God's grace and promise was being carried out in that new generation, whom God led in the wilderness for forty years. Like a good father, God disciplined them through manna training. God humbled them, teaching that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. They were trained and ready to receive all of God's blessings. To keep them, they must remember how the LORD led them. This basic life lesson would be tested each day in a land of blessing. Remembering the LORD is shown through obedience (6) and praise (10), then and now. As we do so, we remain humble and remember his grace. Such life is filled with the joys of both God's fatherly presence and his blessing.

But if the Israelites began to forget God's grace and discipline, a downward spiral would begin. God's good laws would become burdensome, and they would stop obeying them. Greedy for the wealth of the land, they would become proud, even forgetting God's saving grace to them (14). Forgetting manna training would make them depend on themselves for daily provisions (16-18). Their thoughts and behavior would become just like the wicked nations before them, and they would be destroyed (19-20). Forgetting the LORD has a terrible cost.


Application: Father, thank you for leading me, humbling me, and disciplining me. Help me never forget your grace and training, and to praise you each day.
One Word: Remember to praise the LORD