A Healthy Heart - Part 2

Deuteronomy 8:1-9 (NIV)
¹ Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase and may enter and possess the land that the LORD promised on oath to your forefathers. ² Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. ³ He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. ⁴ Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years. ⁵ Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you. ⁶ Observe the commands of the LORD your God, walking in his ways and revering him. ⁷ For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land--a land with streams and pools of water, with springs flowing in the valleys and hills; ⁸ a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey; ⁹ a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing; a land where the rocks are iron and you can dig copper out of the hills.




I am a man of a certain age.  When a person reaches a certain age, maintaining a healthy heart is physically very important.  Sometimes we don't realize we have a health problem until something happens.  Sometimes the doctor's keen interest in a series of tests alert us to the fact that we need to take care of our bodies.  Neither one of these scenarios is pleasant.  Stress tests, blood tests, and EKG's are no fun.  These pale in comparison to something like a heart attack or stroke.  So we go through the discomfort of these tests with the hope that we will be healthier as a result of the knowledge that is gained through the testing.  Our chances of maintaining a healthy body are greatly increased if we follow the doctor's instructions.  Eat right, exercise and take your medicine as prescribed.

In this week's passage the people of Israel had been tested by the LORD so that He would know their hearts' condition.  Would they keep God's commands?  The commands were not given to trip them up, but to guide them in a life that was holy and pure so that they could enjoy all that God had provided for them to the fullest.

Who likes tests?  It puts all that is hidden right out there to be seen.  In school it puts all that is or isn't in your head on to a sheet of paper.  In the doctor's office it places the unseen condition of your health in a form that can be measured and analyzed.  When God tests you it exposes the condition of your heart, your spiritual health.

It particularly struck me when I read this passage that God's purpose in the testing was to humble us (vs 3) so that He could display His provision, love, and care for us in a way that we could see it.  He allowed them to be hungry so He could feed them.  He did not let their clothes wear out or their feet to swell.  I have learned that just as this scripture points out, God provides in a way that is unpredictable and better than expected.  I think He does this so that there can be no doubt that it is His provision, not one of our own making.

We are a fallen people living in a fallen world.  Could it be that God is bringing us to the place where He can humble us so that we can see His great love for us?  So that we can accept the gift of His mercy?

Tests are intended to be beneficial.