“Beware the good times.” I know—could there be a more curmudgeonly statement from a Christian? But the message doesn’t come from me. It comes from Deuteronomy 8. Moses is offering his final guidance to the Israelites as he sees the end of his life drawing near, sure as the sunrise. Look at what he tells the people:

Take care lest you forget the LORD your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock, who fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end. Beware lest you say in your heart, “My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.” You shall remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day (Deuteronomy 8:11–18, ESV).

Moses’s message is simple: Beware the good times. He’s looking ahead to the Israelites’ entrance into the Promised Land, a land “flowing with milk and honey” (Exodus 3:8, ESV). The Israelites up to this point have walked a hard road—hunger, thirst, threats of military violence, plagues. Their rebellion and sin, of course, contributed to that hard road. But Moses is telling them that things are going to get better, and that’s when they need to be careful.

The Logic

The Holy Spirit, speaking through Moses, knows how we work. In hard times, we might desperately cling to God. When suffering weighs us down, we’re more likely to be fully aware of His providence and our own weakness. As J. I. Packer wrote in Knowing God, God fills our lives with troubles “to ensure that we shall learn to hold him fast. The reason why the Bible spends so much of its time reiterating that God is a strong rock, a firm defense, and a sure refuge and help for the weak is that God spends so much of his time bringing home to us that we are weak, both mentally and morally, and dare not trust ourselves to find, or to follow, the right road.”¹ When do we tend to trust ourselves to find and follow the right road? When things are going well. 

That’s where we find Moses’s beware . With full bellies, strong houses, and myriad possessions, our hearts are tempted to “lift up.” That might sound like a good thing, but it’s not. Biblically speaking, a heart that is “lifted up” is a proud heart, an ambitious heart. David says in Psalm 131:1, “O LORD , my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me” (ESV). A heart lifted up is a heart drifting from dependence on God. And so Moses warns the people: “Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth’” (Deuteronomy 8:17, ESV). Beware the good times.

Enjoying Blessings

This isn’t a call to mope your way through life and never enjoy the blessings God puts in your path. Good gifts reflect the Good Shepherd, and we should celebrate and rejoice in them for His sake. Moses is not telling the people never to enjoy abundance. He is giving them a heart warning, a spiritual caution to carry with them: “When things go well, we tend to drift.” More specifically, when things are going well, we tend to believe that we are responsible for it. We embrace what theologians call “autonomy”—self-governance. We act like kings and queens of our own fortune. Autonomy saps our souls of what we need most: dependence on God. Autonomy only ever leads to idolatry and death. We were made for dependence and holy help.

So what should we do when blessings come, when we feel at rest, when abundance rains down on our little lives? Simply remember the Lord. “You shall remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day” (Deuteronomy 8:18, ESV). For God’s people, remembrance is the mainstay of spiritual vitality. We live healthy spiritual lives only when we are fully aware of God’s provision and grace. Ultimately, we enjoy good things because of the faithfulness of God, not because we’re hard working or dedicated or morally upright. Blessings are not merit badges; they are beams of God’s faithfulness that break through the clouds of our doubt. When the light hits us, we worship. We don’t boast of the strategies we used to attract the sunshine.

I hope and pray that you enjoy blessings today—especially the spiritual blessings of Christ (Ephesians 1:3). Those are the blessings that make you truly rich. But if you happen to enjoy earthly blessings, too, then I pray you will remember. Remember your smallness and fragility. Remember your wandering and brokenness. And remember the God who loves you so much that He gave His own Son to welcome you into eternal life with Himself.

Beware the good times, and keep God in constant remembrance.

Notes

Packer, Knowing God, 320.

Author Bio:

Pierce Taylor Hibbs is Senior Writer and Communication Specialist at Westminster Theological Seminary. He is the author of more than twenty books, including Struck Down but Not Destroyed, The Book of Giving, One with God, and Our Hope Is in Help. He and his wife, Christina, live in Pennsylvania with their three kids, Isaac, Nora, and Heidi. Learn more about his work at piercetaylorhibbs.com.

Additional Resources:

Grace in the Wilderness | 1 Peter Bible Study		How to be Grateful in Every Season		Peaks and Valleys | A Study on the Life of David
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