The more things change, the more they stay the same. Have you heard that phrase before? The world has changed dramatically since Moses' time. Since Moses, the world has undergone the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, several stages of the industrial revolution, a technological evolution. The world has changed, but humanity has not; the promises of God have not changed.
We are still sojourners here on earth; walking, physically, a spiritual journey toward God's promised land. We posses the same characteristics, good and bad, that the people Moses led had. Since we are the same as the humans then, and since God's promise still applies, all of Moses' advice is relevant to us and applicable to our lives.
We might have a lot that 13-14 BCE peoples did not have: planes, trains and automobiles, skyscrapers and smart phones, but we still have everything they did have. We still have a physical body and a spirit, and the conditions of both. We share more than just a familiarity with sunrise and sunset, we also know what it is like to win, to lose, to love, to lose; we still experience anger, pain, joy, peace... none of that is antiquated. Plenty of Moses' world would be anachronistic in our own timeline, completely out of place and obsolete, but the humans would not be.
So when in Deuteronomy 8:11 Moses warns us: "Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God..." we have to think about that. How could we forget Him? Well, how did the Israelites? They forgot God because they had, and exemplified conditional faith. Something that is very much still here today.
Conditional Faith, Type 1 Faith in God only when life is easy/good and developed
People with this type of faith walk by sight, not by faith. 2 Corinthians 5:7 advises us to do the opposite! We are supposed to live by faith, not by sight. People with this type of faith survey their life and while they are pleased with it, they cling to God.
Jesus referenced this type of faith in Matthew 13:4-7, Parable of the Sower:
“Behold, a sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them. Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them."
This type of faith does not endure! It does not persevere. This type of faith is not a lifelong, steadfast relationship with God. This type of faith does not know, understand or trust God's dedicated character and purpose; because it does not understand, when tribulation inevitably comes, this type of faith sputters, withers and dies.
Jesus told us that tribulation will come, John 16:33. Steadfast faith turns tribulation into a productive phase of life: when we persevere through it faithfully, the result is transformation of ourselves and our world for the better. But conditional faith never allows that productive process to happen; that believer jumps ship because God can even drop the sails, before Jesus can calm the seas.
Our example: the Israelites exodus from Egypt. Their faith in God was bold and enthusiastic as God marched them out of slavery; the sight of their former Egyptian masters subdued and the gates opened stirred their faith! Beyond the gates, a wilderness. The sight was bleak, so their faith turned weak. They revealed that they did not walk by faith, by trust in God. They did not walk toward God, they walked toward that open gate. Had they walked toward God, they never would have noticed that the gate turned into a wilderness.
In the path of God, there is provision. It does not matter if we enter a wilderness or a utopia, we are sustained by God, not by what our eyes see. Yes, much has changed in the world by He has not. God has always been our provision. Much has changed in the world, but we can all agree that humans have stayed the same! How many 'believers' are still band-wagon fans? Wearing merchandise and the big foam finger until we start losing the games. Wearing the cross around our neck and praising God until we start losing.
How many of us believe in God until we see a figurative wilderness? Martin Luther King, Jr. called this "If" faith. As in, if God does "X", then I'll believe. So few walk into the wilderness by faith, with just as much love, gratitude and trust in God as we had before the wilderness, before the hard times.
Conditional Faith, Type 2 Faith in God only when life is hard/bad or underdeveloped
People with this type of faith also walk by sight, not by faith. People with this type of faith survey their life and because they are pleased with it, they no longer cling to God.
Believers that leave God behind in the good times. Our Example(s): King David, King Solomon. When they became content, they became complacent. David was described by God as a man after God's own heart. The enthusiasm of David's faith was unprecedented. David danced and prayed to God, he slew giants for God, trusting that the strength of God's arm would flow to his own. When life was tough, David's faith was tougher.
But then life settled down, and David became content. And in David's contentment, David's faith became stagnant. He stopped pursuing God, and starting to pursue superfluous, selfish desires. The same thing happened with his son, Solomon. Solomon was described by God as the wisest man on earth; but later, things were good and Solomon became stagnant in faith. Stagnant faith, for David, for Solomon, and for us is tepid, shallow water... and our selfish motivations trampled all through it, and completely displace our faith. Stagnant, shallow faith does not have the immovability, the power of faith with depth. Stagnant water is not fed by the rushing, living water of God. It is not refreshed or replenished it is not progressed or strengthened. Without that power of God behind it, it makes no track in the earth. It causes a spiritual draught from which the conditional believer, and all those around them, suffer.
Just as in life it would not be fair or kind to abandon the people who helped you get to where you are, it is not fair or kind or wise to abandon God... who is the reason for everything good thing you will ever have. But humans have not changed! Like David and Solomon, if we are not careful, our gratitude toward God dwindles as time passes. He is with us as we climb the mountain, we must not forget to celebrate the view with Him when we reach the top.
Do not use God. What kind of a relationship is that? To remember someone when you need something, but replace them when you don't? Conditional faith is not only unwise, it is also a hurtful insult to God, who loves you so and answers whenever you call, whether you deserve it or not.
Unconditional Faith
People with this type of faith walk by faith, not by sight. People with this type of faith survey God, and because He is always good, they cleave to Him whether life is easy or hard, they pant after Him as the deer pants for streams of water (Psalms 42:1).
This type of faith surveys God, not the landscape of their life. They survey God and they discover that God is truth, is good, is steadfast, is purposeful, is capable... and all of that renders a survey of the landscape of their life irrelevant! Because God is our haven, even in the wilderness. He is provision; He is water from the rock; He is manna from the heavens. When we do not see a source, He is the source; He is everything we need.
He leads us out of slavery, through the wilderness, into freedom. It is a beautiful faith, a blessed soul, that preserves in love and trust through every phase of life.
Therefore, since humans have not changed, Moses' exhortation in Deuteronomy 8 is alive and relevant! For them it was literal, for you, it is spiritual. The world has changed but God has been walking, leading each generation, leading this generation of humanity toward the promised land. God leads you to a promised land, the Kingdom of God, eternal life.
Re-read it Deuteronomy 8 with renewed eyes, knowing that everything he said is directly applicable to your life. Do not abandon God when times are bad; do not forget God when times are good. Let him encourage unconditional faith in you.
“1 The whole commandment that I command you today you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land that the Lord swore to give to your fathers. 2 And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. 3 And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. 4 Your clothing did not wear out on you and your foot did not swell these forty years. 5 Know then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the Lord your God disciplines you. 6 So you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God by walking in his ways and by fearing him. 7 For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing out in the valleys and hills, 8 a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, 9 a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. 10 And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.11 “Take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, 12 lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, 13 and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, 14 then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, 15 who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock, 16 who fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end. 17 Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ 18 You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day. 19 And if you forget the Lord your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish. 20 Like the nations that the Lord makes to perish before you, so shall you perish, because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God."