The danger of thinking, 'It's me! I did it'

In the life of Israel there’s a fascinating progression about how they thought and it’s encapsulated in Deuteronomy 8:17, written at the end of the 40 years in the wilderness after they’re brought out of Egypt.

The verse reads, “And thou say in thine heart, My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth.”

“They’re being told, ‘When you get into the Promised Land you’re going to face the danger of forgetting God because your thinking’s going to have to change,’ ” explains Jordan.

“When they were in Egypt they had a slave mentality. You remember in Exodus 1 they groan under the persecutions there? In a slave mentality you get more things by complaining. You don’t get more by working harder.

“You live in a welfare system where the master’s going to take care of you. He’s going to get your food, clothes and a place to sleep and then you’re going to work for him.

“How are you going to get more out of a welfare state? You don’t get more by working because it don’t get you more. You get more by complaining.

“There’s an old saying. Any time you see long lines you know you’re in a welfare state because there’s a scarcity where people come and complain.

“So Israel starts out with a slave mentality but Deuteronomy 8:14 says, ‘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.’

“They were in bondage, told what to do, when to do, how to do. They’re weren’t asked what would you want to do?

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“When Moses first took them to the Promised Land they weren’t ready to go in. If you remember Exodus 13, he said they didn’t know what they needed to know.

“There’s going to be warfare that has to take place in the Promised Land and they weren’t ready for war so he takes them out into the wilderness, but in the wilderness what does God do for them? Deuteronomy 8:15: ‘Who led thee through that great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought, where there was no water; who brought thee forth water out of the rock of flint.’

“Moses writes, ‘You know what, in the wilderness you had problems and what did God do? He provided a system of miracles to take care of your problems.’

“The next verse reads, ‘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.’

“Where’d manna come from? Manna just showed up every morning. All they had to do was go out and collect it. No big deal. They had the manna, the water, the healing, the deliverance, the guidance. They had the cloud by day and the fire by night and so forth and everything they needed was provided for them.

“Everything they needed was provided for them by God, so they move from the welfare slavery mentality to where they’re free to follow the Lord, but when they have a problem, boom, He comes in and takes care of it.

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“When they finally move into the Promised Land all that changes. It happens in Joshua 5, when they go across the river and come into the land. Joshua 5:12 says, ‘12] And the manna ceased on the morrow after they had eaten of the old corn of the land; neither had the children of Israel manna any more; but they did eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.’

“From that moment on they didn’t get any more miraculously provided food. You know what they had to do? They had to go out and till the ground, grow some crops, take some territory away from some enemies and they had to farm. They had to WORK!

“Why? Look back at Deut. 8: ‘Thou shalt also consider in thine heart, that, as a man chasteneth his son, so the LORD thy God chasteneth thee.
[6] Therefore thou shalt keep the commandments of the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, and to fear him.
[7] For the LORD thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills;
[8] A land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil olive, and honey;
[9] A land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack any thing in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass.
[10] When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the LORD thy God for the good land which he hath given thee.
[11] Beware that thou forget not the LORD thy God, in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and his statutes, which I command thee this day:
[12] Lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein;

 

“Listen, if you’re going to have a house to live in you’re going to have to go build you a house. They never built a house before. They’d been nomads.

“I love that verse where it says they’re going to have to dig brass out of the earth. Think about what that’s saying. If you dig it out of the earth, is digging hard work? Outside of loading hay onto a wagon, I can’t think of any work much worse than digging a hole. And they’re not just digging a hole, they’re digging brass.

“Now, wait a minute. Can you dig brass out of the ground? This is one of the verses where people say, ‘See the Bible’s scientifically inaccurate because brass is an alloy.’

“Look at Job 28, though. Iron is taken out of the earth and brass is molten out of the stone. You see, they understood the science of metallurgy. Brass is copper and zinc amalgamated together.

“When he’s talking about this stuff there’s something vast going on here. There’s a technology being developed out of their study of the earth.

“Now, I don’t know who first thought about melting copper and zinc together but somebody did. ‘Ooh, look what we got!’

“The new bibles call it ‘bronze’ and the reason they do that is bronze is copper and tin put together. In the Middle Ages they were making copper and tin and calling it brass. They discovered, though, that in the ancient world what they were calling brass was copper and zinc so they renamed the copper with an Italian name of ‘bronze.’

“So when you see people say, ‘Well, in the KJV it should be bronze, not brass,’ what you do is yawn real loud and long and wait till they talk about something they know something about.

“The point is, how do you know you can smelt this stuff dug from the earth and produce brass. You understand brass is nicer to look at than iron. It’s easier to make things out of than iron.

“I think about who was the first guy to ever make iron swim. It was Elijah. Did you know you can make iron float? Ships are made of iron. Who ever thought of that? Somebody sat down and had a problem but where did they get the solution? They found the ordinances that God had put into his creation.

“When they go into the Promised Land, God says, ‘Okay, I’m not feeding you anymore, bud. I’m not making your shoes last forever anymore. I’m not sending the pillar of cloud by day and the fire by night to guide you. It’s time for you to go to work.’

“He wasn’t saying, ‘I’m not going to take care of you; you just have to work for a living.’ He was saying, ‘It’s time for you to accomplish my . . . why am I putting you in the land? I’m putting you here to rule it for me and extend my authority.’

“But how’s it going to be done? ‘It’s time for you to dig out the wisdom I put in creation because your responsibility, Israel, is to have dominion, and that doesn’t mean just go in and tell dumb Gentiles what to do. It means to go in there and extract from the creation the wisdom I’ve put there and enhance it so now you can have houses and chairs and tables. And there not just going to be all wooden cobbled things; you’re going to make them real nice because some people are going to have artistic skill . . . ’

“You follow what I’m saying? When they go into the Promised Land they have to get over the welfare mentality of slavery, and the miraculous mentality of provisions in the wilderness, and they got to understand that, ‘Now we’ve graduated to adulthood where we can go work, and through our hard labor and our warfare mine out of creation and cultivate it.’

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“Like I said, the problem they’re going to face is verse 17: ‘And thou say in thine heart, My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth.’

“When you go out and work and you forget God, who do you think produced the result? That’s that problem with ‘the children of the world.’ They thought they did it. That’s what lost men do. That’s what saved men do.

“The mentality is, ‘God’s isn’t miraculously intervening so He must not being doing anything for me. It’s me!’

“The passage ends with, ‘18] But thou shalt remember the LORD thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day.
[19] And it shall be, if thou do at all forget the LORD thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish.
[20] As the nations which the LORD destroyeth before your face, so shall ye perish; because ye would not be obedient unto the voice of the LORD your God.’

“He gave them power to get wealth but by discovering and developing the resources and technology.

“Deuteronomy 4:37 says, ‘And because he loved thy fathers, therefore he chose their seed after them, and brought thee out in his sight with his mighty power out of Egypt.’

“The same word he uses to describe his deliverance of Israel out of Egypt with that mighty miraculous working power is the same word he uses in Deuteronomy 8:18 to describe Him giving them great wealth. It’s still the power of God working; He just isn’t working the miracles, He’s working through their work.

“I’m just trying to say to you that extending the reign of God through His creation has nothing with to do bossing people around, trying to get other people to do things for you, seeking power, status and control. That’s what Gentile power is. For God in His kingdom, for Christ in His program, it’s sonship service.”