Deuteronomy 8

Deuteronomy 8:1-9

In this chapter Moses repeats, 1. Some general subertations to obedience, ver. 1—6. 2. Remembers them of the great things God had done for them in the wilderness, ver. 2—7, and ver. 13, 18. 3. He describes the good land into which God would now bring them, ver. 7, 8, 9. 4. He gives a caution against the temptations of a prosperous condition, ver. 10—14, and 15, 18. And, 5. A fair warning of the fatal consequences of apology from God, ver. 19, 20.

1. ALL the commandments which I command thee this day, shall ye observe to do, that ye may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers. 2. And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee ’these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and ’to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldst keep his commandments, or no. 3. And he humbled thee, and ‘fulfired thee to hunger, and ‘fed thee with manna (which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know) that he might make thee know that ‘man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live. 4. ‘Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell these forty years. 5. ‘Thou shalt also consider in thine heart, that as a man chasteth his son, so the LORD thy God chasteth thee. 6. Therefore thou shalt keep the commandments of the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, and to fear him. 7. 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; 8. A land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig-trees, and pomegranates, a land of 9 oil-olive, and honey, 9. A land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarcest, thou shalt not lack any thing in it, a land ‘whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass.

Repeated injunctions were given to urge their obedience; it was what God justly expected of them, and they need carefully perform. Two arguments are here mentioned.

1. What God had done for them in the wilderness. There they had gone through his gracious discipline, to humble and prove them, whether they would truth on his providence, and submit to his corrections; and there they had experienced astonishing interpositions of his mercy and grace to their bodies and souls, in feeding them with manna, preserving their cloaths from decay, and their feet from swelling amidst all their marches, and more in pardoning their manifold provocations, and bringing them at last to the land of promise, after those chasteth, which God, as a father, kindly inflicted, that they might not be wholly unpunished. Nate, (1.) We should remember often God’s past dealings with us in mercy, as the encouragement to truth on the continuance of his care. (2.) We have need of every affliction; our hearts are so proud and stubborn, that all is little enough to bend them. (3.) Trials are the proud of our faith. God exercises us, that our graces, like gold in the furnace, may shine the brighter. (4.) God can supply his people in their deepest distresses. Let us take no indirect courses to relieve ourselves, and then verily we shall be fed. (5.) The rod of correction is the mark of parental love; instead of fainting we should rejoice, when we are chastised of him.

2. What God was about to do for them. Canaan was before them; a land watered with copious streams, the vallies standing thick with corn, the hills covered with vines and olives, and every pleasing fruit; where plenty crowned the happy year, and filled their tables with abundance; whilst mines of precious ore enriched the bowels of the earth, and opened hidden resources of wealth. Deeply therefore they were bound to serve that matter, who paid them such abundant wages. How glorious the earthly, but how much better the heavenly Canaan, watered with the river of life, adorned with the trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord; flowing with wine of everlasting constellation, and rich in treasures that never was old or decay. May my let fall in this pleasant land!