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(1) Then Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife
and all that he had, and Lot with him, to the South. (2) Abram was very
rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold.
(12) Then Isaac sowed in that land, and reaped in
the same year a hundredfold; and the LORD blessed him. (13) The man began to
prosper, and continued prospering until he became very prosperous; (14) for he
had possessions of flocks and possessions of herds and a great number of
servants. So the Philistines envied him. New
King James Version Change Bible versions
God
blessed both Abram and Isaac.
Obviously, He is not against wealth, as if it were some kind of evil burden
imposed upon sinners. Wealth, however, brings trials just as surely as it brings
blessings. We must not forget that Jesus warns that it is more difficult
for a rich person to enter the Kingdom
of God than for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle (Matthew 19:24).
Wealth presents temptations, and they are not always easily handled.
One major difficulty is that wealth tends to pave the way for a person to
destroy himself spiritually through the destruction of his faith
in God. This happens because the wealthy person has the tendency to place his
trust in his wealth rather than in God (Matthew 19:20-22). A second major
problem is that wealth tends to promote pride
because of a person's excessive self-admiration over being astute enough to
accumulate it. Scripture reminds us, though, that God responds to the humble
(Isaiah 66:2). Thus, the Bible's overall warning is that, in the unwary, wealth
can subtly create division between its owner and God through misplaced
trust.
Hebrews 11:36-38 presents us with another view of the picture regarding God
and wealth:
Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and
imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain
with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being
destitute, afflicted, tormented—of whom the
world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and
caves of the earth.
By comparing this record with God's enriching of Abraham and Isaac, we learn
that God deals with those He calls according to His purpose, that is, according
to what He desires to accomplish through or in them. The Jews of Christ's time
generally believed that, if someone was prosperous, it was evidence that he was
a good person and God was blessing him. However, that may or may not be true.
The record of Scripture shows that many evil people become wealthy, and Solomon
makes note of this in Ecclesiastes.
The other side of the coin is that some people believe that, if a person is
virtually destitute, he must be hiding a sin.
We must learn to be careful in our judgment because neither blessing nor curse
provides always-true evidence of the person's spiritual condition. To ensure our
standing before God, we must diligently pursue His righteousness by carrying out
our Christian responsibilities in the hope
that God in His mercy
might see fit to bless us with spiritual wealth.
— John W. Ritenbaugh
To learn more, see:
Ecclesiastes and Christian Living (Part Two):
Works
Related Topics:
Denying Ourselves
Ecclesiastes and Christian Living
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