Deuteronomy 8:10-19 [Build on the Rock Summer Series 6] Pastor Ron Koehler
Grace-Tucson
July 8, 2018
10 When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you. 11 Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. 12 Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, 13 and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, 14 then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 15 He led you through the vast and dreadful wilderness, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock. 16 He gave you manna to eat in the wilderness, something your ancestors had never known, to humble and test you so that in the end it might go well with you. 17 You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” 18 But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today. 19 If you ever forget the LORD your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed.
Dear Friends in Christ, Over the last couple weeks as we’ve at looked some building projects in the Bible, we’ve thought about God’s people in slavery building cities in Egypt and then—after they were freed from slavery—how they were instructed by God to build a portable building for worship—the tabernacle. That way, they could be reminded of God’s presence as they travelled through the wilderness during these years prior to their arrival in the Promised Land. At that time, God also gave them a spiritual pep-talk to prepare them for life in this land he would give them. I think one of the striking things about these words from Deuteronomy chapter 8 is that the Lord was flat-out telling them that their lives were going to be good—really good— when they got to this new country he would give them! You may have noticed as we heard the words of this lesson that God didn’t, at any point, say “if” you are blessed. He says that they would eat and be satisfied. They would build fine houses. Their flocks and herds would increase. They would keep accumulating gold and silver. In fact, all that they had and all they would do would be blessed! When they eventually got to this land, their personal building projects would begin. They would build beautiful, comfortable homes there in Canaan. God would bless them as their hands went to work erecting whatever walls and boundary markers they needed for the expanding flocks and their fruitful fields. Anything they poured their efforts into would be profitable. The LORD would provide everything they needed and so much more! You and I might be thinking about how nice it would be to have that kind of promise from God! What a great life—to know that God was going to bless all our efforts, that money wouldn’t be a problem, that we’d have a roof—even a nice roof—over our heads! That’s perfect—God PLUS tons of material blessings! But that’s just it; that’s what God needed to talk to them about. They needed direction on how to handle the good things God would give them. And frankly, this is direction that you and I need, even though we don’t have exactly the same, specific promises the Israelites had.
But we are prone to the same temptations and have the same thing spiritually threatening us. We also have the same God and some similar promises from him. So the LORD is sending us the same message that he sent to them. DON’T BE DISTRACTED BY YOUR HOMES AND BLESSINGS! His warning? 1. AVOID THE PATH THAT LEADS TO DESTRUCTION His encouragement? 2. REMEMBER THE LORD WHO HAS BLESSED YOU AVOID THE PATH THAT LEADS TO DESTRUCTION In the middle of all this good news that the LORD was sharing with his people, he did have to give them a strong warning. They were going from slavery in Egypt, to wandering in the desert for 40 years, to finally being able to settle down. Can you imagine what it would have been like to go from slavery to being richly blessed as a people? You would like to think that this would lead to total appreciation for the LORD and his blessings. But great danger loomed off in the distance when all those blessings would come. Kids know what it is like to get new toys—maybe for a birthday—and those new toys are played with, while old favorites sit in the closet or some corner of their room. They like the new stuff so much that these are what they spend time playing with, maybe not even remembering who it was at the birthday party that gave them to them. There would be a temptation for God’s people to be so distracted by the nice, new homes and all the blessings that they might forget about God who gave them these good things. So the LORD warned them, Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. A second time he warns them about what could happen, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God. And at the end of this lesson, he again says, If you ever forget the LORD your God… God knows and understands people better than we understand ourselves! He knows we can be distracted by and enamored with things to the point that we lose sight of him. And to make matters worse, the temptation would be there for these blessed people to think that THEY were the ones responsible for improving their lives and gathering more and more material things and building their fine houses. God even told them the attitude that they should watch out for: You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth… You and I are not any different. We like our “things.” We like our houses and the things in them. We like to watch retirement accounts and see our “silver and gold” increase. Not many of us have flocks and herds, but we have an abundance of things—maybe more than one “fine house,” a herd of automobiles, collections of all kinds, an everexpanding closet full of clothes and shoes, a garage with multiplying camping gear and hunting supplies and recreation stuff. Bookcases overflow, the pictures on your phone
reveal your vacations and adventures and your collection of friends and pictures of the great food you enjoy. You made this all happen, didn’t you?! You worked hard for all this! You put in the time! You made the sacrifices! You were smart! You were committed to your family and their future! And this attitude can be there when we don’t have much too. I am making it work! I am getting by! I have figured out a way! I don’t need all that stuff everyone else is chasing after—in fact, I think it’s ridiculous and wasteful! Either way, the sinful mind and heart has been distracted by what it has! The focus is on what is in their life and their role in obtaining and enjoying whatever is theirs. Whether there is an abundance like the Israelites would enjoy in the Promised Land or just enough to get by on, a person can forget the LORD their God and that puts the sinner on the PATH THAT LEADS TO DESTRUCTION. None of us are perfect at all this and so the holy God has every right to say to us, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed. And if we continue on this path, you and I may get to keep all our good things in this life, but eternal destruction awaits us and all who live for those things and who put anything in that spot in their heart where God should be. A failure to recognize the LORD as the one who provides all that we have leads to an eternity of separation from God and the blessings of heaven. REMEMBER THE LORD WHO HAS BLESSED YOU That is not what God wanted for his people, so he was preparing them to handle the multitude of blessings he was going to give them. When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you. Plenty of food, fine houses, herds and flocks, silver and gold, everything in abundance—that’s what the LORD was promising his people. So many good things! And they could trust God because he had taken care of them before and he was doing so at that moment. He reminded them that he had led them out of slavery in Egypt, that he led them through the harsh terrain of the desert where water was scarce and physical threats were in abundance. But they did drink and they did eat—in miraculous ways that others never had before. The LORD had always provided for his people and he would continue to do so. Surely they would go to work in this new land, building their fine houses and caring for their animals and increasing their wealth. God wanted them to always realize that he was providing them the opportunities for all this. He was providing them the strength to do all the work that was necessary. He was blessing them with the smarts to do what
was best. They would use the abilities that the LORD had given them and he would bless their efforts. He did this purely out of his grace—his undeserved love. God chose them to be his people. He chose to make them the guardians of the promise of the Savior and would bring that Savior into the world through their family tree. God was committed to blessing them! He called on them to realize all this love and blessing from his hand to them. He wanted them to remember him as their God and to trust only in him. Thanks and praise would result from the people, if they would remember that he was their Provider. He did not want the Israelites to lose sight of him as their Savior-God and forget the many ways he showed his love and care for them. God does not want that to happen to you and me either, so he urges us also to REMEMBER THE LORD WHO HAS BLESSED YOU. As you have read your Bible, have you ever noticed that God makes a habit of telling his people that he blesses them and will continue to bless them? Let me share a handful of those passages with you, so that we can see that it isn’t just the Israelites of long ago that God has done this for. Let these be just a few reminders of how very much God does love us and bless us. Psalm 23:1
The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
Romans 8:28
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
James 1:17
Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
Philippians 4:19 And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. John 1:16
From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another.
Why does God feel this way and do all this? Because God is love! God has chosen to love us even though our sin made us unlovable. God has always done this. He chose to love the Israelites and he gave them the promise of a Savior from sin. God has chosen to love us too. He has also made us promises attached to the Savior. We know that Jesus came, just as the LORD had promised his people he would. As he paid for sin with his perfect life and his death on the cross, sins of ungratefulness were included
in that payment. Sins of selfishness and arrogance and stealing the credit and praise from God for all the good things in our lives were included. Christ’s sacrifice mattered to the Father because as he lived in this world, he never failed to give thanks to the Father for the food he received and earthly blessings he enjoyed. When faced with the specific temptation to cure his hunger supernaturally, he instead depended on his Father. When faced with the specific temptation of gaining the kingdoms of the world and all their splendor, Jesus chose to worship his Father instead. As we heard in the gospel today, he taught others not to focus on and worry about material things. Why? Because God knows we need them and he provides them for us. God always has and he always will provide for us. In Jesus, he has provided what we need for salvation. And, as the Bible says, if God was willing to give up his own Son for us, how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things (Romans 8:32)? The lesson we learn today is that, like God’s people of the past, we live under the love and blessing of God. He has provided for us in the past and he promises to do so going forward. The LORD wants us to remember him as our Provider. This avoids the eternally destructive path and puts the praise right where it ought to be—at the feet of our God and Savior. May the Holy Spirit work that recognition and thanks and praise in our hearts. Amen. Now the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.