Whenever we open the Law of Moses, it’s easy for us to fall into the trap of legalism, believing that we are saved only because we keep God’s commandments. But notice that Moses doesn’t tell the people that they will only be able to go into the Promised Land if they obey God’s Law. On the contrary, in Deuteronomy 8:7 he states unconditionally that God is bringing them into the good land that he describes – no ifs, ands or buts. And in Deuteronomy 8:1 he reminds them why God was giving them the land: because He had promised their ancestors that He would do it. In other words, it’s God’s faithfulness that is much more important than our own.

So, why does Moses tell the people to do all of God’s commandments in verse 1? Not so that they could obtain the land, but so that they would live and multiply and be able to hold onto the land. In other words, Moses makes clear what history has proven time and time again: it is only those people that put God’s Law at the center of their societies that are truly happy and healthy in the long term.

But you don’t have to be a great historian to believe this. God’s law requires human sexuality to be expressed only within marriage, but look at what the collapse of that institution has done to the safety and prosperity of women and children just in living memory. God’s law says we should not steal, and some can remember a time when it was safe to leave our doors unlocked – something we do at our peril today. God’s law says that we should love our neighbors just as much as we do ourselves, but look at the resentment, the distrust, and the hatred that fills our society as a result of the racism of our ancestors who refused to follow this law.

Yes, it turns out that the same lesson God was trying to teach the people of Israel in the desert is the one we all need to learn today. As Deuteronomy 8:3 says, it’s not bread, it’s not material things that are the most important for a healthy society – it’s everything that proceeds out of God’s mouth. For who can doubt that a society organized along the lines of the Ten Commandments would indeed be a big improvement over what we have today?

But there’s one more reason we should be obedient to God’s Word – because He cares for us. God fed His people with manna, wondrous bread from Heaven while they were in the wilderness for 40 years. And even though the only reason they had to take such a long trip was because of their disobedience, God never gave up on them. He didn’t let their health fail them or even let their clothes wear out all during that time (Deuteronomy 8:4).

And of course we can see God’s love for us even more clearly in the tremendous sacrifice Jesus made for us on the cross. So, as a joyful response to God’s grace, if not out of the desire for a healthy, functional society, shouldn’t we listen to what God says? And shouldn’t we try to do what He thinks is best?

Deuteronomy 8:1-10 (ESV)

“The whole commandment that I command you today you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land that the LORD swore to give to your fathers. 2 And you shall remember the whole way that 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 man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. 4 Your clothing did not wear out on you and your foot did not swell these forty years. 5 Know then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the LORD your God disciplines you. 6 So you shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God by walking in his ways and by fearing him. 7 For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing out in the valleys and hills, 8 a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, 9 a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. 10 And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land he has given you.