“When Adonai your God has brought you into the land he swore to your ancestors Avraham, Yitz’chak and Ya‘akov that he would give you — cities great and prosperous, which you didn’t build; houses full of all sorts of good things, which you didn’t fill; water cisterns dug out, which you didn’t dig; vineyards and olive trees, which you didn’t plant — and you have eaten your fill; then be careful not to forget Adonai, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, where you lived as slaves.”-Deuteronomy 6:10-12
What is the number one thing is that causes people to go astray from seeking the Lord?
I’m glad you asked because I’m going to tell you.
The number one thing that causes people to separate themselves from the Lord is the seeking and attainment of wealth and prosperity.
Don’t get me wrong.
I’m not saying there is anything wrong with wealth and prosperity but those things need to be kept in their proper place.
Verse 10 in Deuteronomy 6 is a strong exhortation to the Israelites that whether we find themselves in poverty or prosperity, they are to look back in history at the incredible things God did for them and remind themselves that the source of all the good things they have comes from God alone.
See, the problem we have is we have a tendency to become puffed up and arrogant when things are going really well for us.
We tend to think that we are the cause of all the wealth and money we have when ultimately it is God who has allowed us to have this money.
In this sense, prosperity can be a very dangerous thing.
Essentially Deuteronomy 6:10 is telling us “don’t let riches and prosperity make you forget your relationship with God“.
Unfortunately, this has been a lesson that has been largely ignored throughout not just mankind’s history but also throughout Israel and the church’s history, especially in prosperous Europe and North America.
Beginning in verse 10, God is warning the Israelites that once they finally inherit the land promised to their forefather Abraham 600 years earlier and once they begin to enjoy everything that has been prepared for them, their relationship with the Lord must remain central in their lives or they will suffer dire consequences.
Here’s the thing.
All of the wonderful things the Israelites are about to receive FOR FREE in the Promised Land they did not build.
The Lord is going to take all of the cities and houses currently being inhabited by the various tribes and nations of Canaan and turn them over to Israel for their benefit.
The Israelites will enjoy the luscious and enormous grapes from vineyards they neither planted nor tended to.
The Israelites will have instant access to the oh-so-essential oil from the olive groves that are needed for cooking, lighting their oil lamps and being used in many of the God-ordained ritual ceremonies.
Think about this.
It took generations of time to fully develop these olive groves and Israel gets access to them by merely showing up.
Notice also how the Lord reminds Israel that they were once slaves in Egypt.
He is making sure they understand that although they may be the chosen people, they certainly didn’t choose themselves.
It was God who chose them and SEPARATED them from all the other nations of the world.
Minus God’s intervention, they would never have been able to free themselves from Pharaoh’s grip.
Everything and I mean EVERYTHING Israel has received they received by GRACE!
And the same thing goes with our lives.
All of the good things we have in our lives we have received from the Lord.
And what does the Lord ask in return?
That we simply love and trust Him.
And how do we love and trust Him?
The answer to that question is also very simple.
By obeying His Commands.
Understand that in the final analysis, nothing that we build with our hands or that comes from our own minds is gonna survive when the end of history as we know it arrives.
Only that which the Lord has built will remain.
Since anything worth real value is willed and accomplished by HASHEM alone, any plans we’re devising to gain great wealth must be in accordance with the Lord’s Will.
And if we succeed, we need to remain humble and realize that it is HASHEM that deserves all the credit, not us.
CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT
“For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.
Some people, eager for money,
have wandered from the faith
and pierced themselves with many griefs.”
-1 Timothy 6:10
“Now listen, you who say,
“Today or tomorrow we will
go to such-and-such a city,
stay there a year trading
and make a profit”!
You don’t even know if you
will be alive tomorrow!
For all you are is a mist
that appears for a little while
and then disappears.
Instead, you ought to say,
“If Adonai wants it to happen,
we will live” to do this or that.
But as it is,
in your arrogance you boast.
All such boasting is evil.”
-James 4:13-16
Unbelievably timely teaching!!!!!!
Thanks for the thumbs up Jerr. Be blessed and shalom!
Shalom Rich. The same therefore can and should be said regarding our relationship with Yah’hu’weh which could not be established by anything we can ever try to accomplish. All we can do, or are expected to do is to believe Yah’hu’weh. That is it. But we have a problem in western culture. Believe doesn’t mean in Greek, Latin, or any Western tongue what it means in Hebrew. To bleieve means to let the belief go far beyond a mental ascent that something is probably true. Rather it requires us to allow our belief to change in a fundimentàl way what we choose to do because we believe. To use a poker term, we need to “go all in” which refers to believing our hand is good enough to push all our chips to the center of the table. Only we have much more than the chance in the draw to tell us that it is safe to do this. We have the written promises if the creator/god! All we need to do is trust his word, and go all in!
“All we need to do is trust his word, and go all in!” I love that” Thanks for sharing.
Great blog! Do you have any tips and hints for aspiring writers?
I’m planning to start my own site soon but I’m a little lost on everything.
Would you propose starting with a free platform like WordPress or go for a paid option? There are so many options out there
that I’m totally confused .. Any ideas? Thank you!
Hi Lien, What are you planning to blog about?