Deuteronomy 8

A couple weeks or so ago, I visited Yosemite National Park for the first time (ever, not in forever), taking the Four Mile Trail from Glacier Point down to the valley floor. Most of the trail consists of a fairly steady slope--it has to be, as it covers a 3,200-foot elevation change in those 4.8 miles--with spectacular views of Yosemite Falls along the way.

You'd think that after running a couple of half-marathons, 4.8 miles would be easy, and though the trail is nowhere near as grueling as running 13.1 miles, each mile on the trail seemed to take waaaaaay longer than a mile on flat land. By the end of the trail, my feet were a little weary.

It's remarkable, then, that during the Israelites' 40-year trek in the desert, Moses says that "Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell" (verse 4). Now, the Israelites' feet were probably a whole lot more hardy and callused than my tender tootsies, but still--trudging for 40 years without having your feet swell is rather extraordinary.

Of course, these non-distending feet just prove further God's gracious provision for the Israelites. And now, He has brought them to a land fecund with verdant fields, scrumptious crops, and even metals such as iron and copper (verse 9). But, as Moses admonishes, they must never forget that all that they have comes not from their own hands, but is given to them by God. Something God keeps reminding me of as well. Just when I think I can crow over my inestimable achievements, God invariably knocks my pride down a notch or too.

This chapter's Moses nugget is a little trivial, but many personal quirks are trivial, aren't they? In verse 15, Moses uses some choice words to describe the desert they've been wandering in for 40 years, describing it as "the vast and dreadful wilderness, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions." Even he wasn't such a big fan of the wasteland they had to travel through on the way to the Promised Land, though I suppose few people would be.