Deuteronomy 8:15-16 He led you through the vast and dreadful wilderness, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. (Just as He did the Israelites long ago, the Lord leads us today through what seems to be impossible and even dangerous challenges. We may find ourselves in a wilderness of life where threats loom all around us, but the key to the situation where God's people found themselves and to our own situation today is that the Lord is leading. Even in the wilderness, the Lord leads and guides us. Even when the way seems impossible, when no end is in sight, He leads us. He knows the way. He protects us while we are there from the threats that surround us.) He brought you water out of hard rock. He gave you manna to eat in the wilderness, something your ancestors had never known, (Not only does the Lord guide us through the wilderness places in our lives and protects us there, He also grants miracles of provision and deliverance. Who has ever heard of water gushing out of a rock? Who has ever heard of heaven's manna? And, yet, this God Whom we serve provides miraculous supply when our resources are emptied, when our strength is gone.) to humble and test you so that in the end it might go well with you.
(Through His leading, He allows us to experience places of need, not to punish us, but to build relationship with us, to teach us to depend on Him, so that we finally realize we need Him, so that we finally become desperate enough to call out to Him and to know that He can be trusted with our very survival, with our need for water and food, with all our needs, with our very lives. His purposes toward us are always and forever in our best interests. He chooses to make our path straight, straight into His design for us.)
