Don't Forget God (Deuteronomy 8)

Are we much different than the ancient Israelites? Do we also easily forget God? Do we think our blessings are from our own abilities? Let’s look at Deuteronomy 8.

What was an important thing to remember all their lives? Is it also important for us?

Be careful to observe every command that I’m instructing you today, in order that you may live, increase, and enter and take possession of the land that the Lord promised by an oath to your ancestors. Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way these 40 years in the desert to humble and test you in order to make known what was in your heart—whether or not you would keep his commands. He humbled you, causing you to be hungry, yet he fed you with manna that neither you nor your ancestors had known, in order to teach you that human beings are not to live by food alone—instead human beings are to live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord. (Deuteronomy 8:1-3 ISV)

Did their clothes get old? Did God chasten them? Was old Israel a good land?

Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell, these forty years. Thou shalt also consider in thine heart, that, as a man chasteneth his son, so the Lord thy God chasteneth thee. Therefore thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to fear him. For the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills; A land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil olive, and honey; A land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack any thing in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass. When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the Lord thy God for the good land which he hath given thee. (Deuteronomy 8:4-10 KJV)

What should they beware of? Does the same warning apply to us?

Beware lest you forget Yahweh your God by not keeping His commandments and His judgments and His statutes which I am commanding you today; lest you eat and are satisfied and build good houses and live in them, and your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and gold multiply, and all that you have multiplies, and your heart becomes lifted up and you forget Yahweh your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. He led you through the great and fearsome wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water; He brought water for you out of the rock of flint. In the wilderness He fed you manna which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do good for you in the end (Deuteronomy 8:11-16 LSB)

Did they have the tendency to think the success was because of their abilities? Do we?

Otherwise, you may say in your heart, ‘My power and the strength of my hand made me this wealth.’ But you are to remember the Lord your God, for it is He who is giving you power to make wealth, in order to confirm His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day. And it shall come about, if you ever forget the Lord your God and follow other gods and serve and worship them, I testify against you today that you will certainly perish. Like the nations that the Lord eliminates from you, so you shall perish, because you would not listen to the voice of the Lord your God. (Deuteronomy 8:17-20 NASB)

Does God still provide for the faithful under the new covenant?

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! (Matthew 7:7-11 NIV)

Are we much different than the ancient Israelites? Do we also easily forget God? Do we think our blessings are from our own abilities? You decide!