There are two great
themes in Deuteronomy 8 that we should look at.
The first one is a new theme, and the second theme is a theme that we
spoke of a few days ago and will repeat more than once as we look at Deuteronomy.
Discipline
First, we hear Moses
talking about God as a God of discipline.
Now, this is a theme with which we are very familiar in the Christian
faith. Yes, we believe that we have free
will. We do believe that God does give
us enough “leash” to choke ourselves.
Thus, speaking of God as a God who disciplines us does not imply that we
do not have free will. In fact, it
actually implies that we do have free will.
For if we had no free will to follow our hearts, what good would
discipline be? He could we ever disobey
and need discipline if we did not have free will? So we conclude: We do believe that God
disciplines us and we do have free will.
The question is, why
does God discipline us? Let’s look at
this text. What does it say?
- First, God disciplines us to humble us. Can I get an “Amen” to the fact that we as human beings need to be humbled once and a while – myself included, of course!
- Second, God disciplines us to remind us that we do not live by bread alone – that is, the works of human hands – but rather we live by the hand of God always. I think we as human beings – and I know this is definitely true for me – can stand to remember this truth a little more often. All that we have comes from the hand of God.
- Third, we are told that God’s discipline prepares us for the future. These Hebrew people were going into a land with so many natural resources that it will be so easy to forget that God even exists. It’s not like we know anything about that, either, right? God’s discipline helps us learn lessons that keep us on track with God in spite of the distractions of the world around us. God’s discipline is good.
Dealing with Prosperity
Second, we get the
theme of dealing with prosperity and forgetting the Lord. This is at least the second time in
Deuteronomy that Moses has specifically spoken about this topic. This causes me to genuinely believe that Moses
must legitimately fear this as a possibility.
I’m sure this doesn’t surprise you.
You know humanity just as well as I do.
You know reality just as well as I do.
What does Jesus teach us in Matthew 19:24? “It is easier for a camel to go through the
eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter into the Kingdom of God.”
Jesus isn’t saying
here that it is impossible to have wealth and a good spirituality. Jesus isn’t saying that everyone who has
wealth is going to be condemned to Hell.
For the record, that isn’t Moses’ point either. What Moses fears and what Jesus knows is that
prosperity brings distractions from God.
Prosperity brings about self-glorification. Prosperity brings about self-centeredness. I think Moses nails the human condition
perfectly in Deuteronomy 8:17: “Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power
and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’” That is what Moses fears and that is what
Jesus knows about humanity. Prosperity
helps us believe in ourselves more and rely upon God less. It just does.
There is no point in
arguing this fact. The truth is that you
find greater demonstrations of faith among the poor than among the rich. A greater percentage of the poor faithful
attend the worship of God. The percentage
of people who actually tithe among the poor is more than twice than those who
tithe among the rich. Prosperity helps
pull us away from God, not bring us closer to Him.
That doesn’t mean
prosperity is a sin. There is no sin in
being wealthy – especially if it came from the hand of God! But wealth makes it easier to fall into the
sin of self-reliance and self-glorification.
Wealth makes it easier to forego reliance upon God.
I think Moses is
right to be worried about this aspect of the human condition as the Hebrew
people are about to go into the Promised Land.
In fact, we know he is right. In about
400 years the Hebrew nation will go from being close to God to falling so far
away from God that they are once more enslaved to the world and taken into
captivity. {As an aside … while I type this I am reminded that it’s been roughly
about the same length of time that the colonization of our own land happened
and the European settlers drove out (or resettled) the native inhabitants of
this land. Perhaps history does repeat
itself for those who do not learn the lessons of the past.}
I think we need to be
especially careful with prosperity. How
many good Christians who fall into wealth forget God? How many good pastors who fall into a rapidly
growing church get wrapped up in their own success and forget God? How many good churches that undergo a growth
spurt lose sight of the fact that it is God that it is God who is causing the
growth? Oh, how prosperity can ruin us
if we are not careful. Moses has a
reason to be worried.
But Moses tells us
how to avoid the pitfalls of this chapter.
Observe what the Lord commands!
If we observe the Lords commands, we can deal with prosperity. If we observe what the Lord commands we can
avoid the sins of vanity and self-glorification. Yes, it takes work to remain on God’s true
path. But oh, it is so worth it!
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