Deuteronomy 8:14
Then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the LORD thy God, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage; Then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the LORD thy God, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage;
The verse warns that prosperity lifts the heart into pride until the Lord who delivered His people from slavery in Egypt is forgotten. The danger comes when they eat and are full and build fine houses, and when herds and flocks and silver and gold and all possessions multiply, after He had led them through the terrible wilderness with serpents and drought and fed them with manna from rock to humble and prove them. To forget Him is to fail to keep His commandments and judgments and statutes, and to say that one's own power and strength produced wealth, instead of remembering that He gives power to get wealth to establish His covenant by undeserved mercy and not by human righteousness. If He is forgotten for other gods that are served and worshiped, His people will surely perish like the nations He destroys for disobedience, cut off from His life and blessing under judgment. This warning belongs to believers now as truly as to Israel, an admonition for those living at the end of the world whose prosperity depends on strict obedience.
Prosperity and Forgetting God
Prosperity lifts the heart into pride and causes forgetting of the Lord God who brought Israel out of the land of Egypt, from slavery and the house of bondage. The danger comes when there is eating and being full and becoming well supplied and wealthy, when goodly houses are built, and when herds and flocks multiply and silver and gold and all possessions are multiplied. When people become prosperous their hearts may grow proud in just this way.
Before that prosperity, God led Israel through the great and terrible wilderness with fiery serpents and scorpions and drought and no water, brought water from flint rock, and fed them with manna unknown to their fathers, to humble them and prove them to do them good at their latter end. Remembering that deliverance and those wilderness lessons is part of keeping His commandments. Forgetting God means failing to keep His commandments and judgments and statutes, and neglecting God and His commandments. Israel as a holy people chosen to be special above all people must remember His care and obey His commands rather than become forgetful.
Forgetting includes claiming that one's own power and might of hand and one's own strength produced wealth instead of remembering dependence on God. God gives power to get wealth to establish His covenant sworn to the fathers. Blessings come from His undeserved mercy and lovingkindness, not from Israel's own piety or righteousness, so Israel was not to credit its blessings to itself. Remembering God's deliverance guards against crediting self for wealth and turning from obedience.
Judgment and Present Duty
To forget God and go after other gods to serve and worship them brings certain perishing, as surely as the nations the Lord destroyed before Israel perished for disobedience to His voice. Such unfaithfulness cuts people off from His life and blessing and brings judgment upon them. Israel ignored this warning, forgot God, and turned the blessings He gave to self-glorification instead of using them to represent Him and to guide others toward Him.
Israel's later history displayed the danger, for the people turned to idolatry, yet those ties could not help them in distress, and when they remembered God's works and cried to Him He delivered them. Though prosperity had been promised only on condition of obedience, they became unthankful and selfish, transgressed God's law, and remained disloyal even while knowing that obedience would bring prosperity and happiness. God's word was verified in their disobedience, when only two of the adults who left Egypt entered Canaan while the rest died in the wilderness, and He will vindicate His word today if leaders depart from His commandments.
The whole chapter holds lessons of the greatest importance that belong to present believers just as truly as to Israel, and its lesson applies to God's people now as surely as it did then. It stands as an admonition for those living at the end of the world, teaching that prosperity depends on strict obedience to His principles. Those entrusted with sacred responsibilities must heed the warning by carefully observing God's directions and serving Him with consecrated hearts and lives. Parents are urged to heed it as they prepare their children to stand firm amid the perils of the last days. The requirements in Deuteronomy 8:1-15 were to be kept in memory by being framed into song and sung in Israel's assemblies.
Forgetting also includes following God's guidance only so far as it agrees with human judgment, then holding to one's own ideas and refusing to be molded after the Lord's similitude. The verse requires full submission to His will and counsel rather than making one's own judgment supreme. Human standards, opinions, and judgments are not to rule, for everything must be viewed in the light of Christ's example, copying His self-denial and self-sacrifice.