Full Stomachs, Empty Hearts: The Peril of Grace Text: Deuteronomy 6:10-15
Introduction: The Anesthetic of Abundance
We live in the most prosperous, comfortable, and well-fed society in the history of the world. We have cities we did not build and technologies we did not invent. Our houses are full of goods we did not labor to produce, and we drink clean water without having to hew a single cistern. By any historical standard, we are the beneficiaries of an almost unimaginable inheritance. And it is killing us.
The great lie of our age is that hardship is the primary threat to faith. We think that if we can just eliminate poverty, suffering, and difficulty, then faith will flourish. The Bible teaches the exact opposite. The moment of greatest spiritual peril is not the moment of desperation in the wilderness; it is the moment of satisfaction in the promised land. Scarcity drives men to their knees. Abundance tempts them to believe they can stand on their own two feet. Prosperity is a spiritual anesthetic. It numbs our sense of dependency, it dulls our memory of redemption, and it whispers the satanic lie that we are the masters of our own fate.
This passage in Deuteronomy is not a quaint historical record for Israel as they stood on the banks of the Jordan. It is a prophetic warning shot fired directly into the heart of the 21st-century Western church. Moses is speaking to a generation that knew nothing but wilderness wandering and miraculous provision. They were about to inherit a world of unimaginable blessing, a world of grace made tangible in stone and soil. And Moses, the great lawgiver, knows that the greatest threat they will face is not the Canaanite armies, but the Canaanite comforts. The sword of the enemy is far less dangerous than the wine of worldly success. This is a lesson we have steadfastly refused to learn.
The Text
Then it will be, when Yahweh your God brings you into the land which He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you, great and good 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 will eat and be satisfied, then beware, lest you forget Yahweh who brought you from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. Yahweh your God you shall fear; and Him you shall serve; and by His name you shall swear. You shall not walk after other gods, any of the gods of the peoples who surround you, for Yahweh your God in the midst of you is a jealous God, lest the anger of Yahweh your God be kindled against you, and He destroy you from the face of the earth.
(Deuteronomy 6:10-15 LSB)
An Inheritance of Pure Grace (v. 10-11)
Moses begins by describing the sheer, unadulterated grace that Israel is about to receive.
"Then it will be, when Yahweh your God brings you into the land which He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you, great and good 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 will eat and be satisfied," (Deuteronomy 6:10-11 LSB)
Notice the relentless rhythm of this passage. The central drumbeat is the word "not." Cities you did not build. Houses you did not fill. Cisterns you did not dig. Vineyards you did not plant. This is a systematic dismantling of human pride. God is making it abundantly clear that their future prosperity will have nothing to do with their ingenuity, their strength, or their righteousness. It is a gift, rooted in a promise He made to their dead ancestors centuries before they were born. Their only contribution to the equation was their slavery in Egypt.
This is a perfect picture of salvation in the New Covenant. We are brought into a kingdom we did not build. We are filled with spiritual blessings we did not earn (Ephesians 1:3). We drink from a well of living water we did not dig (John 4:10). We are grafted into a vine we did not plant (John 15:5). Our entire Christian life is an inheritance of grace. We bring nothing to the table but our sin and our need. God provides everything else. The first and most fundamental Christian virtue is therefore gratitude, which can only grow in the soil of humility. This is why Moses hammers the point home. Before they ever set foot in the land, they must understand that they are charity cases. They are beggars about to be seated at a king's table.
The Treachery of a Full Stomach (v. 12)
The moment of satisfaction is the moment of supreme danger. The pivot of the entire passage hangs on one word: "then."
"then beware, lest you forget Yahweh who brought you from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery." (Deuteronomy 6:12 LSB)
When you eat and are satisfied, then beware. It is precisely when God's blessings are most tangible that our memory of the Giver is most fragile. This is the great irony of the human heart. In our need, we cry out to God. In our abundance, we forget Him. Forgetting here is not a simple lapse of memory, like misplacing your keys. In the covenantal language of Scripture, to "forget" is to act as though something is not true. It is to live in a state of practical atheism. It is to betray a relationship.
And what are they tempted to forget? Not just God in the abstract, but a very particular God: "Yahweh who brought you from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery." They are to remember their redemption story. Their identity is not "successful landowners" or "prosperous farmers." Their identity is "redeemed slaves." To forget Egypt is to forget grace. To forget the house of slavery is to begin to believe that you were always free, that you achieved your status on your own merits. This is the story of the modern West. We are so drenched in the blessings of our Christian heritage that we have forgotten the slavery to paganism, brutality, and darkness from which the gospel rescued us. And so we begin to tear down the very foundations of that rescue.
The Threefold Antidote (v. 13)
Moses does not leave them with a warning alone; he provides the preventative medicine. There is an antidote to the poison of prosperity-induced amnesia.
"Yahweh your God you shall fear; and Him you shall serve; and by His name you shall swear." (Deuteronomy 6:13 LSB)
This is a threefold cord not easily broken. First, you shall fear Yahweh your God. This is not the cowering dread of a slave before a tyrant. This is the white-hot, reverential awe of a creature before his infinitely glorious Creator. It is the beginning of wisdom because it is the restoration of sanity. It is remembering that God is God and you are not. Without this foundational orientation, all of life becomes distorted. You cannot see the world rightly if you do not see God rightly.
Second, you shall serve Him. The fear of God is the internal posture; service to God is its external expression. This command demolishes any sacred/secular distinction. Your work, your family life, your civic duties, your rest, all of it is to be done as service to the living God. Worship is not something you do for an hour on Sunday. Your whole life is the worship service. When your hands are full of God's gifts, the only proper response is to use those hands in His service.
Third, by His name you shall swear. This is the public, verbal declaration of allegiance. An oath is the most solemn form of speech, calling upon God as a witness to your loyalty. In our context, this is the public confession of faith. It is baptism. It is saying aloud, "Jesus is Lord," and staking your entire identity on that claim. It is nailing your colors to the mast and refusing to fly any other flag. A private faith that never speaks its allegiance is no faith at all.
The Jealousy of a Covenant-Keeping God (v. 14-15)
Finally, Moses explains the stakes. This is not a matter of personal preference. It is a matter of life and death, because of the very character of the God they serve.
"You shall not walk after other gods, any of the gods of the peoples who surround you, for Yahweh your God in the midst of you is a jealous God, lest the anger of Yahweh your God be kindled against you, and He destroy you from the face of the earth." (Deuteronomy 6:14-15 LSB)
The prohibition is stark: do not chase after the local gods. Idolatry is never abstract; it is always concrete. It is the temptation to worship the gods of your neighbors, the gods of the culture, the gods that are convenient and popular. These gods never demand exclusive allegiance. They are happy to share your heart with a dozen other idols. But Yahweh is not. He is a "jealous God."
Our modern, sentimental therapeutic culture hears "jealousy" and thinks of a petty, insecure, and controlling human emotion. This is a catastrophic misunderstanding. God's jealousy is not a flaw; it is a feature of His covenantal love. It is the righteous zeal of a husband for the exclusive love of his wife. A husband who was not jealous if his wife was unfaithful would not be a loving husband; he would be a contemptible one. God's jealousy is a profound compliment. He loves His people so fiercely that He will not tolerate any rivals. He bought them, He redeemed them, and He will not share them with the cheap, mute, and powerless idols of the world.
The consequence is not an arbitrary punishment. It is the natural outcome of covenant-breaking. If you turn away from the source of life, you get death. If you detach yourself from the Creator of the earth, you will be destroyed from the face of the earth. It is a simple matter of spiritual physics. God is a consuming fire, and to trifle with His covenant love is to play with that fire.
Conclusion: Remembering Our Redeemer
This entire passage finds its ultimate fulfillment in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the one who brings us into the true promised land, a heavenly country. In Him, we have received every spiritual blessing, an inheritance we did nothing to earn. We have been given a kingdom we did not build.
And so the warning comes to us with even greater force. Having received such a lavish inheritance of grace, paid for by the blood of Christ, how dare we forget Him? How dare we, with our full stomachs and comfortable lives, live as though we were not redeemed slaves? The antidote remains the same. We are to fear God, recognizing His awesome holiness, which we see most clearly at the cross. We are to serve Him, not out of slavish duty, but out of grateful love for the one who served us by laying down His life. And we are to swear by His name, confessing Jesus Christ as Lord, the only name under heaven by which we must be saved.
The jealousy of God was satisfied at Calvary, where Christ, the righteous husband, gave His life to purchase His bride, the Church. His love for us is so intense, so exclusive, so jealous, that He would rather die than share us with the idols of sin and death. Therefore, let us beware. Let us look at the abundance of our lives, whether spiritual or material, and let it not be an anesthetic that makes us forget, but rather an altar upon which we offer our unending gratitude to the God who brought us out of the house of slavery.