Bible Poetry Reading Plan: Proverbs 26-27
Deuteronomy 8:2-5 (NIV); 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. 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. Your clothes did not
wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years. Know then in your heart that as a man
disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you.
It has been 40 years since God sentenced the people to a generation of wandering in the
wilderness. The last of the rebels have died and the people are ready to obey and enter the
Promised Land. But first Moses gives a grand speech entreating them to remember their covenant
with the Lord. And right near the beginning, he has them think upon the punishment they have just
endured, putting the entire forty years into perspective. The point of it all had not been punishment
alone; it was humbling and testing ground, allowing God to see the hearts of the people. God
proved the faithfulness of His character in an extreme way during those desert years. By His own
hand they were fed, and their clothes were miraculously kept from wearing out. Through it they
learned that it is His Word and His power that sustains.
In order to have clear vision and purpose, we must know where we have come from. If we know
where our roots are found and where God has taken us in the past we can trust Him with the future.
Though the future is often unknown, we can cling to the characteristics God has revealed through
the past.
PRAYER and MEDITATION
1. Mediate on the passage and ask God to speak to you personally out of it. Allow this to lead
you into prayer and worship.
2. Where have you come from? What aspects of His character has God proven to you through
your past? Ask God how He wants to use this knowledge and experience in your current
struggles.
3. Spend some time interceding for a friend God brings to mind. Ask God to remind them of His
faithfulness in their past.
