Moses kept reminding the people to carefully obey every command God had given so they might live, multiply, and possess the land promised to their ancestors. He told them to remember how God had led them through the wilderness for forty years — humbling and testing them to reveal what was in their hearts. God allowed them to hunger, then fed them with manna, a food unknown to their fathers, teaching them that man does not live by bread alone but by every word from the mouth of the Lord.
Their clothes had not worn out, nor had their feet swollen during those forty years. Just as a father disciplines his son, so God had disciplined them. Moses urged them to walk in God's ways, to fear Him, and to remember that He was bringing them into a good land — a land rich with streams, valleys, wheat, barley, vines, fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil, and honey. It was a land of abundance, where bread would never be scarce and even the rocks held iron and copper.
He warned them to praise the Lord for all His blessings once they were satisfied and settled, lest they forget Him. When they had fine houses, great herds, and growing wealth, they were not to become proud and think their own strength had achieved it. God had brought them out of Egypt, led them through the dry and dangerous desert, provided water from a rock, and gave them manna to eat — all to humble and prepare them.
Moses cautioned them not to say, "My own power has produced this wealth," but to remember that it was God who gave them the ability to prosper, fulfilling His covenant with their forefathers. If they ever forgot the Lord and turned to other gods, bowing down to them, they would face destruction like the nations God had already removed before them.