Deuteronomy 8 · The Lantern

Remember the LORD Your God

All the commandment that I am commanding you today you shall keep to do, so that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land that the LORD swore to your fathers.

And you shall remember all the way that the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness — in order to humble you, to test you, to know what is in your heart: whether you would keep his commandments or not.

And he humbled you, and let you hunger, and fed you the manna, which you did not know and your fathers did not know — in order to make you know that not by bread alone does man live, but by everything that comes out of the mouth of the LORD does man live.

Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred. And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.

One who possesses the Word, who is almighty God, needs nothing and never lacks any of the things he desires, for the Word is an infinite possession and the source of all our wealth. However, someone may object and insist that he has often seen the just in need of food. This is rare and happens only where no one else is just.

"Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word which goeth forth from the mouth of God." Now He said "shall live," and not, "shall be sound," nor, "shall be strong," nor, "shall be filled its lust's need;" and although this word is of little importance in its utterance, yet a great distinction is apparent therein.

Your garment did not wear out on you, and your foot did not swell, these forty years.

Nourish your soul with the fear of God, and God will nourish [your] body. Do these things, so that what you yourself are unable [to procure] may be given you by God. Take note of this, if God does not give the rain and the wind, it avails you naught, even if you are anxious. Obey God, therefore, and creation will obey your needs.

Is he not good, who in the wilderness fed with bread from heaven such countless thousands of the people, lest any famine should assail them, without need of toil, in the enjoyment of rest? For the space of twenty years, their raiment grew not old, nor were their shoes worn, a figure, which, to the faithful, points to the resurrection that is to come.

God granted to the garments of the Israelites their proper state without any damage for forty years. If so, how much more does he grant a very happy temperament of certain state to the bodies of those who obey his command until they may be turned into something better?

And you shall know in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, the LORD your God is disciplining you.

And you shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God, to walk in his ways and to fear him.

For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land — a land of streams of water, of springs and deep waters coming out in valley and hill;

a land of wheat and barley, and vine and fig and pomegranate; 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 from whose hills you may hew copper.

And you shall eat and be satisfied, and you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land that he has given you.

Take care for yourself, so that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to keep his commandments and his judgments and his statutes that I am commanding you today —

lest you eat and are satisfied, and build good houses and live in them,

and your herd and your flock multiply, and silver and gold multiply for you, and all that you have multiplies,

and your heart is lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slaves —

who led you through the great and fearful wilderness of fiery serpent and scorpion and thirsty ground where there was no water; who brought water out for you from the flint rock;

who fed you manna in the wilderness, which your fathers did not know — in order to humble you, and in order to test you, to do you good in your latter end —

and you say in your heart, “My power and the strength of my hand have made me this wealth.”

But you shall remember the LORD your God — for he is the one who gives you power to make wealth — in order to establish his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day.

And it shall be, if you surely forget the LORD your God and go after other gods, and serve them and bow down to them — I testify against you today that you will surely perish.

Like the nations that the LORD is destroying from before you, so you will perish — because you would not listen to the voice of the LORD your God.

Deuteronomy8

Remember the LORD Your God