Judges 17. The first appendix: What is God's prosperity?

Title: Judges 17. The first appendix: What is God's prosperity?

 

Psa 25:12 Who is the man who fears the Lord?

He will instruct him in the way he should choose.

 

Psa 25:13 His soul will abide in prosperity,

 

A prosperous soul will enjoy material prosperity as well, in the material that God has chosen to bless them with; a little or a lot.

 

There is a prosperity of the wicked, that to the untrained eye may look like the prosperity of the righteous.

 

Psa 73:1 Surely God is good to Israel,

To those who are pure in heart!

 

Lam 4:1 How dark the gold has become,

How the pure gold has changed!

The sacred stones are poured out

At the corner of every street.

 

Lam 4:2 The precious sons of Zion,

Weighed against fine gold,

How they are regarded as earthen jars,

 

"Pure in heart" is a phrase that has been used enough that its true meaning is often not thought of.

 

Pure is the word for clean, and it refers to a heart that seeks after the things of God by receiving His grace and loving His way.

"Pure in heart" is a phrase that has been used enough that its true meaning is often not thought of.

 

Pure is the word for clean, and it refers to a heart that seeks after the things of God by receiving His grace and loving His way.

 

Israel had sought after idols and false gods for so long that Jeremiah describes them as pure gold, which is what they should have been with God as their King, that has become changed to a dark substance.

 

Psa 73:1 Surely God is good to Israel,

To those who are pure in heart!

 

Psa 73:2 But as for me, my feet came close to stumbling;

My steps had almost slipped.

 

Psa 73:3 For I was envious of the arrogant,

As I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

 

…

Psa 73:16 When I pondered to understand this,

It was troublesome in my sight

 

Psa 73:17 Until I came into the sanctuary of God;

Then I perceived their end.

 

The prosperity spoken of can be seen. The ascetic then solves this issue by renouncing all visible prosperity, but this is not the solution because it still does not add true prosperity to its rightful place.

 

Psa 73:18 Surely Thou dost set them in slippery places;

Thou dost cast them down to destruction.

 

Psa 73:19 How they are destroyed in a moment!

They are utterly swept away by sudden terrors!

 

Psa 73:20 Like a dream when one awakes, O Lord, when aroused,

Thou wilt despise their form.

 

Do we get peace by knowing the wicked will one day be judged and be swept away by sudden terrors? We don’t laugh over their graves. In love, we are to think as God thinks; desiring all men to be saved.

 

The peace comes to us from knowing that those who have denied God do not actually possess prosperity, though they possess much, and so no, we have not gone wrong in worshipping God.

 

Psa 73:21 When my heart was embittered,

And I was pierced within,

 

Psa 73:22 Then I was senseless and ignorant;

I was like a beast before Thee.

 

Psa 73:23 Nevertheless I am continually with Thee;

Thou hast taken hold of my right hand.

 

Taking hold of the hand is an idiom for leading a child in the way. God has walked with His child and instructed him, even though he was behaving senselessly, like a beast.

 

Psa 73:24 With Thy counsel Thou wilt guide me,

And afterward receive me to glory.

 

Psa 73:25 Whom have I in heaven but Thee?

And besides Thee, I desire nothing on earth.

 

Verse 25 is true prosperity.

 

Psa 73:26 My flesh and my heart may fail,

But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

 

Psa 73:27 For, behold, those who are far from Thee will perish;

Thou hast destroyed all those who are unfaithful to Thee.

 

Psa 73:28 But as for me, the nearness of God is my good;

I have made the Lord God my refuge,

That I may tell of all Thy works.

 

Prosperity is not a subtraction but an addition. The solution is not asceticism, but to add to the soul the way of God through faith.

 

The solution is not to deny leisure, entertainment, materials, etc. The solution is to receive in faith the way of God through love and fear of Him ["I perceived their end"]. In this way we will have prosperity of soul and then have the capacity to enjoy life and material blessings, no matter how much of them we presently have. Material prosperity is fleeting if we don't have soul prosperity from God.

 

3Jo 2

Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers.

 

Psa 37:1 Do not fret because of evildoers, Be not envious toward wrongdoers.

 

Psa 37:2 For they will wither quickly like the grass, And fade like the green herb.

 

Psa 37:3 Trust in the Lord, and do good; Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness.

 

Psa 37:4 Delight yourself in the Lord; And He will give you the desires of your heart.

 

Psa 37:5 Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him, and He will do it.

 

Psa 37:6 And He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, And your judgment as the noonday.

 

Psa 37:7 Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him; Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, Because of the man who carries out wicked schemes.

 

Psa 37:8 Cease from anger, and forsake wrath; Do not fret, it leads only to evildoing.

 

Psa 37:9 For evildoers will be cut off, But those who wait for the Lord, they will inherit the land.

 

Psa 37:10 Yet a little while and the wicked man will be no more; And you will look carefully for his place, and he will not be there.

 

Psa 37:11 But the humble will inherit the land, And will delight themselves in abundant prosperity.

 

In the Old Testament soul prosperity goes along with land prosperity, but in the New, soul prosperity goes along with prosperity in fellowship with Christ.

 

Eph 3:16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man;

 

Eph 3:17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love,

 

Eph 3:18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,

 

Eph 3:19 and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fulness of God.

 

Eph 3:20 Now to Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us,

 

Eph 3:21 to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.