Thursday, November 2, 2017

Deuteronomy 8

Deuteronomy is a book, it seems to me, of Remembrance for the children of Israel - to remember God, and His hand in their lives.  Not just as a general whole, but specifically in every life of those preparing to enter the land.  Chapter 8 clearly marks this.


God has had a clear and definite hand in our lives.   Not just now, today but in our past - in the hard times we sometimes forget He is in those also. And, even in them, there are underlying blessings we often think of in terms of "well, it wasn't all bad" but we don't REMEMBER God is in it all.

It says in chapter 8 of Deuteronomy

God made them hungry and when they admitted they were hungry with no resources of their own, He gave them Manna.  Not exotic foods but a food to sustain them.

This was for several reasons, but it is stated it was for discipline and for teaching

To teach them: 

1  Man does not live by bread alone but also the importance of remembering and obeying every word      of  God's instructions to them.

2  In this desert did they notice that their clothes didn't wear out, or their feet swell?  So under the  discipline there was positive care given.   Did they give thanks for God's protection.  Do we, or do    we only grumble for the areas we are upset by.

The Discipline of the Desert place was to bring them to the promised land.   That discipline was not all they saw.  They were protected from the heat by the cloud by day, and from the chill by pillar of fire by night.   They were protected from snakes and scorpions and other things not specifically mentioned.    And when it was clear there was no water and they were thirsty they were given  water from "THE ROCK".   I heard Bible School teachers tell me it was porous rock that was infused with water and when struck it broke through and released the water.   This passage says from HARD rock.  And of course,  Moses was instructed to speak to the rock.  The Rock was Jesus Christ and for striking it, in fact twice, Moses lost the privilege of going into the Promised land.

And lastly, in this passage, God spoke very specifically  about not forgetting the LORD your God and deliberately creating 'gods' to your own taste.   With worshiping other gods, the LORD warned that His protection would be removed.  And part of that forgetting was beginning to see your success in overcoming the enemy and gaining a good life not as given by God, but your good planning or choices.  Creating yourself as your god, and turning away from gratitude and praise to the God who gave it to you.

 Not in Deuteronomy but like the picture