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DEUTERONOMY 8
a. An exhortation to remember the wilderness (8:1–6)
8:1. This introductory verse reminded the Israelites again that the gifts of life and fertility in the land … promised by God did not come automatically to believers but were by-products of obedience. The wilderness experience was designed to produce both obedience and faith in the nation. The people were told to be careful (cf. 4:9) to follow every command from God.
8:2–3. When Moses said that God tested the Israelites in order to know what was in their hearts he was using an anthropomorphism. God, of course, already knew what was in their hearts. The point is that their obedience or disobedience had to be proven in history.
God led them into the desert where they had no alternative but to trust Him or to murmur against Him. In the desert they could not produce their own food but had to depend on God for food and thus for their very lives. When Moses reminded them that they did not live on bread alone he meant that even their food was decreed by the word of God. They had manna because it came by His command. It was therefore ultimately not bread that kept them alive but His word! “Bread alone,” that is, bread acquired independently of His word, could not keep them alive.
This was why Jesus refused Satan’s temptation to turn the stones into bread when He was in the wilderness (Matt. 4:3–4). Jesus knew that God had not decreed those stones for His food, and also that His Father would provide food apart from the Son’s working of a miracle at the suggestion of Satan (cf. Matt. 7:9).
8:4–6. The LORD disciplined Israel by making her depend on Him for everything: food, water, and clothes. Since all these were provided by His decree the only logical response was to observe (obey) the commands of the LORD, following and revering Him. “Revering” translates a word that means fearing, that is, fearing to disobey the One who is so powerful and holy.
b. An exhortation not to forget God (8:7–20)
8:7–9. In contrast with the severity of the wilderness these verses describe the abundance of Israel’s new land. It was abundant in water (essential for crops as well as for sustaining animal and human life); in agricultural produce including grains (wheat … barley), fruits (grapes, figs, pomegranates), oil from olive trees, and honey; and in minerals. (Iron and copper have been discovered in the hills south of the Dead Sea.) The people then would lack nothing (cf. Ps. 23:1).
8:10–18. Moses then spelled out the danger inherent in abundant prosperity. Whereas in the wilderness they had to depend on God for the necessities of life, their newfound prosperity might conceal their need for the same dependence. Moses prescribed a sure antidote for this danger: praise the LORD your God. In fact failure to praise Him for His blessings was a step toward forgetting God and then disobeying His commands.
An Israelite who ceased to praise the Lord sincerely would find that his heart had become proud (v. 14) in his abundance (vv. 12–13; cf. Hosea 13:6). He would forget (cf. Deut. 8:11, 19; see comments on 4:9) the miraculous deliverance of Israel from Egypt … the land of slavery (cf. 5:6; 6:12; 7:8; 13:5, 10; Ex. 13:3, 14; 20:2) and the wilderness (cf. Deut. 1:19; 32:10) with its venemous snakes (cf. Num. 21:6–7) and scorpions. (This is the only reference in the Pentateuch to scorpions in the wilderness wanderings.) Such a person who did not remember God’s provisions of water (Ex. 15:25, 27; 17:5–7) and manna (Ex. 16) in the desert would be inclined to credit his own ability (my power and strength) for his wealth, when in reality it was as much a gift from God as the water out of hard rock had been in the wilderness. The provision of manna was a test, to see if Israel would depend on the Lord’s word (cf. comments on Ex. 16:4). Such dependence is humbling (cf. Deut. 8:3). The people could avoid pride in their wealth and strength if they would constantly remember the LORD and the lesson of the wilderness: all of life is a gift from God and nothing is possible apart from Him (v. 18).
8:19–20. Just as failure to praise God would lead to forgetting Him, so forgetting Him would lead to worshiping other gods. That in turn would result in certain destruction (death). If Moses’ audience wanted an example of national destruction all they needed to do was to remember the nations the LORD destroyed, namely, the kingdoms of Sihon and Og (2:26–3:11).
