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From: Deuteronomy 8:2-3, 14-16

Israel’s Character Forged in the Desert (Continuation)

[2] “And you shall remember all the way which 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. [3] 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 that man lives by everything that proceeds
out of the mouth of the LORD. [4] Your clothing did not wear out upon you, and
your foot did not swell, these forty years.

God Not To Be Forgotten in the Time of Plenty (Continuation)

[14] “Then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God, who
brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, [15] who led
you through the great and terrible wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scor-
pions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out
of the flinty rock, [16] who fed you in the wilderness with manna which your fa-
thers did not know, that he might humble you and test you, to do you good in
the end.”

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Commentary:

8:1-6. The Israelites are reminded about the way they were tested in the wilder-
ness and how God gave them special protection and fatherly care; and they are
once again exhorted to fidelity. This context needs to be borne in mind when con-
sidering v, 4: it need not be taken literally as some rabbinical fables did, which
took it to mean that in those desert years the Israelites’ clothes did not wear out
and their children’s clothes increased in size as they grew tip.

“Man does not live by bread alone” (v. 3): Jesus will quote these words when re-
jecting Satan’s first temptation in the desert (cf. Mt 4:4).

The relationship between Israel and God, which is compared to that of father and
son (v. 5) was central to Jesus’ thinking and teaching. Some other Old Testament
passages, though not many, speak of this relationship (cf., e.g., Hos 11:1); a
greater number of passages apply this idea to the relationship between the Lord
and the King (cf., e.g., 2 Sam 7:14-15; Ps 2:7; 89:27).

8:7-20. This passage is more profound than might appear at first reading, because
the sacred writer is using the theme of the Land to show the salvific dimension of
God’s actions. Israel’s “departure from Egypt” marked the beginning of God’s sal-
vific action on behalf of his chosen people. The “wilderness”, described as “terri-
ble”, helped to make that people realize that they needed God and helped them
to hope in him. The “promised land”, a “good land”, particularly when compared
with the wilderness, shows God’s kindness towards Israel: in it they will find rest,
peace and happiness. The only thing they need to guard against is glorying in it,
as if they merited this good fortune. If ever they did give in to that temptation, they
would be lost. Clearly, this theological-moral lesson should be taken to heart by
everyone in his relations with God, whatever his or her circumstances.

The Canaanites went in for coarse and disgusting fertility rites to win the favor of
the gods that protected agriculture and livestock. The Israelites must do no such
thing. They should show their gratitude to the Lord who sends rain, sun and dew,
by offering sober and sensible sacrifices from field and flock. The Deuteronomic
Code (chapts. 12-26) in fact deals with agriculture-based festivals such as
“Weeks” (Deut 16:9-12), “unleavened bread” (16:3-4), “tithes” (14:22-29), etc. It
is through this, and above all, though living up to the moral demands of the Law,
that Israel will show its fidelity to Yahweh.

The ease with which men (and nations) forget God once they become rich and
prosperous is something readily proved from history. And when that happens the
threat contained in Deuteronomy in vv. 19-20 inevitably becomes a reality, for
“without a creator there can be no creature. [...] Besides, once God is forgotten
the creature is lost sight of as well” (Vatican II, “Gaudiumn Et Spes”, 36); hence
the need not to put one’s heart on material things. “You need to realize,” St Gre-
gory of Nyssa urges, “the origin of your life, your mind, your wisdom and, what
is more important still, the fact that you know God, your hope in the kingdom of
heaven and your expectation of seeing God [...], being a son of God, a co-heir
of Christ and (dare I say it) becoming divinized: where do all these things come
from; who causes them to happen?” (”De Pauperum Amore”, 23).

Christian writers often apply the benefits the Israelites received during the Exo-
dus to the graces of Baptism and the Eucharist (cf, e.g., 1 Cor 1.0:1-11). And
the Church’s liturgy, after recalling, the pillar of fire, the voice of Moses on Sinai,
the manna and the water that flowed from the rock, prays that our Lord should
be for us, through his Resurrection, the light of life, the word and bread of life (cf.
Liturgy of the Hours, Prayer, Lauds, Tuesday of Week 6, Eastertide).

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.