The Treason of a Full Belly
Introduction: The Perils of the Promised Land
We live in a world that is starving for want of anything, and at the same time, we live in a civilization that is choking on its own abundance. This is the central paradox of the modern West. We have more stuff, more food, more entertainment, and more information than any people in the history of the world, and yet our souls are emaciated. We are fat and starving all at once. How did we get here? The answer is found right here, in this blistering warning from Moses to a people standing on the brink of unimaginable prosperity.
Israel had spent forty years in the desert. They were a people defined by scarcity. Their clothes didn't wear out, which was a miracle, but they were not exactly fashionable. Their diet consisted of manna, which was also a miracle, but a monotonous one. They were utterly and obviously dependent on God for every single thing, every single day. The desert was a hard schoolmaster, but it taught one lesson very clearly: God is God, and you are not. God provides, and you receive.
But now they are about to cross the Jordan into a land flowing with milk and honey. A land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey. A land where they would build fine houses, and their flocks and herds would multiply, and their silver and gold would multiply. And right here, at the very threshold of this blessing, Moses stops them and delivers one of the most potent warnings in all of Scripture. He tells them that their greatest danger is not the giants in the land. Their greatest danger is not the armies of the Canaanites. Their greatest danger is a full belly and a forgetful heart.
Prosperity is a far more subtle and dangerous spiritual test than poverty. In poverty, our need for God is screamingly obvious. But in prosperity, our need for God is muted. It is drowned out by the gentle hum of the refrigerator and the satisfying heft of a healthy bank account. The devil doesn't always come with fangs and a pitchfork. Sometimes he comes with a promotion and a stock portfolio. And his message is not, "Curse God and die," but rather, "You've done well for yourself. You deserve this. You've earned it." This passage is God's preemptive strike against the most insidious form of idolatry: the idolatry of self, birthed in the cradle of God's own blessings.
The Text
“Beware lest you forget Yahweh your God by not keeping His commandments and His judgments and His statutes which I am commanding you today; lest you eat and are satisfied and build good houses and live in them, and your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and gold multiply, and all that you have multiplies, and your heart becomes lifted up and you forget Yahweh your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. He led you through the great and fearsome wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water; He brought water for you out of the rock of flint. In the wilderness He fed you manna which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do good for you in the end, lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand made me this wealth.’ But you shall remember Yahweh your God, for it is He who is giving you power to make wealth, that He may confirm His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day. Now it will be, if you ever forget Yahweh your God and walk after other gods and serve them and worship them, I testify against you today that you will surely perish. Like the nations that Yahweh makes to perish before you, so you shall perish, because you would not listen to the voice of Yahweh your God.”
(Deuteronomy 8:11-20 LSB)
The Anatomy of Amnesia (vv. 11-14)
Moses begins with a direct command, a spiritual tripwire to be set up at the entrance of the Promised Land.
"Beware lest you forget Yahweh your God by not keeping His commandments and His judgments and His statutes which I am commanding you today;" (Deuteronomy 8:11)
The word is "Beware." Be on guard. This is not a casual suggestion. Spiritual amnesia is the default setting of the fallen human heart, especially when it is comfortable. And notice the connection: forgetting God is not a passive mental lapse. It is an active disobedience. You forget Him by not keeping His commandments. A failure of memory is a failure of loyalty. When you stop obeying God's law, it is because you have first forgotten God's lordship.
Then Moses lays out the process, the subtle slide into godlessness. It starts with blessing.
"lest you eat and are satisfied and build good houses and live in them, and your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and gold multiply, and all that you have multiplies, and your heart becomes lifted up and you forget Yahweh your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery." (Deuteronomy 8:12-14)
This is a cascade of blessing. Eating and being full. Good houses. Multiplying livestock. Multiplying wealth. God is not a stingy God. He loves to give good gifts to His children. But every gift comes with a test. The test is this: will the gift draw you closer to the Giver, or will it replace the Giver in your heart? The process is insidious. You eat, you are satisfied, you build, you accumulate. And then, the poison kicks in: "your heart becomes lifted up." This is pride. It is the swelling of the ego, puffed up by the yeast of prosperity. The heart, once soft and dependent, becomes hard and self-sufficient. And the immediate result of a proud heart is a forgetful mind. You forget Yahweh your God. Specifically, you forget Him as Redeemer, "who brought you out from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery." You forget that everything you have and everything you are is a gift of grace, purchased by a mighty act of deliverance.
The Curriculum of the Wilderness (vv. 15-16)
To vaccinate them against this future pride, Moses forces them to remember the past. He reminds them of the school they just graduated from: the university of the wilderness.
"He led you through the great and fearsome wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water; He brought water for you out of the rock of flint. In the wilderness He fed you manna which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do good for you in the end," (Deuteronomy 8:15-16)
This is a crucial lesson in the pedagogy of God. Why did God lead them through such a harsh and desolate place? Why the snakes, the scorpions, the thirst? Why not just teleport them from Egypt to Canaan? Because God was not just trying to change their location; He was trying to change their hearts. The wilderness had a curriculum, and the two main subjects were humility and dependence. God orchestrates circumstances to teach us who He is and who we are.
He led them into a situation of absolute helplessness. Fiery serpents and scorpions, they could not protect themselves. Thirsty ground, they could not provide for themselves. But in that place of utter lack, God revealed Himself as the ultimate Protector and Provider. He brought water from a flint rock, a geological impossibility, to show that His resources are not bound by natural law. He fed them with manna, a food their fathers did not know, to show that His provision is supernatural and sufficient.
And what was the purpose of this forty-year education in humility? "That He might humble you and that He might test you, to do good for you in the end." This is breathtaking. The hardship was not punitive; it was preparatory. The hunger was designed to create a greater capacity for satisfaction. The testing was designed to prepare them for blessing. God strips us down in the wilderness so He can build us up in the land. He makes us weak so we can be truly strong. He makes us poor so we can be truly rich. He does this to do us good "in the end." God's hard providences are always aimed at our ultimate good.
The Blasphemy of the Self-Made Man (vv. 17-18)
Now Moses comes to the very heart of the temptation, the lie that prosperity whispers in our ears.
"lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand made me this wealth.’" (Deuteronomy 8:17)
This is the anthem of the fool. This is the creed of the practical atheist. It is the foundational lie of humanism. It is the sin of Nebuchadnezzar, who looked at Babylon and said, "Is not this great Babylon, that I have built... by the might of my power?" (Daniel 4:30). And we know how that ended, he was eating grass like an ox. The moment you take credit for God's grace, you are on the precipice of a great fall.
The lie is that we are autonomous. That our strength, our intelligence, our business acumen, our work ethic are the ultimate source of our success. But Moses provides the divine corrective, the truth that shatters this idol.
"But you shall remember Yahweh your God, for it is He who is giving you power to make wealth, that He may confirm His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day." (Deuteronomy 8:18)
This is one of the most important verses in the Bible on the subject of economics and vocation. God is not against wealth. He is the one who gives the "power to make wealth." This includes everything: the intellectual capacity to see an opportunity, the physical strength to work, the raw materials of creation, the stability of law and order that allows for commerce. Every link in the chain of production is a gift from God. The farmer who plants the seed did not create the seed, or the soil, or the sun, or the rain. The tech entrepreneur who writes the code did not create the laws of logic or the electricity that powers his computer.
We are not the source; we are stewards. And why does He give this power? Not for our own glory, but for His. "That He may confirm His covenant." Our prosperity is meant to be a signpost. It is meant to be a visible, tangible confirmation of God's faithfulness to His promises. When a Christian businessman prospers through honest dealings, it is a testimony to the goodness of God's world and God's law. When a Christian family builds a beautiful and hospitable home, it is a small picture of the coming Kingdom. Our wealth is not for us; it is for the covenant. It is to be leveraged for the glory of God and the advancement of His kingdom.
The Final Warning: The Way of the Pagans (vv. 19-20)
Moses concludes with the starkest of warnings. The choice is between remembrance and ruin.
"Now it will be, if you ever forget Yahweh your God and walk after other gods and serve them and worship them, I testify against you today that you will surely perish. Like the nations that Yahweh makes to perish before you, so you shall perish, because you would not listen to the voice of Yahweh your God." (Deuteronomy 8:19-20)
Forgetting God is not a neutral act. A heart that has forgotten the true God will not remain empty. It will find other gods to serve. The Israelites were warned against the stone and wood idols of the Canaanites. Our idols are more sophisticated. We worship the gods of the stock market, of career advancement, of personal comfort, of political power. But the principle is the same. To worship the creature rather than the Creator is the essence of idolatry.
And the end result is the same: "you will surely perish." The very nations they were about to dispossess because of their idolatry would become the model for Israel's own judgment. If Israel adopted the sins of the Canaanites, they would receive the wages of the Canaanites. God plays no favorites when it comes to sin. Covenant privilege does not grant an exemption from covenant responsibility. In fact, it increases it. To whom much is given, much is required.
Conclusion: Gratitude as Spiritual Warfare
So what is the antidote to the poison of prosperity? What is the guardrail that keeps us from driving off the cliff of pride? It is one word: remembrance. And the active form of remembrance is gratitude. A thankful heart cannot be a proud heart. Gratitude is the ultimate reality check. It forces us to acknowledge the source of every good and perfect gift.
This is why the central act of Christian worship is the Eucharist, the Great Thanksgiving. At the Lord's Table, we "do this in remembrance of Me." We remember our Egypt, our slavery to sin. We remember the great and terrible wilderness of our lostness. And we remember the mighty act of deliverance, not water from a rock, but living water from the side of the smitten Christ. Not manna from heaven, but the true bread of heaven, His body, broken for us.
When we are tempted to say, "My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth," we must immediately look to the cross. We must look at the hands of Jesus Christ, pierced for our transgressions. The might of His hand was shown not in accumulating wealth for Himself, but in being nailed to a tree to purchase our redemption. He became poor, that we through His poverty might become rich.
Every blessing we enjoy, from our daily bread to our eternal salvation, is blood-bought grace. To forget this is the highest form of treason. To remember it, to cultivate a rugged, robust, and relentless gratitude in all things, is the foundation of a faithful life. Let us therefore beware, lest we eat and are satisfied, and our hearts are lifted up, and we forget. Let us instead remember, and give thanks, and walk in the covenant all our days.