Deuteronomy 8: 1 – 20
Oh, that sounds familiar
8 “Every commandment which I command you today you must be careful to observe, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land of which the LORD swore to your fathers. 2 And you shall remember that the LORD your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. 3 So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD. 4 Your garments did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years. 5 You should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the LORD your God chastens you. 6 “Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God, to walk in His ways and to fear Him. 7 For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, that flow out of valleys and hills; 8 a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey; 9 a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing; a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper. 10 When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land which He has given you. 11 “Beware that you do not forget the LORD your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes which I command you today, 12 lest—when you have eaten and are full, and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them; 13 and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied; 14 when your heart [g]is lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage; 15 who led you through that great and terrible wilderness, in which were fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty land where there was no water; who brought water for you out of the flinty rock; 16 who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do you good in the end— 17 then you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.’ 18 “And you shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day. 19 Then it shall be, if you by any means forget the LORD your God, and follow other gods, and serve them and worship them, I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish. 20 As the nations which the LORD destroys before you, so you shall perish, because you would not be obedient to the voice of the LORD your God.
If you are a bible student then I can make a statement that you might be familiar with, ‘I just read this passage but it sounds familiar to some other stories in the bible.’
When it comes to familiarity, a slew of memories including seemingly unrelated ones can come flooding into the brain, according to mathematical theories called global similarity models.
After conducting an fMRI study on memory and categorization, researchers including a Texas Tech University psychologist have shown for the first time that these mathematical models seem to correctly explain processing in the medial temporal lobes, a region of the brain associated with long-term memory.
Since at least the 1980s, scientists researching memory have believed that when a person finds someone’s face or a new experience familiar, that person is not simply retrieving a memory of only this previous experience, but memories of many other related and unrelated experiences as well. Formal mathematical theories of memory called global similarity models suggest that when we judge familiarity, we match an experience, such as a face or a trip to a restaurant, to all of the memories that we have stored in our brains.
People may believe when they see someone’s familiar face or take a trip to a familiar restaurant, they only activate the most similar or recent memories for comparison. However, Davis said this is not the case. According to global similarity models, the feeling of familiarity for the taste of brisket at a particular restaurant draws on a spectrum of memories that a person has stored in his or her brain.
Eating the brisket can activate memories not only of a previous trip to that restaurant, but also of the décor, eating brisket at a similar restaurant, what that person’s home-cooked brisket tastes like and even seemingly tangential memories such as a recent trip to another city.
In terms of global similarity theories and our new findings, the important thing is when you are judging familiarity; your brain doesn’t just retrieve the most relevant memories but many other memories as well.
This does not mean that every memory we have stored contributes to familiarity in the same way. The more similar a previous memory is to the current experience, the more it will contribute to judgments of familiarity.
The more similar the activation pattern for an item was to all of the other activation patterns, the more strongly people remembered it. This is consistent with global similarity models, which suggest that the items that are most similar to all other items stored in memory will be most familiar.
The findings suggest that global similarity models may have a neurobiological basis, he said. This is evidence that similarity, in terms of neural processing, may impact memory. People may find things familiar not just because they are identical to things we've previously experienced, but because they are similar to a number of things we've previously experienced.
Our Great and Omniscient Holy God since He Is All Knowing was way ahead of neuroscience researchers. Let me show you by example. In today’s scripture we are going to read in verse 3 this saying, “3 So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD.”
Does this verse sound familiar to you? For extra credit can you tell me what it reminds you of?
If you have responded that it reminds you of our Lord Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness, you win a cookie. In the Gospel of Matthew chapter 4 it says, “4 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. 3 Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” 4 But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’ ” Nice!
In the previous chapters Moses has constantly reminded them of how our Great and Mighty God Yahweh delivered the Israelites from Egypt and from bondage. Now he calls on them to remember how He had also delivered them in the wilderness and the lessons that they learned there. For he has begun to be aware of the danger that when they are comfortably settled in the land, in complete contrast to the wilderness experience, and all their wars were over, they might easily forget our Loving God Yahweh and settle into the former ways of the land.
8 “Every commandment which I command you today you must be careful to observe, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land of which the LORD swore to your fathers.
Constantly before him was the fact that their fathers had perished in the wilderness being excluded from the land. They had died because they were disobedient to Yahweh. If these who now listen to Him wished to live and not die they must now ensure that they were obedient. And it is not just a matter of life, but of having a good life, a life of abounding and flourishing and possessing the land. All these were dependent on obedience to Yahweh’s overall commandment as revealed in His statutes and ordinances. For those who would enjoy fullness of life must listen to God’s requirement (‘commandment’) as He speaks to them through His word. Only in this way will they come into possession of what He has for His own.
2 And you shall remember that the LORD your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. 3 So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD.
Obedience to Yahweh’s commandments would be helped by remembering their time in the wilderness, so as they moved on they were to keep in mind the wilderness experience. In seeking to observe His commandment it was important that they remember all the way in which Yahweh their God had led them in the forty years in the wilderness. They needed to learn its lessons. How He had done this in such a way as to humble them and bring home to them how they were in fact constantly failing. How He had done it in order to test out their hearts, to see if in spite of all they would continue to keep His commandments. How He had done this in order that they might recognize that whatever they received, it would be from His mouth. It would be as a result of His promises and His provision. For God’s testing’s always have a purpose, even though they might appear bitter at the time. He had tested them because He had wanted to know what was really in their hearts and had wanted them to look to Him.
Let them then remember how they had previously been on the very verge of the Promised Land, and how it had resulted in forty years in the wilderness. That had been a huge disappointment. But they should also remember that in His graciousness He had not totally finished with them then because of their failure. He had stood by them. He had put them on probation, ready for the achieving of maturity of the next generation, so that His purposes for them might still go forward. And He had sought to bring home to them important lessons.
Indeed in their whole experience in the wilderness after leaving Egypt, even before His judgment on them because of their failure to enter the land, He had been humbling them. From the beginning He had allowed them to hunger. And then He had fed them, not with bread, but with something that neither they nor their fathers had previously known, the manna, something for which they had had to depend on Him day by day. They had had to forget what they had done in the past and look to Him for their provision. They had had to depend daily on what He had promised to give them, what came ‘from His mouth’. And He had done this in order that they might recognize that life is not dependent only on bread. They had to learn that bread is not everything. His purpose was that they might learn that they must receive their provision from His mouth. They must recognize that all that they had came from Him and resulted from His promises.
His aim was that they learn the vital lesson of hearing God and trusting Him in all circumstances.
When the manna had been first provided it was said at the time that it would be a test of their willingness to obey Him (Exodus 16.4). The test lay in the fact that it was to be a daily provision, so that they were not to hoard it but to wait for it each day from Yahweh’s hand. They had constantly to look to Him and to trust Him. So were they to learn the lesson of the wilderness and now wait each day on God in the same way.
4 Your garments did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years.
They were to remember how, while they wandered in that wilderness, they were fully provided for. They did not live in poverty so that their clothes grew old and ragged. Rather they had had sufficient so that they could afford to renew their clothing. Nor had they suffered from debilitating feet problems. They had been short of nothing. They had always been able to clothe themselves well and keep their feet in good condition and go forward. Yahweh had watched over both their wardrobe and their health, as a father sees to the needs of his children.
5 You should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the LORD your God chastens you.
Furthermore when they are tested they must consider in their hearts that just as a man chastens his children for their good, so does Yahweh chasten them, His children. Here again He emphasizes that Adoni Yahweh Is to them as a father. Remembering the lesson of God’s provision of the manna when all seemed hopeless, and the chastening that a good father always gives to his children, they should then be enabled to walk into the future with confidence, even in the face of adversities.
6 “Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God, to walk in His ways and to fear Him.
So with this in mind they must truly continue to keep the commandments of Yahweh their God, to walk constantly in His ways, and to fear Him. As a son listens to his father, so must they listen to Him.
7 For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, that flow out of valleys and hills; 8 a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey; 9 a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing; a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper.
Let all the people recognize what kind of a land it is that Yahweh is leading them into. It is in complete contrast with the wilderness that they have known for so long. It is a good land. It is a land of streams produced by plenteous water, made full by refreshing rain, a land of gushers and springs flowing forth in its valleys and hills, it is a land of wheat and barley, and vines, and fig trees and pomegranates. It is a land of olive trees and honey. It is a land of bread without shortage, so that they will lack nothing in it.
We see here a very interesting statement, ‘it is a land ‘whose stones are iron’. This indicates a plentiful supply of meteorites from which men had always been able to obtain useful iron. To come across a meteorite was considered a boon. Metorites were always seen as one of God’s special gifts. They came from heaven to provide, with their fused iron content, a useful material to men. And from the hills of the land they will be able to dig copper. Copper mining had been know for over a thousand years before this time, being well attested elsewhere. So every provision is there. They will go short of nothing, and they will have valuable metals to trade.
10 When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land which He has given you.
Once in the land they would eat and be full, and would bless Yahweh for the good land which He had given them. They would not be dependent on God’s provision of the manna, and of water from unusual sources, but would have food and drink in abundance.
Knowing the hearts of the people Moses now saw fit to gave them a severe warning. He recognized that there was a danger that when they became prosperous they would forget Who had given them all these blessings, and would begin rather to commend themselves. He therefore seeks to prepare for such an eventuality.
11 “Beware that you do not forget the LORD your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes which I command you today,
Moses had led men, and especially these men, for too long not to be aware that times of plenty could pose a danger so he adds a further warning. They must beware lest in all their plenty they forget Yahweh. The point was not that men would forget altogether, for that was unlikely, but that they would forget their covenant responsibility. Their ‘forgetfulness’ would be revealed by their not keeping His commandments, and His statutes and His ordinances.
We too as believers may still regularly enjoy our attendance at worship, but the test of the genuineness of our faith is whether we still remember Him by the way we live our lives in the daily grind.
12 lest—when you have eaten and are full, and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them; 13 and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are [f]multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied; 14 when your heart is lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage;
The danger was lest, when they were full and satisfied, and had their own splendid homes, and large flocks, and great wealth, and when it all continued to multiply seemingly endlessly, they forgot the One Who had given it to them, the One Who brought them to this wealth and freedom by bringing them out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. It is one of the strange quirks of man that when God is too good to him he revels in it and tends to overlook God. It was in recognizing this that the writer in Proverbs, while not wanting to be poor, also did not want to be too rich (Proverbs 30.9). Let them not then, says Moses, be like those who remember Him when they are in slavery but forget Him when they are free.
15 who led you through that great and terrible wilderness, in which were fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty land where there was no water; who brought water for you out of the flinty rock; 16 who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do you good in the end—
Let them remember that it was The Merciful and Gracious Holy God Who had watched over them in the wilderness. So let them think what Yahweh had done for them. He had led them through a great and terrible wilderness, stretching mile after mile, with water short and food scarce, and the way rough, in the burning sun. It was a wilderness where there were fiery snakes and scorpions waiting to bite and sting, and inject with venom, where the ground was thirsty and waterless. But He had supplied them with water from the flinty rocks and had given them the wonderful provision of the manna for food, that manna which was unknown to their fathers. And He had brought them through all this in order to humble them and as a test to them, so that finally He might do them good.
It was during those experiences that they had been forced to look to Yahweh, for they had had nowhere else to look. And He had been the author and Savior of their deliverance.
In a way it had been much easier to trust under those conditions, simply because they had had to, even though their trust had been a very wavering trust. But once life was safe and placid forgetfulness would come easily.
17 then you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.’
An equal danger was that when they prospered they might then say within their hearts, ‘I have achieved this by myself. It is my power and the might of my hand that has obtained all this wealth for me’. Certain conditions lead men to trust God, but conditions that are too good tend to make men forget God and depend only on themselves. We need to be most concerned about our spiritual lives when we prosper most, for it can make us foolish so that we forget that behind all is God.
We have here the idea of a subtle form of idolatry which does not involve graven images; it is the idolatry of man’s worship of himself, man placing himself and his society in the place of God.
18 “And you shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day.
So when all this good stuff comes together and they are enjoying all His blessings that at this time they must ensure that they remembered Yahweh their God, and that it was He who had given them power to obtain wealth. And that He had done it in order to establish His covenant, the covenant by which He had promised to bring prosperity to His own, and the very covenant that He had sworn to their fathers whom He had also prospered most of the time. It was important that the covenant be established in their hearts. Then all he had been warning against would not prevail against them. It is by remembering our vows made in the hard times that we can ensure that we remain constant.
19 Then it shall be, if you by any means forget the LORD your God, and follow other gods, and serve them and worship them, I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish. 20 As the nations which the LORD destroys before you, so you shall perish, because you would not be obedient to the voice of the LORD your God.
Least they forget, let them, however, beware of the alternative route, the route of idolatry and flagrant disobedience. This warning may seem to come somewhat abruptly, but not if we see it in the context of the whole speech, and in the light of the fact that in those days men would always worship something, so that if they forgot Yahweh they would soon turn to other gods. The danger of succumbing to the gods of the land was ever present in Moses’ mind, and he came back to it constantly. When they were at ease it would be so easy to relax their rigid obedience to Yahweh and find the easygoing gods of the land preferable (man loves to have something to worship. That is how he is made, but he prefers it not to be too demanding). For they offered lustful pleasure rather than stern demands, and when all was well nothing was required of them.
Moses now cites himself as a witness, as earlier he had called on heaven and earth as witnesses, to the fact that if they forgot Him, if they walked after other gods and served them, and worshipped them, gods who would undoubtedly enable them to satisfy their deepest lusts, then let them know that Yahweh would ensure that they surely perished. In the same way as they will see the nations of the land perish when they put them to the sword, so would they perish because they refused to listen to Yahweh’s voice, the voice of ‘Yahweh their God’.
In the Western world today people have never had it so good. Even the poorest are comparatively wealthy and possess things that their forebears never dreamed of. And the result has not been gratitude to God, but greed for more, and a readiness to seek entertainment and satisfaction for their lustful natures regardless of righteous living. They too have succumbed to idols. Their gods are idols of music and sport and entertainment, but these, which can be good in themselves, are equally destroying their souls, and the souls of others, because they have become the be all and end all of their lives, and lead them into behavior which is displeasing to God and harmful to themselves.
