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.