Seeing God's Hand

18 January

And shall be, when the LORD thy God shall have brought thee into the and which He sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities, which thou buildest not... then beware lest thou forget the LORD. Deuteronomy 6:10, 12

SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Psalm 78: 52-64

Wealth and prosperity may blind men’s minds so that they do not sufficiently attend to modesty and moderation but rather grow wanton in their lusts and intoxicate themselves with pleasures. So God prescribes against this error. Moses admonishes us to beware lest we forget God when we have been liberally and luxuriously treated by Him because he knows that it is common for abundance to lead to arrogance.

Moses does this, first, by showing how base and unworthy our ingratitude would be if God loaded us with many excellent benefits and we then cast away the recollection of Him. His goodness was inestimable in giving people cities built by hands of others and in transferring to them whatever others had prepared by their great labor and industry. So their impiety was even more detestable in neglecting Him when He daily set Himself before them in this abundant store of blessing.

Let us learn from this passage that we are invited by God’s liberality to honor Him, and that whenever He deals kindly with us, He places His victory before our eyes. On the other hand, we should remember that what ought to be seen as vehicles to lift up our minds on high are, by our own fault, covered into obstacles, and that therefore we ought to be more on guard against them.

John Calvin

FOR MEDITATION: It is logical that great blessings from God’s hand would motivate us to praise Him all the more. Sadly, however, we often take these blessings for granted and no longer recognize our dependence on Him for everything. What blessings do you often take for granted?

365 Days With Calvin

Selected and Edited by Joel R. Beeke