Deuteronomy 8:10 - Meaning and Application

Moses had already spoken of the great abundance they would find in the land of Canaan. So he now warns them not to misuse that abundance, since they would be even more likely to fall into that sin when they came straight from a barren desert into the Lord’s vineyard.

He first points them to the duty of prosperity, in Deuteronomy 8:10. They are allowed to eat until they are satisfied, but not to the point of excess or self-indulgence. They must always remember who gave them the meal and never fail to thank him after eating: “Then you shall bless the Lord your God.” They must be careful not to eat or drink so much that they become unfit to bless God, but rather be able to do it with greater joy and freedom.

They must also avoid any share in the practice of those who, after eating and being full, blessed false gods. Israel had done that when they worshiped the golden calf (Exodus 32:6). Whatever comfort they received, God must get the honor for it. As our Savior taught us to bless God before we eat (Matthew 14:19-20), this passage teaches us to bless him after we eat. Before the meal we say, in effect, “God bless.” After the meal we say, “Blessed be God.” In everything we are to give thanks.

From this command, faithful Jews later took up the good practice of blessing God not only at their main meals, but also on other occasions. If they drank a cup of wine, they would say, “Blessed be he who created the fruit of the vine to make the heart glad.” If they smelled a flower, they would say, “Blessed be he who made this flower sweet.” When they thanked God for the produce of the land, they were also to thank him for the land itself, which had been given to them by promise. From every pleasant gift we receive, we should be led to thank God for the place and condition that made the gift possible. And it is hard to deny that we, too, have much reason to thank God for a good land.

Moses then arms them against the temptations that come with prosperity, and tells them to stay on guard. When they are settled in fine houses they did not build, Deuteronomy 8:12, and when their herds, silver, and gold have increased, Deuteronomy 8:13, then they must be careful. Even Abraham, the father of the faithful, was rich in cattle, silver, and gold (Genesis 13:2), yet wealth can still become a snare.

The first danger is pride. “Take care,” he says, “lest your heart be lifted up,” Deuteronomy 8:14. When a person’s possessions rise, his mind often rises with them in self-importance, self-satisfaction, and self-trust. We should work to keep a humble spirit in a high position. Humility is both a comfort and an ornament in times of success. They must also guard against saying in their heart, “My power and the strength of my hand have gotten me this wealth,” Deuteronomy 8:17. We must never take the credit for our prosperity or claim it as the result of our own skill or hard work. “Bread is not always to the wise, nor riches to men of understanding” (Ecclesiastes 9:11). To credit ourselves in this way is a kind of spiritual idolatry, like offering sacrifice to our own net (Habakkuk 1:16).

The second danger is forgetting God. This follows naturally from pride, because the proud person does not seek God (Psalm 10:4). Those who admire themselves soon begin to despise God. They must not forget their duty to God, Deuteronomy 8:11. We forget God when we do not keep his commandments. If we are not obedient to his law, we forget his authority over us, our duty to him, and our hope in him. When people grow rich, they are tempted to think religion is unnecessary. They feel too important to bend down and too free to serve. But it is a shameful act of ingratitude if the better God is to us, the worse we become toward him.

They must also not forget what God had already done for them. He brought them out of Egypt, Deuteronomy 8:14. He provided for them in the wilderness, that great and terrible wilderness. They must never lose the memory of how dreadful that wilderness was, as Jeremiah later describes it, the very shadow of death (Jeremiah 2:6). There God preserved them from fiery serpents and scorpions, though he sometimes used those hardships to correct them. There he kept them from dying of thirst by giving them water from a rock of flint, Deuteronomy 8:15. As Bishop Patrick notes, one would have expected fire rather than water from such a rock. There he fed them with manna, as had been said before (Deuteronomy 8:3), watching over them so that he might do them good in the end, Deuteronomy 8:16. God often saves the best for the last for his people. Even when he seems to deal harshly with them along the way, he will not fail to do them good at the end.

They must also not forget God’s hand in their present prosperity, Deuteronomy 8:18. It is he who gives them wealth, for he gives them the power to get wealth. Here we see how God’s giving and our getting fit together, and this also applies to spiritual riches. It is our duty to seek wisdom, and above all to get understanding, yet it is still God’s grace that gives wisdom. When we obtain it, we must not say, “My hand got this for me.” We must say instead that God gave us the ability to get it, and so the praise belongs to him. The blessing of the Lord on diligent work makes a person rich, both for this life and for the life to come. He gives the power to get wealth not mainly to make us comfortable, but to keep his covenant and carry out his promises.

Moses then repeats the serious warning he had often given them about the deadly result of turning away from God, Deuteronomy 8:19-20. The sin is described as forgetting God and then worshiping other gods. What evil will people not fall into if they keep God out of their minds? Once the heart turns away from God, it soon turns to false and empty things. The punishment is also plain: if they do this, they will surely perish. The strength of their own hands will not save them. They will perish just like the nations God drove out before them. If they will not obey and remain faithful to God, he will treat them no better than those nations, even though he had made a covenant with them and claimed them as his own. Those who follow others in sin will certainly follow them into destruction. If we do what sinners do, we must expect to share their fate.