NOTES. Catholic lectionary.

Other notes

For Deu 8:1-20

¹All the commandments which I command thee this day shall ye observe to do, that ye may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers.

²And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no.

³And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.

⁴Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell, these forty years.

⁵Thou shalt also consider in thine heart, that, as a man chasteneth his son, so the LORD thy God chasteneth thee.

⁶Therefore thou shalt keep the commandments of the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, and to fear him.

⁷For the LORD thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills;

⁸A land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil olive, and honey;

⁹A land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack any thing in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass.

¹⁰When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the LORD thy God for the good land which he hath given thee.

¹¹Beware that thou forget not the LORD thy God, in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and his statutes, which I command thee this day:

¹²Lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein;

¹³And when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied;

¹⁴Then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the LORD thy God, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage;

¹⁵Who led thee through that great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought, where there was no water; who brought thee forth water out of the rock of flint;

¹⁶Who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers knew not, that he might humble thee, and that he might prove thee, to do thee good at thy latter end;

¹⁷And thou say in thine heart, My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth.

¹⁸But thou shalt remember the LORD thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day.

¹⁹And it shall be, if thou do at all forget the LORD thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish.

²⁰As the nations which the LORD destroyeth before your face, so shall ye perish; because ye would not be obedient unto the voice of the LORD your God.

Describing the path the people have traveled, the book of Deuteronomy presents it to us as the way of the Torah. There is no room here for the theory of rewards and punishments so common among religious people, according to which a person receives a reward for carrying out what God has prescribed and punishment for violating His prescriptions. Here the logic is entirely different. A person follows God because only such movement can be called a way. Everything else is tracklessness leading nowhere. Walking God's way, a person arrives where God wants to bring him.

God wants to bring the person to the place of meeting with Himself, to the place of His presence, in order to sanctify the person and give him the possibility of a new and full life. In the book of Deuteronomy the Promised Land becomes such a place. God leads His people there in order to renew both them and the land itself, making it a prototype of the Kingdom. That is precisely why the traditional religious scheme of rewards and punishments does not work here. The point is that, by definition, the people cannot deserve what they receive: this concerns fallen humanity, and the people of God are no exception, since they too consist of fallen people.

By definition, the fallen person is not ready for a meeting with God, and also by definition does not deserve either the Kingdom or the Promised Land as its prototype. Only God Himself makes both individual people and the whole people as a whole ready, and He does so in the process of moving along the way by which He leads them. If the people travel the path laid out for them by God, step for step behind the One who laid that path out, they will become ready for a meeting with God and for life in God's presence on the land given by God.

Life itself on this land is also unthinkable outside the context of relations with God. The land is given to the people not as property, but for use, on the condition that they do not forget God and do not begin to rely on themselves instead of Him. This is not a statute or a disciplinary measure, but a simple fact: without God it is impossible to live on God's land. It exists first of all as a place of God's presence, and only afterward as a natural phenomenon, as a place, a territory, a geographical reality. Change the order of priorities, and the land is lost. This is what Moses warns his people about, speaking on God's behalf.