Apr 18 – Deuteronomy 29, Deuteronomy 30:1-10 – Luke 18:31-43, Luke 19:1-10 – Proverbs 10:1-10
Deut 29:5
I have led you forty years in the wilderness. Your clothes have not worn out on you, and your sandals have not worn off your feet.
What does this mean? Could it be that their clothes never got old and their shoes never wore out whilst they were in the wilderness? Commentators disagree on this. Some days it’s miraculous provision others that they had the spoils of those who they defeated.
It seems a strange way to word it if it’s not miraculous provision but also strange not to make a bigger deal of it if it were.
But either way, there is a point here. They were wandering in the wilderness. They were in no position to build farms and make their own clothes. They needed this to be taken care of. And God made sure they never went without. God made sure they always had what they needed.
Yet they were ungrateful and kept moaning that God never did anything for them.
Sound familiar? God always provides what we need, rather than what we want. Don’t lose focus and concentrate on the wants and blame God when you don’t get them. He makes sure the needs are met when you trust in Him.
Prov 10:4
A slack hand causes poverty,
but the hand of the diligent makes rich.
Sometimes we carry an expectation that we will go well because we just deserve it. We feel the world owes us a living.
Not so.
God provides but He expects us to work. He expects us to be active. Lazy hands lead to poverty. Sleeping in harvest means no crops.
We trust in God for all our needs, but we cannot be lazy children who expect our Heavenly Father’s riches to mean we don’t have to work.
The hand of the diligent makes rich.
