Deuteronomio 8:1

This chapter recounts God's care of Israel during the wilderness wanderings as a warning for Israel not to forget God after they have come into the wealth and prosperity of Canaan. How necessary is such a warning, and how many there are who need it, and how few there seem to be who heed it! Any minister of the gospel could supply dozens or scores of examples of persons, both men and women, who, while they were poor, even receiving help from the congregation in some cases, living in cheap or modest houses, and hard-pressed to make a living, were faithful to the Lord, attended worship regularly, and in many instances were trusted with some responsibility in the church (such as the office of elder, or deacon, or teacher of a class), but who, as soon as prosperity came, wealth was inherited, or business success or promotions brought affluence or even wealth, forsook religion of every name, bought two Cadillacs and a yacht and went to hell in all directions!

It was this writer's privilege to minister for a large church in Houston, Texas, during the years of 1938-1951. Those were boom years! World War II with its high wages in the war industries, making it possible for many people to earn more money in four or five days than they had previously earned in a month, supplied the occasion for many people to forsake God and go their own way.

The chapter has two divisions:

(1) A recital of many of the events of the deliverance and the forty years' wanderings for the purpose of persuading Israel to be unwavering in their loyalty and obedience to God (Deuteronomy 8:1-17), and

(2) The warning that if they are not faithful to God, they will certainly be destroyed and cast out of Canaan as were the nations Israel was about to thrust out. "The focal point of this chapter is Deuteronomy 8:17. with its picture of a future Israel at ease in Canaan, basking in self-congratulation."[1]

The design of the previous verses is to remind Israel of their need of God and the necessity for depending upon God always and not relying upon themselves.

Keil's chapter heading here is: "Review of the Guidance of God, and their Humiliation in the Desert, as a Warning against High-mindedness and Forgetfulness of God."[2]

We cannot progress very far in Deuteronomy without becoming aware of the tremendous amount of repetition contained in it, and, "These may seem unnecessary until we realize that, in spite of them, the people strayed away from God. Some truths are so important, and human memories are so weak, that they need to be stated over and over again."[3] It must be remembered in this connection that one of the great features of the teachings of the Master was the extensive REPETITION. All of the parables of the kingdom are repetitions in their major feature, and what some of the scholars call "doublets" are nothing at all except examples of how Jesus returned again and again to the same thought, repeating his teachings in slightly variable form. There were two sermons: (1) one on the mount, and (2) the other on the plain," so much alike that the thoughtless sometimes think of them as "variations" of the same sermon. The same is true of the two accounts of the Lord's prayer.

"All the commandment which I commanded thee this day shall ye observe to do, that ye may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which Jehovah sware unto your fathers. And thou shalt remember all the way which Jehovah thy God hath led thee these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble thee, to prove thee, to know what was in thy heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or not. And he humbled thee, and suffered 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 everything that proceedeth out of the mouth of Jehovah doth man live. Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell, these forty years. And thou shalt consider in thy heart, as a man chasteneth his son, so Jehovah thy God chasteneth thee."

The teaching of this paragraph is that God deliberately brought hardships upon the people in order to teach them to rely upon the Lord. Such things as hunger and thirst were used to challenge the people and to discipline them and to train them to look to God for the solution of all their problems. This is exactly the teaching of Hebrews 12:5-11. (The student interested in the subject of "The Lord's Chastening" will find additional material under those verses in our N.T. series of commentaries, Vol. 10.)

The purpose of this chastening was beneficent toward man, "That men, humbled so as to see their own weakness, chastised out of all self-conceit by affliction, are taught to submit to God, to hear and obey Him, and in grateful acknowledgment of his grace and mercy, yield themselves lovingly to serve Him."[4]

These verses cast a brilliant illumination upon all the misfortunes and hardships of life. They are not merely adversities; they are opportunities; and, "They are all examples of God's providence."[5]

Harrison was impressed with the choice of the events related in Deuteronomy, especially some of those in this chapter, saying, "The way in which these incidents are described, and their correspondence with those events most likely to impress Moses himself, furnish striking evidence of authenticity."[6]

"Man shall not live by bread only ..." (Deuteronomy 8:3). This, of course, was quoted by the Son of God himself in his encounter with the prince of evil. The truth here is a many-faceted thing - true, no matter how one regards it. Physical food is not enough; the spiritual dimension is absolutely necessary for any kind of an abundant life. Chaplain (Major) Branham of the U.S. Army was pastor of a small Christian church in Missouri, where the pay was very low. He entered the chaplaincy, and one of his old elders asked him why he did so. He replied, "Man shall not live by bread alone!" We doubt, of course, that anything like that is meant here.

In Jesus' quotation of this place, what did he mean by it? It appears to us that Keil was correct in his analysis of this. "Jesus was not saying to Satan that the Messiah lives not by material bread only but by doing God's will. Jesus was saying, I leave it to God to care for my life; and God is able to sustain life in extraordinary ways."[7] It was indeed by extraordinary means that God preserved the life of Jesus in this situation. An angel came and ministered unto him. The lesson taught here is that, "It is not nature than nourishes man, but the Creator nourishes man through nature."[8] Another statement of the same view is this: "Jesus means to say, `I leave it with God to care for the sustenance of my life, and I will not arbitrarily, and for selfish ends help myself by a miracle.'"[9]

"The raiment waxed not old upon thee ..." Here we encounter radically different views on the part of faithful scholars, and of course they cannot both be correct. Despite this, we do not have the key for any dogmatic solution. Adam Clarke thought that this meant, merely, that God so abundantly cared for Israel in the wilderness that they never had to wear old and tattered garments. He pointed out that they had artisans of the highest quality, as attested by the tabernacle. They knew how to weave. They had thousands of sheep for wool. They had plenty of time to make their own clothes and plenty of material with which to do it. The meaning therefore is, "That God so amply provided for them all the necessities of life, that they were never obliged to wear tattered garments."[10] An objection to this view is that God does not here say merely that "Israel did not have to wear tattered garments," but that, "their raiment waxed not old!"

"The other view is that, "The strong and pointed terms which Moses here uses (See also Deuteronomy 29:5) indicate a special or miraculous interposition of their loving Guardian in preserving them amid the wear and tear of their nomadic life in the desert."[11] Luther, Calvin, and Kline also took this view. However, many recent able and dependable scholars support the other view that, "The reference here is not literal, but poetical and rhetorical."[12] Oberst took a middle of the road view, writing: "While we need not overlook the natural supplies, or the presence of human agency in part, it is clear that these natural supplies (both the manna and the clothing) were supplemented by some special and miraculous exercise of divine power."[13]

Many of the ancient writers, Justin Martyr in particular, and the Jewish rabbis magnified this miracle tremendously, maintaining, not only that their clothes did not wear out, but that, "As the younger generation grew up, their clothes also grew upon their backs, like the shells of snails."[14] Based upon the truth revealed in the Bible that God never performed any unnecessary miracles, we favor the view of Dummelow; but, of course, the literalists could be correct.