The Gift of the Ability to Succeed in Our Work

Thank you, Lord, for your gift of successful work.

December 6, 2019

"But thou shalt remember the LORD thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day."

Deuteronomy 8:18

“Deuteronomy” means literally “second law.”  As the Children of Israel are preparing to enter the Promised Land, finally after wandering in the wilderness for the last forty years, the LORD is reiterating His Law that He had given Israel earlier.  The first twenty verses of chapter 8, is a warning to Israel not to forget her God.[1]

Verse 2. “Thou shalt remember…”

Verse 5. “Thou shalt consider…”

Verse 10. “Thou shalt bless…”

Verse 18. “Thou shalt remember…”

In the first nine verses of the chapter, God taught them the lessons of being hungry.  When we are hungry, or when we are sick, or when we are in any need, it is not difficult to look to the LORD for help.  When we feel the pangs of our needs snapping at our heels, we run to God for His help, as we should.

In chapter eight, verses 10-20, the passage points out the dangers of prosperity.  At first, it doesn’t seem possible that affluence is harder on us than hunger.  But it is so!

“It is harder to walk with God in the sunshine of success than in the nipping frosts of failure.  When Paul said, “I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound,” he put the hardest last”[2] (Meyer).

Agur, the son of Jakeh, understood this principle when he taught,

“Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me: Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the LORD? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain” (Proverbs 30:8-9).

Those who live in North America, though they may not consider themselves as “wealthy,” generally have a higher standard of living than the majority of the population of the world.  They indeed are blessed.

The problem with wealth and success is this, when one has it, and things are going well, the idea that “I don’t really need God” begins to creep into the mind.  After all, money can take care of needs, “I don’t really need the Lord like I used to”….or so some might begin to think.  The Children of Israel bore out this truth when they got into the Promised Land.  In time they forgot their God.  Their ceremony and religious rules took the place of their relationship with Jehovah until finally the Shekinah glory, God’s visible presence left the Temple, and all but a remnant walked away from the very God who had blessed them so.

“And thou say in thine heart, My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth” (Deuteronomy 8:17).

I realize that our verse for today was written for the Children of Israel, God’s promise to them was to have wealth in their land.  But might not there be a secondary application that we might see concerning our lives also?  When things are going well, don’t we tend to forget about God?  And when we have needs, don’t we remember Him, and “boldly go before His throne of grace for help?”  The lesson here for us is, our God is good all the time, and we need to love, worship, and serve Him always.  Let’s faithfully remember the One who has given us the “power to get wealth!”

Lord, thank you for the ability to work successfully and earn an income.

 

 

 

[1] For this short study in Deuteronomy 8, I have borrowed from and edited F.B. Meyer’s ideas in outlining this chapter. F.B. Meyer.  Through the Bible Day by Day, the electronic version in eSword.
[2] F.B. Meyer, ibid.