The Two-Hundred-Forty-Ninth (Prosperity)

This week, we’re going to talk about a sort of taboo subject in the realm of Christianity…at least taboo in some circles.  There are certainly some preachers that proclaim a “prosperity gospel,” which we mentioned a couple months ago, but while those messengers seem to be growing in number, they are still in the relative minority.  In general, you don't hear sermons that talk about wealth or riches in the believer’s life.

Now, don’t expect this week’s study to be an endorsement of the prosperity gospel.  As mentioned a couple months ago, the majority of the time, I believe that message is a message from Satan meant to send people down the wrong path.  Also as mentioned, that is a message for the “milk” believers, which is who those prosperity preachers largely cater to; the folks that do their one day a week churchgoing and mentally check off “maintain salvation” in their list of things to do that week (you know, unless there’s a child’s sports game or some other conflict that comes up).  

By the way, as a bit of a side road, I’ve mentioned before that I’m reading through scripture from the beginning chronologically and I came upon something interesting today.  I’ve had conversations with believers previously that like to draw more distinction between Israel and followers of Yeshua than there is, and one of the justifications they provide is that while there were outsiders, Gentiles, that joined the Israelites in their exodus from Egypt, there was a clear delineation between which commandments they were to follow compared to which ones the Israelites were to follow.  However, in my reading today, I found that was not actually the case.  YHWH actually told them that the foreigner with them will have the same law and ordinance as them multiple times (Numbers 15:14-16, 26, 29-30).  I just leave that there for your consideration as we hop back on the main road for this week.

No, I don’t endorse a prosperity gospel, but I do believe a message that YHWH and Yeshua want you to be prosperous.  I do not believe Their intention is that we all have to live in squalor all our lives as some sort of proof that we’re true believers.  That message is nowhere in scripture, yet it seems either through a lack of messaging or through implications given in messages that this is the thing we’re expected to do as believers.  In fact, the message in scripture is quite the opposite.

The first thing to understand is that prosperity is not just related to money.  Some misunderstand this to be the case, since prosperity is most often connected with things like gold and silver, or currency in general.  However, prosperity simply means abundance, and the term is general to essentially anything you consider good in life.  It could mean money, it could mean food, it could mean happiness, health, quality of life…shelter!  Anything, really.

When you read through Revelation (I know, kind of a weird place to find this topic!), you find that Yeshua, through His sinlessness and sacrifice, is worthy to receive seven things (Revelation 5:12).  One of these things is translated to riches, or wealth, but the Greek word is ploutos, which means possessions of many kinds, not just currency like gold or silver.  Obviously, prosperity is something that is at least important enough for not only Yeshua to receive but also for it to be mentioned amongst all the things He is worthy to receive in conjunction with His sacrifice.  In other words, just because He is the Son of YHWH doesn’t mean He is above getting prosperity, and to follow onto that, do you think He desires to hold on to all those riches for Himself?  

We’ll get more into that specific aspect of this topic shortly, but first, we have to recognize what the various mediums of prosperity mean to the Father, YHWH.  We find many references to this in the Old Testament, and through those references we can see that while YHWH has no use for physical prosperity, because He is Spirit (John 4:24), He doesn’t hesitate to claim ownership of the things that give man physical prosperity, like gold and silver.  Not only did He have the tabernacle, and subsequently both temples, adorned with precious metal (Exodus 38:24-31), He outright stated that gold and silver are His (Haggai 2:8).  In terms of prosperity of food, while the Israelites were in the wilderness, He provided them so much quail they couldn’t even eat it all (Numbers 11:18-20).  No, He has no personal use for physical prosperity, but He certainly uses it for a purpose in man’s life.  By the way, when you look at the numbers for the worth of the metals in the tabernacle in today’s dollars it is about $107.4M in gold, $399k in silver, and about $13k in bronze (keep in mind this is actual precious metals, not just imaginary paper money dollars like we have today!).

Last week, we mentioned how Yeshua called out the Pharisees and scribes for their focus on worldly things like temple treasures rather than the eternal spiritual things they should have focused on.  Here we can see that YHWH uses these physical things to do things like demonstrate His glory and power, His dominion over all creation.  All these treasures used in the tabernacle and temple for ceremonial purposes were largely untouched by the world.  Despite the worldly worth of it all, the enemies of the Israelites were never able to plunder it unless the Israelites had transgressed YHWH and come under His judgment, which ended up happening multiple times.  Most recently, in 70AD, the temple was plundered and destroyed by the Roman army, and since then it has never been rebuilt and restored to its former glory.  

The truth is, one of the purposes of the Son of YHWH coming to earth, becoming a man, and being sacrificed for our sins was for us to have the opportunity to be rich.  Don’t believe me?  You don’t have to, but you should believe Paul when he said just that (2 Corinthians 8:9).  Make sure you read the context of his statement as well, because he is certainly not talking about spiritual wealth.  He was commending the Macedonian church for their giving of physical wealth while urging the Corinthian church to be just as generous.

This brings out two important points.  First, prosperity is used in YHWH’s plans to work His will on earth.  Whether it be feeding the hungry or giving the homeless a place to live, the ability to do these things requires some measure of wealth.  Second, physical prosperity and spiritual prosperity are both a part of a believer’s life, not just the spiritual prosperity alone.  

Many like to quote Yeshua's statement about serving two masters, YHWH and money (Matthew 6:24), or His statement about not storing up earthly treasures (Matthew 6:19-21), to show that believers shouldn’t be wealthy (or at least explain why they aren’t) but that is an incorrectly skewed view of this topic.  When you look at prosperity in scripture holistically, you find a completely different view.

Not only did Yeshua give parables that literally talked about being faithful with money (Matthew 25:14-30, Luke 19:11-26), He talked about being generous with what money you have (Mark 12:41-44), and even the fact that being entrusted with true, spiritual, eternal riches is contingent upon being trustworthy with worldly wealth (Luke 16:10-11).  If believers are not meant to have worldly wealth, why would Yeshua say such a thing?!

To be perfectly clear, yes, I do believe that those parables involving money are not just about money.  I believe Yeshua was using money as a representation of any type of prosperity rather than His message being specifically about worldly currency.  I believe He was even talking about the gifts we receive from the Holy Spirit.  We looked at that previously…a long time ago!

However, even more, Yeshua and other New Testament writers talked about the dangers of prosperity.  Yeshua said wealth can be deceitful, choking out the truth of the Word (Matthew 13:22), and to be on guard against all forms of greed (Luke 12:15).  Paul wrote about not putting hope in wealth (1 Timothy 6:17), and in Revelation the church in Laodicea is rebuked for counting themselves without need based on their physical wealth (Revelation 3:17).

It's easy to rest comfortably in prosperity, but that brings us to the fundamental truth of the matter.  The righteous, holy attitude we need to have, that is commensurate with our status as believers, is one of as sort of indifference to whatever form of prosperity we are blessed with.  We aren’t to be arrogant because of wealth (1 Timothy 6:17), we are to be humble.  We are to be generous, but we are also to be faithful and not frivolous.  We must not store it up, but we also must not just give it away without thought.  

To put it plainly, we must look at whatever the aspect of our lives is that we count as prosperous for what it is.  Whatever it is, it’s not ours, and we should not change how we live or act based on it.  YHWH has entrusted us with it, but we are not the ultimate owners of it.  Just like the talents and the minas given by the master, when He returns we return to Him whatever He entrusted us with.  Yes, He gives us things for us to personally use (Luke 16:12), we are not supposed to just give away everything we’re given, but we are not blessed with that personal wealth unless we’re faithful with His wealth given for His purposes.

It's all well and good to realize that we’re not supposed to have to live in poverty, but how do we get to that status of prosperity?  How are we to be faithful with what He gives us?  I believe it all comes down to how the Holy Spirit moves us.  

Once again, a long time ago, we looked at the topic of tithing.  Based on what we saw in scripture, the typical ten percent tithe is not commanded of believers today.  That might be a good place to start, if you don’t feel moved differently, but it doesn’t say anywhere that believers have to give ten percent.  

We alluded to the first tithe, given by Abraham without him being commanded, after he returned from rescuing Lot by engaging Lot's captors in battle (Genesis 14:20), but what we didn’t mention was Jacob following suit.  Again, this is before any of YHWH’s commandments given to Moses regarding tithing.  After being given a dream about a ladder, where he was given the promise that he would be blessed similar to his grandfather, Abraham, without being prompted or commanded he vowed to give YHWH a tenth of what YHWH gave him (Genesis 28:20-22).  We see later on that he was certainly blessed, even beyond what he felt worthy to receive (Genesis 32:10).  

These tithes were given out of love towards YHWH, and our giving should be the same.  Recognizing that all of what we have is His anyway, we should be willing to give whatever the Holy Spirit leads us to give, whether it’s a tenth or even a half!  Something very interesting that you’ll find in the account of the construction of the tabernacle is that even with all the commandments given to the Israelites, YHWH did not command them to give in order to make the tabernacle (Exodus 25:2-7).  He only desired whatever was given based on someone’s heart rather than because of a commandment.    

That’s all He wants in general, in fact.  He wants us to serve Him out of love, and give to Him out of love.  Paul even stated outright that we shouldn’t give out of regret or compulsion, but out of cheerfulness because it’s what we desire to do (2 Corinthians 9:7).  Once we get to that point, once we are cheerfully giving whatever He has given us, in whatever amount, that’s when we have reached the point of being faithful in what we are given, and that’s the point at which He will reward with prosperity.  Because that’s the point at which He knows whatever He gives us will be used for Him and His will.

So yes, believers are allowed to be prosperous!  We’re even told to leave an inheritance to our grandchildren (Proverbs 13:22).  We must recognize where our prosperity is coming from however, and be open to how the Holy Spirit moves us to use that prosperity for His Kingdom.  Don’t cling to the physical prosperity, but use it to minister to others and spread the gospel (Luke 16:9).  And if you need to in order to help motivate you to give, keep in mind that YHWH does not like to be robbed! (Malachi 3:8-9)

Shabbat shalom and YHWH bless you!

-Rob and Sara Gene