This article is excerpted from Katie J. McCoy’s new Bible study, Forever for Our Good: A Study of the Book of Deuteronomy.

The last five minutes of the 2006 film, The Illusionist, are worth the entire movie. Without divulging too many spoilers, Eisenheim the Illusionist has an entire city convinced he can make people disappear. But, of course, it was all an illusion, as the investigator determined to imprison him realizes in the last scene. It’s the kind of twist ending that changes your perspective of the entire plot.

A similar twist awaits us today as we jump into Moses’s first speech to the Israelites. He has been reminding them what the purpose of the wilderness wandering was as they prepare physically, emotionally, and spiritually to enter the promised land. We’re going to focus in on just three verses in Deuteronomy 8. If you’re familiar with the Gospel accounts of Jesus, these verses may ring some bells. But when we see them in the context of who Jesus is and everything He accomplished, our entire perspective will change. Prepare to see it and not be able to unsee it!

Deuteronomy 8:2-3 reads as follows,

2 Remember that the Lord your God led you on the entire journey these forty years in the wilderness, so that he might humble you and test you to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands.
3 He humbled you by letting you go hungry; then he gave you manna to eat, which you and your ancestors had not known, so that you might learn that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.

Deuteronomy 8:2-3 CSB

Moses taught the Israelites that the point of the desert wanderings was to humble them and test their commitment and faithfulness to the Lord. He did this by allowing them to experience hunger, then feeding their hunger in a miraculous way.¹ God knew what was in their hearts. The test just revealed what was already there. God’s tests are opportunities to believe and trust Him.

In the moment we’re called to trust Him, we don’t yet know how He will fulfill His promises.

And here is the ultimate test to reveal what’s in our hearts: What do we believe about the Lord when it looks and feels like He has forgotten us?

God can change our circumstances in a moment. He already knows how He is going to provide for the need we’re asking Him to fulfill. But like Israel in the wilderness, He tests us to show what is in our hearts. The wilderness wanderings were meant to humble the Israelites, reveal their hearts, and teach them to rely on God alone.

Interestingly, the temptations of Jesus in Matthew 4:1-11 align with the law commands found in Deuteronomy 6:13, 16, and 8:3. Through these verses we see how Jesus specifically fulfills the law as he faces circumstances under which the Israelites also struggled in their wilderness wanderings.

Matthew wrote his Gospel specifically to a Jewish audience. In fact, it’s considered the most Jewish of the four Gospel accounts, quoting the Old Testament more than fifty times by some approximations. He especially draws from Old Testament prophesy to demonstrate that Jesus is the Messiah for whom Israel had been waiting. With these specific Deuteronomy connections, Matthew builds the case that Jesus is the new and better Moses. In other words, the events of Moses’s life pre-figure and ultimately point to Jesus the Messiah. For example:

  • Moses survived a genocide of infant boys (Ex. 1:15-22).
    Jesus survived a genocide of infant boys (Matt. 2:16-18).

  • Moses was the mediator (the one through whom God gave) of the old covenant.
    Jesus was the mediator (the One through whom God gave) of the new covenant.

  • Moses saved his people from slavery to Egypt.
    Jesus saved His people from slavery to sin.

Hebrews 3 compares Moses and Jesus to a house and its builder, as well as a servant to a son (Heb. 3:1-6). This correlation is known as “typology.” Typology compares the lives and events of people in the Old Testament with the identity and ministry of Jesus.

This comparison reveals a deeper layer of who Jesus is and shows us God’s big picture plan of redemption. These Old Testament people and events point to Jesus as their true and better fulfillment. Matthew’s account of Jesus’s temptation communicates to his readers that Jesus is the true and better Moses. But that’s not the only comparison of Jesus we find in this Gospel.

The genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1:1-17 sets the stage for readers to see Jesus as the true or new Israel. Matthew groups the names of Jesus’s ancestors according to major events and covenants in Israel’s story. This isn’t random. Matthew wanted readers to know that the blessings and promises God made to Abraham, to David, and to Israel in the exile are fulfilled through Christ. Jesus is the true and better Israel. He is the fulfillment and the embodiment of Israel and everything God intended them to be. For example:

  • Israel had twelve tribes who would represent the Lord’s name to the nations.
    Jesus had twelve disciples who would carry the Lord’s name to the nations.

  • After Israel’s forty years in the wilderness, they were to represent the Lord as a kingdom of priests.
    After Jesus’s forty days in the wilderness, He represented the Lord and is our High Priest.

Everything God had redeemed Israel to be and do, Jesus was and did.2 Jesus’s obedience fulfilled God’s purpose for Israel. After taking possession of the promised land, Israel fell into a pattern of rebellion and unfaithfulness that continued through the time of the judges, the kings, and the prophets. In fact, the entire Old Testament highlights the need for Jesus to be the fulfillment of “New Israel,” one who succeeds where ancient Israel failed. But that’s not all; Jesus’s obedience fulfilled God’s purpose for you and me. He also succeeded where we have failed.

Jesus was faithful where Israel had been unfaithful. And He was also faithful where we have been unfaithful. He obeyed where we disobeyed.

Jesus demonstrated what a life of perfect love for God looked like. He succeeded where Israel had failed. He succeeded where we have failed, too. And He did it so that His success could become ours. We often apply the story of Jesus’s wilderness temptation as a lesson in defeating temptation—just as Jesus depended on the Spirit of God and the Word of God, we too can defeat Satan’s temptations. While that’s certainly true and an excellent application for us, that’s not all that was going on. Because Jesus didn’t just quote Scripture—He quoted these Scriptures. He could have quoted from anywhere in the Old Testament. He knew the Psalms. He knew the Prophets. He knew the rest of the Pentateuch. But He quoted from Deuteronomy and only from Deuteronomy.

"Here is the beautiful picture I promise you’ll never be able to unsee: Jesus fulfills the entire covenant. All of it."

Katie J. McCoy

He is the covenant-making Lord who chose Israel, redeemed them from slavery, and led them through the wilderness. And He is the chosen Servant of God who perfectly obeyed the law and trusted the Father when it looked like He’d been forgotten. Jesus fulfilled God’s covenant with Israel. And Jesus fulfilled Israel’s covenant with God.

Jesus is the same God who spoke the world into existence (Gen. 1). He is the same God who made a covenant with Abraham (Gen. 12:1-3). He is the same God who revealed Himself to Moses in the burning bush (Ex. 3). And He is the same God who set Israel free from slavery. Jesus is the covenant-keeping God who came to earth to keep our side of the covenant for us. He held up our end of the relationship on our behalf. He did it all—everything God had promised to His people, and everything His people had promised to God.

Deuteronomy really is all about Jesus. And now, you can’t unsee it.