Biblical Prosperity

The entire book of Job is about a brief season in his life. Although the Bible doesn’t specifically say, most Bible scholars believe the whole book covers a time span of between three and eighteen months. In the first few chapters, it talks about the day his cattle and servants were lost. While he was still listening to that report another messenger came in stating his sheep were lost and the shepherds killed. And while he was listening to the sheep report, another messenger came and told him his camels were lost. Finally, while Job was listening to the camel report another messenger came and informed Job that his sons and daughters had been killed. All of this in the same day! And we think we have had some bad days?

His situation grew even worse. The next day, Job himself was physically attacked with sickness. All of this transpired in only two days. I am following the timeline of Job’s losses day by day to underline my point that the time of testing for him was a relatively short period of his life, and it affected more than his finances.

If we look at the end of Job it states that he lived 140 years enjoying the blessings of God in every way. The Bible teaches that Job lived most of his life full of prosperity and God’s financial provision. Perhaps this is a new way of looking at this Biblical story for you. Actually looking at the scripture will help us to see this point more clearly.

After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord made him prosperous again and gave him twice as much as he had before. All his brothers and sisters and everyone who had known him before came and ate with him in his house. They comforted and consoled him over all the trouble the Lord had brought upon him, and each one gave him a piece of silver and a gold ring. The Lord blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the first. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand donkeys. And he also had seven sons and three daughters. The first daughter he named Jemimah, the second Keziah and the third Keren-Happuch. Nowhere in all the land were there found women as beautiful as Job’s daughters, and their father granted them an inheritance along with their brothers. After this, Job lived a hundred and forty years; he saw his children and their children to the fourth generation. And so he died, old and full of years (Job 42:10-17).

Notice Job did not experience 140 years of having boils, poverty, despair and everything going wrong. No, it was a short season of his life in which he learned many valuable lessons. Job’s story allows the Christian today to learn many theological and doctrinal lessons about the nature and character of God. His actual time of testing was much like the occasional drought that causes the birds of the air to experience insufficient food supplies. The practical example of Job’s perseverance is one we can all honor and duplicate. More to come…

Let’s look at the book of Job in context. It is about a season of suffering and dryness in Job’s life. The lessons in Job are extremely valuable and the Bible would be incomplete without it. There are dry seasons when God is doing something in our lives to make our roots grow deeper into Him, and we need to discern and persevere our way through these times of drought. Many times pastors and spiritual leaders will help us through these tough, dry times. Just like the birds of the air suffer lack of food during an occasional drought, Christians also experience seasons of lack in their lives. But as we will see from examining Job’s experience, the general pattern of God’s heart for provision is one of abundance.

In the beginning of the book of Job, it is important to point out that God blessed Job with many financial and material blessings. It was only after the devil came on the scene that God’s blessings were interrupted. It was when Job was under the attack of the devil that he was poor, sick and experiencing calamity. This is what the Bible teaches us. Sometimes, Christians get confused about this and think Job is teaching we should be poor and sick. Just the opposite is true. The book of Job is the story of how a man overcame the attack of the devil and what he learned in the process. More to come…

Last week we read about God’s provision for the birds of the air in Matthew 6, but there is more. Let’s keep reading.

And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?” For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own (Matthew 6:28-34).

Do you think that Solomon had enough of clothes to wear as the king of Israel? In 1 Kings 10:14 it states that King Solomon’s income was about 250 tons of gold per year. (You can look it up.) What is the present dollar value of an ounce of gold? It is somewhere around $1,068 an ounce at the time of this writing. (You can do the math.)

If Solomon measured his income in tons of gold per year, it would appear like the King had more than enough financial capacity to provide more than enough clothing! When Solomon went out to battle, he might not have had his whole wardrobe available but it was only for a short time; he generally had more than enough clothes.

Jesus is talking about physical, natural provision here in Matthew 6. He did not use John the Baptist, who only had camel’s hair to wear, as His example. He could have, but instead He used Solomon as an example.

Perhaps you noticed  as we were looking at the scriptures from the Old Testament regarding prosperity, we did not look at the book of Job. While this is true, it may not be for the reasons you might think. There are many valuable lessons in this book of the Bible. In the upcoming blogs we will now take a careful look at Job, but let’s start first in Matthew chapter six. The lesson here is on worry—worry versus faith.

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? (Matthew 6:25-27).

Let’s briefly focus on the birds of the air. Do they have enough to eat? If you think about it in the natural, physical sense, you would have to answer, “Yes they do.” Generally, birds have more than enough to eat. They have all the seeds, bugs, worms and whatever else they need to be well nourished and survive. The only exception is during occasional seasons of drought when there may be a shortage of food. This is the same pattern we find in Job’s life. The time we read about in the book of Job was a short season of his life but the overall pattern was many years of abundance and blessing. More to come…

If you are not convinced this truth of Biblical Prosperity is found throughout the whole Bible, how about a scripture in the New Testament that states the blessings of Abraham are for the believers of the New Covenant.

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.” He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit (Galatians 3:13-14).

There it is. By faith the blessings given to Abraham are available to both the Jew and the Gentile and also the promise of the Holy Spirit right now as New Testament Christians.

Through Christ, we become heirs of Abraham’s blessing. So when God revealed himself to Abraham as El Shaddai, the God of more than enough, this is transferred to believers today. All of the promises of blessing from the Old Testament and the promise of the Holy Spirit are for those who believe, those who are Christians. The Holy Spirit is our teacher. He teaches us to prosper.

We get a total picture of God’s heart for us in these scriptures. The church is the seed of Abraham. It is still true today—this is the Father’s heart for prosperity and blessings for His children. It is Biblical. It is practical. It is true. It is for the Christian today.

Paul himself never seemed to suffer lack in his finances. He always traveled in the most modern form of transportation that was available in his day. It is never recorded in scripture that Paul could not get a boat to the next town because he did not have enough money. The biblical record shows that the Lord directed him to go, and he went. He had the prosperity and the resources that were needed for him to obey God. It was just like Noah, who had the resources he needed to obey God when he was instructed to build the ark. Most people today would call Noah independently wealthy.

But back to Paul…the Biblical account in Acts 24:26 says that the governor Felix sent for Paul frequently and talked with him, hoping that Paul would offer a bribe. Why would the governor Felix, a wealthy man, think that Paul would offer him a bribe? Could it be that Paul had the funds needed for ministry and enough to offer a bribe large enough to impress  a wealthy governmental ruler like Felix? I think so.

In 2 Corinthians chapter nine, as Paul is writing to the Corinthians about finances, he quotes from the Old Testament in  Psalm 112:9 where the biblical context is talking about the good and righteous man.

As it is written: “He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor; his righteousness endures forever.”

Amazing. Herein he is stating that the good and righteous man is one who is generous. He goes on to say God will provide “seed to the sower”.

Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion…” 2 Corinthians 9:10-11 

The term “rich” here refers to material goods. God will add to the one who is generously giving of what they have, lavishly spreading seed in all directions. They get more seed. However, the stingy one who is trying to hold on, hoard and preserve what they have will not receive more seed. Proverbs states it another way…the man who refreshes others is refreshed himself.

A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed. Proverbs 25:11

So that is practical, biblical Christian finances right there. Paul breaks it down for us. Guess what? This generous, good and righteous man can also be a  woman! As we know Jesus had wealthy women traveling with him (Luke 8:3).

The apostle Paul did not shrink back from teaching on finances. He wrote the following instructions to the church at Corinth.

So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to visit you in advance and finish the arrangements for the generous gift you had promised. Then it will be ready as a generous gift, not as one grudgingly given. Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. As it is written: “He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor; his righteousness endures forever.” Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God (2 Corinthians 9:5-11).

There is a lot of financial truth for us in this passage of scripture. Let’s take a careful look at the content of verse eight, “God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.” Having all that you need sounds like having your needs met and abounding in every good work sounds like giving to others after your needs are met. Combining these two thoughts gives us another biblical example of God’s desire to bless us with more than enough. To say these scriptures are not referring to money, as some have done, is blatantly taking this passage out of context.

We are blessed to be a blessing. We find this idea underlined in Psalm 49. For those of us with a poverty mindset, our thoughts will automatically apply this scripture to wealthy non-Christians. We don’t see ourselves as growing rich, and we would likely be “awed” if it happened. Let’s read.

  Do not be overawed when a man grows rich, when the splendor of his house increases; for he will take nothing with him when he dies, his splendor will not descend with him….A man who has riches without understanding is like the beasts that perish (Psalm 49:16-17, 20).

While this is certainly true for non-Christians, if it is a biblical truth, it should apply to all people, including Christians. We should expect God to bless us financially, but we must understand why He is blessing us. It is for His kingdom. It is to use! Unlike the rich man in Jesus’ parable, King David knew the purpose of his abundance. He was experiencing an abundant level of provision from the Lord, but he knew it was not just for him.

After David was settled in his palace, he said to Nathan the prophet, “Here I am, living in a palace of cedar, while the ark of the covenant of the Lord is under a tent” (1 Chronicles 17:1).

David knew there was something that wasn’t right about this situation. He found that he was provided for, but God’s work was not. He saw his personal house was prosperous, but the Lord’s house was desolate. He knew inherently in his heart that this was not acceptable. He knew there was a reason for his prosperity.

We have already discussed how we should pray and believe for more than enough finances and then ask God what to do with the surplus. Luke records Jesus sharing a parable of a man that didn’t know what to do with the more than enough that God had provided for him. Let’s read that story.

And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’

“But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ “This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God” (Luke 12:16-21).

In this parable Jesus never rebuked the man for having more than enough. In fact he gave no indication that this would not be the normal pattern. He was teaching about what to do with the surplus that God so graciously provides for us. The rich man in the parable moved right out of living the life of faith and giving and moved into self-preservation, materialism and greed. He didn’t realize that it was prosperity with a purpose. He did not realize there was a reason for the surplus he was experiencing.

Remember, giving is the very thing that breaks the power of money as an idol in our lives. So, by hoarding it, the rich man actually was empowering money to become a god in his life. He had no knowledge of what to do with the more than enough.