Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years. (Deut. 8:4)
Expanded Passage: Deuteronomy 8:4-5
It was my day to head to the dentist for a regular appointment. Like most people I was not excited to sit in that chair, have bright lights all around my head and have someone poking around my mouth. I asked my dentist if I didn’t have cavities, why did I have to come into his office twice a year. He responded that most of what he was doing now with my teeth was preventative and proactive instead of reactive. One could argue that this is similar to what we call “prevenient grace” in John Wesley’s Order of Salvation. Just as God’s prevenient grace prepares our hearts for salvation, God’s preventative care can prepare, protect, and preserve us through all of life’s challenges.
It is hard for us to imagine wandering in the wilderness for forty years and our clothes not wearing out or our feet swelling. They were in a desert without any of the amenities or resources we have access to today. When God sustains us, it is far better than any amenity we could grasp by human origin. I think this is a reminder of God’s “preventative treatments” in our lives. Even though there are imperfections in my life, God is still working on my behalf to preserve me. In this story we know God’s people had made plenty of mistakes and had turned away from him many times. However, God’s faithfulness remained.
Acknowledge where God is sustaining and protecting you right now.
Santes Beatty is an ordained minister and serves as the director of NextGen for Church Multiplication and Discipleship of The Wesleyan Church. He loves traveling with his family, writing, cooking, and equipping leaders.
© 2025 Wesleyan Publishing House. Reprinted from Light from the Word. Used by permission. Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®.
