Remember the Lord Your God

8:1 “The whole commandment that I command you today you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land that the Lord swore to give to your fathers. 2 And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. 3 And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. 4 Your clothing did not wear out on you and your foot did not swell these forty years. 5 Know then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the Lord your God disciplines you. 6 So you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God by walking in his ways and by fearing him. 7 For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing out in the valleys and hills, 8 a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, 9 a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. 10 And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.”

The ministry of the wilderness

Picture yourself in the wilderness with Israel. God has raised up a leader and you have just been lead out of a life of slavery under the Egyptians. You have freedom—you no longer fear the cracking whip of a slave master. There is great joy. There is great celebration. The horizon is wide-open before you. 

 

True, the wide-open horizon before you is a wilderness. Seemingly unending. But, not much unlike a newlywed couple overlooking the faults of their first place they call home, and not knowing all that lies ahead, you look in hope at what is before you.  After all, the Lord is leading you, and there is the promise of the promised land.

Forty years later, you are still in the wilderness, but are finally ready to leave it behind and begin taking possession the promised land. Much happened in those forty years. God did much testing, teaching, and refining during those years in the wilderness—making you fit to enter the promised land. 

 

Neither you nor I were there, but the people of Israel were. And God lead them through the wilderness for forty years for a reason. And that reason, as we read in Deuteronomy 8:3, was to “make them know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.”

The curious statement

How did God’s leading them in the wilderness for forty years show Israel this truth?

And what does this mean, “man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord?”

And, what does this mean for us today?

Those are the three things we are going to look at this morning:

-          How did forty years in the wilderness teach it?

-          What does it mean?

-          What does it mean for us today?

Hunger, manna, quail, and graves of craving

Let’s take a look Israel’s time in the wilderness in greater detail. Please turn in your Bible to Exodus 16. You may want to find Numbers 11 as well—we’ll be heading there next.

Israel had been out of Egypt for only about 1 ½ months, and had just crossed the Red Sea, and the perusing Egyptians were swallowed up in its waters by the hand of God. We learn that the excitement of their new situation dies off quickly. 

 

16:1 They set out from Elim, and all the congregation of the people of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had departed from the land of Egypt. 2 And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, 3 and the people of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”

So not even two months in, Israel is wishing they would have died back in Egypt, sitting by their pots of meat and loaves of bread with full bellies—but dead. Being slaves—and dead--but having a full stomach, sounded better to them.

The Lord hears the complaints of Israel, and he responds:

4 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day's portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not. 5 On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily.”

Already, we see hints of the testing God built into this provision of manna, like we read in Deuteronomy 8. This wasn’t just God taking care of their hunger—he had greater intentions.

So Moses tells the people:

 6 So Moses and Aaron said to all the people of Israel, “At evening you shall know that it was the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, 7 and in the morning you shall see the glory of the Lord, because he has heard your grumbling against the Lord. For what are we, that you grumble against us?” 8 And Moses said, “When the Lord gives you in the evening meat to eat and in the morning bread to the full, because the Lord has heard your grumbling that you grumble against him—what are we? Your grumbling is not against us but against the Lord.”

The people hear what God promises to do for them, and part of the provision contains some commands. Starting that evening, God did as he promised:

“13 In the evening quail came up and covered the camp, and in the morning dew lay around the camp. 14 And when the dew had gone up, there was on the face of the wilderness a fine, flake-like thing, fine as frost on the ground.15 When the people of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, “It is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat. 16 This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Gather of it, each one of you, as much as he can eat.”

God provided meat in the evening, and bread in the morning for the hungry Israelites. They did have some trouble obeying the orders though. We see in vss. 22-30 that they were to leave none of it overnight. Some did, and we learn it “bred worms and stank.” Also, they were to gather for 6 days, and rest on the seventh—some failed to do this. The Lord isn’t pleased, and says to the people:

“28 vHow long will you refuse to keep my commandments and my laws? 29 See! The Lord has given you the Sabbath; therefore on the sixth day he gives you bread for two days. Remain each of you in his place; let no one go out of his place on the seventh day.”

They seem to eventually get things worked out, and that brings us to the tail end of their forty years in the wilderness. Turn to Numbers 11.

11:1 And the people complained in the hearing of the Lord about their misfortunes, and when the Lord heard it, his anger was kindled, and the fire of the Lord burned among them and consumed some outlying parts of the camp. 2 Then the people cried out to Moses, and Moses prayed to the Lord, and the fire died down. 3 So the name of that place was called Taberah,  because the fire of the Lord burned among them.

4 Now the rabble that was among them had a strong craving. And the people of Israel also wept again and said, “Oh that we had meat to eat! 5 We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. 6 But now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.”

Forty years of manna and the wilderness were taking its toll on the Israelites. And again, like they did at the start of their journey, they look back in longing to what they had in Egypt.

Moses complains to the Lord that he alone can’t handle the needs of the people, and the Lord gives him others to help share the burden. Regarding the peoples’ complaint about food, the Lord replies starting in verse 18:

18 And say to the people, ‘Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, and you shall eat meat, for you have wept in the hearing of the Lord, saying, “Who will give us meat to eat? For it was better for us in Egypt.” Therefore the Lord will give you meat, and you shall eat. 19 You shall not eat just one day, or two days, or five days, or ten days, or twenty days, 20 but a whole month, until it comes out at your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you, because you have rejected theLord who is among you and have wept before him, saying, “Why did we come out of Egypt?”’” 
 

To this, Moses complains, and the Lord responds:

21 But Moses said, “The people among whom I am number six hundred thousand on foot, and you have said, ‘I will give them meat, that they may eat a whole month!’ 22 Shall flocks and herds be slaughtered for them, and be enough for them? Or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, and be enough for them?” 23 And the Lord said to Moses, “Is the Lord's hand shortened? Now you shall see whether my word will come true for you or not.”

 The Lord does as he promised:

31 Then a wind from the Lord sprang up, and it brought quail from the sea and let them fall beside the camp, about a day's journey on this side and a day's journey on the other side, around the camp, and about two cubits(1.5 feet) above the ground. 32 And the people rose all that day and all night and all the next day, and gathered the quail. Those who gathered least gathered ten homers (a homer is 6 bushels).  And they spread them out for themselves all around the camp. 33 While the meat was yet between their teeth, before it was consumed, the anger of the Lord was kindled against the people, and the Lord struck down the people with a very great plague. 34 Therefore the name of that place was called Kibroth-hattaavah,  because there they buried the people who had the craving. 35 From Kibroth-hattaavah the people journeyed to Hazeroth, and they remained at Hazeroth.

Kibroth-hattaavah means graves of craving. Some of the people got what they wanted.  Remember back to Exodus 16, they wished they “died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when [they] sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full…” The tragedy is that in the midst of God’s provision for them—in the midst of him leading and preparing them for the promised land—they reject it. And those that rejected God’s provision died.

Looking back at the wilderness, and looking to the promised land 
 

This brings us back to Deuteronomy 8—shortly before Israel is to start taking possession of the promised land. This passage looks back at the forty years in the wilderness, and reflects on it’s purpose. We’ll pick up in vs 2:

2 And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not.3 And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.

Here we are getting to the nature of the test. The people are being reminded of what they have gone through, and it’s purpose is explained. 

 

Let’s take a look at each statement:

…” And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness…”

It was the LORD that led them through this. It wasn’t chance—they weren’t left on their own.

…”that he might humble you…”

This is the first purpose we see—God wanted to humble them. The Hebrew word for “humble” used here is aw-naw. This means to depress, afflict, chasten, deal hardly with, exercise, force.

And here is how he humbles them:

…”testing you to know what was in your heart…”

The Lord’s purpose in humbling them was to test the contents of their hearts. How does humbling one do that?

Paul Tripp uses an excellent illustration in one of his sessions dealing with  marriage. He takes a full bottle of water, and shakes it. He asks, “why did water come out of the bottle?” Most would say, “because you shook it.” He says a more meaningful answer is “because there is water in the bottle.” This illustration’s purpose is to show that what is in the heart comes out when pressure is applied.

God applies pressure to Israel--He humbled  them (aw-naw), to see what would come out of their heart. God shook them in a sense, to see what would come out.

And this is what God wanted to see:

…”whether you would keep his commandments or not.”

God was looking for something specific here. He was looking for obedience to his commandments. Would this testing cause obedience to be displayed?

More explanation follows:

…”And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know…”

Specifically, the humbling or testing came in the form of hunger. But God didn’t leave them hungry—he supplied food for them in a very specific way. This is an odd test. In the testing (mainly forced by hunger), God provides a way out of the testing, as it were—he provides food. You obey God, and you eat what he provides—you are no longer hungry. You are satisfied. God provided the test, God provided the answers. 

 

And we come to the main purpose—the desired lesson:

...” that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.”

The pressure God applied was to test for obedience to his commandments (we see that in vs 2), and the purpose of the test was to show them that man doesn’t live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.

Two things to note about this statement. 1: hunger didn’t kill them, and food didn’t keep them alive.  No one in Israel was without food. It is not mentioned that anyone died of hunger. Everyone ate. Yet, some of them died. Why? Those that craved what they wanted—and ate of it—died. In both cases, God provided the food. So, hunger didn’t kill them. And food didn’t keep them alive. So, it’s clear that “man does not live by bread alone.” If that were true, none of the Israelites would have died. So, for this reason alone, we can see that it took something other than to keep Israel alive. 

 

Second thing to note about this statement: what did keep them alive is in the statement, “but by every word that come from the mouth of the Lord.” This too is provided by God. Man lives by God’s word. God’s word. He provides it. What caused them to live is also provided by God.

So, God provided everything. He provided their food, and he provided ultimately what gave them life—his word.

Also remember—it was God who tested them for obedience to his commands. In fact, God did a lot for Israel. It was God who led them into the wilderness. It was God who provided them a leader. It was God who delivered them from slavery in Egypt. It was God who led them into captivity. It was God called the people of Israel, and promised to make them a people for himself. There is no escaping God, and there is no doing anything apart from God. The whole story of Israel is all about God. 

 

So, God led Israel into the wilderness to test them to see if they would obey his word (his commands). He wanted them to see that this is how they were to be able to live (and enter the promised land—those that died didn’t enter). And Godprovided his word—what they would need to pass the test. So God gave the test, and God gave what was needed to pass the test. Those that passed the test—obedience to God’s word—entered the promised land. Those that didn’t pass the test—disobeyed God’s word and desired something other than what God provided for them to be able to pass the test—died in their graves of craving, and did not enter the promised land.

Our wilderness, our manna, our rest

That brings us to the end of this part of the story of Israel. And, brings us to the third question I put before us: what does this mean for us today. The author of Hebrews makes answering this question an easy task for me. Because, he talks about this story of Israel and what it means for Christians living in the church age. Please turn to Hebrews chapter 3. We’ll be starting at verse 7, and will walk through this section in chunks.

7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,

“Today, if you hear his voice,
8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,
on the day of testing in the wilderness,
9 where your fathers put me to the test
and saw my works for forty years.
10 Therefore I was provoked with that generation,
and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart;
they have not known my ways.’
11 As I swore in my wrath,
‘They shall not enter my rest.’”

We’re familiar with this story. In Israel’s testing in the wilderness, those whose hearts were hard did not enter God’s rest.

Now here’s where things get personal:

12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. 15 As it is said,

“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”

Here, the author of Hebrews is linking his audience to the story of Israel. The lessons learned and the things taught then are being brought into the now. He’s saying don’t do what those who fell away did.

And what did they do?

16 For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? 17 And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? 19 So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.

Sin and disbelief kept them out of the rest—the promised land. 

 

4:1 Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. 2 For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened.  3 For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said,

“As I swore in my wrath,
‘They shall not enter my rest,’”

So, it is through belief, in faith, that God’s rest is entered into. 

 

Verses 4-9 talk about the nature of the rest, how God rested, and how we are promised a rest that is to come. Until then, we work:

“11 Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.”

Christianity isn’t a do-something-once-and-you’re-in sort of thing. Note in verse 11-the striving is to not fall into disobedience. Or, we strive to not sin. Or, we strive for holiness. We strive to be more Christ-like. We strive for sanctification. I think those are all saying the same thing. 

 

The question is how? How are we to strive? Work hard? Be good people? Do we just say we believe in Jesus? Yes, we need to proclaim that Jesus is Lord, but this is talking about more than that. See 4:6:

“6 Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience”

Israel received the good news, but some failed to enter because of sin.

So this striving/fighting sin/becoming more Christ-like/holiness so that we may be fit to enter God’s rest-- takes place after an initial receiving of the good news (the gospel.) Striving/fighting sin/becoming more Christ-like/holiness can all be defined as not sinning. If are sinning less, we are becoming more Christ-like. If we are sinning less, we are becoming more holy. If we are sinning less, we are becoming more sanctified. 
 

So, how do we fight for sinning less? Verse 12:

11 Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. 12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

God’s word does it. God’s word did it for Israel: “so that they might know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” 

 

God’s word calls out sin. It reveals truth and lies. It cuts through our disbelief and ignorance. And in verse 13, 

 

“13 And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”

God’s word does this…and, note it’s God’s word. It comes from him. Manna came to Israel from God. God’s word came to Israel from God. God’s word comes to us from God. God called out Israel to be a nation for himself, God calls us to himself. God called Israel to a life of faith and obedience. God calls us to a life of faith and obedience. God promised Israel rest. God promises us rest. God promised Israel he would supply all they need. God promises us to supply all we need. With Israel, it was all about and from and to God. Same with us.

One thing we have in a way that Israel didn’t, is Jesus Christ. Look what that does for us (4:14-16):

14 Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Through Christ, we have grace and great confidence to hold fast. This should drive us to draw near the throne of grace. Grace should always be at work in us. We first see the beauty of Jesus that is in his grace, when we first come to know him. And we see in this passage in Hebrews that in our process of striving for entering God’s rest—a lifelong process, we are to be driven to grace. If in the process of your striving (sanctification, becoming more Christ-like), you are not becoming more and more enamored with God’s grace, something is wrong—something is out of place.

And probably what is wrong is that you still maybe think you have more to do with this than you really do. All Israel needed came from God. All we need comes from God. Paul helps us out here greatly in Philippians 3:12-14:

12 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

A more literal translation of verse 12 is:

 “Not that I did already obtain, or have been already perfected; but I pursue, if also I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by the Christ Jesus.”

So, Paul is trying to lay hold of the prize, all the while, he’s already been laid hold of by Christ. He’s striving—as he’s called to do, but Christ is already holding him, sustaining him. 

 

So, obedience is what is needed to enter God’s rest. God’s word supplies what we need. 
 

David’s love for the word

So, how does God’s word work in us in our striving? How does it keep us on a path of obedience? How does it uphold us? How does it keep us from sinning? One of the best examples we have of this working in a person’s life is from David in Psalm 119. 
 

If I had another hour, we’d walk through the whole chapter, but it’s 176 verses, all worth the time to go over. But, I want to leave you with XX things we learn from David that we can take into our lives to help us live on every word that comes from the mouth of God.

First: God’s word is the rule. From it we know how obedience is measured. We know what is sin, and what is not sin. Look at verse 9:

“9 How can a young man keep his way pure?
By guarding it according to your word.”

Or verse 29:

“29 Put false ways far from me
and graciously teach me your law!”

There are dozens more. God’s word is the rule. We will not know what is sin and what is not apart from it. It’s how God will judge us, and as we saw in Hebrews 4:12, it discerns the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

Second: God’s word sustains us. It gives us strength to carry on. See verse 23:

“23 Even though princes sit plotting against me,
your servant will meditate on your statutes.”

Or verse 28:

“28 My soul melts away for sorrow;
strengthen me according to your word!”

David turned to God and his word when he needed strength to keep striving. God’s word sustained David—it sustains us.

Third: God’s word is to be delighted in. See verse 14:

“14 In the way of your testimonies I delight
as much as in all riches.”

Or verse 16:

“16 I will delight in your statutes;
I will not forget your word.”

God’s word is to be treasured! How could we not treasure the very thing that God has given us to sustain us in our striving for entering his rest—heaven?

Forth: God’s word is to be fed on continually. See verse 20:

“20 My soul is consumed with longing
for your rules [4] at all times.”

Or verse 44:

“44 I will keep your law continually,
forever and ever,”

We aren’t to just pull out God’s word here and there, during certain times. When do we ever not need God’s help? One thing I didn’t even get into was in Deuteronomy 8, the passage right after what we went through, Israel is warned to:

11 “Take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, 12 lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them…”

17 Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’

20 Like the nations that the Lord makes to perish before you, so shall you perish, because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God.

It’s continual. We always need it. We need to be on guard.

Fifth: God’s word is to be abiding. See verse 11:

“11 I have stored up your word in my heart,
that I might not sin against you.”

Abiding, or stored up, or readily at hand. We need to be familiar with it. We need to memorize scripture. Memorize a lot of scripture. David had scripture stored up in such a way that is was readily available to combat sin. We don’t always have our Bibles open or our iPhones on with scripture pulled up.

Sixth: God’s word gives us faith-building promises. God’s promises are the fuel for our faith. Faith is believing what we do not see, but know to be true. Where else but in God’s word do we learn what God’s promises for us are?  See verses 41-42:

“41 Let your steadfast love come to me, O Lord,
your salvation according to your promise;
42 then shall I have an answer for him who taunts me,
for I trust in your word.”

Or verse 76:

“76 Let your steadfast love comfort me
according to your promise to your servant.”

Seventh: God’s word working in us is a work of God. See verse 32:

“32 I will run in the way of your commandments
when you enlarge my heart!”

David saw the need for God to do a work in his heart before he could be obedient. Paul understood this in Philippians 2:12-13:

“12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”

There’s so much more in Psalm 119. I’d encourage you to go through it to get a better understanding of David’s view and treasuring of the word.

Let us strive by the power of his word

How are your striving? How are you fighting sin? What sustains you during the day? If it isn’t God’s word, what is it? Or, are you not striving? Are you not fighting sin? Are you not sustained? Let’s together commit in a fresh way to the feeding on God’s word. If you don’t already do this, I’d strongly encourage you to take time at the start of the day to be in God’s word and in prayer. Get your faith fed before you start your day. 

 

To close, I’d like to share something Charles Spurgeon wrote in his book, The Treasury of David. I think this almost perfectly sums up what we’ve talked about this morning:

Yet the “word” is absolutely necessary; for, otherwise, care will darken into morbid anxiety, and conscientiousness may become superstition. A captain may watch from his deck all night; but if he knows nothing of the coast, and has no pilot on board, he may be carefully hastening on to shipwreck. It is not enough to desire to be right; for ignorance may make us think that we are doing God service when we are provoking him, and the fact of our ignorance will not reverse the character of our action, however much it may mitigate its criminality. Should a man carefully measure out what he believes to be a dose of useful medicine, he will die if it should turn out that he has taken up the wrong vial, and has poured out a deadly poison' the fact that he did it ignorantly will not alter the result. Even so, a young man may surround himself with ten thousand ills, by carefully using an unenlightened judgment, and refusing to receive instruction from the word of God. Wilful ignorance is in itself wilful sin, and the evil which comes of it is without excuse. Let each man, whether young or old, who desires to be holy (that’s us—we want to enter God’s rest) have a holy watchfulness in his heart, and keep his Holy Bible before his open eye. There he will find every turn of the road marked down, every slough and miry place pointed out, with the way to go through unsoiled; and there, too, he will find light for his darkness, comfort for his weariness, and company for his loneliness, so that by its help he shall reach the benediction of Psa_119:1 of the Psalm, which suggested the Psalmist's enquiry, and awakened his desires.