April 25, 2021
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Reading along with us in Deuteronomy? Here’s today’s reading:
Deuteronomy 8 (NIV)
Do Not Forget the Lord
1 Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase and may enter and possess the land the Lord promised on oath to your ancestors. 2 Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands.......Continue Reading
Deuteronomy 8
4Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years.
If this isn’t the most amazing and simply overlooked miracle God performed for the Israelites!
God did so many things to make Himself known and care for His people as far as supplying basic human needs of food and water it also makes me think about how much we feel we “need” that is really more a “want”.
That struck me, too. God must have also protected them from bites from the snakes and scorpions since they were mentioned along with clothes not wearing out and their feet not swelling. Just incredible.
Moses is reminding them of how much and how far God has brought them, he reminds them to walk in Gods ways, praise the Lord for the food and the good land they have. A good reminder for us not to take for granted all we have been Blessed with.
Moses here encourages them to look backwards in order to move forward, as we must do as well. The same way God has provided in the past is the same way He will provide in the future. But the thing about the past is, that we have already seen it. We look back at Gods’ provision, faithfulness and care. In the present and the future we must believe and obey, while using the past as a reference point. I mean, what miraculous ways for God to provide in the desert..not go hungry…your clothes don’t wear out and your feet didn’t swell! But the best way to value and appreciate that is to believe and follow now and in the future. What a great land He is leading them to. But they are not to forget that He is the One who is leading and so therefore He is the one who is to be believed and obeyed. And really the obedience is the more important thing, because at some point the provision in the present will be evident too! But will their hearts then be inclined to God?
The same question really confronts us as well, doesn’t it? God has been present and faithful to us. Are we going to give Him the credit? And if we do, will we believe Him in the present and trust that He will be present and provide again? And will we be obedient to do the things He has said which is the most concrete way to show that we trust Him? God really never asks us to believe Him in a vacuum. He always points to things He has done to help us believe Him for what He will do. The choice is always up to us. God has always done His part.
“And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.”
God taught the Israelites reliance on Him in the desert. He humbled and tested them whether they would be obedient and remain faithful.
He revealed their heart.
Testing and trials reveal our heart for God…or not.
Reminds me of James 1 – perseverance under trial produces maturity. “Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.”
It is interesting that once they received blessings, they forgot God.
It kind of parallels what we are going through now in America. Americans fought for our nation and established it in a covenant with God. With a law that mirrors God’s laws. With freedoms and guidelines for relationships that come from God’s word. We became prosperous and complacent and started to forget God. The enemy began nesting in the branches that God had planted. We allowed the enemy to sneak in and undermine, steal, kill, destroy what we have by forgetting Who we owe our prosperity to.
We must not forget the Lord.
11Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. 12Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, 13and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, 14then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.