As a boy I remember my family’s evening prayer as we sat down to eat. “God is great, and He is good, and we thank Him for our food, amen.” So, years ago,  when I first read what Yehovah said concerning “after you have eaten and are full …” I thought perhaps we had been doing our prayer all wrong.

After you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless Yehovah, your Elohim for the good land which He has given you. (Deu 8:10)

Today I understand this sound byte much differently than I did just a few short years ago. I call this verse a “sound byte” because it can not truly be understood outside of Deuteronomy chapter 8, the book of Deuteronomy and Torah as a whole.

Who is the “you” Yehovah is speaking to when He says, “after you have eaten and are full …”? Who specifically do we thank? And what do we thank Him for? Because we are now beginning to learn the context clues in my class, the partial answer to our first question is found in the second half of the verse. The “you” are those who have Yehovah as their only Elohim. These men are the Ezrach, who have women, and children, and servants, and Ger who dwell with them; they are the ones who will own the land once they dispossess those who own the land now. They will own the houses, the herds, the flocks, the fruit trees, the vineyards and everything else that Yehovah is giving them. Listen to how this wonderful land is described.

For Yehovah, thy Elohim brings thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills. A land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates. A land of oil olive, and honey. A land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack any thing in it. A land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou may dig brass. (Deu 8:7-9)

But as I said, this is just “the partial answer to our first question” on who the “you” is. In fact, the “you” (masculine, 2nd person, plural) is not a “you” at all; it is a “thou” (masculine, 2nd person, singular). Yehovah is talking to each Ezrach man individually. This whole chapter focuses on what we, each Ezrach, are to remember after we come into our good land which He is giving to us. This chapter focuses on each of us (I’m an Ezrach) maintaining a grateful heart and not thinking that it is anything that we have done to receive these great blessings in this good land. Listen to what He says.

Beware that thou forget not Yehovah thy Elohim, in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and his statutes, which I command thee this day. Lest after thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein. And when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied. And all that thou hast is multiplied, then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget Yehovah thy Elohim, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. (Deu 8:11-14)

The “thou” is the man who has left the kingdom of His birth, joined himself (and his family) to Yehovah and His other called-out people and has become a Ger. And then, at Passover (His Time of Life), entered into covenant with Yehovah and became an Ezrach and son of Yehovah. These only are the men whom Yehovah is speaking to.

He was really not telling my family (or any Gentile family) to pray before, or after, their meal. He was talking to His Ezrach men. It was to each of them that He gave all his commandments.

In reading, learning and teaching these chapters in Deuteronomy, and in Torah, I always keep in mind that, what Yehovah has done once, he will do again.

That which has been is what will be, that which is done is what will be done, there is nothing new under the sun. (Ecc 1:9)

I see Yehovah’s instructions in Torah which He gave to His Ezrach men in the wilderness and then brought them into Canaan as a sort of shadow picture of the big event which Yehovah is beginning even now. We were brought into our land from a dry and dangerous place where He cared for us for 40 years. It was Yehovah,

Who led thee through the great and the terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought, where there was no water. Who brought thee forth water out of the rock of flint. Who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers knew not, that He might humble thee, and that He might prove thee, to do thee good at thy latter end. (Deu 8:15-16)

Right now Yehovah is raising up His men, Israel’s son/seed, from these dry places, they are the dry bones of Ezekiel 37 that Yehovah is bringing back together and then at Passover, the Time of life, He breaths life into each of them as His Nation is Born in a Day. He is even now preparing His men to make the whole world their land this time and He does not want them to forget, once the Millennial Kingdom begins, Who gave them this good land.

So our prayer is really not about the food we just ate; it is about all the things that come from the good land which Yehovah will once again take from the Gentiles and give to His Ezrach men.

“Therefore behold, the days are coming,” says Yehovah, “that it shall no more be said, ‘Yehovah lives who brought up Israel’s seed from the land of Egypt;’ But, ‘Yehovah lives who brought up Israel’s seed from the land of the north and from all the lands where He had driven them.’ For I will bring them back into their land which I gave to their fathers. (Jer 16:14-15)

After You Have Eaten And Are Full …

2D04 Deuteronomy 7-9 – After You Have Eaten And Are Full …
[Click to play this audio or right-click and “Save As” to download]

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