Published: July 13, 2025 | Speaker: D. Aaron Wells | Series: Deuteronomy - The Law Is Good, If One Uses It Lawfully 2 - Part 10 | Scripture: Deuteronomy 8:1-20
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continue to pray that she does. So certainly going to be an ongoing thing. Um okay, this is the this is the law is good if one uses it lawfully session 27. We'll be in Deuteronomy 8
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today. Um just briefly before reading uh I've again rehearsed my sort of road mapap of Deuteronomy
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uh here to remind us where we are uh in it. It's easy to become lost in this very long second discourse. Okay. So, so
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we we are at the uh sort of the beginning of the middle. Okay. And in this first block into which
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you can divide the second uh the second discourse. So it has an introductory block and a concluding block and a main body as well. Okay. And what we're in
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here in 5 through 11 is quite dense. um and and I have found it in my personal study easy to get lost in it which is why I keep coming back to some sort of pictorial uh representation. So what you
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have in have in in Deuteronomy 5 through11 are four main markers that I think can help organize the text and this is the basis on which
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I've organized my study. So at the very outset you have Moses telling them here O Israel and then rehearses to them the law
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spoken from the mountain. In chapter six he says it twice tells them to hear since he is bringing them the
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commandment that they should love Yahweh their God with all their heart and with all their soul and with all their might. Okay. uh in what follows from the passage
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we'll discuss today it he again says here O Israel okay and finally after rehearsing the affair of the cast metal calf in 10:12
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he declares he declares and now what then does Yahweh require of you so there's a step along the way in this
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very dense block of text as the as as this was a dense block. So this is okay. And in a way, you know, one one might say that we have we have a block,
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we have a body because this is six through eight. We have another block and another block.
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Okay. So it follows a similar patterning. Um, we've been in the very thick of this. Uh, and chapter 7 is the very densest, right in the middle of it. The the middle of the beginning of the
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middle. U, now we're approaching the end of this. And I want you to as much as you can recall to mind the things we read in chapter six because as bookends
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of a segment, they will they will have something to say about one another. And we'll get into the details of of what that is. that is. Uh but I hope that'll help you keep
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track uh of where we are and not make uh Deuteronomy 8 seem so much as an isolated uh segment of of discourse. So
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this is Deuteronomy 8. The whole commandment that I command you today, you shall be careful to do that you may live and multiply and go in and
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possess the land that Yahweh swore to give to your fathers. You shall remember the whole way that Yahweh your God has led you these 40
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years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. And he humbled you and let you hunger
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and fed you with mana, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by
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every word that comes from the mouth of Yahweh. Your clothing did not wear out on you, and your foot did not swell these 40 years. Know then in your heart,
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as a man disciplines his son, Yahweh your God disciplines you. So shall you keep the commandments of Yahweh your God by walking in his ways and fearing him.
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For Yahweh your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs flowing out in the valleys and hills. A land of wheat
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and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing. A land whose stones
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are iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper. And you shall eat and be full. and you shall bless Yahweh your God for the good land that he has given you. Take care then lest you forget
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Yahweh your God by not keeping his commands and his rules and his statutes which I command you today. Lest when you have eaten and are full and have built
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good houses and live in them, and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart be lifted up, and you
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forget Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness with its fiery serpents and scorpions and
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thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water, out of the flinty rock, who fed you in the wilderness with mana that your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you to
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do you good in the end. Beware lest you say in your heart, "My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth. You shall
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remember Yahweh your God, for it is he who gives you the power to make wealth, that he may confirm his covenant, that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day." And if forgetting you forget
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Yahweh your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that perishing you shall perish. Like the nations that
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Yahweh makes to perish before you, so you shall perish because you would not obey the voice of Yahweh your God.
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So we've seen in really in all that has preceded uh but especially in the last few chapters the people's possession coming out of the first discourse is the word of God. Okay. By it and by means of a heart
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always to fear and love Yahweh they shall possess the land. They shall bear sons for righteousness and they shall live abundantly. This is what the law
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prescribes. Okay. Yahweh does not give to them. Furthermore, and I think this is really the if I had to put one New Testament spin on what is in chapter 6
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through8, I would say Yahweh does not give as the world gives. Okay? And they will not possess the land as the nations possess their lands, nor bear sons as
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the nations bear sons, nor will they live by the things the nations live by, but rather by every word of God. Um this this forms uh again as I said a
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bookend that is started by this pronouncement in chapter five. Um, so this is just again to make sure that you're seeing the connections of the words in the text and are able to come
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back to them uh at a later time, right? That that he that he is giving them the commandment, the statutes and the rules and in fact
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the whole commandment and the statutes and the rules. Okay? That that you shall teach them. Okay? uh don't have another color. Um
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careful to do as Yahweh commanded you and finally walking in all the way. And then these terms or these phrases are dispersed on either side of this part of
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the discourse. So that chapter 8 read to me as a crescendo of what has followed. Right? Not uh not just this is the
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commandment, the statutes and the rules, but now the whole commandment that I command you today, you shall be careful to do.
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Those things that Yahweh commanded me to teach you teach you and be careful to do them.
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But also this, you shall walk in all the way that Yahweh your God has commanded you. You shall remember the whole way that Yahweh your God has led you.
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Careful to do. There we go. So, a sort of splitting of the terms on either side. either side. um because there's a lot of literary markers and it was difficult to figure out how to organize this. But noticing
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those kinds of things can be very valuable in helping you stay anchored in the text. But also how this expands on what's been said. You shall walk in all the way that Yahweh your God has
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commanded you. And to do and the way of doing that is in part remembering the whole way that he actually led you, right? that that's not an accidental uh
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uh double meaning uh in in the phrasing.
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keep and the whole way you shall remember. Okay. And then uh later on in verse 11 uh he'll say take care lest you forget
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Yahweh. They've been told to keep and told to remember. And then he'll say, "Take care lest you forget Yahweh by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes which I command you
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today." So the contrast is there too. And you've probably noticed that the text really just goes back and forth a lot um between an expression of the
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positive command and the if you disobey and here is what will happen in days to come and here is what you must do uh etc. This is in textual form a rumination on
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the wisdom of God and on his law. So for us to come to it with a and I've spoken to this before. For us to come to it with a sensibility that we're going
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to mine it for individual meaning is wrongheaded. Right? But rather we should chew on it as if it were bread as the people were enjoined to do in the text.
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Testing verse two to know what was in your heart. whether you would obey his commands. Um commands. Um there's it's hard for me to quantify
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what what this verse has been used for except to say that I I feel like this the assumption I've always brought to it was that um in testing that the
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implication is that they must um that they must have passed. I don't know why, but that doesn't bear out in the text at all. The preceding section in chapter
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six uh says you shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart. It commands something. Okay. In the proceeding text the in chapter nine he will declare to
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them that they are not going in for their righteousness. their righteousness. Um so I think the answer is on further inspection uh to know what was in their heart
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whether they would obey. They won't. And it's the really the inescapable conclusion looking at their history and also looking at the things that Moses says to them having to command that of
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them and then telling them your righteousness is nothing suggest that the trial in the wilderness shows us that in indeed they did not as
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Moses says later yet have a heart to love Yahweh their God. Okay. So to to put a c to put it a couple of ways which are kind of analogous to one another.
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These trials did not truly train their hearts to obey. Not in a lasting way. And I'm not here speaking of an individual Israelite who did look to his
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God in faith. I'm speaking of the nation. On the other hand, Hebrews tell Hebrews, I think it's three or four tells us that Jesus learned obedience through what he
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suffered. That's not an accident and that's not a I I think I I think it's obviously an amazing phrase, but it is grown in its significance to me in realizing that the
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trials of the Lord were for him effectual and for the people of Israel they weren't. So the writer of Hebrews saying this is a is a big reveal. The
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trials of the Lord were effectual for him to learn obedience. And the implication is we who are in him may do that as well. So that in the law for the people of Israel know in your heart is a
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command something which must be enjoined upon them. Okay. But Jeremiah 31 tells us that no such command if is necessary
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if the heart already knows. He will not say each one to his brother and each his neighbor know Yahweh for they will all know me for the from the
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least of them to the greatest. So yet again here what we have been saying about the nature of the law and the use of it for the people who are not under law but under grace. We can see a
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contrast here in that God has given us that heart that the law prescribed and what the law commanded God has done in the person of Jesus and has given us the
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spirit of Jesus that we may do the will of God as well. So moving down to verse three, testing you to know what was in your heart if you would keep his commands, fed you
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with mana, which you did not know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone. Know then in your heart that as a father his son, so
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Yahweh disciplines you. So shall you keep his commands. In other words, by knowing in your heart. So there's a there's a structure to running out of room. There's a structure to this. Um,
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so testing you to know what was in your
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whether you would uh whether you would keep his commands. Okay. And then to the second phrasing, fed you with
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mana, which you did not know.
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Sorry, this is going to be messy. Um, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread.
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Okay. Know then Know then in your heart,
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as a father his son, so Yahweh disciplines you and you shall keep his commands. Okay. So, there you go.
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Okay. There's a definite memory device there. bread knowing all through keeping and keeping in your heart that again just observing that these are things that you
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can notice and and be enriched by uh in in the text. In other words, the way in which they would keep his commands is by knowing in your heart. Okay? And and I
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don't suggest that that the people of Israel because of the law had that knowing in the heart. Again, Moses is quite clear in his third discourse that they had not yet been given such a
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heart. Okay. Um, and did you have a comment before I went forward? I just wondered if you had compared this passage to John.
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Oh, certainly. Um, and I um Yes. Um, there I'll get that out a little bit later. Yeah, actually there's numerous passages in John that have that have occurred to me um this time and it's like every time I go to one, I wasn't thinking of the
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particular phrase, but then it says something really similar to this. It's it's uh it's surprising. Um um but as far as their obedience, I I
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think we've asked again and again, how is this a picture then of our obedience? Um it's only a picture. That's the first thing. um not to be stretched beyond its
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meaning. So how is it a picture of our obedience? The exact purposes of God being unknown to them in the wilderness beyond the nature of the promises made to their fathers. It was in this way
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shall your obedience be. So he describes to them their humbling in verses 3 through four and on through five and then says, "So know then in your heart,
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as a man disciplines his son, Yahweh your God disciplines you. So shall you keep the commandments of Yahweh by walking in all his ways." Okay? In other
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words, God made himself known to them in the fire, but they were without recourse beyond simply following the way the fire took them in the wilderness only that he
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had promised to bring them out of the wilderness. You do not walk away from the camp in the wilderness with that's suicide. You can't leave.
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So he also though provided for them but they had no specific direction as to the timing of of his provision only that he had promised to do them good and bring
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them into a land of prosperity. So they had nothing to trust but the word of God. Everything else was no specific guarantee. And without simple obedience
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they were lost and starving force marched into simple obedience. And I would say if I had to give you one image of the way I see the law at its very best force marched into simple obedience
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is is the function of the law. A pedagogue as a man disciplines his son. Okay. But Okay. But what it what it foretells in these
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verses for us is that their willing simple obedience they were force marched in the wilderness. Okay. But their willing simple obedience would be their
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wisdom and their understanding in the sight of the peoples. So how much more for us? We profess that God has set his spirit in our hearts and has made us as it says willing in the
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day of his power. Okay? We profess in our confessing of Jesus Christ that we have been made the people that as Jesus did do the will of God and who I think
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the prophets show us need no command. Okay, but love one another. So how much more for us as for them who have been given a heart to love God
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would our willing simple obedience be our wisdom in the and understanding in the sight of the peoples. Uh Hebrews 9 increases this contrast for us between
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our position relative to God and theirs under the law, saying, "But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, then through the greater
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and more perfect tent, not made with hands, that is not of this creation, he entered once for all into the holy places, not by the means of blood, and the blood of goats and calavves, but by
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means of his own blood in this way securing an eternal redemption. The redemption of the people of Israel is not eternal. They they could perish in
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the land. Their redemption from Egypt was a point in time. But Hebrews, the writer of Hebrews is saying that Jesus secured us an eternal redemption. So don't miss that. For if the blood of
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bulls and goats and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of the hepher sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal
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spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. And again localizing the work of God in
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Jesus Christ in our hearts from which grows all that the law prescribed. Okay. Therefore, he is the mediator of a new covenant so that those who are
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called may receive the promised eternal inheritance. So an eternal redemption unlike the redemption for the people of Israel from Egypt which was a point in
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time into an eternal inheritance. Whereas, as we've read in Deuteronomy 8, they may perish from the land like the nations they make to perish. But what Christ has secured us is an eternal inheritance since a death has occurred
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that redeems them from the transgress transgressions committed under the first. Okay. So,
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uh I guess any questions or comments before I move on, please. It says he
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right? In context, he's already told them the 10 words. And so in context, he's speaking of those things that God spoke to him on the mountain that he should speak to the people of Israel. So he is he is saying that I have
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faithfully expounded to you everything God told me to tell you. Here it is explained again.
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It's it's all it's the whole teaching. Um not just the 10 words but the but the remainder of the law. So the remainder of the law came through the mouth of Moses. Like in Leviticus we kept seeing
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uh Yahweh said to Moses, "Speak to the people of Israel." That would that was after the 10 words were spoken to them from the mountain. and they begged that no further word be spoken to them. The pattern is Yahweh spoke to Moses saying
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speak to the people of Israel. So what you have right what you read in Leviticus and Numbers and in most of Exodus is what Moses taught the people as the mouthpiece of God. And that's
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what he's saying. So that in Deuteronomy there isn't a complete re recapitulation of that law but he does further explain
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how that law in Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers will be played out when they possess the land speaking to that next generation. Does that make sense? Answer your question? Okay. Um
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is there a difference in hows I thinks people especially and as we've been reading through a lot
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of letters
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instruction to do certain things for your salvation and they struggle with that right but is there an aspect where Moses was saying y'all
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aren't going to do this I already you're not going to do this even though I'm going to tell you this, right? And then when we read those letters, I feel like having them
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apostles were apostles were they were saying, "Hey, this is a oneoff and it shows a lack of that's not true, right? A true believer will not behave this
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right? So don't behave this way, right? Or you're in jeopardy of your faith." Yeah. I think aspect shift because of that change in the Yes, I think so. And I think Hebrews makes this very explicit. Hebrews is an
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the middle of Hebrews is another good example of passages taken outside of his overall context that are used to burden the conscience of believers about what they do to make them focus on their
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works. Um, and but what he says in that context is of of you we are sure of better things, things pertaining to salvation. or in another place I think
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it's the end of Hebrews 10 that we are not of those who shrink back but of those who have faith and preserve our souls. So yes, I think an aspect shift is a great way of describing it or even
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uh also uh the consider the audience. Consider who the audience is. Yes. When reading those things. Absolutely. That's exactly what I'm saying. Moses audience
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had not that heart. The apostles audience has that heart. They are sure and they are speaking to ones in their in their struggle against sin. Okay, as
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those people who will repent. This is what pet I think this is really what Peter means when he says he's patient with each one of you, not being willing that any should perish but that all should reach repentance. He's speaking
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to believers when he says that not of the world at large. So yes, I think an aspect shift or a shift in audience is a really important thing to consider.
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a better way. Yeah, that's Hebrews 2, you know, that that if the law brought condemnation for these sins, like h how much more to and and this is referring not to the works of believers specifically, but he he
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draws a contrast in saying how much more would would now that you have heard the gospel of Jesus Christ, falling away from that be even worse for you because
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this is a greater message that that we have preached to you. That's why not
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for us we for us we we will I think I think that is where we really need to settle our minds is for us we will we absolutely will um I I think this is why it is the
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phrase is really important I think I want I can't remember if it's in John but where Jesus says of Abraham he saw my day and was glad the joy of Abraham
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was in seeing the Lord's day.
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Correct. that the law is not laid down for the righteous but for the lawless and the disobedient. Yes. disobedient. Yes. Yes. Um Yes. Um I I tend to be my own objector uh when
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when doing study and this was one place where I became my own objector. Um where I said okay so the picture of our obedience in this passage is simple
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trust into which Israel was forced. Okay. So if this is so uh smarty pants um how then can Paul say that the law is
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not of faith if the people of Israel's obedience was supposed to be an act of faith in a way? Okay, Paul says that in in Galatians 3. That's a really important passage uh for considering
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what what is the law? Okay, how can he say that the law is not of faith if I'm going to tell you that the picture in the law of our obedience is that of an act of faith? Um,
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in other words, what and and where the well, okay, when where this led me was to to notice that they are asked to remember what their eyes saw. Um, and I
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offer this in the middle here as kind of a hermeneutical challenge and and definitely not as a way of settling any theological issue, but rather like you
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wouldn't think less of me for putting together a a part of a jigsaw puzzle. There was a coherent picture. You wouldn't think less of me for doing that because I hadn't put the whole puzzle together. Uh I think the the issue that
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this touched upon for me is one in which it's very important not yet to speak to settling the issue but rather to say here's a here's a very coherent piece and that's what I'm offering in this in
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this respect and it is that of the challenge of what do we do with signs and wonders okay how how is it that we properly see those things which are miraculous because their assurance and
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motive to obey was to remember what their eyes saw in the wilderness. Okay. And and then I notice that in the
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gospels, the way that the Lord speaks of his own signs, uh how he speaks compassionately and patiently toward the Jews in giving them signs to see. Um
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this is John 10 um verse 22. at the time of the feast and and again this was the passage where I thought oh
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my goodness there's so much language in common with what we're reading here at the time at that time the feast of the dedication took place in Jerusalem it was winter and Jesus was walking in the
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temple in the colonade of Solomon so the Jews gathered around to him and said how long will you keep us in suspense if you are the Christ tell us plainly Jesus
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answered them I told you and you do not believe. The works that I do in my father's name bear witness about me, but you do not believe because you are not a
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part of my flock. My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life and they will never perish and no one will snatch them
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out of my hand. My father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of the father's hand. I and the father are one. The Jews then picked up stones to stone
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him again. Jesus answered them, "I've shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these are you going to stone me?" The Jews answered him, "It's not for a good work that we're going to stone you, but for blasphemy,
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because you being a man, make yourself god." Jesus answered them, "Is it not written in your law, I said you are gods? If he called them gods to whom the
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word of God came and scripture cannot be broken, do you say of him whom the father has consecrated and sent into the world, you are blaspheming because I said I am the son of God. If I am not
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doing the works of my father, then don't believe me. But if I do them even though you do not believe me, believe the works that you may know and understand that
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the father is in me and I am in the father. Again they sought to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands. He went away again across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing at
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first, and there he remained. And many came to him, and they said, "John did no sign, but everything that John said about this man was true, and many
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believed in him there." So firstly it's those among my sheep who can believe the works in the first place. Okay that is those who believe
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his word. Okay. Secondly the signs are given for even if you do not believe me let the works guide you. Okay. And
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thirdly no sign was necessary for those who had eyes to see the truth of the words. Those who said John did no sign but what he said that was true. Okay. So
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I think that as I have described the law before so the signs that Jesus is is expressing that this is kind of crude but that Jesus is expressing the use of
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signs as a backs stop as a baseline a kind of if all else fails of belief. Also we remember regularly how the Lord had special commendation for those who
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believe and have not seen. Deuteronomy 8. They're enjoined to remember what they see. We are blessed because we believe having not seen.
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So the witness on which we rely, we've already said this, is the Holy Spirit that he made to dwell in us. Signs and wonders are then a lesser witness, an
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inferior witness. Are they maybe a judge that in the end the signs will stand up in judgment and say, "You saw these
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things but faith to believe these signs condemn you. condemn you. Yeah. Kind of like the law is. Yeah. Uh John 15 24-27. If I had not done among
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them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. But now they have seen and hated both me and my father. Okay? He the Lord credits the signs to the father. So when he says
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they hated the father, they hated the signs too. Okay? But the word that is written in their law must be fulfilled. They hated me without cause. But when the helper comes whom I will send you
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from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me and you also then will bear witness because you have been with
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me from the beginning. So yes um and so yeah they're they're the basis for the Jews unbasis for condemnation of
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the Jews because of their unbelief. Um this is uh borne out later uh in 1 Corinthians uh 14 uh 18-2
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also brings it out for
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it was it was me. Yeah, that's right. Absolutely. Yep. Um but for us in in assessing these things, we need to prize the ministry of the Holy Spirit then being as primar not primarily for signs
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but for the fulfilling of what of the witness born by John by John the Baptist. What he said about Jesus is completed and confirmed in us by the
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Holy Spirit not by signs. Okay? And uh so in in John 3 he tells Nicodemus, if I've told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? Okay, setting
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one above the other. So 1 Corinthians 14 then which is a sometimes a difficult passage to wade through. I offer this as as a solid piece of the puzzle as to how to deal with this issue. Um 1
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Corinthians 14:18. I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. Nevertheless, in church, I would rather speak five words with my mind in order
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to instruct others than 10,000 words in a tongue. Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your
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thinking, be mature. In the law, it is written, "By people of strange tongues, and by the lips of foreigners, I will speak to this people, and even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord."
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Thus tongues are a sign not for believers but for unbelievers. While prophecy is a sign for not for unbelievers but for believers. If therefore the whole church comes
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together and all speak in tongues and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say you're out of your minds? Rightly so.
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But if all prophesy and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he's convicted by all and called to account by all. The secrets of his heart are disclosed. And so falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God really is among
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you. Okay. you. Okay. So what then? The signs the signs that Israel was asked to
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remember, the sign the the the miraculous signs done by the Lord and by his apostles, any signs that uh may or may not be done in our day. I'm not answering that question um yet.
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But the signs are not the end of spirituality. Okay? They are a witness against unspirituality. against unspirituality. They are the inferior witness.
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And I I think this may make some progress then in explaining why it is that visible signs and wonders tended to fade after the beginning.
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If they're the inferior witness, they're not meant to remain. uh among the Presbyterians that the the explanation was well the cannon of scripture is closed and so the signs are no longer
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needed. I I think that's almost there. It but it's not really it can't stand up to rigorous to rigorous uh a rigorous beating because you don't
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have a chapter in verse telling you when when there's no more scripture then there will be no more sign. You just don't have that. Okay. Uh and the proof text in 1 Corinthians 13 is that not
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very good for that. Okay. But for us to when in our thinking when we read about the the signs given to the people and even how many of them believed on
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account of them. Okay. We need to remember that the witness of the Holy Spirit in our hearts is the superior witness. The signs were inferior to it. And the signs whereas the Holy Spirit is
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not in our hearts a a means of judgment uh on us that is of condemnation or guilt. The signs signs could be and often were just as the law is. So the
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meaning of the signs for us I think follows the meaning of the law for us as it is not for belief. It is for Um for them the discipline in the
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wilderness what their eyes saw did bear witness to them that they were sons of Yahweh. Okay. But that very blessedness that he would shower on them and this in the following verses
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could very well turn their hearts aside. Okay? And and the perfect gifts of God are not so. These were these were good gifts. But they were not the perfect. If
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they did not live by his word as they did by the mana in complete and total trust, then what their eyes saw wouldn't profit them. Okay? But the spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. That witness is more
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perfect and it is unseen. Paul sets it above the works of the law by asking rhetorically how if the Holy Spirit has been set in our hearts, could this work of the spirit be completed by
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works of the law? Let's back to Galatians reminding us that the ultimate mark of Abraham as the man of God was his faith that was unseen.
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His righteousness did not come from obedience. His obedience proceeded from the righteousness he had by faith. Um, I find it of interest too in
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Galatians. There's this one point where he says, "It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified." That's always stood as a weird phrase to me, but it makes sense
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if what you see is a is a is a medicine for unbelief. He's speaking to people who he says, "You you keep you keep going with this and and we've got
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nothing in common. You're this is a falling away from grace, right? It seems fitting then that he would speak to them. It was before your eyes that Jesus was publicly portrayed as crucified. So
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how then does the ordeal in the wilderness portray to us the nature of our obedience in Christ? What the people of Israel were forced to do in the wilderness. And this is the short short version in case you're at all confused
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or I've been saying too much. Okay? As as we say in my house, this is the short short version. What the people of Israel were forced to do in the wilderness is what the spiritual people of God do
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willingly by knowing for certain in our hearts. Okay? We live on his word. This goes back to what Chuck was saying about John 6. We live on his word made flesh
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and he is our bread and we by consuming that bread remember our God.
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picture of the bread in the wilderness is totally tied in to our consumption and ruminating on the word of God and the visible taking of bread together. The the law was for the people of Israel
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to the excuse me the bread of the Passover was for the people of Israel to be the law in your mouth. Okay. But Christ has sent his spirit into our hearts. He is our food, his flesh, our
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bread, his word. So shall you keep the commandments of Yahweh your God by walking in his ways and fearing him. And even in quoting these verses in his temptation uh the Lord expressed that he
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knew from the heart that man does not live by bread alone. Being that hungry nothing but what what proceeded from the heart would say. So um so any questions before I conclude?
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I hope I've given you something new to think about. Um going then to the final verses of uh of this chapter
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starting with for Yahweh your God is bringing you into a good land verse 7. So whereas before in Deuteronomy 6 they were enjoined back here they were enjoined to teach their children that
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they not forget when they have good things in the land. That's chapter 6 verse 12. Take care lest you forget Yahweh who brought you out of the land of Egypt. Okay. Deuteronomy 8 declares
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that Yahweh has taught them like children. They're to teach their children. Yahweh has disciplined them as children. Okay? And that they not forget
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him when they have good things in the land. Okay? Take care as it says in verse 11, lest you forget Yahweh by not keeping his commands. that is who brought you through the wilderness. This
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moves the ball forward. Remember and he says who brought you out of Egypt as well. So it's it's nicely there, right? Take care lest you forget Yahweh who led who led you out of Egypt. Take care lest
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you forget Yahweh who brought you through the wilderness. And the the the final in that um take care lest you forget in chapter 11 will
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be take care lest your heart be deceived and you turn aside to other gods and follow them uh and you perish quickly off the good land Yahweh is giving you. So through from chapters 5 through 11,
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we're we're led with these markers through history or through their through their near and future history. future history. So they help to anchor us in the text.
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Um but we see that man's nature is in sin to forget and the more readily the more prosperous he is. When we are full and satisfied we should bless Yahweh your God for the good land he's given you. In
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other words what Paul keeps saying in his letters be thankful. Okay. The contrast between thankfulness an expression from faith. Okay. and forgetfulness through disobedience
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condemned by the law. Okay. The trials experienced in the wilderness were to do you good in the end. And we are even now partakers of the fulfillment of God's
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promises and be thankful, but still living in this earthly tent, living not on bread alone, but on the word of God in whose house we are seated and whose spirit is our life. And so he can say
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first in chapter 7 back here, if you say in your heart, these nations are greater than I, remember the mighty hand of Yahweh in Egypt. And here in verse 17 of
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chapter 8, beware lest you say in your heart, the might of my hand have got me this wealth. Remember Yahweh who led you through this great wilderness. Okay?
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And who will give you this wealth. And I find it notable that the the markers take care lest you say or lest you uh forget rather. And if you say in your
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heart, they stack in in chapter 8. They're right together. I think they show that they're related and that we got to pay very close attention to what they're saying.
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they're saying. Wealth is no blessing then for this uh for this particular passage. Wealth is no blessing if not received with thankfulness to Yahweh. Um, I mentioned this last week, uh, Genesis 3:6. So when
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the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and also gave some to her husband with her, and he ate. For
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the power of the flesh is sin, the corruption even of the good gifts of God to cur to a curse that leads astray. We receive everything we receive with thankfulness. The answer is not to be
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careful about having too much. The answer is to give thanks more. Okay? And and to remember that as I've said before, the essence of idolatry is the
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worship of the work of men's hands. Devotion to the work of men's hands. They're not to be devoted to the work of their hands. They're be devoted to their God. This is borne out in the prophets. Isaiah 2:8, "Their land is filled with
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idols. They bow down to the work of their own hands, to what their fingers have made." And Psalm 135:15, the idols of the nation are silver and gold, the work of human hands. You these same
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material blessings that really did lead them astray because they had not a heart to love God for us endear our God to us when received with thankfulness. So to to put
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a fine point on it and to close here, 1 Timothy 4:4-5, for everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with
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thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer. Let us pray.
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Father, we lift up our hearts and we give you thanks. And we are overjoyed to be here with one another, to encourage one another in that, to lift our voices together in song, to hear one another pray, and to
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agree in the Lord, to hear your word expounded for us, and to fellowship under that, knowing that as we have gathered together today, so you will gather all your people together at the
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last day, and we will be always a thankful, willing people. Thank you in Jesus name. Amen.