Monday, October 20, 2014

Are we so blessed that we worship the blessing rather than the Blessor? Deuteronomy 4-6

Deuteronomy 6:10-12
" “Then it shall come about when the Lord your God brings you into the land which He swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you, great and splendid cities which you did not build, and houses full of all good things which you did not fill, and hewn cisterns which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant, and you eat and are satisfied, then watch yourself, that you do not forget the Lord who brought you from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery."

One of the most observable actions of mankind is what happens to a person, or group of persons, who are given great blessings they did not earn or have part in securing and what they do with those blessings.    Children born into wealth might be the easiest and most recognizable example of that occurrence.   It is quite easy to see those children fail to realize the hard work and effort put into securing those riches.  They often take them for granted and simply treat them as trivial.  They often grow up with a sense of entitlement.   In the above passage we are reminded by Moses (or, at least the new generation of Israelites were reminded) that God had so blessed them and that blessing COULD be forgotten, easily.   They did not (and could NOT) earn such blessings.  So, since the blessings were given to them, they were warned in the above passage not to take them for granted and not allow those blessings to cause them to forget that God gave them those blessings.   God often blesses us with success, victory, good health, etc., and we both forget Him and steal the glory for them.    We are blessed with good health and steal God's glory by telling others about our hard workout.   We get success in business and steal God's glory by talking about our shrewdness.   God was so fearful that the nation of Israel would become satisfied with the riches He was about to give them, that He sent Moses to warn them not to forget the Giver of the blessings.   The nation will and does, however.   They would take possessions of the land and turn the land into their idol and worship the creation rather than the Creator.  Much like we do today.   God blesses us and we, in turn, praise or value something or someone other than God.   The above warning may be intended, originally, for the nation of Israel.  But, it is applicable for anyone God blesses.  Like wealth children who are given blessings they did not earn we act entitled and as though we earned them.   Yet, we can't as God has given us what we can't earn.   We are to praise Him and let nothing get the glory but Him!

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