Moses has just reminded the people that God delivered their fathers and some of them personally and the rest who were born in the wilderness after the crossing of the Red Sea from bondage to Pharoah in Egypt. He has exhorted them to be obedient to the commands of the LORD and to love him faithfully. He has just said to them a word that Jesus quoted to Satan, when Jesus was tempted in the wilderness to turn stones into bread when he was hungry after forty days of fasting, like the forty years of Israel’s fast from ordinary provision in the wilderness eating manna every day, and Jesus answered Satan with this word from Deuteronomy 8:3, “it is not by bread alone that man lives, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God does man live.” Moses has just told them that when they enter the land it will yield for them abundant provision of water and food that will nourish them and they will lack nothing and will be satisfied therein. He has forewarned them to remember the LORD who is the SOURCE of their blessing, saying in verse ten, “When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land which he has given you.”
This is one of the reasons that we give to the LORD the tithes and offerings of our increase: so that we may join our finances and all our prosperity to Him in the Spirit by supporting the weak and doing good with our prosperity.
THE ROLE OF THANKSGIVING IS VITAL TO OUR ABILITY TO ENDURE THROUGH ALL THE PHASES OF LIFE. WE MUST HABITUALLY RETURN TO GOD WITH THANKSGIVING OR WE WILL SUFFER A FALLING AWAY INTO THE ABYSS OF SELF.
WE SEE THIS IN THE WARNING MOSES GIVES TO ISRAEL in verses eleven through twenty of chapter eight. Here Moses warns the people of the eventual seduction of their prosperity:
“Beware that you do not forget the LORD your God in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and his statutes, which I command you this day:
“Lest when you have eaten and are full, and have built goodly houses, and dwelt therein;
“And when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied;
“Then your heart will be lifted up, and you shall forget the LORD your God, who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage;
“Who led you through that great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery snakes, and scorpions, and thirst, where there was no water; who (supernaturally) brought forth for you water out of the rock of flint;
“Who fed you in the wilderness with (the supernatural food of) manna, which your fathers did not know, that he (the LORD) might humble you, and that he might prove you, to do you good at your latter end; [the interpolations and emphases in this quotation are mine for the sake of instruction]
“Lest you say in your heart, My power and the might of my hand has gotten me this wealth.
“But you shall remember the LORD your God: for it is HE that gives you power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he swore unto your fathers, as it is this day.
“And it shall be, if you do at all forget the LORD your God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish. As the nations which the LORD destroyed before your face, so shall you perish; because you would not be obedient unto the voice of the LORD your God.”
America and the Nations of the world today [I am writing this on February 17th in the year of our LORD 2023] are tottering on the brink of the destruction prophesied here by Moses because the peoples of the world have forsaken the God who created them and have gone after the teachings of mere human philosophers and scientists who live by the sight of their eyes and the hearing of their ears and the reasoning of their minds based on the physical things that they perceive about them: they do not wholly give place to the Revelation of God to mankind in the Holy Scriptures and in the Person of the Son of God who has given himself for them that they might have eternal life as well as abundance in this life during their brief journey through the world of Time. Former generations that were in awe of God and that respectfully served him as a general people have built the civilization that we now enjoy; but the children of those peoples have fallen away from the reverence of the builders and have returned instead to wicked paganism.
We must repent of this in our time. We must return to the Lord with all our heart and all our soul and all our mind so that we not partake of the consequence of the present folly.
It may be that the end of man’s governance of himself has arrived. We should look up, for our redemption is drawing near. But as we do look for the Lord’s return, let us who understand the patience of our God return to him daily with thankful hearts and ask him in humility for the return to Him of ourselves, of our children and their children, and of the children of all the peoples of the world. Perhaps the LORD will have compassion on this generation and send a fresh move of the Holy Spirit into the world so that all people make come to know the LORD in his saving grace and in the prosperity that comes from him alone.
LORD, grant it, we pray. In Jesus’ Holy Name, Amen.
