Deuteronomy 8:1-10: a reflection

1You shall observe to do all the commandments which I command you today, that you may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the LORD swore to your fathers. 2You shall remember all the way which the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, to test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. 3He humbled you, allowed you to be hungry, and fed you with manna, which you didn’t know, neither did your fathers know, that he might teach you that man does not live by bread only, but man lives by every word that proceeds out of the LORD’s mouth. 4Your clothing didn’t grow old on you, neither did your foot swell, these forty years. 5You shall consider in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you. 6You shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, and to fear him. 7For the LORD your God brings you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of springs, and underground water flowing into valleys and hills; 8a land of wheat, barley, vines, fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of olive trees and honey; 9a land in which you shall eat bread without scarcity, you shall not lack anything in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you may dig copper. 10You shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land which he has given you.

Looking back over forty years in the wilderness, Moses tells Israel what God was doing in all that hardship: he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, that he might teach you that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD. The hunger and the daily manna were a lesson, teaching a truth we are slow to learn: our life does not come from bread alone.

Notice the lesson and how it was taught. God let them be hungry, and then provided day by day, so that they would learn to depend not merely on the provision but on the God who provides, not just on bread but on his word and his presence. We live, at the deepest level, not on what fills the stomach but on God himself. That is a truth more easily learned in the wilderness of need than in the comfort of plenty.

And Moses warns of the very danger of plenty. When they come into the good land and eat and are full, the temptation will be to forget the God who brought them there, to enjoy the gifts and lose sight of the Giver. It is a caution for us who mostly live in relative plenty: the fullness that should make us grateful can quietly make us forget. So remember, both truths together: you do not live by bread alone but by every word from God, and when you are full, bless the God who gave it. Feed on him, and do not forget him in your plenty.

Lord, you taught your people through the wilderness that man does not live by bread alone but by every word from your mouth. Teach me to depend not just on your provision but on you, and to feed on your word. And when I am full and comfortable, keep me from forgetting you; let my plenty make me grateful, not forgetful.