A Word in Season: All the Way (Deuteronomy 8:2–5)

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When the tribes of Israel were about to enter into the land of promise, they heard what may still count as one of the longest sermons ever preached, recorded for us more or less in the book of Deuteronomy, the speech of Moses to the people of God at the end of their wilderness wanderings and as they were about to enter

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Canaan. And in Deuteronomy chapter 8, Moses tells the people that he wants them to look back and remember, verse 2, that the

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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.

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Moses goes on to explain that, 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

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Lord. Your garments did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years.

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You should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the Lord your God chastens you.

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Now perhaps just reading those words, you hear how often they are echoed and amplified and applied in the

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New Testament. And it's right for us then to take these things and to consider that we also need to remember the grace and the providence of God in our pilgrimage, for we still pass through this wilderness world.

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And we who are circumcised in heart, God's new covenant Israel, we also undergo the same testing and the same revelation of our hearts as Israel did of old, under the terms of God's new covenant in Christ Jesus.

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We, like they, are prone to forget our weakness and to imagine ourselves strong.

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We are too accustomed to trusting in our own reserves, in relying on our own wisdom.

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But God leads us all the way. You'll notice that God did not abandon them in the wilderness, that God did not reject them in the wilderness.

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Despite their sins and their failings, God kept them and God provided for them.

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And he did bring them low. He allowed them to hunger. And notice he didn't leave them hungry, but he brought them into a state of hunger.

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And then he provided for them food that neither they nor their fathers knew, that manner which is described as the food of angels.

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And in doing so, the Lord made clear that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

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The clothes which you would have imagined would have rotted off their bodies during their wilderness trek, they remained whole and complete.

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Their feet, which might have been swollen up and cut to pieces by those repeated travels through the desert, their feet did not swell in 40 years.

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God provided for them food and clothing with which we ought to be content.

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And it was a demonstration not of antagonism, not of frustration, not of irritation, certainly not of rejection.

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You should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the Lord your

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God chastens you. And if we know our Bibles, we know that the

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Lord still chastens those whom he loves. Having set his heart upon us, having set his love on his people, he has called us to himself and he will lead us all our journey through.

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He leads us all the way. He brings us through the wilderness to the land of promise.

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He provides for us every step of the way. He gives us what we need as and when we need it.

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He demonstrates that his provision for us is as sure and as certain as it was for Israel of old.

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Our clothes, our food, they are his concern and he provides them.

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It's not a call to carelessness, it's a confirmation of our confidence in God.

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And we live not by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

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We are still trusting in him. We are still expecting his word to keep us and sustain us.

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So remember, believer, for your comfort, for your joy, for your assurance, for your blessing and for your hope that we have a

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God who leads us all the way, who will protect us and provide for us every step until we come into the land of promise and all our blessings blossom finally and entirely.