A couple of years ago, to celebrate our anniversary I planned a night out with Anna, my wife. I wanted to make the night special, so I did my research and even made up a running sheet for the evening. We were to catch a ferry from Balmain into the city for drinks overlooking the harbour. After that, a ferry trip over to Milsons Point for dinner at a posh restaurant, followed by a walk down to Luna Park for a romantic ride on the Ferris wheel. But something went wrong. I had looked at the wrong timetable. We were late for dinner and would probably miss the Ferris wheel. I started to pace up and down, studying my run sheet. I was walking off quickly in front of Anna, crossing busy roads with Anna left on the other side. It got to such a point that Anna stopped me and said, “You do know Clayton that this night is about us and not keeping to a schedule.”
In all the good things I had planned, I had forgotten the one I love. Sometimes we become so focused and so enthralled in all the good things in life we forget about the one you love. Even good things can steal your heart away. They can overwhelm our minds and lead our hearts astray. This is the danger that God’s people, Israel, are threatened with as they prepare to enter the land that God had promised them generations ago. In Deuteronomy chapter six, Moses gathers his people around him and warns them:
10 When the Lord your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you – a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build, 11 houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant – then when you eat and are satisfied, 12 be careful that you do not forget the Lord, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
The warning is not about the enemies they will face or the battles they will fight. It’s not about the hardships or the disappointments they will face. The warning is about something that is much more dangerous and insidious than that. He warns them that their future is going to be filled with an abundance of good things. The danger is not the things that will go wrong but the things that will go right. It sounds strange doesn’t it. You see the great danger is that they will fall in love with the things they have been given and forget the one who gave it to them.
So, what is the remedy? Moses tells the people that if they want their future to go well, they will have to look back to the past. He tells them in verse 12 to look back and remember how God recued them from Egypt. Remember what he saved them from.
We have something even more amazing to look back on – an even greater rescue of Jesus dying in our place, rescuing us from sin and death. We are to look back and remember that we have been rescued for a relationship. Rescued so that we can know him and be loved by him so that we can live for him. We are to look back so that the good gifts will not blind us to the one who provides them.