A merciful God in a harsh wilderness

The past few months, I have dedicated myself to studying the old testament. Once I have finished reading through the old testament, I would have read through the entire Bible once (yay!). To be quite honest, before committing to this, I always had a very negative view of the Old Testament, seeing it as “boring” or “lacking guidance”, but God really does love to prove me wrong haha. I’ve been absolutely LOVING my study of the old testament and to see so much of His character in it has been an absolute blessing.

With that said, I wanted to take a look at one of my new favorite chapters in the Bible: Deuteronomy 8. I’ll only stick to the first half since it’s pretty dense lol.

If I were to choose one word to encapsulate the entirety of Deuteronomy, it would be the word “remember”. Deuteronomy serves as a restatement of the law of Moses presented in the book of Leviticus. In my own interpretation, I like to think of it as a way for the new generation of Israelites to look back on the Lord’s faithfulness in the wilderness. Authored by Moses and used by Joshua, for the people of God.

Back to Deuteronomy 8.

“The whole commandment that I command you today you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land that the Lord swore to give to your fathers. And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. Your clothing did not wear out on you and your foot did not swell these forty years. Know then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the Lord your God disciplines you.”
Deuteronomy 8:1-5 ESV

Here, Moses commands the Isrealites to live in remembrance as they await the promised land. Younger in my faith, I used to pridefully and arrogantly claim, “How could the Israelites complain about manna when it is so obvious that God is providing for them?” How naive I was. Less than three months into my current job and I was already complaining. Note, I had been praying for this specific job, and now that I am in it, many days I lose gratitude and forget how He answered my prayer. Now, imagine eating the same thing for every meal every single day for forty years. Of course we weak-willed humans would complain. Anyone would. I’m honestly surprised nothing else went on. As I look back on this, God simply wants dependence on Him. He wants us to desire and seek Him and many times, He can only slap us awake by disciplining us or sending us into the wilderness. Only in the harsh wilderness can we really begin to see a glimpse of our sin and our desperate need for a savior (Jesus! :D).

Now, take a look at verse four. In a recent sermon, my pastor went over this passage and pointed out a detail I never noticed on my first read.

“Your clothing did not wear out on you and your foot did not swell these forty years.”
Deuteronomy 8:4 ESV

Wow, how amazing is that. Despite all the complaining. Despite the harsh nature of the wilderness. No Israelites’ clothes ever tore and no foot was ever swollen. Imagine. You’re walking for forty straight years, destination unknown, only knowing the promises made by God forty years prior and even still, your clothes never tatter and your foot never swells. What a blessing and a small detail that even in the discipline, in the wilderness, God loves His children. He is watching over them and He is keeping them in the smallest of details. The things we don’t notice, the things we take for granted. In the wilderness, God is quietly protecting us and we always fail to see it. That is why we must remember.

“So you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God by walking in his ways and by fearing him. 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 trees 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. And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.”
Deuteronomy 8:6-10 ESV

Remember His promises. The wilderness is where God grows His people. Abraham wandered in the wilderness and in the midst of that barrenness, God spoke to him (Genesis 12). David faced the wilderness as he was chased for his life by Saul (1 Samuel). Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil (Matthew 4).

In the wilderness, the Israelites were reminded of the promises the Lord had made, to look ahead and trust and have faith in the holy YHWH. So in these tough moments what do we look to? Well, for us, we look to the promises of the new testament, the covenant of Jesus, and the truth that God is good. We look to the character of God and His desire to bless those He loves. Remembering is one of the most powerful weapons we have in our arsenal.

In the midst of the harsh wilderness, when we lose sight of the greater picture, when our sight narrows and we believe we are the God of our own lives, where can we look?

We can look to the God of mercy and we can choose to remember. Remember His faithfulness. Remember His promises. Remember that the God who is with you in the wilderness is the same God who will never let your clothes tatter. He will never let your feet swell.