Sermon25-52 Deut8 Guide

Deut 8:1-10,14-18 theme verse Deut 8:7,10

The praise and honor and glory be to our heavenly Father who seeks true worshipers who worship Him with the Spirit and truth.

On this Thanksgiving Sunday of 2025, I pray that His grace of the application of all the benefits which Jesus earned for our salvation and also the glorious ministry of the proclamation of His kingdom by the power of the Holy Spirit may be full in our life. By the last week for five weeks, we looked at how God blessed us with His heavenly blessings through the Canons of Dort, yet on this Thanksgiving Sunday, looking at how God created to be glorified by His creation, we would like to learn few lessons together.

1)    In today’s text of Deuteronomy 8, as Moses preached to the next generation, who had been raised up in the wilderness, before they enter the land of Canaan, he exhorted them to "remember that God the Lord had always provided and disciplined them in that difficult times. So when the good times come in Canaan, not to forget the Lord your God."

Today's text is composed of three sections, I mean, verses 2-6, 7-17, and verses 18-20. In the first section of verses 2-6, Moses exhorted them to keep the Lord's commandments, walk in His ways, and fear Him, remembering that God was with them in the wilderness, training them, instructing them, and teaching them. Then, in the second section of verses 7-17, he declared that when they entered the Promised Land and ate and were satisfied, they would forget the Lord and saying, "My power and the might of my hands have gotten me this wealth." But he taught them that it was the Lord God who gave them the good land and the wealth so he exhorted them to praise God for His goodness. And in the final verses 18-20, he exhorted them to remember the Lord God who fulfilled the covenant He swore to their ancestors, and to obey His voice.

2)    As such Moses conveyed three words of God the LORD: I mean,

first, remember the training of the LORD in the wilderness and His instruction, and teachings.

Second, hear the word of God the LORD, obey them and fear God.

And third, give thanks to the LORD and praise Him forever.

3)    So, by looking at a few things in today's text, we would like to learn few lessons.

First, the wilderness was God's training ground. I mean, God used the wilderness to humiliate His people by placing them in extreme situations where they lacked all human resources (see 11:1-7). In such crises, His people realized they could not survive on their own, came to rely completely on God, and became to understand God’s power and His character to provide for all their needs. This relationship between God and Israel in the wilderness was twice depicted in Deuteronomy as that of a parent and a child. In Deuteronomy 1:31, the imagery depicts God's protection and tender care during such difficult times, while in 8:5, the imagery depicts a parent disciplining their children, while Hosea 2:14-15 portrays God as a instructing lover who leads His people back into the wilderness and makes them discover that God alone is the source of all life and all good. In any case, the purpose of the training in the wilderness was to humiliate the Israelites, to make them rely entirely on God, obey His commandments, and fear Him.

4)    And the second thing we would like to examine is about the manna God gave the Israelites in the wilderness. I mean, first, this manna was the food which God provided and fed the Israelites in the wilderness, where food was lacking, so that God taught them to know that God not only provides them the life, but also sustains them that they had to trust in Him.

Secondly, this manna served as a means of training them to believe and obey God's commandments. In other words, even though God provided manna every morning, but during the five days of the week, God commanded that they harvested only enough for one day. But, if they did not trust God and harvested more than enough, then the remaining was all spoiled next morning. However, on the day before the Sabbath, God commanded them that they harvested enough to eat for two days. Yet the manna which was spoiled one day after the harvest during the week, remained intact for two days on the Sabbath.

In this way, God trained the Israelites to obey God's commandments, even though they could not understand. As such the lesson of this manna was that God's people can survive only by living according to His laws. This was the training to make them trust, obey, and totally depend on God. That's why in the New Testament, when the Lord was tempted by the devil in Matthew 4:4, He quoted this verse, saying “human does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

5)    Anyhow God's purpose in these training in the wilderness, humbling them, so that they would keep His law and fear the Lord was that as verse 16 in today's text says, "He fed you manna in the wilderness, something your fathers had not known, that He might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end," was to bless them in the end.

In other words, as Proverbs 22:4 says that "The reward for humility and the fear of the Lord is riches, honor, and life," the reason God trained them humble so that they feared the LORD God was to grant them riches, honor, and life.

6)    By the way the way God blessed them is truly unique. I mean, the verse 18 of today's text says, "God gave them the power to get wealth,” in other words, God gave them “ability to produce wealth,” or “ability to be successful.”

To elaborate it more, God, the creator of heaven and earth, not only gave each of us life, but also governs the entire universe in His providential care so that all things in it can help humanity to worship and serve Him. And then not only He added common grace, to provide sunlight, wind, and rain to bring life to all things, but He also gave each of us the ability to produce wealth, in other words, talents, through which He nourishes us as we diligently works with those talents.

In other words, unlike the manna provided in special circumstances like the wilderness, in our daily lives in Canaan, God does not provide food from heaven, but rather gives us talents through which we can work diligently to feed and enrich us. However, this method can easily lead people to mistakenly believe that they have acquired wealth through their own abilities and power. Therefore, in particular, even when we eat well and are full, we Christians have to keep in mind that all these things come from God and praise to God with a grateful heart toward God.

7)    And also we need to think about the framework of the creation, when God created the world. I mean, we previously examined that the purpose of God's creation was the manifestation of His glory. And as a secondary subordinate purpose, as God blessed His creatures, thereby eliciting expressions of gratitude, love, and adoration in the human heart, leading to praise and glorify to Him.

In other words, God's goodness allows all things He created to live according to their own purpose and purpose through His providence and reach bliss and tasted His goodness so that they give thanks to God and praise God, and love God. In that sense, verses 7 and 10 of today's text say, "When the Lord your God has brought you into a good land and given you a good land, and you eat your fill, you will praise Him." In other words, it was said, not to “praise God”, rather “you will praise Him".

8)    Therefore, as we celebrate Thanksgiving Sunday today, I hope we all may taste the goodness of God, who has abundantly filled our hearts and lives, both spiritually and materially, throughout this year and then proclaim God's goodness to the world to give thanks and praise God, as Romans 1:21 says.

Key Questions as Small Group Activity

Q1 Through today’s text, we became to know that the goodness of God make His creation to be blessed so that it elicits the gratitude, love and adoration from their heart to praise God. So, after meditating on what kinds of blessings and grace we received from God this year, I hope we could share our thought and experience with our team members together to learn from each other.

Q2 And also, we became to know that the way God blesses us is to give us the ability to produce wealth and bless us when we work hard with that talent. So after reviewing what kinds of talents we received from God and how we diligently worked with that talent this year, I hope we could share our thought and experience with our team members together to learn from each other.

Love you. Thank you. God bless you.

Prayer Note

Dear ( God’s attribute which you found Today ) God!

Thanks for ( something you received through the sermon or  even during the week )

Praise, gratitude and glory be to You, Lord!

Today, I realized my sin (pains) that ( the sin God reminded through the sermon ),

please forgive (or heal) me and help me not to repeat ( the sins you recognized   ).

I learned that ( something you learned through the sermon                                    )

Please help me to live in that (  learned way of life                                                )

I pray in ( Jesus’ attribute you find ) Jesus’ name. Amen.