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Scripture Reading: Deut. 8:1-20
In this message we will consider, as a part of the general advices and warnings, the rehearsal of the law in 7:1—8:20.
After the children of Israel had been brought by God into the promised land as their inheritance, they were to utterly destroy all the nations (7:1-2a). They were not to make a covenant with these nations, show them any favor, or make marriage alliances with them (vv. 2b-3). The nations were to be utterly destroyed without mercy. However, some who read the Bible according to their natural, human thought may not agree with God's requirement that the nations in the promised land be destroyed. But according to the divine thought, these nations had to be exterminated because they were devilish and mingled with demons.
Verse 5 says, "You shall deal with them in this way: their altars you shall tear down, their pillars you shall shatter, their Asherim you shall hew down, and their idols you shall burn with fire." The pillars were used in the worship of idols, and the Asherim were images of the goddess Asherah.
God's people were to destroy the nations and their idols in order to be a holy people to Jehovah their God, who had chosen them, "from among all the peoples which are upon the face of the earth, to be a people for His personal treasure" (v. 6). The Hebrew word translated "personal treasure" has a double meaning; it means both personal possession and peculiar treasure. God treasured the children of Israel, setting His affection on them, loving them, being willing to keep His promise to them, bringing them out and ransoming them from the house of slavery (vv. 7-8).
In 7:9-15 Moses wanted the people to realize that Jehovah their God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and lovingkindness to the thousandth generation with those who love Him and keep His commandments; that He would love them, bless them, and multiply them; that He would bless the fruit of their womb and the fruit of their ground, their grain, their new wine, their fresh oil, the offspring of their cattle, and the young of their flock; and that He would remove every sickness and those evil illnesses of Egypt from them.
Today God loves us, blesses us, and multiplies us because we keep His Christ. It is in Christ that we receive and enjoy God's blessings. God is with us in Christ. God's grace and peace are to us in Christ. Therefore, we need to be right with God by taking Christ. The unique commandment God gives to the world today is to believe in His Son and to receive Him. Actually, Christ Himself is the commandment of God. We need to receive Him, keep Him, and be right with Him. If we do this, we will be right with God, and He will love us and bless us.
Moses told the children of Israel not to be afraid of the nations but to remember that which Jehovah their God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt by the great trials, by the signs and the wonders, and by His mighty hand and His outstretched arm (vv. 17-19).
In verse 20 Moses went on to say, "Furthermore, Jehovah your God will send the hornet among them until those who are left and those who hide themselves from you are destroyed." Something like this happened in 1948 when Israel was restored as a nation. At that time God used hornets to fight on behalf of Israel.
In verse 16 Moses said, "You shall devour all the peoples which Jehovah your God is giving to you; your eye shall not pity them." Then in verse 22 Moses explained, "Jehovah your God will clear away these nations from before you little by little; you shall not devour all of them immediately, lest the beasts of the field multiply against you." The children of Israel were not great in number. If all the Canaanites were slain immediately, the beasts of the field would multiply against God's people. For this reason, the Canaanites, who were useful in keeping the beasts from multiplying, were to be cleared away little by little.
Moses also charged the people to burn with fire the idols of the nations' gods, not desiring the silver or gold upon the idols, nor taking it for themselves, lest they be ensnared by it (v. 25). Likewise, they were not to bring an abomination into their house, lest they become a cursed thing like it (v. 26). This indicates how concerned Moses, an aged father, was for his beloved children.
"The whole commandment which I am commanding you today, you shall keep and do, so that you may live and multiply, and enter and possess the land which Jehovah swore to your fathers" (8:1). Whereas the children of Israel were to keep the whole law, we need to keep the whole Christ so that the church may have both longevity and multiplication.
"You shall remember all the way that Jehovah your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness in order to humble you and test you that He might know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. And He humbled you and let you go hungry and fed you the manna, which you had never known nor had your fathers ever known, so that He might make you know that man lives not by bread alone, but that man lives by everything proceeding from Jehovah's mouth" (vv. 2-3). Here Moses charged the people to remember how God humbled them, let them go hungry, and then fed them with manna so that they might learn that man does not live by bread alone but by whatever proceeds out of Jehovah's mouth.
In Matthew 4:4 the Lord Jesus quoted Deuteronomy 8:3, saying, "Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out through the mouth of God." When He quoted this verse, He surely knew that "every word" refers to the law, the commandments, the ordinances, the statutes, and the judgments. All these are the words that have proceeded out of God's mouth as God's breathing, and they all refer to Christ. Therefore, to live by every word that proceeds out through the mouth of God is to live by Christ.
In Deuteronomy 8:4 and 5 Moses went on to say, "Your clothing did not wear out from upon you, nor did your foot swell these forty years. Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so Jehovah your God was disciplining you." During the years in the wilderness, Jehovah had dealt with the people strictly and severely. That was His loving discipline. Because He loved the children of Israel, He disciplined them.
"Therefore keep the commandments of Jehovah your God, walking in His ways and fearing Him" (v. 6). God has His ways as well as His commandments. The children of Israel were not only to keep His commandments but also to walk in His ways. The principle is the same with us today. We should walk in the Lord's way, in the New Testament way.
The children of Israel were to keep God's commandments, walk in His ways, and fear Him, for He was bringing them to a good land, a land of waterbrooks, of springs and of fountains, flowing forth in valleys and in mountains, a land of wheat, barley, vines, fig trees, pomegranates, olive trees with oil, and honey, a land in which they would eat bread without scarcity and in which they would not lack anything, a land whose stones were iron and from whose mountains they could mine copper (vv. 7-9). The first aspect of the good land mentioned here is its water. Concerning this water, first there were the fountains, which were the source, and then the springs and the brooks, the outflow. The water in the good land flowed forth "in valleys and in mountains." This indicates that Christ flows in different environments. We have our ups and downs, but Christ flows both in the ups and in the downs.
In the good land the children of Israel would have not only water but also an abundance of things to eat. Furthermore, they would have iron and copper out of which to make weapons to use in fighting against the enemy. Thus, in verse 10 Moses said, "You shall eat and be satisfied, and you shall bless Jehovah your God for the good land which He has given to you."
"Be careful lest you forget Jehovah your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes, which I am commanding you today" (v. 11). Today we should be careful lest we forget God by not keeping His Christ.
In verses 12 through 16 Moses continued his warning, telling the people to be careful, lest when they had eaten and were satisfied, and had built houses and dwelt in them, and their herd and their flock had multiplied, and their silver and their gold had multiplied, and all that they had had multiplied, their heart would be lifted up and they would forget Jehovah their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, who led them through the great and awesome wilderness and brought forth water for them out of flint rock, who fed them manna in the wilderness, that He might humble them and test them in order to do good for them in the end. Then Moses went on to warn the people not to say in their heart, "My strength and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth" (v. 17). Instead, the people were to remember Jehovah their God, for it was He who gave them strength to gain wealth, so that He might establish His covenant (v. 18). Finally, Moses warned them that if they would forget Jehovah their God and go after other gods and serve them and bow down to them, they would surely perish (vv. 19-20).
