Deuteronomio 8:11

"Beware lest thou forget Jehovah thy God, in not keeping his commandments, and his ordinances, and his statutes, which I command thee this day: lest, when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein; and when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied; then thy heart be lifted up, and thou forget Jehovah thy God, who brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage; and who led thee through the great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents and scorpions, and thirsty ground where was no water; who brought thee forth water out of the rock of flint; who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers knew not; that he might humble thee, and that he might prove thee, to do thee good at thy latter end."

"Beware lest thou forget Jehovah thy God ..." (Deuteronomy 8:11). (See under Deuteronomy 6:12 for discussion of this warning, a warning which occurs several times in Deuteronomy. The warning in this paragraph is, "that luxury and ease could blunt the edge of Israel's awareness of God.[19] "Wealth is likely to engender in the possessor a spirit of self-gratulations and pride."[20]

Concerning wealth which is very much in view here, the Saviour himself called it wicked. "Make unto yourselves friends, using Mammon, wicked as it is, that when you fail, they may receive you into the eternal habitations" (Luke 16:9). Moffatt rendered this verse: "Use mammon, dishonest as it is, to make friends for yourselves, so that when you die, they may welcome you to the eternal abodes." The teaching leaves no doubt of the wickedness of wealth. What is the meaning of this? It cannot mean that the people who are wealthy came into it by dishonest or unrighteous means. It does not even mean that people with money are wicked. Why is wealth dishonest and wicked?.

1. It tempts us to believe that it belongs to us, whereas we are merely stewards, and that for only a little while.

2. It strongly tempts us to trust in riches.

3. It promises the owner happiness, but it is a lie.

4. It promises to solve every problem, but instead it becomes a greater problem than any it can solve.

5. It estranges him from earthly friends.

6. It surrounds him with false friends.

7. It is a constant hazard to spirituality.

"To do thee good at thy latter end ..." (Deuteronomy 8:16). The object of all of God requirements for his human children is their welfare. "Thy latter end" here is not a reference to the life after death, but "to that state of existence which Israel contemplated upon the termination of their period of discipline and hardship."[21]

What is actually wrong with the human pride that so readily follows prosperity and wealth? Wright observed that such pride is "terrible and insidious, because it flouts the plainest facts and asserts the virtual deity of self!"[22] It results in the old failure of Adam's race, the deification of self, or man worshipping himself, in other words, humanism. Then again, "One cannot forget God and maintain an objective neutrality. Forgetting means that lesser gods will be worshipped."[23]