The writer of Proverbs 30:8–9 acknowledged a truth most of us are reticent to admit. Stated simply it is that physical situations often impact our spiritual condition.
In his prayer recorded here, the writer asks, “Give me neither poverty nor riches but give me only my daily bread.
Otherwise I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’ Or I may become poor and steal and so dishonor the name of my God.”
The first of the two requests reminds readers of Moses’ warning to the children of Israel recorded in Deuteronomy 8.
Moses cautioned the Israelites that prosperity can cause one to conclude, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me” (v. 17).
Moses urged them to “remember the Lord your God for it is He who gives you the ability to produce wealth” (v. 18).
Jesus alluded to the tendency of prosperity to make people indifferent to God and to their spiritual condition in Matthew 19:23–24 where He compared the difficulty of a rich man getting into heaven with a camel passing through the eye of a needle.
Unfortunately personal stories abound of once-faithful servants of God who became intoxicated with their prosperity and no longer valued a relationship with their Heavenly Father.
Choosing dishonorable actions
At the other end of the spectrum, the writer recognizes that circumstances could cause him to act in dishonorable ways. If he were poor, hungry, desolate, unable to care for loved ones, grieving or caught in any number of other situations, he might choose dishonorable actions. A relationship with God might take a back seat to basic survival needs.
Most of us cannot see ourselves walking away from God in either of these circumstances. If blessed, we believe we would heed Moses’ warning in Deuteronomy 8:11, “Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God, failing to observe His commandments, His laws and His decrees.”
If in poverty, we pray we would be like Job, who refused to turn away from God despite the urging of his wife and the misguided advice of his friends. No loss of wealth, health or family could cause him to forsake God.
Job lamented, “Even though He slay me, I will trust in Him” (Job 13:15).
With our minds we understand that a personal relationship with God does not guarantee prosperity, health, loving relationships or any of the other conditions often tied to personal happiness. Salvation is about being reconciled to God. It is about sin being forgiven, about living in the power of the Holy Spirit and a hope for eternity.
That is why we gladly declare, “God is good all the time and all the time God is good.” We know circumstances and situations do not determine God’s goodness. The two are unrelated. In prosperity or poverty, God is equally good. In sickness or health, God is equally good. Standing before an open grave or cradling a newborn baby, God is equally good.
Yet let some tragedy strike a Christian family and someone is likely to say, “They didn’t deserve that.” The comment may be intended to affirm the family but it conveys at least two questionable implications. First it implies a cause-and-effect relationship with every action, a concept taught in many eastern religions.
But in John 9:1–3, Jesus rejected this concept. The disciples were sure the man’s blindness was caused by sin but Jesus told them they were wrong. Sin had nothing to do with the blindness. There was no cause-and-effect relationship.
The second implication is that some deserve tragedy. We often act as if certain behaviors deserve tragedies like disease, death and other heartbreaks. On the other hand, we seem to believe that “good people” should not be visited by such circumstances.
Jesus said otherwise. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, “For (God) makes His sun shine on good and bad people alike, and He sends rain to the righteous and the unrighteous alike” (Matt. 5:45).
Those caught in the tragedy may even walk away from God thinking that a good God would not let bad things happen to them. It is as if faith is a transactional relationship — that in return for belief, God is obliged to keep pain and loss far from them.
The truth is “bad things happen to good people,” to quote a popular book title. Another way of saying the same thing is “life happens.” The corruptive nature of sin on humanity and on creation is pervasive and impacts us all.
The question is not “if” bad things will happen; it is “when” bad things happen. How will we act? Will we turn from God and trust our own strengths? Will we reject God and dishonor Him? Will we cherish our relationship with God so much that we echo Job’s declaration, “Though He slay me, I will trust in Him”?
God never promises He will keep tragedies from us. He does promise that in the midst of tragedies He will guide, provide, restore, strengthen and comfort. That is what Psalm 23 is about.
‘My soul will boast in the Lord’
And Psalm 34:1–2 says, “I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise will always be on my lips. My soul will boast in the Lord.”
That is our goal in prosperity and in poverty. That is our goal in sickness and in health. That is our goal amid loss and amid gain. Our relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ transcends circumstances.
Whatever the circumstance, Christian believers are in God’s hands and He will not let us go (John 10:27–28). That is worth celebrating whether we find ourselves in prosperity or poverty or somewhere in between.
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