Deuteronomy 8--Remember the LORD Your God

Deuteronomy 8
English Standard Version

Remember the LORD Your God
8 “The whole commandment that I command you today you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land that the LORD swore to give to your fathers. 2 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. 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. 4 Your clothing did not wear out on you and your foot did not swell these forty years. 5 Know then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the LORD your God disciplines you. 6 So you shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God by walking in his ways and by fearing him. 7 For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing out in the valleys and hills, 8 a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, 9 a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. 10 And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land he has given you.

11 “Take care lest you forget the LORD your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, 12 lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, 13 and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, 14 then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, 15 who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock, 16 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. 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. 19 And if you forget the LORD your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish. 20 Like the nations that the LORD makes to perish before you, so shall you perish, because you would not obey the voice of the LORD your God.

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Once again, the covenant and obedience to the Law is connected to remember who God is and what He has done.  They will only receive the blessings God wants to give them if they remain the people God wants them to be, and they that means walking in humility and obedience before the LORD.  Why was it such a big deal that these Israelites not become like any of the other nations?  Is it simply that God doesn't want to judge "His children" or is there something more to it?  I posit there is something much larger going on here, and it's not about Mount Sinai, but out Mount Calvary.  The lineage of the Messiah needed to be preserved and the very first gospel seed that we heard preached to us in Genesis 3:14-15 and we are expectant to see the fulfillment of the Abrahamic Covenant of Genesis 12 and Genesis 15. but it is Genesis 22 that gave us a glimpse of the gospel to come.  "On the mountain of the LORD, it will be provided" and on that day He was called Jehovah Jireh, the LORD Our Provider.  See, we know who He is and what He is up to by remembering what He has said and what He has done.  How terrible it would be if the people stopped remembering this and the promise was fulfilled, but they didn't see it happen because they no longer expected it to happen?  That's basically what we see happen in the Gospels.

So now we see one of the verses that Jesus quoted to the devil during His temptation in Matthew 4.  "Man does not live by bread alone, but by every world the comes from the mouth of the LORD."  (verse 3b).  This is why God said that He gave them manna every day in the wilderness, to teach them that they need to depend on Him and His Word more than they need to depend on bread to feed them.  This is not the only miraculous provision that He made for them as He lead them by pillar of cloud and pillar of fire for forty years.  Their clothes and sandals never wore out, and their feet did not get swollen during the journey.  We see that even though they were under a time of judgment the LORD gave them good health and let those of this rebellious generation die off in such a way that another generation rose up to take their place and their descendants were not completely cut off from the earth, for that would have possibly eliminated the lineage of king David from whom the Messiah would one day come.

The LORD brought them through all these hard times and provided for them so that when He brought them into a land full of abundance and resources that, hopefully, they would remember to thank Him for every good and perfect gift that He had given to them, both then and now.  We know that's not what typically happens for us though.  Our memories are short-lived and when we live in prosperity we turn inward and focus on ourselves and how great we must be to live in such a great land with great resources, and we begin to worship ourselves and the gods that we create.

God says that we can remember who He is and partially remember what He's up to by keeping His entire Law--I don't think He's just referring to the Ten Commandments here, but I think this is everything that is going to be spelled out in the book of Deuteronomy and that we saw spelled out in Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers as well.  The way in which God commanded the people to live and worship was all a reflection of who He was and what He had made them to be and the Law is there to show us a picture of the gospel and get them ready for the person and work of Jesus (the Savior) the Christ (the Messiah--the Anointed One of God who is the rightful King of Heaven and Earth).  God promises that He will provide everything necessary for their obedience--the animals they would need for all the sacrifices and the gold and silver for their tithes and their crops that they would need for their grain offerings and offerings of firstfruits.  All of this belonged to the LORD anyways, and if they would be obedient to give themselves to the LORD and demonstrate that by giving generously in their tithes and offerings as well as taking care of the poor and destitute among them, then God would pour out so much abundance on them that they would not have room to contain it all.  But the people will fail to obey the Sabbath, and they will fail to let the land rest.  They will fail to give justice to the poor and destitute (like the widow and orphan) and they will try to offer the LORD inferior sacrifices imagining that they can keep the best for themselves, but the LORD knows and we are told in the prophets that it would be like they had money bags that had a hole in the bottom of them and the money poured out as fast or faster than they could put it in.

The LORD wanted them to specifically remember the time in Numbers 21, which Jesus will point back to when He talks to Nicodemus, "Just as Moses lifted up the bronze serpent in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up."  God tells them to remember this exact moment of rebellion as something they should not want to repeat, but it is also this exact moment that they need to remember to remember the LORD's salvation when they do repeat such open rebellion again.  There would not be a "cheap grace" that cost nothing, but it would cost God everything.  It is not something where we simply just say the magic words, but we have to look at our sin elevated up for all to see and say, "Yes, that's what I did, and I deserve to die for it, but Jesus took my place."  We must believe in the "great exchange" by faith that "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." (2 Corinthians 5:21).

He is the got that brought water from the Rock for them, and we are told what we are to learn from this in 1 Corinthians 10:1-4.


1 Corinthians 10:1-4
English Standard Version
Warning Against Idolatry
10 For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, 2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3 and all ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.

If we recall, there were two times that the people got water from the rock.  Once in the beginning of their journey and Moses was told to strike the rock with the staff of God which would symbolize how Jesus was going to die to provide the everlasting life we needed, but after that Moses was only supposed to speak/prophecy to the rock and the water was to pour out from it, but Jesus only needed to die once to pour out eternal, abundant life for all who believe.  Now, Moses messed this up by getting angry and striking the rock again, but we can still see what God intended here--to show the people that Jesus is the Rock once smitten for our salvation and that, "Jesus died once and once for all."  Never again would He need to die and all of the blessings would continue to pour forth from that one event.

The LORD specifically warns His people before they cross over into the Promised Land to not become haughty and forget Him when things get good and not to become like the other nations--following after false gods and worshiping idols.  If they do, they will receive the curses of the Law and not the blessings, for the LORD will not let the wicked go unpunished, even if they imagine themselves to be His children, yet He also provided grace to all peoples, since all of us were at one time His enemies.  He is the one that changes our nature and identities and calls us His children made in the likeness of His Son--if we are not made into the likeness of His Son, then we are not His children.