Do not forget God when you have everything
1 Be careful to fulfill all the com mandments which I give you today, that you may live and in crease, and conquer the land which Yahweh promised on oath to your fathers.
2 Remember how Yahweh, your God, brought you through the desert for forty years. He humbled you, to test you and know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his com mandments or not.
3 He made you experience want, he made you experience hunger, but he gave you manna to eat which neither you nor your fathers had known, to show you that man lives not on bread alone, but that all that proceeds from the mouth of God is life for man.
4 Your garment did not even fray, or your foot swell all these forty years.
5 Understand, then, that Yahweh has taught you in the same way that a father teaches his child.
6 Observe the commandments of Yah weh, your God; follow his ways and re vere him.
7 For Yahweh, your God, will bring you into that good land, a land of streams and rivers, of subterranean waters that gush forth in the valleys and mountains,
8 a land of wheat and barley, of grapes and figs, of pomegranates and olives, a land of oil and honey,
9 a land where the bread you eat is not rationed and where you will lack nothing, a land with iron in stones and copper mines in the mountains.
10 You shall eat until you are satisfied, and you shall bless Yahweh for the good land he has given you.
11 So take care that you do not forget Yahweh, your God, by neglecting the commandments, norms and laws that I give you today.
12 And when you have eaten and have been satisfied, when you have built comfortable homes and live in them,
13 when your livestock have multiplied, when you have silver and gold in abundance, and an increase of good things of every kind,
14 then do not let your heart become proud and do not forget Yahweh, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, the house of slavery.
15 It is he who has led you across this great and terrible desert, full of fiery serpents and scorpions, an arid land where there is no water. But for you he made water gush forth from the hardest rock. Num 20,116 And he fed you in the desert with manna which your fathers did not know.
16 He made you experience want and put you to the test, so that it would be for your good later on,
17 lest you say, “With my own strength I have attained all these good things.”
18 Remember Yahweh, your God, the one who gave you power to be come prosperous, as you are today, in fulfillment of the Covenant he promised under oath to your fathers.
19 But if you forget Yahweh and follow other gods, if you pay them homage and bow before them, I warn you right now that you will surely perish.
20 In the same way that Yahweh destroyed the nations that stood in your way, so will he destroy you if you disobey Yahweh, your God.
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Comments Deuteronomy, Chapter 8
• 8.1 8:1-6 shows the meaning of the wandering in the desert: a time of testing for Israel. Is rael was poor and yet God’s help was never lacking.
He gave you manna to eat, to show you that one lives not on bread alone, but that everything coming from the mouth of God is life for God’s children. The manna they were given was the sign of another food needed by all and which comes from the mouth of God: his Word (see commentary on Ex 16:16).