There is an important Biblical lesson to be learned from our text verse in Deuteronomy 8:3. God led the Hebrews into a troublesome situation. God led them into hunger. God led them into scorpions and snakes. God led them into draught and a scorching heat. The Holy Bible says that God humbled the Hebrews, by feeding them manna, a coriander flavored dew that settled each morning upon the ground. God met their needs, but did not give them what they wanted. This was a far cry from the garlic, onions, meat and delicacies which the Hebrews enjoyed in Egypt, while laboring as slaves for Pharaoh for 400 years.

The Hebrews were skeptical at first, but then they were overjoyed when God sent Moses to deliver them from bondage, and they saw the ten plagues afflicted upon Egypt. But little did they know that God would lead them from the frying pan into the fire, from bondage into suffering in a desert Wilderness. The Lord did this to train His people, to teach them that there's more to life than eating, drinking and having a good time. God wanted the Hebrews to learn that man needs the spiritual food of God's Word to live by, as much as man needs physical food to live by.

Today, God is still the same God that He was 3,500 years ago. Malachi 3:6 says that the Lord never changes. Hebrews 13:8 says that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. The world changes, and men change, and cultures change, and times change, and seasons change, and philosophies change, and standards change; but God and His Word never change. Amen! The same God Who trained the Hebrews by leading them into hardships, poverty, difficulties and frustrations, does the same thing to Christians today. Just as heat hardens iron into alloy steel, so also does persecution and suffering forge mature Christians. We need hard times and suffering to drive us to our knees and into the Holy Scriptures for comfort, answers and spiritual help.