Job 21:14 Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways.
Problems and Prosperity
I believe that the health and wealth gospel is going to be shown as empty in the coming days. The truth is that there have been no people in human history that have had it as good as we have had it in America over the last couple hundred years. That is changing in a number of ways. One thing that needs to change is our understanding of the world because of our understanding of the Bible. We need to not merely judge our existence by our own experience, but by God’s timeless truth that outlives fads and even kingdoms and nations.
Job was a man who had wealth and lost it all. He had a family, but lost them. He had a wife who told him to curse God and die. He had friends that eventually seemed to turn on him, and told him, “Job, if you were healthy and wealthy that would be an evidence of God’s blessing, but obviously you’re not in a right relationship with God because of the troubles you’ve been in.” Is that true?
Job says in Job 21:7, “Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power?” Then he talks about how good some of these evil people have it. Their houses are safe. Their cattle grow in numbers. They have a lot of children. Verses 13-15 say, “They spend their days in wealth, and in the moment go down to the grave. Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways. What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? and what profit should we have, if we pray unto him?” In other words they say, “If it doesn’t profit us to serve God, then He’s not worth serving. We don’t need God. We’re doing just fine.”
We learn something from this. Our response to problems and prosperity is more of an indication of our dependence upon God than receiving either is an indication of his favor toward us. Now, every good and perfect gift comes from Heaven. There is no doubt about that. I’m not saying that we should not know that God is good and not see that in the kindnesses He shows us. I am saying that our perspective is too limited to judge God entirely by how good we have it. Just because we have it good is not the final proof that God is good. God is good regardless of our present circumstance.
Think about the Vatican or Salt Lake City. Is God blessing there? Are they prosperous and wealthy? What about the U.S. government? Is God blessing the U.S. government because of all the wealth we possess? In the final analysis, God is good because He is God not because we have it good. We ought to acknowledge every gift from God and realize that we should know God’s goodness in our experience. The problem is our experience is so short in duration and scope that we cannot even see what there is to see of an infinite God.
Thank God we do have Someone Who can see the beginning from the end though all we can see is the experience of our limited day. Our response to problems and prosperity is an indication of our dependence upon God. He wants us to trust Him with our lives today.