Deu 8 | TNotes | STEP | Summary for Deut 8:1-20: 8:1-20 Once Israel inhabited the land, they might have the human tendency to take credit for the blessings that followed. Moses warned the people to guard against a self-congratulatory attitude. God alone is the source of all prosperity and achievement.

Summary for Deut 8:1-20: 8:1-20 ^a Once Israel inhabited the land, they might have the human tendency to take credit for the blessings that followed. Moses warned the people to guard against a self-congratulatory attitude. God alone is the source of all prosperity and achievement.
8:2 ^b to prove your character (literally to know what is in your heart): God already knew the Israelites’ innermost thoughts (Pss 51:6 ^c; 139:1 ^d, 4 ^e, 23 ^f); he wanted their character to come out in their actions.

• to find out whether: The Old Testament often describes God in human terms, even in ways that appear to limit God. Anthropomorphism (assigning human characteristics to God) and anthropopathism (assigning human feelings or emotions to God) are ways of representing God on a human level so the human mind can better grasp his ways, but God is not limited in his knowledge, power, or transcendence. Here, God is figuratively described as having only a human knowledge of the future, but other passages make it clear that God knows everything—past, present, and future (Ps 139:1-18 ^g; Heb 4:13 ^h).
8:3 ⁱ The word manna is derived from the Hebrew words man hu (meaning “what is it?”). God miraculously provided this food to teach his people total dependence on him (Exod 16:1-30 ^j; Num 11:4-9 ^k). Manna represented the word of God, which is even more essential to life and well-being than food is.

• people do not live by bread alone: Jesus quoted this phrase to rebut Satan (Matt 4:4 ^l; Luke 4:4 ^m).
8:9 ⁿ Iron was not widely used in this period of the Bronze Age because the process of smelting and working it was known to only a few cultures (see 1 Sam 13:19-21 ^o). The time would come when Israel would exploit this vastly superior metal (see Josh 17:16-18 ^p; 1 Kgs 6:7 ^q; 2 Kgs 6:5 ^r; 1 Chr 22:3 ^s).
8:15 ^t water from the rock! See Exod 17:6 ^u; Num 20:2-13 ^v; see also Deut 1:37 ^w.
8:18 ^x This was not the covenant that God made with the previous generation of Israelites at Sinai but the one he first made with Abraham (Gen 15:1-21 ^y; 17:1-21 ^z), then Isaac (Gen 26:1-5 ^aa) and Jacob (Gen 28:1-4 ^ab, 13-15 ^ac; 46:1-4 ^ad).

• In order to be legal and proper, a covenant had to be sworn to with an oath that all parties to the agreement uttered. Although by his very nature God could never rescind a promise, he honored the protocol (see Deut 7:12 ^ae).