And thou say in thine heart, My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth.
The verse forbids crediting personal power, strength, wisdom, skill and effort for gaining wealth and success, a prideful self-credit that rises when prosperity increases. It belongs to a time of fullness when people are fed, housed, and multiplied in flocks, silver, gold and all possessions, and are tempted to have the heart lifted up and forget the Lord. Wealth and the power to obtain it come from God, who gives them to establish His covenant sworn to the fathers, so He must be remembered and honored rather than self credited. What people have is entrusted as talents and stewardship under God's authority to be employed for His glory and the uplifting and benefit of others, in dependence on God and obligation to fellow men. Forgetting God who delivered from bondage, led through the terrible wilderness, and fed with manna to humble and prove for good at the latter end, and turning to walk after other gods in disobedience, brings certain perishing and destruction.
Setting and Warning
The verse forbids saying in the heart that personal power and the might of the hand, strength, wisdom, skill, ability and effort have gained wealth and success. That prideful self-credit arises when prosperity increases, when wealth and possessions are multiplied and people become proud and claim the gain as their own achievement. It denies dependence on God and fails to remember and honor Him as the source, treating blessing as the fruit of human piety and righteousness rather than of His undeserved mercy and lovingkindness.
The saying belongs to a time of fullness, when people eat and are full, dwell in good houses, and have herds and flocks, silver and gold, and all possessions multiplied. In that fullness the heart is lifted up into pride and tempted to forget the Lord. The warning is to remember His care in the wilderness, to observe all His directions, obey His commandments, and serve Him wholeheartedly with gratitude, remembrance, obedience and reverence.
Forgetting means forgetting that God brought Israel out of Egypt from bondage and slavery. It means forgetting that He led through the great and terrible wilderness of fiery serpents and scorpions and drought with no water, brought water from flint rock, and fed with unknown manna. He did this to humble and prove and test them, to do them good at their latter end and for their eventual good. Prosperity therefore depends on strict obedience and on remembering how He delivered, protected, provided for and sustained them.
Forgetting God to walk after other gods and serve and worship them, and to refuse His commands and disobey His voice, brings certain perishing and destruction. It is destruction like that of the nations destroyed before Israel for disobedience. The chapter and its warning are written for admonition for those on whom the ends of the world are come, given to present believers and leaders as verily as to Israel. It is to be read in its full setting with Deuteronomy 1 and 7, teaching surrender of opinion and judgment to be molded after the similitude of Christ rather than following guidance only to the point that agrees with personal judgment, and living not to please self by feeble human standards but by the Lord's standard of perfection of character in self-denial and self-sacrifice.
God verified His word against disobedient Israel when only two adults who left Egypt entered Canaan and the rest died in the wilderness. He will vindicate His word today in the same way if His commandments are forsaken and leaders and people depart from them.
Gift, Duty, and Judgment
Wealth and the power to obtain it come from God, who gives that power to establish the covenant He swore to the fathers, so the heart must remember and honor Him rather than credit personal power and strength for gain. Prosperity tempts the heart to be lifted up and to claim that personal effort, power, and skill produced wealth, forgetting the Lord who delivered and sustained His people. That forgetting ignores His provision and covenant and calls instead for gratitude, remembrance, obedience, and reverence.
Blessings come from undeserved mercy and lovingkindness, not from human piety or righteousness. Nothing can be created or acquired apart from what God provides, and possessions do not belong to people by right. To forget this is to become an unfaithful steward of God's goods.
What is possessed is entrusted as talents under God's authority, to be employed for His glory and the uplifting of humanity and for the benefit and service of others. Wealth carries dependence on God and obligation to fellow men, not ownership for self-glory. Israel's wealth and advantages were meant to serve God and benefit others, but the people claimed them for their own glory and failed to represent Him faithfully.
Refusal to recognize means as entrusted talents and to render to God what is His leads stewards to handle the Lord's money as if it were not His. That same heart attitude shifts appointed responsibility onto children and places means beyond personal control to avoid giving to spread the truth. Prosperity depends on strict obedience, on carefully observing all God's directions, on remembering His wilderness leading and sustaining care, and on serving Him wholeheartedly. Israel became unthankful and selfish, broke His law, and were disloyal despite knowing that obedience was for their happiness and prosperity.
Keeping the commandments is not possible unless Christ removes sin, bears its penalty, and imputes His righteousness to the believing, repentant soul. Self must not be given prominence; God alone is to be magnified. Praise, honor, and glory for success and for the gifts used in it belong to Him, including victory in winning people to Him.
Treating blessings as merely what is deserved, becoming proud and self-dependent, trusting in self, and glorifying human genius, skill, wisdom, and achievement dishonors God and denies Him credit. Such self-exaltation and self-trust can lead to ruin. The love of riches has an infatuating, deceptive power that chokes the seed of the Word with thorns, so that instead of awakening gratitude riches lead to exaltation of self. They then bring loss of the sense of dependence on God and obligation to others, self-serving use of wealth rather than service, and development of the attributes of Satan instead of the attributes of God and godly character.
Giving self the glory instead of acknowledging God brings His testing and judgment. He may bring pride low by removing strength and possessions and taking them away. The danger applies to those entrusted with the physical and spiritual interests of God's afflicted people when they depend on their own skill alone and work from worldly policy, personal interest, and desire to be engaged in a great and popular work. With hearts lifted up they claim success by their own power and take glory to feeble, short-sighted man instead of God.
If that self-exalting spirit is cherished it calls down God's frown, and He leaves such workers to labor under great disadvantage in inferior knowledge, experience, and facilities so they cannot accomplish half as much. By contrast, strong reliance on God for His blessing on the means He provided brings angelic attendance with patients, helpers, and physicians to assist in restoration and gives the glory to God. The warning also applies to relying on one's own judgment, opinion, and ideas rather than submitting to the Lord's guidance. Opinion and judgment must be surrendered to be molded after the similitude of Christ, living not to please self by feeble human standards but by the Lord's standard of perfection of character in self-denial and self-sacrifice.
The verse forbids crediting personal power, strength, wisdom, skill and effort for gaining wealth and success, a prideful self-credit that rises when prosperity increases. It belongs to a time of fullness when people are fed, housed, and multiplied in flocks, silver, gold and all possessions, and are tempted to have the heart lifted up and forget the Lord. Wealth and the power to obtain it come from God, who gives them to establish His covenant sworn to the fathers, so He must be remembered and honored rather than self credited. What people have is entrusted as talents and stewardship under God's authority to be employed for His glory and the uplifting and benefit of others, in dependence on God and obligation to fellow men. Forgetting God who delivered from bondage, led through the terrible wilderness, and fed with manna to humble and prove for good at the latter end, and turning to walk after other gods in disobedience, brings certain perishing and destruction.
Setting and Warning
The verse forbids saying in the heart that personal power and the might of the hand, strength, wisdom, skill, ability and effort have gained wealth and success. That prideful self-credit arises when prosperity increases, when wealth and possessions are multiplied and people become proud and claim the gain as their own achievement. It denies dependence on God and fails to remember and honor Him as the source, treating blessing as the fruit of human piety and righteousness rather than of His undeserved mercy and lovingkindness.
The saying belongs to a time of fullness, when people eat and are full, dwell in good houses, and have herds and flocks, silver and gold, and all possessions multiplied. In that fullness the heart is lifted up into pride and tempted to forget the Lord. The warning is to remember His care in the wilderness, to observe all His directions, obey His commandments, and serve Him wholeheartedly with gratitude, remembrance, obedience and reverence.
Forgetting means forgetting that God brought Israel out of Egypt from bondage and slavery. It means forgetting that He led through the great and terrible wilderness of fiery serpents and scorpions and drought with no water, brought water from flint rock, and fed with unknown manna. He did this to humble and prove and test them, to do them good at their latter end and for their eventual good. Prosperity therefore depends on strict obedience and on remembering how He delivered, protected, provided for and sustained them.
Forgetting God to walk after other gods and serve and worship them, and to refuse His commands and disobey His voice, brings certain perishing and destruction. It is destruction like that of the nations destroyed before Israel for disobedience. The chapter and its warning are written for admonition for those on whom the ends of the world are come, given to present believers and leaders as verily as to Israel. It is to be read in its full setting with Deuteronomy 1 and 7, teaching surrender of opinion and judgment to be molded after the similitude of Christ rather than following guidance only to the point that agrees with personal judgment, and living not to please self by feeble human standards but by the Lord's standard of perfection of character in self-denial and self-sacrifice.
God verified His word against disobedient Israel when only two adults who left Egypt entered Canaan and the rest died in the wilderness. He will vindicate His word today in the same way if His commandments are forsaken and leaders and people depart from them.
Gift, Duty, and Judgment
Wealth and the power to obtain it come from God, who gives that power to establish the covenant He swore to the fathers, so the heart must remember and honor Him rather than credit personal power and strength for gain. Prosperity tempts the heart to be lifted up and to claim that personal effort, power, and skill produced wealth, forgetting the Lord who delivered and sustained His people. That forgetting ignores His provision and covenant and calls instead for gratitude, remembrance, obedience, and reverence.
Blessings come from undeserved mercy and lovingkindness, not from human piety or righteousness. Nothing can be created or acquired apart from what God provides, and possessions do not belong to people by right. To forget this is to become an unfaithful steward of God's goods.
What is possessed is entrusted as talents under God's authority, to be employed for His glory and the uplifting of humanity and for the benefit and service of others. Wealth carries dependence on God and obligation to fellow men, not ownership for self-glory. Israel's wealth and advantages were meant to serve God and benefit others, but the people claimed them for their own glory and failed to represent Him faithfully.
Refusal to recognize means as entrusted talents and to render to God what is His leads stewards to handle the Lord's money as if it were not His. That same heart attitude shifts appointed responsibility onto children and places means beyond personal control to avoid giving to spread the truth. Prosperity depends on strict obedience, on carefully observing all God's directions, on remembering His wilderness leading and sustaining care, and on serving Him wholeheartedly. Israel became unthankful and selfish, broke His law, and were disloyal despite knowing that obedience was for their happiness and prosperity.
Keeping the commandments is not possible unless Christ removes sin, bears its penalty, and imputes His righteousness to the believing, repentant soul. Self must not be given prominence; God alone is to be magnified. Praise, honor, and glory for success and for the gifts used in it belong to Him, including victory in winning people to Him.
Treating blessings as merely what is deserved, becoming proud and self-dependent, trusting in self, and glorifying human genius, skill, wisdom, and achievement dishonors God and denies Him credit. Such self-exaltation and self-trust can lead to ruin. The love of riches has an infatuating, deceptive power that chokes the seed of the Word with thorns, so that instead of awakening gratitude riches lead to exaltation of self. They then bring loss of the sense of dependence on God and obligation to others, self-serving use of wealth rather than service, and development of the attributes of Satan instead of the attributes of God and godly character.
Giving self the glory instead of acknowledging God brings His testing and judgment. He may bring pride low by removing strength and possessions and taking them away. The danger applies to those entrusted with the physical and spiritual interests of God's afflicted people when they depend on their own skill alone and work from worldly policy, personal interest, and desire to be engaged in a great and popular work. With hearts lifted up they claim success by their own power and take glory to feeble, short-sighted man instead of God.
If that self-exalting spirit is cherished it calls down God's frown, and He leaves such workers to labor under great disadvantage in inferior knowledge, experience, and facilities so they cannot accomplish half as much. By contrast, strong reliance on God for His blessing on the means He provided brings angelic attendance with patients, helpers, and physicians to assist in restoration and gives the glory to God. The warning also applies to relying on one's own judgment, opinion, and ideas rather than submitting to the Lord's guidance. Opinion and judgment must be surrendered to be molded after the similitude of Christ, living not to please self by feeble human standards but by the Lord's standard of perfection of character in self-denial and self-sacrifice.