Deuteronomy 8King James Version
Remember the wilderness. God humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna so that you would learn that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. When you come into the land and prosper, do not forget. Do not say in your heart, 'My power and the might of mine hand have gotten me this wealth.'
Moses commands Israel to remember the wilderness years: the hunger, the manna, the thirst, the discipline, the provision. The point is that God humbled them in order to teach them that life depends on God's word, not bread alone. He warns them that abundance in Canaan will tempt them to forget where the gifts came from and to credit their own strength. Forgetting God leads to perishing like the nations around them.
The wilderness was not punishment but curriculum: forty years of stripping everything away so the people would know that God, not their own strength, is the source of life.
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 God." The wilderness meal is also a lesson: need is a teacher.
The plains of Moab, 1406 BC. The generation Moses addresses has never lived in Egypt and never known Canaan. They have only known the desert: its heat, its miracles, its monotony. Moses wants them to understand that the deprivation was deliberate and the provision was personal.
Moses, preaching. Israel as the recipient of both hardship and provision. God, who led them, fed them, and whose discipline operated like a father correcting a son.
Jesus quotes verse 3 during his desert temptation in the Gospels. The passage lodges a warning inside a blessing: prosperity has a spiritual danger attached that scarcity does not. It is one of the Bible's clearest analyses of how comfort erodes faith.
For when you are tired of the wilderness and just want to reach the good land. The chapter says what you learned in the hard years is the most valuable thing you will carry into the easy ones.
1All 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.
2And 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.
3And 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.
4Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell, these forty years.
5Thou shalt also consider in thine heart, that, as a man chasteneth his son, so the LORD thy God chasteneth thee.
6Therefore thou shalt keep the commandments of the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, and to fear him.
7For 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;
8A land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil olive, and honey;
9A 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.
10When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the LORD thy God for the good land which he hath given thee.
11Beware 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:
12Lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein;
13And when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied;
14Then 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;
15Who 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;
16Who 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;
17And thou say in thine heart, My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth.
18But 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.
19And 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.
20As 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.