The Chosen Key Word in this Chapter is “Humble” it comes from the Hebrew Word “anah” which means “to humble, to afflict.”
Moses warns Israel about a danger that has nothing to do with enemies or giants, their own coming comfort. Welcome to Bible Life Basics Chapter Reviews, I am Chris and this is Deuteronomy 8.
Moses instructs Israel to remember the entire forty-year journey through the wilderness, explaining that God led them through it specifically “to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no.” The Hebrew word for humble here is “anah.” He reminds them that God allowed them to hunger, then fed them manna, something neither they nor their fathers had ever known, so they would understand “that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.” Moses points out that throughout these forty years, their clothing did not wear out, nor did their feet swell, and that God disciplined them the way a father disciplines his own son. He describes the good land they are about to enter in rich detail, a land of brooks, water, wheat, barley, vines, fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil, honey, and iron and brass in its stones, a land where they will lack nothing. Moses warns urgently that once they eat, are full, and build good houses, and their herds and silver and gold multiply, their heart may become proud and they will forget the Lord who brought them out of Egyptian bondage. He warns them specifically against thinking, “My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth,” insisting instead that they remember it is the Lord who gives them power to get wealth, in order to establish His covenant. If they forget God and follow other gods instead, Moses warns plainly that they will perish just as surely as the nations God is destroying before them.
Moses warned Israel not about hardship, but about ease, the subtle danger of forgetting God once comfort and prosperity finally arrive. Difficulty often drives people toward dependence on God, while abundance quietly tempts toward self-sufficiency and forgetfulness. Prosperity, this chapter suggests, requires just as much spiritual vigilance as hardship ever did.
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