Deuteronomy 8
Deuteronomy 8 presents us with several applications for our lives today, so let’s jump right in:
· “The whole commandment that I command you today you shall be careful to do…” (v.1). We cannot pick and choose what parts of Scripture we will obey. All of God’s commands are significant. (Our failure to keep the whole Law should cause us to humbly recognize our need for a Savior, who came to fulfill the Law on our behalf.)
· “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…” (v. 2). I recall a specific time in my life when God humbled me, helping me realize my heart was not set on following Him. It was a tough season in the wilderness, but I’m thankful He used those moments to help me realize that faith calls for total dependence upon Him.
· “…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” (v. 3). Charles Spurgeon says, “You never received spiritual life by your own feelings. It was when you believed God’s Word that you lived; and you will never get an increase of spiritual life, and grow in grace, by your own feelings or your own doings. It must still be by your believing the promises and feeding on the Word…Feed on it day and night, for thus will God make you to live the life that is life indeed.”[i]
· “Your clothing did not wear out on you and your foot did not swell these forty years” (v. 4). Do not discount God’s ability to lengthen the days of what He has entrusted to you when you walk in obedience to His commands.
· “Know then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the LORD your God disciplines you” (v. 5). Like the aforementioned discipline I endured years ago, God uses these times of correction to yield a harvest in your life. Although you may not see it at the moment, your life will be better if you learn from your loving Father’s rebukes.
· “So you shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God by walking in his ways and by fearing him” (v. 6). Again, we see the connection between fearing God and turning from evil (i.e., walking in obedience).
· After enjoying the bounty that awaits them in the Promised Land (vv. 7-10, 12-13), Moses warns the Israelites, “Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ You shall remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day” vv. 17-18). Lest we pridefully attribute to man what God has done, let us always keep at the forefront of our minds that it is God who provides exceedingly more than we can ever ask for or imagine.
· “And if you forget the LORD your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish. 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” (vv. 19-20). As Matthew Henry notes, “Those who follow others in sin, will follow them to destruction. If we do as sinners do, we must expect to fare as sinners fare.”[ii]
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Journal responses to the following prompts:
· Have you found yourself choosing parts of God’s commands to ignore because they may not fit well with your current lifestyle?
· Has there been a time in your life when God has brought you to your knees in humble recognition of your desperate need for Him?
Deuteronomy 9
In today’s reading, we read more of Moses’s encouragement to the Israelites about standing firm as they “go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than you, cities great and fortified up to heaven, a people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom you know, and of whom you have heard it said, ‘Who can stand before the sons of Anak?’” (vv. 1-2). For it is God, Moses continues, who would go before them as “a consuming fire” to destroy those in the path of His people inheriting the Promised Land (v. 3). What great reinforced comfort this had to provide to the nation of Israel as they prepared to cross over the Jordan! If God is for us, who (or what) can stand against us (Romans 8:31)?
Then Moses makes this cautionary statement to those gathered: “Do not say in your heart, after the LORD your God has thrust them out before you, ‘It is because of my righteousness that the LORD has brought me in to possess this land’…” (v. 4). For the Israelites, them inheriting Canaan had nothing to do with their own morality, holiness, or upstanding behavior, as they are noted in Deuteronomy 9 as being a stubborn people who had been rebellious against God since He delivered them out of slavery in Egypt (v. 6-7). And for us today, our promised inheritance cannot be earned by our meritorious deeds, as Scripture says these “are like a polluted garment” (Isaiah 64:6).
Despite this reality, how many people have you encountered who are leaning on their good works as justification that they are a Christian? When asking someone what makes them a follower of Jesus, you may have heard such responses like “I do more good than bad”; “I go to church every Sunday”; “I give to those in need”; or “I read the verse of the day on the Bible app”. Please don’t misunderstand me, as I’m glad for those individuals to be doing those things. But if that is what they are leaning on to stand before a holy God on the day of judgment, their destination is eternity apart from Him in hell. Thankfully, though, and similar to how it was for the people of Israel entering into the Promised Land, God has now made a way for His chosen people to be with Him in eternity forever, and that is through trusting in Jesus Christ’s substitutionary work on the Cross of salvation.
It grieves me to think that many are trusting in their self-righteousness (good works) to get them into Heaven when the Bible makes abundantly clear that we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23) and thus, are condemned to death apart from a saving relationship with Jesus Christ (Romans 6:23a). If this is you, I pray today your eyes will be opened to the path of destruction you are currently on.
Chapter 9 closes with Moses reminding this new generation about the abominable sin their elders committed with the golden calf (as originally documented in Exodus 32). Perhaps he knew that the people were prone to think more highly of themselves than they ought, so he had to bring them back down to reality by recalling the depths of depravity mankind is capable of. This should have served as a wake-up call to those entering Canaan, but as we will read about as we progress through the Old Testament, this younger crowd, to their detriment, did not learn from the sins of their fathers. Will we make the same mistake here and now?
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Journal responses to the following prompts:
· Has there been a time when you’ve leaned on your perceived self-righteousness to merit favor with God?
· How can we take some of these familiar stories that we read about in Scripture, like the golden calf incident, and learn from the sins of those who have come before us?
[i] Living on the Word. (1883, March 15). The Spurgeon Center for Biblical Preaching at Midwestern Seminary. Retrieved June 3, 2026, from
https://www.spurgeon.org/resource-library/sermons/living-on-the-word/#flipbook/
[ii] Deuteronomy 8 Bible commentary. (n.d.). Christianity.com. Retrieved June 3, 2026, from
https://www.christianity.com/bible/commentary/matthew-henry-concise/deuteronomy/8