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November 26 | Deuteronomy 8 ISG Thanksgiving

Deuteronomy 8 (NIV)
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. 3 He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. 4 Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years. 5 Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you.6 Observe the commands of the LORD your God, walking in obedience to him and revering him. 7 For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land —a land with brooks, streams, and deep springs gushing out into the valleys and hills; 8 a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey; 9 a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing; a land where the rocks are iron and you can dig copper out of the hills. 10 When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you. 11 Be 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. 12 Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, 13 and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, 14 then 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. 15 He led you through the vast and dreadful wilderness, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock. 16 He gave you manna to eat in the wilderness, something your ancestors had never known, to humble and test you so that in the end it might go well with you. 17 You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” 18 But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today.19 If you ever forget the LORD your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed. 20 Like the nations the LORD destroyed before you, so you will be destroyed for not obeying the LORD your God.



The Text in Context
Moses address the challenges to faith that the Israelites will encounter in the Promised Land. In this chapter that threat emerges because Yahweh is faithful to his promises. Moses’ fivefold appeal to keep alive the memory of Yahweh’s actions on Israel’s behalf (vv. 2, 11, 14, 18, 19) suggests that the notion of remembering/forgetting is a key motif in the chapter.1 In addition, Moses’ charge to keep the commands of Yahweh by walking in his ways and fearing him (v. 6; cf. v. 11) points to the heart of the matter: Will Israel serve Yahweh in the land, or will they not? This is the same question Moses had raised in chapter 7, though now the nature of the test has changed dramatically.
The context of the test (v. 1). Moses begins by reminding his audience of Yahweh’s ancient goal for Israel: life and prosperity in the land that he had sworn to give to their descendants. The emphatic construction of the main clause, coupled with the use of the singular “the whole command” (NIV, “every command”), suggests Moses has in mind the Supreme Command (6:5). By adding the word “follow” (lit., “do”), he reiterates that the divine will is kept by putting it into action. Allegiance to Yahweh is not merely a matter of verbal utterances of the Shema or any other creed; it is demonstrated in behavior, the nature of which will be fleshed out generally in 30:16. If Israel will be faithful to Yahweh, they will achieve life, increase (of population), entrance into the land, and possession of it.

The desert experience as a paradigm for the future test (vv. 2–5).
This paragraph forms a self-contained unit framed by the appeal to remember in verse 2 and the appeal to draw the right theological conclusions in verse 5.4 The opening appeal, “Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way,” functions as a thesis-type statement, which the rest of verses 2 and 3 will develop. Here “way” (derek) refers metaphorically to the course of conduct that Yahweh prescribes for the Israelites (v. 6),5 and to Yahweh’s manner of dealing with people and the underlying motivation for his actions (cf. Ex. 33:13). Moses clarifies the expression by citing four actions that any outside observer could have recognized: Yahweh led Israel for forty years in the desert, he humbled them, he caused them to hunger, and he fed them manna.
But Moses’ concern here is with the divine motivation: Why did Yahweh treat Israel the way he did? To this question he provides three answers. (1) Yahweh was intentionally depriving Israel of normal food to humble them. (2) Yahweh was testing his people to assess the quality of the vassal’s fidelity (8:2) and to enhance Israel’s covenant commitment through discipline (8:5). Just as the metallurgical process of refining precious metals involves extraction of impurities from ore through intense heat, so metaphorical refinement involves a demanding and painful process.6 (3) Yahweh was exposing the shallowness of the people’s commitment to him. This aim is expressed explicitly by the clause “to know what was in your heart,” and the method involved observing whether or not the Israelites would keep his commands. Moses’ present statement echoes Yahweh’s words in Exodus 16:4 and assumes that people’s actions express what is inside their hearts/minds.
The nature of the future test (vv. 6–9). This illustration of Israel’s deprivation in the desert serves as a foil for the future test: How will the Israelites respond to prosperity and excess? By casting the first clause of verse 10 as a temporal clause, the NIV obscures the rhetorical strategy of this section, which is driven by four verbs in verses 6–10 (lit.): “you will keep [observe] the commands… you will eat… you will be satisfied… you will bless [praise].” The first three summarize the nature of the test, and the last expresses how they should have responded to it.

Bridging Contexts
Manna are remarkably rare in the Old Testament. Outside the narratives involving the provision (Ex. 16:15, 31, 33, 35; Num. 11:6, 7, 9) and Moses’ present reflections on this provision (Deut. 8:3, 16), this miraculous food is mentioned only five times. Joshua 5:12 notes that Yahweh ceased providing manna the day after the Israelites ate the produce of the land for the first time (cf. Ex. 16:35). The present text is remembered in the prayer of the Levites in Nehemiah 9:19–20, which notes that among Yahweh’s many gracious provisions during the forty-year sojourn in the desert, Yahweh provided manna and water, and then adds that “their clothes did not wear out nor did their feet become swollen,” an obvious allusion to Deuteronomy 8:4. Later poets spoke of the manna as “bread of heaven” (Ps. 105:40), “grain of heaven” (Ps. 78:24), and even more colorfully, “bread of angels” (Ps. 78:25).
Paul alludes to our text in 1 Corinthians 10:3–5. While his statement is enigmatic, he observes that the ancestors all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink, from a spiritual rock; but most of them died, because they did not receive the approval of God. While most commentators assume the spiritual food was the manna,33 which was in fact very physical,34 Paul has in mind “every word that comes out of the mouth of the LORD” (Deut. 8:3), that is, his verbal revelation embodied in the commands and ordinances of the covenant. When he says that the people ate but God was not pleased with them, he recognizes that the ancestors all had access to the revelation, but they refused to keep the commands of Yahweh their God, to walk in his ways, and to fear him (Deut. 8:6).

Contemporary Significance
The significance of this chapter for contemporary Christians may be recognized at many levels. First, and most obviously, like Israel of old, Christians do not live by bread alone but by obedience to the will of God. If we are preoccupied with physical well-being to the neglect of our spiritual life, we too will perish. This is a particular problem in the Western church, where with our prosperity we have forgotten that all good things come from God, including the ability to make wealth. Not only have we forgotten to give thanks to God; we have also become increasingly resistant to letting his revealed will govern our lives. The image of God as a father testing and disciplining his children offers valuable perspective on the tests and trials we face. The wise man of Israel teaches us the proper disposition toward the discipline of God in Proverbs 3:11–12.
Peter seems to have understood the purpose of such testing when he wrote in 1 Peter 1:6–7 that trials have come so that “faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire —may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” Like the Israelites’ disposition toward Yahweh, though Peter’s readers have not seen Jesus Christ, they love him; and though they do not see him now, they still believe in him and are filled with inexpressible and glorious joy, knowing that it is for their good in the end and the goal of their faith, the salvation of their souls. The echoes from our text are evident throughout this passage (see also the connections in 1 Peter 4:12–18).

The danger of success.
The second half of this chapter reminds us of the potential danger that lurks with success. Indeed success may be more tragic than failure, especially if it causes us to forget God and results in pride, smugness, and self-sufficiency. This applies not only to economic ventures, but especially to those who serve as ministers of the gospel. When we look over our accomplishments, whether they are the megachurches we have built, the books we have written, or the busy schedules people impose on us, we too are tempted to say to ourselves, if not publicly, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this church for me.” And we are tempted to forget that every service we render has its roots in the gracious and unmerited call of God, and that every achievement is possible only because the Lord God has graciously endowed us with the abilities to preach a fine sermon, to lead a large church, or to write an impressive tome.In our day, God’s tests come in many additional forms. When all our needs are met, God is testing us: when we win a scholarship to a prestigious university, receive accolades for a beautiful painting or poem, are promoted in business, or gain a windfall fortune on the stock market. But this is also true of the more mundane accomplishments: when we learn to read or ride a bicycle, master a new computer program, or strike a hole-in-one on the golf course, God is testing us. Will we give him praise for giving us the wits and the skills for these accomplishments? Our faith and faithfulness are not tested only when the Lord drives us to the end of ourselves; they are also tested when everything is going our way. Indeed, the more successful we are, the stiffer the test and the greater the reason to praise God, and at the same time, the greater the danger of self-sufficiency.

Financial Report for the month of September.

Giving : $ 8,392.45
Expenses : $ 9,072.37
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Needed: $ -679.92


Financial Report for the month of October.

Giving: $ 13,985.30
Expenses: $ 11,075.00
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Surplus: $ 2,910.30

References:

Excerpt From: Daniel I. Block. “Deuteronomy.” Apple Books.

Guide Questions
1. Read Deuteronomy 8 and highlight the phrases, “be careful” and “remember.” discuss what are the ideas that came after those phrases.
2. Read 8:14, why does pride come before forgetfulness? Read the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6 and discuss how this prayer keeps us from pride.
3. Read Luke 12:13-21 and discuss the slippery slope of unbridled ambition.
4.How can Deuteronomy 8:18 be more concrete in our daily walk with God? What does the Thanksgiving event remind you of?


Prayer
1. Pray for specific prayer requests.
2. Pray for a new place of worship for 2024.
3. Pray for our Thanksgiving Sunday.