17 Bible Verses About Being Taken for Granted

Isaiah 1:2-3

“‘Hear me, you heavens! Listen, earth! For the LORD has spoken: “I reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against me. The ox knows its master, the donkey its owner’s manger, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.”‘”

Reflection: The prophet calls on the heavens and the earth to listen, “For the LORD has spoken.” In the words that follow, the Lord speaks as a parent who reared children, and the charge is that animals do better than his people: an ox knows who owns it and a donkey knows where it is fed. Verse 4 names what the not-knowing amounts to: “They have forsaken the LORD; they have spurned the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs on him.”

Hosea 11:3-4

“‘It was I who taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by the arms; but they did not realize it was I who healed them. I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love. To them I was like one who lifts a little child to the cheek, and I bent down to feed them.’”

Reflection: Hosea 11 begins, “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son,” and verse 2 adds that the more they were called, the more they went away. Verses 3 and 4 list what the people did not notice: being taught to walk, being healed, being lifted to the cheek and fed. The chapter does not end in rejection; in verse 8 God asks, “How can I give you up, Ephraim?”

Micah 6:3

“‘My people, what have I done to you? How have I burdened you? Answer me.’”

Reflection: Micah 6 is set as a court case: the mountains are called to hear “the LORD’s accusation,” because “the LORD has a case against his people” (6:2). In verse 3 the Lord asks what he has done to burden them and tells them to answer. In verses 4 and 5 he lists what he did: he brought them out of Egypt, sent Moses, Aaron and Miriam, and told them to remember what Balak king of Moab plotted and what Balaam son of Beor answered, “that you may know the righteous acts of the LORD.”

Malachi 1:6

“‘”A son honors his father, and a slave his master. If I am a father, where is the honor due me? If I am a master, where is the respect due me?” says the LORD Almighty.’”

Reflection: The Lord puts the question to the priests: if he is a father and a master, where are the honour and respect owed to him? They had brought him blind, lame and diseased animals for sacrifice (1:7-8). The Lord’s test is plain: “Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you?” Four verses earlier the people had answered his “I have loved you” with “How have you loved us?” (1:2).

Deuteronomy 8:11-14

“‘Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.’”

Reflection: Moses warns that when the people have eaten, built fine houses and seen their herds, silver and gold increase, their hearts will become proud and they will forget the LORD. The verse before says what to do after a meal: “When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you.” Verse 17 puts words in the forgetful person’s mouth, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me,” and verse 18 answers that it is the Lord who “gives you the ability to produce wealth.”

Judges 2:10

“‘After that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation grew up who knew neither the LORD nor what he had done for Israel.’”

Reflection: A generation that had not seen the Lord’s acts grew up after the one that had. The next verses say where that led: the Israelites “served the Baals” and “forsook the LORD, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of Egypt” (2:11-12).

Psalm 106:21

“‘They forgot the God who saved them, who had done great things in Egypt…’”

Reflection: Verse 21 comes in the psalm’s account of the golden calf at Horeb, where the people “exchanged their glorious God for an image of a bull, which eats grass” (106:20). The God they forgot is described by what he had already done: great things in Egypt, miracles in the land of Ham and awesome deeds by the Red Sea.

Matthew 13:57

“‘And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own town and in his own home.”‘”

Reflection: In his hometown synagogue the people were amazed at Jesus’s teaching and then dismissed it because they knew his family: “Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother’s name Mary?” (13:55). Jesus’s reply names where a prophet goes without honour: in his own town and his own home. Verse 58 records the result: “he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith.”

John 1:10-11

“‘He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.’”

Reflection: John’s prologue says the world was made through the Word, yet the world did not recognize him, and “his own,” the people he came to, did not receive him. Verse 12 follows at once: “Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.”

Luke 17:17-18

“‘Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?”‘”

Reflection: Ten men with leprosy called to Jesus on the border between Samaria and Galilee, and all ten were cleansed on their way to the priests. One came back, threw himself at Jesus’s feet and thanked him, “and he was a Samaritan” (17:16). Jesus’s three questions count the missing nine, and his last words go to the one who returned: “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”

Genesis 40:23

“‘The chief cupbearer, however, did not remember Joseph; he forgot him.’”

Reflection: In prison, Joseph interpreted the chief cupbearer’s dream and asked one thing in return: “when all goes well with you, remember me and show me kindness; mention me to Pharaoh” (40:14). The cupbearer was restored to his post and forgot him. Genesis 41:1 dates the next scene “when two full years had passed,” and only when Pharaoh needed a dream explained did the cupbearer say, “Today I am reminded of my shortcomings” (41:9).

1 Samuel 8:7

“‘And the LORD told him: “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king.”‘”

Reflection: Samuel had led Israel from his youth, and when he was old the elders asked for a king, pointing to his age and to his sons, who took bribes (8:1-5). The request displeased Samuel, and the Lord’s answer placed the rejection on himself: “As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you” (8:8). In 1 Samuel 12:3-4 Samuel asks the people whether he ever cheated anyone, and they answer that he did not.

2 Corinthians 12:15

“‘So I will very gladly spend for you everything I have and expend myself as well. If I love you more, will you love me less?’”

Reflection: Paul is about to visit Corinth a third time and refuses to be supported by the church, because “what I want is not your possessions but you” (12:14). He writes as a parent who saves for his children. Just before, he says, “I ought to have been commended by you” (12:11), and asks to be forgiven for never having been a burden to them (12:13).

Luke 6:35

“‘But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.’”

Reflection: Jesus has just said that loving those who love you, and lending where repayment is expected, earns no credit, since “even sinners do that” (6:32-34). He tells his hearers to lend without expecting anything back, and the reason he gives is God’s own practice: God “is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.” The next verse reads, “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”

Galatians 6:9

“‘Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.’”

Reflection: The verse closes Paul’s teaching on sowing and reaping: whoever “sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life” (6:8). The harvest comes “at the proper time,” a time Paul does not name. Verse 6 tells “the one who receives instruction in the word” to “share all good things with their instructor.”

1 Thessalonians 5:12-13

“‘Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to acknowledge those who work hard among you, who care for you in the Lord and who admonish you. Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other.’”

Reflection: Paul asks the church at Thessalonica to acknowledge the people who work hard among them, care for them and admonish them, and to hold them in the highest regard “because of their work.” A few lines later come the words “give thanks in all circumstances” (5:18).

Philippians 2:3-4

“‘Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.’”

Reflection: Paul tells the church to value others above themselves, “not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.” Verse 5 gives the pattern: “In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus,” who took “the very nature of a servant” (2:7).