Praying to God in adversity is often easier than when living in abundance and wealth, since asking costs us less than thanking. Deuteronomy 8 shows you this reality and invites you to be faithful to God at all times.
Deuteronomy 8 kjv
Common to all religions and cultures is the ease with which power, wealth, and abundance cloud people’s vision, making them more selfish and, especially, leading them away from the way of the Lord.
This was already happening more than 2000 years ago, at the beginning of mankind, and even today we have many examples in our lives that indicate that nothing has changed. This is why in the Bible you can find Deuteronomy 8 of the Bible illustrating this problem and providing a solution.
Today we are going to analyze this chapter in detail, not only its contents not only its content and the lessons we can draw for life, but you will also learn about its historical context and its most fundamental background.
Deuteronomy 8 in English and large print
Having listened to the text, you can now find it below in full in written format, extracted from the King James Version Bible. This is the version of the Bible where the translations are more faithful to the original texts.
The good land they shall possess
1 You shall observe to do every commandment which I command you this day, that you may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the LORD has promised on oath to your fathers.
2 And thou shalt remember all the way by which the LORD thy God brought thee these forty years in the wilderness, to afflict thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments or no.
3 And he afflicted thee, and made thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know, to make thee know that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD shall man live.
4 Your dress never grew old on you, nor has your foot swollen in these forty years.
5 Know also in thine heart that as a man chasteneth his son, so the LORD thy God chasteneth thee.
6 Thou shalt therefore keep the commandments of the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, and to fear him.
7 For the LORD your God brings you into the good land, a land of brooks and waters, of fountains and springs, flowing out of valleys and mountains;
8 a land of wheat and barley, of vines, fig trees and pomegranates; a land of olive trees, of oil and honey;
9 A land wherein thou shalt not eat bread with scarcity, neither shalt thou want any thing therein; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose mountains thou shalt bring forth copper.
10 And you shall eat and be satisfied, and bless the LORD your God for the good land which he has given you.
Admonition not to forget God
11 Take heed that thou forget not the LORD thy God, to do his commandments, and his judgments, and his statutes, which I command thee this day;
12 lest you eat and be satisfied, and build good houses in which to dwell,
13 And thy herds and thy flocks shall increase, and thy silver and thy gold shall be multiplied unto thee, and all that thou hast shall be increased;
14 And let your heart be proud, and forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage;
15 who made you walk through a great and dreadful wilderness, full of fiery serpents and scorpions and thirst, where there was no water, and he drew water for you out of the rock of the flint;
16 who fed you with manna in the wilderness, food that your fathers had not known, afflicting you and testing you, that at last he might do you good;
17 and say in your heart: My power and the strength of my hand have brought me this wealth.
Deuteronomy 8 18
18 But remember the LORD thy God, for he giveth thee power to get wealth, to establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day.
19 But if thou shalt forget the LORD thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day, that ye shall surely perish.
20 As the nations which the LORD will destroy before you, so shall you perish, because you have not obeyed the voice of the LORD your God.
Meaning and explanation of Deuteronomy 8
Now we are going to do the biblical commentary on Deuteronomy 8which will surely make much more sense after understanding the context and the purpose of the book.
You can see that the text is divided into two parts: in the first part, Moses reminds the people how God always keeps his promises and has saved them, so that they should believe in Him and praise Him.
In the second he issues an admonition, which surely caught those who followed him unawares; for they thought themselves faithful to God and did not think they would betray him at any time. Moses knew it would not be so.
And here lies the key to the chapter: God always keeps his promises, while we humans, with our innate weakness, on many occasions forget to follow the way of the Lord and fall into temptation and sin.
Moses recalls this in the following verses Deuteronomy 8:17 y Deuteronomy 8:18 after a long procession of verses in which he depicts the hypothetical but real situation of people getting rich:
“And say in thine heart, My power and the might of my hand have brought me this wealth. But remember the LORD thy God, for he giveth thee power to get wealth, to establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day.” (Deuteronomy:17-18)
When things go well in life you must not forget the Lord. For all that we have is thanks to him, to his grace and to his love. Our Lord gives us the opportunity to live a better life, but we must be firm in faith.
It doesn’t seem difficult at first glance, however, power and money blind people and, on countless occasions, lead them away from the hand of God to fall into misfortune and unhappiness.
It is often said that money does not bring happiness And, this is true because true happiness comes from God. He alone can nourish our spirit in a way that even the best of foods cannot.
And all this with the sole action of believing in Him, loving Him and love the Holy Scriptures which are a source of unlimited knowledge to guide our lives.
There are always good times and bad times in this life, and in all of them one should praise the Lord. In this way, He will help you out of the bad ones and protect you in the good ones and, what is more important; He will give you the happiness of following Him with all His love.
Book of Deuteronomy
Before entering into the biblical analysis of Deuteronomy 8, let’s take a look at the biblical context of the book to which this chapter belongs, who wrote it and what is its main objective.
Deuteronomy is the fifth and last book of the Pentateuch Deuteronomy is the fifth and last book of the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible, which are grouped as such because they have traditionally been attributed to Moses; they tell the story of his life and exploits.
In chronological order the books are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and finally Deuteronomy. The history of mankind and, specifically, of the people of Israel from its beginnings until the death of Moses.
Let us review very briefly the previous events: Moses brought the Jews out of slavery in Egypt in the story narrated in Exodus and which is known to the whole world, and then all these people spent 40 years wandering in the wilderness.
It was during this journey that the episode of the 10 commandments on Mount Sinai and where the foundations of our religion were laid with the first laws in accordance with God’s will.
Deuteronomy is the final part of this journey and is but a second law, which is literally the meaning of its name. Here Moses arrives at the entrance to the Promised Land and ends his journey.
All this you can see in the following video of less than ten minutes less than ten minutes where all the contents of Deuteronomy are explained in a very clear and simple way. Don’t miss it!
Context of Deuteronomy 8
Knowing the biblical context is all very well to understand the order of events, but where should this story be placed in the world context? Now, for the more curious, let’s take a brief look at the historical context of Deuteronomy 8.
The exact years in which these events took place are not known, since we are talking about things that happened many, many years ago and the Bible does not give many references that go beyond the region in which it was written.
However, experts place the character of Moses around the year 1300 B.C.at about this point, about halfway through its centennial life. This is 1300 years before Jesus was born!
Very few states or organized civilizations existed at that time, and most of them were located in the Middle East. Among the most outstanding are the Egypt of the Pharaohs and the first Greek cities, although not at all as we know them today in their maximum splendor.
Although at that time there were also other cultures, such as Assyria or Babylon, which appear in biblical accounts much later, when they went from small states to great invading empires.
In the rest of the world, it was all nomadic peoples and some sedentary ones that were beginning to dominate agriculture and cattle raising, although much more backward than those we have already mentioned.
Thus, the Bible offers us a source of historical source of historical data and the people of Israel were very advanced in their time; and all this thanks to the Lord.
And here comes the moment to say goodbye for today, always with the humility that the Lord asks of us and remembering that, even when things are going well, He continues to keep His promises.
May the Lord’s grace be with you and see you in the next article! Remember that you can share these biblical commentaries with your loved ones so that everyone will enjoy understanding and reflecting on God’s Word.
See you next time!