Deuteronomy 8:1-20
8:1 Our connection with God was always meant to be immediate, passionate, and constant. Moses cautions the children of Israel to be careful to observe God's commandments because he knows how crucial a relationship with God is. It transforms an entire life.
A relationship with God is the difference between reduction and multiplication. The way of the world is going to decimate our souls, our bodies, our state of mind, even our property or family. But God is a creator and a sustain-er; He is a provider and restorer. Whatever we have He multiplies and makes better. He is able to take care of us when we join with Him in this covenant established long ago.
He has shown us the way to Him: through humility and with compassion. Moses reminds the children of Israel, and us, to observe the practices of humility and compassion. We have the benefit of having this message reiterated by Jesus, who came as a servant who changed the world each time He became moved with compassion for humanity, Matthew 20:34.
Through Jesus' servitude, we learn how God blesses those who follow Him. For although Jesus came as a servant, He has been ordained as a King. Although He came as an orphan, before birth He was given a designated place on earth and in heaven. Although He came as a stranger, He left with fame. Born a poor boy, He lacked for nothing and abounded all His days.
We learn from Jesus that we do not need to plan and manipulate to provide for ourselves. Trade your autonomy for humility and give control back to God. He puts chaos into order. He raises the lowly. He befriends the lonely. He becomes a parent to the orphan. He becomes home for the nomad, the squatter. He is the river for the thirsty. The manna for the starved. Literally, figuratively, and spirituality He provides. But as Moses commands in this verse, we must emulate and represent our Father well.
8:2 There is so much packed into this verse. In the eighth chapter of the fifth book in the Bible we learn the reason for our sojourn in the wilderness, in the world, through life.
Moses wants the children of Israel to acknowledge God's presence in every step of their lives. God's heroic rescue over and over again. His constant provisions. His presence and attentive and love. Even though we are many generations down the line, we are like our ancestors in that we forget God. We blame God for neglected us when we are the ones who neglected Him. We are the ones who turned away, never Him.
The children of Israel were on a journey through the wilderness but there was purpose in that wilderness, just as there is purpose in yours. The time in the wilderness is our instructive time to listen and learn from God. It is our time not only to develop our relationship with God but also a time to develop a relationship with ourselves. To create our faith and maintain our faith... but also to create ourselves and maintain ourselves. The twists and turns and varied circumstances are all part of an interactive classroom. They are not happenstance if we realize their purpose. We are not happenstance if we realize our purpose.
During our time in the wilderness, God comes to know our hearts. Moses instructs us to observe but God is observing as well. He's letting us declare who we are. We declare who we are through our actions, interactions and responses to life and people and ideas. It is so precious that He wants to know us. If God is paying intricate attention, He deserves our focus in return. Our remembrance. If we remember Him, and that there is purpose in the wilderness, in the journey, He is going to remember to create our destination. Our home, our land of milk and honey.
8:3 Allow God to humble you. Let the last paragraph of the story of your life on earth include this verse which reads: "So He humbled you..." because "so He humbled you" means "so He was able to transform your life because you were not too proud to become a student."
Moses reveals here that God allowed the children of Israel to hunger and He then fed them. There are different hungers in the world, most of them figurative, and God uses them to build us up. He uses these hungers to draw strength and patience and resilience out of us. He teaches us that He is the only provision which satisfies mind, body and soul steadfastly.
God sometimes deprives us from material and people and circumstance in the world and in that time in the wilderness, we learn to grab onto Him. He teaches us to set Him as our foundation, the Parent we run home to. He teaches us that none of those things we crave can satisfy us the way that He can. He teaches us that there is love and abundance in the deprivation. He teaches us that we do not need the things our bodies tell us we need... we do not need the things the world tells us we need, all we need is Him. All we need in order to thrive is Him. Once we have learned that valuable lesson, that lesson which repeatedly saves our lives, He feeds us manna. He feeds us spirituality. He feeds us with substance that does not come from the world. Because the world is finite. Flawed. Vulnerable. Corrupt. God does not feed us with mortality flaw, vulnerability or corruption. He feeds us with life eternal. Perfection. Strength. Purity.
But we can only host those blessings, that spiritual food -- life eternal, perfection, strength, purity -- if we become a proper host for them. Unless we have been humbled by God, we cannot house those blessings. If we do not allow God to draw our our flaw, the corruption with corrode any good thing that enters our lives. If we do not first learn patience, we will never endure until the time to receive the gift. God preps us, primes us, enables us to receive otherworldly blessings.
Moses points out here that God's mission is to teach us that humans are not alive because of bread. Humans are alive because of the creative Hand, Will and Word of the Lord. What good is a feast if a creator has not made the stomach? The human who hosts the organ and digests the food? Do not mistake this life, this wilderness, for the destination. We are sojourners and this earth is our journey. We have life because of God, not because of bread or food or medicine or oxygen.
This wilderness is meant to prod that understanding out of us. We are encouraged through life circumstance to realize that there is purpose in life and within ourselves... and all of it comes directly from our Creator.
8:4 Through faith, God provides: from the food in our bellies to the clothes on our backs. The children of Israel represent a fundamental human flaw: we frequently neglect our Provider. We become ungrateful. We give credit to other things, other idols, rather than to our Provider. We give credit to ourselves, our own work ethic, to Santa Clause, to luck and leprechaun and coincidence instead of to our Father.
When we become mutual participants with God in His will, He keeps us from being stunted and thwarted by pain and any other barrier. Without limit, He remains. Meticulously arranging the events and moments of our lives.
8:5 He is in every heartbeat. He is between every heartbeat. Therefore we should allow our hearts to know Him. To get to know Him. We are children here, no matter our age. Relative to an infinite God, we are newborns. God teaches us through the same methods we would use to teach a child. Cause and effect. He loves us, He guides us and chastens us gently:
1 Corinthians 10:13
No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.
8:6 The Bible often uses this phrase "Fear God" but the actual translation of the word is: fear/ or love. We are called to love the Lord and to fear the prospect of a life without Him. Life without Him is not life at all. It is a neglect of your purpose. It is a waste of this interactive classroom. Without God, we remove the safety net from our lives. As clumsy, fallible humans, we really need that safety net. If we can learn to understand that life is a classroom, we begin to absorb so much more meaning out of life and every moment. Instead of a flimsy, aimless life, God's direction layers and deepens, sharpens and steadies.
God counts every hair on our heart not because our bodies are important but because our souls are. He is present while these bodies host our souls because the true jewel is inside of our bodies. But a person who lives for the body, neglects the sheer wonder of the soul. The body perishes. It has a time limit and from conception is already begins to chase its end. But the soul is permanent, or it can be, should be activate it by waking up to it. Waking up to God.
8:7-9 Because the Lord is bringing you into a good land! This is not the destination. The children of Israel are about to walk into a new and blessed land. Their journey is a metaphor for our spiritual journey. God is leading us into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs... God is teaching us how to find our eternal home. God is building us, our souls, to be able to withstand its purity. Its light. God is preparing us for our true home, our true destination. The ways of the world and the body cannot exist in Spirit. They do not understand it. They are too weak. Too corrupt. The light decimates the dark.
The light decimates the dark. Common sense and logic prove that we cannot fight the light. Either we join the light or we are diminished by it. God prepares us to be light. So led Him bring you into a good land. Here on earth and then in Spirit. Let Him decimate that darkness through this interactive classroom, this journey through the wilderness of life. The earth is a barren desert compared to where He is bringing us.
Let Him lead you through the journey; follow His guidelines, keep your eyes fixed on Him. He does not make commandments for His own benefit but for yours.
8:10-16 When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which He has given you. Remember what Moses said: God allowed the children of Israel to hunger... and then He fed them. If you follow God, you will eat. You will be made full. Physically. Spirituality. Remember Him when you are full. Reach for Him not only in times of sorrow and distress but also in times of plenty and joy.
8:17 Moses warns the children of Israel not to do something the end up doing... they do forget God. They allow their own arrogance to forget Him and give themselves credit instead. Arrogance is corrosive. Arrogance is ignorance. No matter how powerful, clever, beautiful or wealthy we might be, we are puny, helpless humans. One simple change in the atmosphere could brings us to our knees in half a second -- rendering all of our possessions and fame useless.
Remember from the previous chapter that God loves us because of our weakness. He has compassion on us because we are helpless. We are the little fish in the tank who relies on the owner to be responsible. We rely on the conditions of the earth to remain stable to stay alive, too. That little fish might be the most powerful and beautiful in the tank but it does not matter once the tank is shattered.
Just as we have compassion on the dog who chases its tail, so does God have compassion on us. He watches our fruitless efforts, with love, and then offers to lend a hand. Because without Him, we are going nowhere... gaining no-thing.
God chuckles at the arrogance of humans. Think of two types of dogs: one dog is proud of himself because he knows how to sit and roll over and poo outside of the house. The other dog is clumsy, slow and frequently makes a mess of his own house. But the first dog is not friendly... and the second dog is kind. The first dog is well-trained but the second dog is a comforter. The second dog tackles his owner with good, honest, pure love when she gets home from work... his goodness absolves him of trouble or shame for the mess. So claim your position as the clumsy dog because his good heart saves him. God is not going to punish your for the poo, the messes you make... He's just going to clean them up and get back to loving you.
Tackle God with your love. Let Him overwhelm you with His. Allow Him to train you in love. Remember who is cleaning up your messes. Because no matter who you are -- you make them. You poo in your own house (so to speak). Never forget that because the only thing worse than standing in your own mess is to be a fool while doing it.
8:18-20 We must be careful not to try to replace God. When you replace a true, honest, powerful thing with something that is fake and inanimate... the results are drastic. Moses warns the children of Israel to continue to uphold God in their lives because if they replace Him, they will cause their own suffering.
