An important reminder, for people in ancient Israel and for us today, is this: we did not get where we are in just a few days. “Remember the long way that the Lord your God led you these forty years in the wilderness” (Deuteronomy 8:2). For the Israelites and for us, there has been an extensive process that has brought us to this time and place.

There is a reason that the journey has run for such a long road, Moses told the Israelites: God led you this way “to humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart – whether or not you would keep his commandments. He humbled you by letting you hunger, then by feeding you with manna” (8:2-3). The “testing you to know” might be read to indicate that God wanted to know what was in their hearts, so he tested them; but this is probably another instance of how God asks a question not because he needs to learn the answer, but because we do.

There are those who blame God for the hard times that befall them (although they do not credit God for the blessings that come their way), and there are those who give thanks for the good things that happen (although they hold back from ascribing painful circumstances to God). But the text here acknowledges God’s full sovereignty over it all. God is the one who made you feel hunger. And God also fed you with manna: “with which neither you nor your ancestors were acquainted, to make you understand that one does not live not by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of Lord” (8:3).

God wants us to understand that life isn’t just about bread and the other things we consume: it is about living on the word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. And therefore God makes us feel hunger, and tests and humbles our hearts. Alas, despite the many examples our Lord provides for us, it does not appear that we today are any quicker to learn this lesson than earlier generations in ancient Israel.

* * * * *

Help us, O Lord! Grant us the courage to pray that you will humble us, so that we may indeed learn that we live not in our own strength, not by what we can accomplish, but by the word that you speak, and by the grace that you provide.

If you find these studies helpful, please Like, Subscribe, Comment, and Share. Thanks!