Good morning! Welcome to my Bible study. Settle in on my window seat with a cup of coffee, watch the sun rise, and let's delve into Deuteronomy 8.
I actually found this chapter (like it was lost) after starting to read Matthew 4. I was brought up abruptly for the first time in my life by Jesus's quote at the end, "Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry. And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.’”
For some reason I had never thought about that quote before, but it suddenly struck me with the image of everyone living their everyday lives, all of it sustained by the words of our Lord's mouth. So I went back to the source of that quote: Deuteronomy 8. The context is God speaking His commandments to Moses after the Lord spoke to the people of Israel from the midst of the fire, causing them to say (paraphrase), "We've seen God's glory and greatness, but please don't show us any more lest we die. For who has heard His voice and lived?" And God said, "They have done well in all that they have spoken. Oh that they had such a heart in them, that they would fear Me and keep all My commandments always, that it may be well with them and with their sons forever!"
Those last words of Father God are the beginning of a theme: a theme that I call "teachable moments." You've heard that "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" (Psalm 111:10). The OT is simply chock full of times when the Lord took a circumstance and turned it into an object lesson for His people, to show them how things work in our world: who He is and who we are; the fear of the Lord.
So to start in on chapter 8 (it would be nice to have a Bible handy, I'll be verse-hopping a bit). first of all, we know why God is giving these commandments, "that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land." I'll bring to light a few things which stuck out to me this morning:
vs. 3: "and He humbled you and let you be hungry and fed you with manna which you did not know...that He might make you understand (or know) that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord." How many times does God let people "be hungry"? It's certainly not a pleasant sensation, that's for sure. But perhaps He's doing it so that He can feed them with manna, all for the ultimate purpose--not of filling their stomachs--but of making them understand that He is the one who makes our every breath possible and sustains us every day.
