[Deuteronomy 8]: Is God Chastening You? Many times we go through things thinking that our suffering originates with God. This is a common belief that has been at the center of Christian though and theology for centuries. In this chapter we see that the chastening of God is something far different than dead religion would suggest. God chastens the children of Israel with manna every morning and water from the rock and supernatural health and supply. This is the chastening we can seek out and experience and give thanks for in our own lives if we will follow the example set by the ancient people of God.
[Deu 8:1-20 KJV] 1 All the commandments which I command thee this day shall ye observe to do, that ye may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers. 2 And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, [and] to prove thee, to know what [was] in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no. 3 And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every [word] that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live. 4 Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell, these forty years. 5 Thou shalt also consider in thine heart, that, as a man chasteneth his son, [so] the LORD thy God chasteneth thee. 6 Therefore thou shalt keep the commandments of the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, and to fear him. 7 For the LORD thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills; 8 A land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil olive, and honey; 9 A land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack any [thing] in it; a land whose stones [are] iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass. 10 When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the LORD thy God for the good land which he hath given thee. 11 Beware that thou forget not the LORD thy God, in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and his statutes, which I command thee this day: 12 Lest [when] thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt [therein]; 13 And [when] thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied; 14 Then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the LORD thy God, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage; 15 Who led thee through that great and terrible wilderness, [wherein were] fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought, where [there was] no water; who brought thee forth water out of the rock of flint; 16 Who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers knew not, that he might humble thee, and that he might prove thee, to do thee good at thy latter end; 17 And thou say in thine heart, My power and the might of [mine] hand hath gotten me this wealth. 18 But thou shalt remember the LORD thy God: for [it is] he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as [it is] this day. 19 And it shall be, if thou do at all forget the LORD thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish. 20 As the nations which the LORD destroyeth before your face, so shall ye perish; because ye would not be obedient unto the voice of the LORD your God.
God wants you to live, and increase and have permanence and blessing in your life. He places no premium upon suffering. He doesn’t take some murky pleasure in seeing you go without, languish in poverty, or struggle with disease. God wants you to be blessed because He loves you. The phrase “observe to do” in verse one means to “hedge in”. The word picture would be that of building fence around your house. As we obey the Lord and follow His commands we insulate ourselves from the random causality, threats and negative circumstances in the world. Most theologians and liberal pastors would reject this idea. They would suggest that it is unsophisticated and unrealistic to expect God to shield you from life’s sufferings. They would then go on to point out the existential value of suffering from the standpoint of philosophy. This viewpoint is very prevalent in Christian culture and it arises out of deep, systemic unbelief. This kind of thinking looks at the common experience of most Christians and because many do not experience the blessing of God that these verses must speak of “spiritual” blessings and not apply to natural everyday life’s circumstances.
Heb. 3:19; 4:6; and Heb. 4:11 mention three times the phrase “we enter not in because of unbelief”. That is a bitter pill to swallow but this is the most commonly cited biblical reason for why we don’t experience the blessings of God at times. Isa. 1:19 says “if you are willing and obedient you will eat the fat of the land”. Failing to walk in obedience and cooperation with God is another reason we see contradictions to God’s promises in our lives. James 2:17; Heb. 6:1; James 2:20,26 mention four times that faith without works is dead. You can have faith but that faith be dead because there is no corresponding action in your life to what you say you believe. This confuses many believers because they feel that they do in fact believe but don’t realize that their faith is dead because it isn’t connected with corresponding actions.
Another aspect of walking in God’s blessings confuses many. Jesus spoke healing over a group of lepers in the gospel of Luke. They didn’t get an instant answer.
[Luk 17:14 KJV] 14 And when he saw [them], he said unto them, Go shew yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed.
Jesus told them what to do – to go show themselves to the priests. But at that time they were not healed. He told them to act like they were healed. So there is a matter of timing and process in receiving from God. They could have easily said “no I’m not going to do that because I am not healed…” That would have been the end of that. Sometimes we don’t receive and simply give up. We opt out of God’s process because it offends our expectations. Don’t rob yourself of God’s blessing but giving up!
Sometimes people believe that God put sickness, or poverty, or other troubles on them to humble them. Notice what v. 3 says – God allowed them to hunger. In other words from God’s standpoint He could have just taken hunger from them and sustained them supernaturally. In Matt. 4:2 Jesus fasted forty days and was only hungry afterward. In 1 Kings 19:8 God caused Elijah to sustain forty days on one meal. In Ex. 24:18 and 34:28 Moses on two occasions when forty days without food and water. But God didn’t sustain the people that way. He allowed the natural occurrence of hunger but then fed them supernaturally.
So don’t say God humbles you with cancer or chastens you with poverty. He will never use what Jesus died to remove from your life as a chastening tool against you. To do so the Father would have to profane the cross. He humbled the people with miracles – miracles of manna every morning and water from the rock. They murmured and complained and rebelled against God and Moses for forty years and they did it with supernatural manna in their mouths and water from the rock in their bellies. Even though they disobeyed and often complained yet God loved them and continued to sustain them. Jesus quotes verse 2 when the devil tempted Him. The Father didn’t just sustain them with bread. They were sustained by direct intervention of God. This is where the manna came from. Before it was manna it was a word from God. Their job was to gather it. You still have to gather manna today. You will find it in the word of God. There is a dearth of studying the word. Manna from God’s word has to be gathered. You have to have a relationship with the word of God or you will suffer unnecessarily. So if you wish to close the gap of contradiction to His promise in your life – adjust your habits and attitudes towards God’s word. Daily gather the manna. Don’t allow yourself to have more interaction with social media or anything else than you do the word of God. Facebook is not quick and powerful and sharper than any two edged sword but God’s word is!
In v. 4 we find reference to shoes not wearing out and clothes not becoming threadbare. God will not only provide but will sustain and maintain you. We desperately need to put our faith on this scripture. At the time of writing this we have a car with almost 170,000 miles on it. We had used that car and crisscrossed the nation more than four times preaching the gospel. We never had to wonder when we turned the key if the engine would fire. Now we have had to put gas in it and do maintenance on it but to have a car work that reliably is a blessing from God.
Notice not only did their stuff not wear out but their bodies didn’t wear out. Put your faith on this. Don’t allow the idea of getting older make you accept defeat in your health. They walked for forty years! Can you imagine the toll on their bodies! In our culture we are not very active. They walked for forty years and we have sat for forty years! What is the difference? God will sustain and maintain you supernaturally. It wasn’t natural for their bodies not to see a toll taken because of the grueling march through the wilderness. It wasn’t natural that their shoes didn’t wear out. If they had this blessing under the old covenant how much more in the new? Let us aspire to what they had! Why isn’t it our experience? Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God and the word of God by preaching. We hear preaching but not preaching of the word. The word of God is considered passé in the modern church. We are preaching psychology, philosophy, sports, family, anything but the word of God. We need to come back to the foolishness of preaching the word of God. The more we don’t preach the word the less we see the blessings of God. The less we see the blessings of God the more irrelevant the word seems in our lives. Unbelief is self-engendering. It is up to us to break this cycle and start somewhere to see a change.
In v. 5 through 9 God says to them that He chastened them with His goodness and faithfulness to bring them into the land of promise. Rom. 2:4,5 says that God brings us to repentance through His goodness. Many times we see people reform their lives because of suffering. They get hit with some difficulty and show up in church or begin to do things they think that are pleasing to God in hopes that they will get delivered. Sometimes they do get delivered and sometimes they don’t but the tragedy is thinking that God is a carrot-and-stick God and that performance based religion is the key to avoiding circumstances. How could we love such a God?
We see then God chastening us as sons and daughters – by bringing us into a good land or a good place in life. He chastens us by removing scarceness and lack from our lives. The heartbreaking thing is that He blesses us so and instead of being humbled we often forget Him. Rather than coming closer to Him in blessing we drift further away.
Verse 18 tells us to remember the Lord because He gives us power to get wealth. He gives wealth so “he may establish His covenant which he sware” to the fathers before time. He didn’t give us power to endure poverty but power to get wealth. Unless you have wealth the covenant of God is not fully established in your life. I don’t know how the architects of the “vow of poverty” could justify doing so in the light of De. 8:18. This one vow has been the primary curse on Christianity for centuries. It is soul destroying and faith robbing. I’ve seen sweet Christians who for the most part lived their lives in sensitivity to God’s spirit but when you touch on this issue they transform into religious vipers. We have seen more vitriol and venom from Christians on this matter of wealth and money than any other subject.
God wants you to have wealth. The wealth that God gives is inherently generous. To have all the money in the world and not be generous is to be a lonely beggar. People complain at times “all you talk about is money”. There is only one group of people who think more about money than the rich – and that is the poor. In fact they can think of nothing else. Money and the lack of it creates more offense in the body of Christ than anything else. God has given you power to create wealth. What that looks like in your life is different for each person. You might not can see how God can make it different for you if you for instance are on a fixed income etc. But remember the Israelites. In the wilderness with no food and water, leaving Egypt as a slave nation, undefended and hated of all peoples God took care of them and prospered them. He will do the same for you.
