on everything that comes from[1] the mouth of Yahveh.

Deuteronomy 8:4 Your clothing did not wear out, and your feet did not swell these forty years.

Deuteronomy 8:5 Keep in mind that Yahveh, your God, has been disciplining you just as a man disciplines his son.

Deuteronomy 8:6 So watch the commands of Yahveh your God by walking in his ways and fearing him

Deuteronomy 8:7 because Yahveh your God is bringing you into a good land, a land with streams, springs, and deep water sources, flowing in both valleys and hills;

Deuteronomy 8:8 a land of wheat, barley, vines, figs, and pomegranates; a land of olive oil and honey;

Deuteronomy 8:9 a land where you will eat food without shortage, where you will lack nothing; a land whose rocks are iron and from whose hills you will mine copper.

Deuteronomy 8:10 When you eat and are full, you will celebrate Yahveh, your God, for the good land he has given you.

Deuteronomy 8:11 “Be careful or else you will forget Yahveh your God by failing to watch his commands, rules, and prescriptions that I am commanding you today.

Deuteronomy 8:12 When you eat and are full, and build beautiful houses to live in,

Deuteronomy 8:13 and your herds and flocks grow large, and your silver and gold multiply, and everything else you have increases,

Deuteronomy 8:14 be careful that your heart doesn’t become proud and you forget Yahveh, your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery.

Deuteronomy 8:15 He led you through the great and terrible open country with its poisonous snakes and scorpions, a thirsty land where there was no water. He brought water out of the flint rock for you.

Deuteronomy 8:16 He fed you in the open country with manna, which your fathers had not known, in order to discipline and test you, so that in the end he might cause you to prosper.

Deuteronomy 8:17 You may say to yourself, ‘My power and my ability have gained this wealth for me,’

Deuteronomy 8:18 but remember that Yahveh, your God gives you the power to gain wealth, in order to confirm his covenant he swore to your fathers, as it is today.

Deuteronomy 8:19 If you ever forget Yahveh, your God, and follow other gods to serve them and bow in worship to them, I testify against you today that you will be destroyed.

Deuteronomy 8:20 Like the nations Yahveh is about to destroy before you; you will be destroyed if you do not obey Yahveh, your God.

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[1]מוֹצָא = what comes out (possible wordplay with מַצָּה)

Deuteronomy 8 quotes

“The desolation of the wilderness is in stark contrast to the richness of the promised land. God had led his people through the wilderness, however, for a particular purpose; the forty years were to be a time of testing and disciplining, to know what was in your heart,2 whether or not you would keep his commandments (v. 2). The wilderness tested and disciplined the people in various ways. On the one hand, the desolation of the wilderness removed the natural props and supports which man by nature depends on; it cast the people back on God, who alone could provide the strength to survive the wilderness. On the other hand, the severity of the wilderness period undermined the shallow bases of confidence of those who were not truly rooted and grounded in God. The wilderness makes or breaks a man; it provides strength of will and character. The strength provided by the wilderness, however, was not the strength of self-sufficiency, but the strength that comes from a knowledge of the living God.”

Craigie Peter C. The Book of Deuteronomy. Eerdmans 1976. p. 185.

“Why, we may ask, were Israel charged to “remember all the way” by which the Lord their God had k'(l them? Assuredl}’, to draw out their hearts in praise for the past, and to strengthen their confidence in God for the future.”

Mackintosh Charles Henry. Notes on the Book of Deuteronomy. vol 3. Loizeaux Bros 1880. p. 37.

Deuteronomy 8 links:

a good land
a neglected promise
a promise to avoid
ACST 45- The Tempters
full of themselves
in retrospect- remember the whole way
Maranatha Daily Devotional – August 29, 2015
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Friday, August 10, 2018
purpose for prosperity

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The DEUTERONOMY shelf in Jeff’s library.