A Good Land to Possess (Deuteronomy 8: 1-10)

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Sermon Notes: "A Good Land to Possess" (Deuteronomy 6:1-10)

Introduction:

• Picture the moment when everything you've longed for is within reach—this is where the Israelites stood in Deuteronomy 6, on the brink of the Promised Land, a place described as "flowing with milk and honey."
• This wasn’t just about new opportunities; it was about stepping into a life designed by God, marked by His commands, presence, and blessings.

Main Points:

1. The Call to Obedience (Deuteronomy 6:1-3):
   • Moses calls the Israelites to observe God's commandments carefully, emphasizing that obedience is key to thriving in the Promised Land.
   • The promise: obedience leads to life, multiplication, and possession of the land—a land God swore to their ancestors, fulfilling His covenant with Abraham.
   • This obedience is not just about rules but is an invitation into a relationship with God that defines their identity and destiny.
2. Remembering God's Faithfulness (Deuteronomy 6:4-6):
   • Moses reminds them of their 40-year journey in the wilderness—a period where God tested and humbled them to reveal their hearts and deepen their reliance on Him.
   • The wilderness experience was a lesson in dependence on God, where He provided manna to teach them that "man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord."
   • This passage underscores the importance of humility and recognizing our total dependence on God, not just for physical needs but for every aspect of life.
3. The Lesson of Trust and Testing (Deuteronomy 6:7-9):
   • God's testing was meant to develop trust in Him, demonstrating that true life comes from His word, not just material provision.
   • Jesus Himself quoted this passage during His temptation in the wilderness, showing that obedience to God’s Word takes precedence over immediate needs.
   • Just as the Israelites learned to trust God for manna, we are called to trust Him in our own "wilderness" experiences, knowing that He provides what we truly need.
4. A Land of Abundance (Deuteronomy 6:10):
   • Moses describes the richness of the Promised Land—a place of abundance, peace, and provision, vastly different from the scarcity of the wilderness.
   • The land is a symbol of God’s generosity and faithfulness, offering everything necessary for a prosperous life.
   • The proper response to this abundance is thanksgiving and continued obedience, recognizing that all blessings come from God.

Application:

• Obedience as a Response to God's Faithfulness: Just as the Israelites were called to obey and trust God in the Promised Land, we too are called to live according to His Word as we step into the "good land" He has prepared for us.
• Trusting God in Every Situation: Whether in times of abundance or scarcity, we must depend on God, trusting that He knows and provides what we truly need.

Transcript

A Good land to Possess. (Deuteronomy 8: 1-10)

Transcript.

Introduction:

Imagine standing on the threshold of your greatest opportunity—a moment when everything you've hoped for, dreamed of, and prayed about is just within reach.

This is where the Israelites stood in Deuteronomy 6, gazing into a land promised by God Himself. It wasn’t just any land; it was a land described as flowing with milk and honey, a land rich with potential, peace, and prosperity.

But this wasn’t just about a change of scenery or new opportunities. This was about stepping into the life God had designed for them, a life marked by His commands, His presence, and His blessings.

As they prepared to enter this new chapter, God gave them a vital instruction: the land is good, but your life there depends on one thing—your obedience. 

God wasn’t just offering them a piece of earth; He was inviting them into a relationship, a covenant, that would shape their identity and define their destiny. 

The same is true for us today. God has placed a "good land" before each of us—a life filled with His promises and purposes. But possessing this land requires more than just stepping into it; it requires living according to God’s Word, loving Him with all our heart, and passing that love down to the next generation.

In today’s episode, we’ll work through Deuteronomy 6:1-10, exploring what it means to truly possess the "good land" God has set before us. We'll uncover the keys to not just entering it, but thriving in it. 

So, as we journey through this passage, ask yourself: Are you ready to fully embrace the life God has promised? Are you prepared to possess the "good land" He has laid out before you? The stakes are high, but the reward is immeasurable. Let’s discover together what it takes to step into God's best for our lives.

Welcome to TBPDP….

To begin, let’s walk through the passage and see what Moses is teaching. The first thing I notice is that Moses is essentially telling the Israelites to remember the lessons they’ve learned in the past. That sums up the first part of this chapter.

Starting with verse 1:

"Every commandment which I command you today you must be careful to observe, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers."

Now, keep in mind that the Israelites were on the east side of the Jordan River, about to enter the Promised Land. Moses was delivering a series of sermons to prepare them for life in the land. 

This verse is just a straightforward call to obedience: “Be careful to observe” is another way of saying, “Be obedient.” And notice the promise attached: “That you may live and multiply and possess the land.” This land is the very land God swore to their forefathers, a reference to the promise made to Abraham.

Moses begins by emphasizing the need for careful obedience. 

Moving on to verse 2:

"And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not."

Here, the key word is “remember.” 

Moses wants the Israelites to remember their experience in the wilderness—specifically, that God led them, humbled them, and tested them. The purpose of this testing was to reveal what was in their hearts, whether they would keep God’s commandments.

This idea of God testing His people is fascinating to me. Years ago, I spent time wrestling with the differences between a trial, a test, and a temptation. The Bible mentions all three, and they often overlap, describing the same event from different perspectives. 

In this verse, it's clear that God is the one doing the testing. We see this again with Abraham in Genesis, where God tested him as well.

From God’s perspective, a test is meant to see if we are mature in our Christian character. A trial, on the other hand, is the painful and difficult experience itself. Temptation is how Satan views the event, viewing the trial or the test as an opportunity to try and use it to lead us into sin. 

For us, it’s simply a trial, Satan is the one who will try and turn it into a temptation.

Verse 2 clearly states that God is the one testing us. Someone once said that life is a school, and we often don’t know what the lesson was until we fail the exam—how true that is! 

The Israelites failed their test in the wilderness, but the real challenge in verse 2 is understanding what it means when it says that God “humbled” them. 

Why did God humble them, and what does that mean?

Let’s look at verse 3, because Moses answers that question.

"So, He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord."

Simply put, God humbled them by letting them experience hunger and then provided manna to teach them a lesson: That being, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.”

If you know anything about the Bible, this verse should sound familiar. 

That is because when Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, He quoted this very Scripture to resist

Satan tried to tempt him three times he quoted scripture three times in response and all three quotations come from the book of Deuteronomy. Two from chapter 6 and one from chapter 8. 

So, this verse is quoted by Jesus in the middle of this temptation in Matthew chapter 4.

Let’s consider for a moment the meaning of the phrase "man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God".

It is so common that we all know it, yet many still don’t fully grasp its depth.

What Does It Mean to "Not Live by Bread Alone"?

Let’s take a moment to explore this.

God humbled the Israelites to teach them a crucial lesson: they were to have a realistic awareness of their dependence on Him to meet all their needs. 

God tested them to see if they would trust His promise to provide. This test involved allowing them to experience hunger, then supernaturally providing manna from heaven to sustain them.

Humility, in this context here, in recognizing our total dependence on God. 

The Israelites were in the wilderness, a place where they couldn’t provide food for themselves. God provided for them to teach them that they shouldn’t rely on their own efforts but should depend entirely on Him for everything—food, clothing, and even guidance.

Let’s look again at Deuteronomy 8:3-4:

"So, He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord. Your garments did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years."

Here, God wasn’t just providing physical sustenance; He was teaching the Israelites to depend on Him for every aspect of their lives. The manna and their preserved clothing were reminders of God’s continuous provision and faithfulness.

But let’s dig deeper into what it means to live by "every word that proceeds from the mouth of God." Yes, we need bread to live—we need physical sustenance. But life is more than just maintaining our physical bodies. To truly live, we must trust in God’s Word and His promises. 

That’s what it really means to live by every word that comes from Him.

When Satan tempted Jesus to turn stones into bread after 40 days of fasting, Jesus had the power to do so. But why didn’t He? Because Jesus knew that life is not just about satisfying physical needs. He refused to act outside of God’s will, even to satisfy hunger. 

Jesus in replying this way was demonstrating that obeying God’s Word and trusting in His timing is more important than any immediate physical gratification.

One commentator beautifully summed this up by saying:

"God led them into the desert where they had no alternative but to trust Him or murmur against Him. In the desert, they could not produce their own food but had to depend on God for their very lives. When Moses reminded them that they did not live by bread alone, he meant that even their food was decreed by the word of God. They had manna because He commanded it. It was ultimately not the bread that kept them alive, but His word."

This is why Jesus refused Satan’s temptation. He knew that if God had not decreed those stones to be His food, then turning them into bread would not be in line with God’s will.

Jesus chose to trust God’s provision rather than take matters into His own hands.

The key lesson here is trust. God allowed the Israelites to experience situations where they couldn’t solve the problem on their own so that they would learn to trust Him completely. This was both a test and a trial, and it’s something we all face in our spiritual journey.

Deuteronomy 8:5-6 continues:

"You should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the Lord your God chastens you. Therefore, you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to fear Him."

The word "chasten" here means to discipline or instruct. God was teaching the Israelites through these experiences, and they were to remember these lessons, especially the lesson of trust.

There is a lesson from the past to be learned here.

In summary, the key lesson of this passage is that God humbled the Israelites to teach them to trust Him. They needed to remember that God put them in situations where they couldn’t solve their problems on their own so that they would learn to depend on Him.

Now, let’s put a finger in Deuteronomy 8 and turn to 2 Corinthians 1.

This passage is one of the most important in the New Testament for anyone going through a trial over which they have no control. As a Christian I turn to this passage all the time because it provides profound comfort and guidance.

Let's take a moment to focusing on 2 Corinthians 1:8 and its connection to Deuteronomy 8.

The Apostle Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 1:8:

"For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself."

Paul is describing here an intense trial he faced, likely referring to an incident in Ephesus where he encountered significant opposition, possibly related to the uproar caused by idol makers (as recorded in Acts 19). 

The Greek word Paul uses here to describe his experience, "utterly burdened beyond our strength," is one often used to describe an animal carrying a burden so heavy that it is crushed under the weight. This wasn't just a difficult situation; it was a crushing experience, beyond Paul's ability to handle on his own. He even despaired of life, thinking he might die.

Although Paul doesn’t specify the exact nature of this affliction, the point is clear: it was overwhelming, both physically and emotionally.

If, as many commentators suggest, this incident in Asia refers to the riot in Ephesus, the danger Paul faced was indeed severe, with the real possibility of death looming over him.

In verse 9, Paul explains why God allows such crushing experiences:

"Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead."

This verse is crucial for understanding the purpose of trials in our lives. 

God doesn’t necessarily create them, but he allows us to experience situations where we are completely overwhelmed and beyond our own strength. 

Why? So that we learn not to trust in ourselves but in God. 

Paul emphasizes that their despair, which felt like a death sentence, had a divine purpose: to push him towards relying on God, who has the power to raise the dead.

This ties directly back to the lesson of Deuteronomy 8. 

Just as God humbled the Israelites in the wilderness to teach them dependence on Him, Paul is saying that God allowed him to go through this severe trial to teach him the same lesson. 

The Israelites learned that "man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God." Similarly, Paul learned that he could not rely on his own strength but had to trust entirely in God's power to deliver and sustain him.

Returning to Deuteronomy 8, where Moses shifts the focus to the promise of abundance in the Promised Land. And in verses 7-9, Moses describes the land that God is bringing them into:

"For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing out in the valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey, a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper."

(Deuteronomy 8: 7-9)

This description stands in stark contrast to the harsh conditions of the wilderness.

The Promised Land is a place of abundance, overflowing with food, resources, and everything necessary for a prosperous life. The Israelites, who had wandered in the desert, subsisting on manna, are now being promised a land where they will eat bread without scarcity and lack nothing.

Notice the variety of produce mentioned: wheat, barley, vines, fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil, honey, iron, and copper. Each of these represents the richness and sufficiency of God's provision. The Israelites are moving from a place of scarcity to one of abundance, where their every need will be met.

In contrast to the meagre food of Egypt, which they had complained about in Numbers 11, the food in the Promised Land is superior in every way. The fruits and grains of Canaan are not only more nutritious but also symbolize the fullness of life that God desires to give His people.

Finally, in verse 10, Moses instructs the Israelites on how to respond to SUCH abundance:

"When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land He has given you."

(Deuteronomy 8: 10)

Moses emphasizes the importance of gratitude. When the Israelites experience the fullness of God’s blessings, their response should be to bless and thank God, acknowledging God as the source of all blessings.

That section in 2 Corinthians when paralleled with Deuteronomy 11 reminds us that God allows trials and blessings to teach us dependence on Him. Whether we’re in the wilderness of scarcity or the Promised Land of abundance, our response should be trust in God and gratitude for His provision.

As we reach this point of our journey through Deuteronomy, we stand with the Israelites on the edge of God’s promise. They were not just about to inherit a land; they were about to step into a life where God Himself would be their guide, their provider, and their protector. 

But here’s the powerful truth: the good land they were promised is a reflection of the life God offers you and I today. 

It’s a life marked by His blessings, His presence, and His unshakable love. And, like the Israelites, we face the choice to fully embrace it.

The key to possessing this good land is simple but profound: love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength. 

When we align our lives with this command, we unlock the fullness of God’s blessings. We begin to see His hand in every area of our lives, from our families to our finances, from our work to our worship. 

This isn’t just about obedience; it’s about living in the flow of God’s love, letting it permeate every decision, every relationship, every moment.

So, how do we do this? By making God’s Word central in our lives—talking about it, teaching it to our children, letting it guide our actions and attitudes. When we do, we create a legacy of faith that not only impacts our lives but shapes the future generations.

Today, try and allow this passage to encourage you: The land before you is good. 

God’s promises are sure. Step into that land with confidence, knowing that as you love the Lord and follow His ways, you are not just inheriting a promise—you are living out your purpose. 

God has prepared a good land for you, a life of abundance, peace, and joy.

Go and possess it, for it is yours in Christ.