ekev... continued

Duet 8

verse 1 You shall faithfully observe all the Instruction that I enjoin upon you today, that you may thrive and increase and be able to occupy the land which the Lord promised on oath to your fathers.

today-Everybody should feel as if the Torah was given anew every day. Observe the mitzvot today, as if you were hearing them for the first time. Act as if the flame of your desire to do God's will was as bright and hot as when it was first kindled.

Why are the commandments to be followed? So that Israel may live and mulitply and occupy the land.

The land was promised on oath to their fathers. God is faithful to keep His promises.

In verse 2, we learn that God made the Israelites travel through the wilderness for forty years in order to test them. He afflicted them with hardships. The word for 'afflict' (anot) is the same word used to describe the hardships imposed by the Egyptians. Exodus 1:11. In Egypt, the affliction was the work of an oppressor. In the wilderness, the affliction was the work of God to refine Israel.

Verse 3 says that God afflicted the Israelites with hunger and gave them manna, something neither they nor the fathers had ever experienced. Manna is portrayed as a supernatural gift. Why was it given? And then a very famous phrase: "in order to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but that man may live on anything that the Lord decrees." Many have taken this to mean that the Bible, that came from God's mouth, is our spiritual food.

In verse 4, there are two recorded instances of God's miraculous providence: The Israelites' clothes did not wear out, nor did their feet swell those 40 years. Imagine your clothes lasting 40 years. More than that, the rabbis took that to mean that God made the clothes of the children grow along with them.

Verse 5 gives another reason to keep God's commandments: God disciplines Israel just as a man disciplines his son. And Israel is God's firstborn son. Exodus 4:22.

Verse 6 emphasizes that Israel is to keep God's commandments, to walk in His ways and to revere Him.

Verses 7-9 describe the Promised Land. It is a good land. And the first feature is water. After 40 years of wandering in the wilderness and wondering where their next drink of water was going to come from, God alleviates that concern right off the bat. There are streams and springs and fountains. There's a continuous supply of water. And the water comes from plain and hill. Low and high places alike have water.

And because of the plentiful water, there's plentiful produce: wheat and barley, vines, figs and pomegranates, olive trees and honey. All good food. God promises that the food will be plentiful enough that the Israelites may 'eat food without stint.' They will lack nothing. The Israelites remembered sitting by the fleshpots of Egypt and having their fill of meat and being able to eat leeks and garlics and melons. In Eretz Yisrael, there will be no more fleshpots of Egypt. Everybody will have enough.

From food we move to industry. The land has rocks of iron and hills of copper.

Verse 10 is the prooftext for the birkat hamazon (blessing after the meal). When you have eaten your fill, give thanks to the Lord your God for the good land which He has given you.

It would be easy to forget that the Lord provided all this sustenance when the Israelites are living in the land free from hunger and enemies. And thus verse 10 is to be a constant reminder that God gave them the land.

Verses 11-20 continue this theme of remembering God. This section starts with a stern warning: Take care lest you forget the Lord your God and fail to keep His commandments, His rules and His laws, which I enjoin upon you today.

What would cause the Israelites, and us, to forget the Lord our God? vv 12 and 13: When we have eaten our fill, and have built fine houses to live in, and our herds and flocks have multiplied, and our silver and gold have increased and everyting we own has prospered. Our present consumer society sees things as they are and asks for more. We have food and we gorge ourselves on more. We have places to live and think of getting bigger houses. Our businesses do well, and we think of ways to increase and maximize profit. We have money in our pockets, in our bank accounts, in stocks, in investments, in cd's and a myriad other ways. And the more we have the more concerned we are with keeping it and making even more. Even when everything we own has propsered we are still not satisfied. Maybe if I find a way to reduce costs, our profit margin can go up even more. It's the age old question. How much is enough? What do people need to live? We like to think of ourselves as somehow entitled. I worked hard. I earned it. I started at the bottom and worked my way to the top. I made sacrifices so that I and my family could have the kind of life we have today. We are wont to say, the gold is mine and the silver is mine. It's my house. My car. My clothes. My furniture. My jewelry. It's mine.

And because we feel like we earned it, our hearts are liable to grow haughty. That's the very thing God warns us against in verse 14. We forget that were it not for God freeing us from the land of Egypt, the beit avodim (house of bondage) we would not be where we are today. We'd be making bricks without straw for Pharaoh. But not only did God redeem us from slavery in Egypt, He led us through the great and terrible wilderness with its serpents and scorpions. A land with no water in it. But God brought forth water from the flinty rock. Back in Numbers Moses struck the rock and made it look like he brought water forth from the rock. Here, he gives God the credit. And God fed the Israelites with manna in the wilderness. Egypt was the house of slavery with all its attendant horrors. The wilderness was no picnic either. Don't forget where you came from. Don't forget that you were brought out from those terrible conditions by the hand of Almighty God.

And because of that, we owe God a debt we can never fully repay. God did not take us out of Egypt and lead us through the wilderness and give us the land of Israel in order for us to forget Him. On the contrary, He said that He will be our God and we will be His people. We are His people.

Why were we chosen? To walk in God's ways and to teach our children after us the way of the Lord by doing tzedekah u mishpat (justice and righteousness). God made a covenant with our ancestors and with us. A covenant is an agreement. Both parties have obligations. Our duty is to be a blessing, walk in God's ways, be tamim (worthy), practice justice, righteousness, kindness, love the stranger, love our neighbor and love God. And for God's part, He will bless us, give us children, give us the land of Israel, make us a permanent people and protect us.

We can only expect God to fulfill His end if we fulfill ours. And we cannot fulfill our end if we forget God. And how easy it is to forget God when we are surrounded by fine food and clothes and houses and gold and silver. And we say, (verse 17) "my own power and the might of my own hand have won this wealth for me."

It is not so. Rather, we should "remember that it is the Lord your God who gives you the power to get wealth, in fulfillment of the covenant that He made on oath with your fathers, as is still the case." Verse 18

Chapter 8 ends with the very real threat that if we do forget the Lord our God, we will certainly perish, just like the nations that God caused to perish before the Israelites when they came into the land. And they perished because of their wickedness. They were so bad that the land vomited them out. And the same will happen to Israel if they forget the Lord and don't keep His commandments.

And so today and everyday, we are to remind ourselves that is because of God that we are able to eat, breathe, sleep, wake, walk, talk, earn a living and do a host of other things we take for granted.

Blessed be God for His holy Word.