1 Kings 16:1-6: in context

The word of the LORD comes against Baasha, king of Israel, with a reminder of where he came from. Because I exalted you out of the dust and made you prince over my people Israel, God says, and you have walked in the way of Jeroboam and made my people sin, I will sweep away your house. Baasha had been raised up by God from lowly beginnings to the throne; and rather than serving the God who exalted him, he walked in the sinful ways of the king before him, forgetting the one to whom he owed everything.

The charge against Baasha turns on a bitter ingratitude: I exalted you out of the dust, and you have walked in sin. God had raised him from lowly beginnings, given him the throne, lifted him up; and Baasha repaid this by turning from God to the very sins that had destroyed the house he replaced. He forgot the God who had exalted him, and lived as though he owed him nothing. The one who had lifted Baasha from the dust was forgotten, and dishonored, by the one he had raised. This is a sin we are all prone to: forgetting the God who has raised and blessed us. When God lifts us up, gives us good things, blesses us with what we did not earn, there is a danger that we forget him, that we take the gifts and forget the giver, that we live as though we owe him nothing, turning our blessings into occasions for pride or independence rather than gratitude. Take care, Moses warns, lest when you are full and prosperous, your heart is lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God who brought you out. When they were fed, God says through Hosea, they were satisfied, and their heart was lifted up; therefore they forgot me. Prosperity and blessing can breed the very ingratitude that forgets the God who gave them. This searches our own hearts toward the God who has blessed us. Whatever we have, whatever we have been raised to, whatever good we enjoy, we owe to God, who lifted us from the dust. And the question is whether we remember and honor him for it, living in gratitude to the one who exalted us, or whether we forget him, taking his gifts while forgetting the giver, living as though we owed him nothing. Baasha was raised from the dust by God and forgot him, and was judged for it. And we are warned against the same ingratitude: to remember the God who has raised and blessed us, to honor him as the giver of all we have, and to serve him in gratitude rather than forgetting him in our prosperity. Bless the LORD, the psalmist says, and forget not all his benefits. The God who lifted us from the dust is to be remembered and honored, not forgotten; and gratitude to the giver, not forgetfulness, is the response our blessings should call forth.

When God raises and blesses me, giving me good things I did not earn, do I remember and honor him as the giver, living in gratitude, or do I take the gifts while forgetting the giver, living as though I owed him nothing, and can the charge against Baasha, whom God exalted out of the dust and who repaid him by forgetting him and walking in sin, warn me against the ingratitude that prosperity breeds, moving me to remember and honor the God to whom I owe all I have?