Living by His Word

“He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord.” Deuteronomy 8:3

​The Israelites history of repeated rebellion revealed that they sought to live independent of the Lord and on their terms. Their desire to live their own way, continuously led to rebellion, as well as the pattern of not acknowledging the Lord. After the Exodus, they were freed from the bondage of the Egyptians, but they willfully enslaved themselves to sin.
 
As we journey through Deuteronomy, we read that the Lord led them to be hungry. When the children of Israel experienced hunger, no doubt, it seemed exacerbated because a desolate desert where food or the possibility of capturing food was not in sight completely surrounded them. The hunger they experienced was accompanied by frantic fear, escalated anger, and repeated rebellion towards the Lord and Moses. By leading the Israelites into hunger while they were in the desert, they were forced to acknowledge their frailty, their need, and their very lives and survival were in the hands of the Lord.

​At this point, the Israelites lived by what they saw, what they could accomplish, and what they desired. The Lord desired that they understood that they were to live by His word and His promises. When the Lord made promises to them, He desired them to know that He and His words can be trusted. For this reason, He miraculously provided food and water in the wilderness, preserved their clothing so that their clothing did not wear out, physically kept them so that as they journeyed through the desert, their feet did not swell, He guided them by day and night, and protected them from their enemies. The Israelites were to place their entire dependence on the Lord by not placing trust in what they saw, what they could accomplish, or the desires of their heart. He was preparing them to live by the word of God.
 
Living by the word of God requires us to trust the Lord completely. The Lord places us and will continue to place us in wilderness experiences where we must admit that we are not able to do anything without the Lord and that we must trust that He is in complete control. He will place us in circumstances so that we learn to consistently live by trusting Him and His word.