Deuteronomy 8:1-6

EXPOSITION

FURTHER EXHORTATION TO OBEDIENCE , ENFORCED BY A REVIEW OF GOD 'S DEALINGS WITH ISRAEL IN THE WILDERNESS .

That they might be induced the more faithfully to observe all the commandments which had been enjoined upon them so as to go on and prosper, they are called to remember the experiences of the forty years in the wilderness, when God guided them and disciplined them for their good. He humbled them that he might test the state of their heart and affections towards him, using the distress and privations to which they were subjected as means of bringing out what was in them, and of leading them to feel their entire dependence on him for help, sustenance, and guidance. Not only by commands difficult to be obeyed laid on men, and by mighty works done in their view, does God prove men (cf. Genesis 22:1 , etc.; Exodus 15:25 ; Exodus 20:20 ); but also by afflictions and calamities ( 2:22 ; 3:4 ; Psalms 17:3 ; Psalms 81:7 , etc.), as well as by benefits ( Exodus 16:4 ). Humbled so as to see his own weakness, chastised out of all self-conceit by affliction, man is brought to submit to God, to hear and obey him; and along with this the experience of God's goodness tends to draw men, in grateful acknowledgment of his mercy and bounty, to yield themselves to him and sincerely and lovingly to serve him (cf. Romans 2:4 ).