-- and thou say in thy heart, My power and the might of my hand has procured me this wealth.
Israel was about to enter a rich land of good houses, growing flocks, and piles of silver and gold. Moses warned them about a sentence they might one day say inside their own hearts, crediting the harvest to their own hand.
This is a claim made in the privacy of the heart, and one writer traces the harm it does back on the person who makes it.
Despite this they might (and did) say in their heart, "My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth" (v.17). How much harm this self-centered pride does to a man himself! Israel later gave in to it, and in the Church of God today many have been deceived in the same way, so that God's Word is largely forgotten. So Moses urges Israel again to remember the Lord their God, for He alone gives anyone the power to prosper. He did this for Israel to prove His faithfulness to the covenant He had made with their fathers (v.18).
Hunger keeps a person aware that he is being supplied. Comfort quietly removes that awareness, though it never removes the fact.
But sadly, then as now, the very fullness of the blessing they enjoyed might make them forget the gracious hand that gave it. Plenty of food had long ago destroyed Sodom. Hardship and need wake a person up to his need of God. When he lacks nothing, he can easily lose the sense that he still depends on God.
The boast begins with a shift of attention. The heart moves from the One who gives to the things He gives.
Are we not prone to forget the Lord our God, to rest in His gifts instead of Himself? Sadly, we cannot deny it. We rest in the stream, instead of getting up to the Fountain. Mercies, blessings and benefits lie scattered richly along our path. We turn them into an occasion for self-satisfaction and self-congratulation, instead of finding in them the blessed ground of continual praise and thanksgiving.
The word points to the things listed a few verses earlier: houses, herds, flocks, silver and gold. It also settles who supplied them.
Here, speaking of Boaz, "wealth" is used as it is in Deuteronomy 8:17-18. There it means God-given personal possessions in the land: the fine houses, herds and flocks, silver and gold mentioned in verses 12 and 13. For the godly Israelite, "wealth" was a mark of the blessing of the Lord, which "makes rich, and He adds no sorrow with it" (Proverbs 10:22).
Taking credit is the end of a slide. One writer names the step that comes first.
The Lord would have us remember two things in the wilderness. First, it is He who has redeemed us from the world, as He brought His people out of Egypt. Second, it is He who sustains us moment by moment in the wilderness. When we realize this direct dependence on God, we are strong to resist the devil. When we lose sight of it, we feel less need of communion with God. We neglect it, and we soon credit our blessings to ourselves.
Money is not the only thing a person can take credit for. A believer can make the same mistake about gifts that are not material at all.
To boast of spiritual gifts and achievements as if we had gained them by our own skill offends the Lord even more. He alone gives, as it pleases Him. It is to put God's blessings and favours in the place of God Himself. If the perishable things of this life are His gift, how much more the spiritual and eternal!
One writer names the safeguard. It is not poverty, but a settled sense of our own nothingness — and he says what keeps us there.
Nothing proves how twisted our hearts are so clearly as this: we take the blessings God so kindly gives us and use them to exalt ourselves. May we take the warning to heart, knowing that in our flesh no good thing lives. May we always seek to be kept in the place of nothingness — and we will be, in the measure that Christ is everything to our souls.
- Gift. The houses, herds, silver and gold of the land were gifts from God. They were a mark of His blessing, not wages we earned.
- Fullness. Need keeps us aware that we depend on God. Plenty wipes out the awareness, but not the dependence.
- Drift. Losing the sense of moment-by-moment dependence weakens communion with God, and self-credit follows.
- Substitution. The heart rests in the stream instead of the Fountain. Mercies then become grounds for self-congratulation.
- Reach. We can boast the same way about spiritual gifts and achievements. That puts God's favours in the place of God Himself.
But thou shalt remember Jehovah thy God, that it is he who giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he swore unto thy fathers, as it is this day.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.