Deuteronomy 8
Remember What the Lord Has Done
1Make sure you obey every command I’m giving you today. Then you will live, and there will be many of you. You will enter the land and take it as your own. It’s the land the Lord promised to your people of long ago. 2Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way. He guided you in the desert for these 40 years. He wanted to take your pride away. He wanted to test you to know what was in your hearts. He wanted to see whether you would obey his commands. 3He took your pride away. He let you go hungry. Then he gave you manna to eat. You and your parents had never even known anything about manna before. He tested you to teach you that man doesn’t live only on bread. He also lives on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. 4Your clothes didn’t wear out during these 40 years. Your feet didn’t swell. 5Here is what I want you to know in your hearts. The Lord your God guides you, just as parents guide their children.
6Obey the commands of the Lord your God. Live as he wants you to live. Have respect for him. 7The Lord your God is bringing you into a good land. It has brooks, streams and deep springs of water. Those springs flow in its valleys and hills. 8It has wheat, barley, vines, fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey. 9There is plenty of food in that land. You will have everything you need. Its rocks have iron in them. And you can dig copper out of its hills.
10When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God. Praise him for the good land he has given you. 11Make sure you don’t forget the Lord your God. Don’t fail to obey his commands, laws and rules. I’m giving them to you today. 12But suppose you don’t obey his commands. And suppose you have plenty to eat. You build fine houses and live in them. 13The number of your herds and flocks increases. You also get more and more silver and gold. And everything you have multiplies. 14Then your hearts will become proud. And you will forget the Lord your God. The Lord brought you out of Egypt. That’s the land where you were slaves. 15He led you through that huge and terrible desert. It was a dry land. It didn’t have any water. It had poisonous snakes and scorpions. The Lord gave you water out of solid rock. 16He gave you manna to eat in the desert. Your people had never even known anything about manna before. The Lord took your pride away. He tested you. He did it so that things would go well with you in the end. 17You might say to yourself, “My power and my strong hands have made me rich.” 18But remember the Lord your God. He gives you the ability to produce wealth. That shows he stands by the terms of the covenant he made with you. He promised it to your people of long ago. And he’s still faithful to his covenant today.
19Don’t forget the Lord your God. Don’t serve other gods. Don’t worship them and bow down to them. I am a witness against you today that if you do, you will certainly be destroyed. 20You will be destroyed just like the nations the Lord your God is destroying to make room for you. That’s what will happen if you don’t obey him.