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 possess the land that the Lord swore to give to your fathers. 2 And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. 3 And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, 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 every word1 that comes from the mouth of the Lord. 4 Your clothing did not wear out on you and your foot did not swell these forty years. 5 Know then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the Lord your God disciplines you. 6 So you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God by walking in his ways and by fearing him. 7 For the Lord 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, 8 a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees 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 And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.
11 “Take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, 12 lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, 13 and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, 14 then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, 15 who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock, 16 who fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end. 17 Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ 18 You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day. 19 And if you forget the Lord your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish. 20 Like the nations that the Lord makes to perish before you, so shall you perish, because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God.”
Section Overview: Do Not Forget the Lord Your God
The argument of this chapter is based on history. The wilderness experience served to instruct the earlier generation to know that human resources are insufficient to sustain life. “Man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord” (Deut. 8:3). Mortals depend on God for the food they need. Life in the wilderness is set in contrast with life in the land of riches (8:2–5, 7–10, 12–13, 14–16). Dependence on God will be no less real when it is less desperately immediate. The lesson of the wilderness is that the people’s provision comes through the Lord’s fulfilling of his covenant (vv. 2, 18), which means they must not forget the commandments of the Lord, his redemption, and their relationship with God (vv. 11, 14, 19).
Moses begins and ends with a reminder of the hardships of the wilderness (vv. 1–6, 14b–17). These are contrasted with the central section of the riches of the Land of Promise (vv. 7–10, 12–13). Verse 11 stands at the center of these two themes: “Take care lest you forget the Lord your God.” The imperative to “take care” (Hb. shamar) is found in verses 1, 2, 6; “you forget” (shakakh) is found in verses 14, 19. The warning of 6:10–15 is taken up again as a central theme. The riches of the Promised Land pose a danger to trust in God; the experiences of the wilderness are testimony to such a threat.
Section Outline
II.B. Prologue to This Torah (5:1–11:32) . . .
3. Exhortation of This Torah (6:4–11:32) . . .
c. Remembering the Lord as a Covenant People (8:1–20)
(1) Condition for Receiving the Land of Promise (8:1)
(2) Lessons of Faith in the Wilderness (8:2–5)
(3) Challenge of Faithfulness in Land of Riches (8:6–10)
(4) Attention to Obedience in Land of Prosperity (8:11–13)
(5) Remembrance of Provision in the Wilderness (8:14–18)
(6) Danger of Perishing in the Land of Promise (8:19–20)
Response
This passage is well known from the Gospels’ account of the temptation of Jesus (e.g., Matt. 4:1–4). After Jesus fasts for forty days, the Devil tempts him to turn stones into bread. Jesus answers with Deuteronomy 8:3 to say that man does not live by bread alone. God tested Israel to show them their dependence upon him; they cannot in their own strength supply a fundamental need of life. They must live by obedience to the will of God. Jesus answers with a correct interpretation of Moses. God tests Jesus as he did Israel to show that Jesus will live by the divine will. Satan also uses the opportunity to tempt Jesus to respond in the way Israel did in the desert. They tested God by demanding he provide water (6:16) because they did not live in trust according to the divine will.
It is extremely difficult to live faithfully with wealth. The king must not multiply silver and gold (17:17), for God will multiply the silver and gold of Israel (8:13). The problem with God’s good gifts is that Israel will attribute them to themselves because of their pride and will forget the God who brought them out of Egypt (v. 14). A king might have the power to multiply wealth, but the only reason to do so would be pride and self-sufficiency. Thus there must be a prohibition against the king’s seeking wealth willfully, for the very act is a betrayal of faith. Seeking wealth for the sake of wealth is to serve mammon and not God. Wealth gained is always a gift from God to be used for him, but this is not readily perceived. “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God” (Matt. 19:24).