05(Deut 08) Why the Desert
After deliverance, they sang songs of joy. When is the last time you did that? When is the last time you sang for the Lord’s goodness? For his salvation? Like the Hebrews, we are never to forget our deliverance from Egypt, else we begin to think we are where we are because of our hand (Deut 8).
Why the desert? There was a direct trade route to Canaan.
1. TESTING – we need to know what is in our heart (Deut. 8:2).
A. Sometimes we try to plead that ignorance is bliss, but until we know the facts, we can never face the needed changes.
B. Psalm 139:23-24 Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: 24 And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
C. Who needs to know your heart? You do. God already knows.
D. “Try me” – test me. Let me learn what is in my head, what my reaction is.
E. Not a sin to learn what is in our heart. The sin is not to change it. Not a sin to find out what the balance is, only to bounce a check afterwards.
2. OBEDIENCE – we need to obey His Word, not our heart. (Deut 8:3).
A. As we learn about our deficiencies to sin, we place more trust in His Word.
B. Paul placed no confidence in the flesh.
C. Jesus knew not to trust the flesh to respond to trials
Matt 4:1-4
1 Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.
2 And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred.
3 And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.
4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
3. HEALING – discover that obedience leads to healing. (Exodus 15:26).
A. Jehovah – Rapha; the Lord who heals.
B. Elim – oasis in the wilderness.
C. From the penalty of sin – “by His stripes we are healed.”
D. because we cannot heal ourselves – “physician, heal thyself!”