PROSPERITY AND SUCCESS

“Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go. This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success” (Joshua 1:7- 8, NKJV). 

The terms “prosper, prosperous and success” are prominently used in verses 7 and 8. Equating these terms primarily to affluence, influence and/or money is a very Western/American point of view. Over the last several decades, whole theological positions have come to prominence that are more influenced by Western culture than they are appropriately balanced or founded on strong biblical principles.

Does God take care of His people? Yes, He does! Psalm 23:1 and Psalm 37:25 make it very plain that He cares for His children. Does God promise to make His people rich? Does He promise that they will have big houses, drive fancy cars, and wear expensive clothes? No, He doesn’t! There is nothing wrong with any of that but this is not the predominant promise of scripture, and those things are not guaranteed to anyone.

What do these verses mean then when they talk about success and prosperity?

When trying to interpret a scripture, it is always helpful to look at the larger context of what was happening at the time the portion of scripture was written. In this chapter, Joshua was being established in his leadership role and the nation was being prepared for their future. The prosperity and success spoken of in these verses has to do with their crossing into the Promised Land — into their future.

Secondly, it is helpful to understand the meaning of the Hebrew words that are used here and have been variously interpreted as prosper (verse 7), prosperous (verse 8), and success (verse 8).

The word prosper in verse 7 comes from the Hebrew word that means “to be circumspect, to be prudent, to act wisely.” This is a promise that God will bless His people with “wisdom.” I would rather be given wisdom than riches because a wise person will eventually translate that wisdom into affluence but an unwise person with riches will always be unwise and eventually will be broke.

It is never wrong to ask God for wisdom. “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him” (James 1:5-6).

Joshua 1:8 says, “For then you will make your way prosperous.” This is speaking of our journey of life, our “way” or path. The word used here for “prosperous” in the original language means “to advance, make progress, succeed, be profitable.” This is a promise that life is not going to be able to hold us back but as we are obedient and open to Him, we will move ahead, break out, and be successful as we follow His plan.

Verse 8 reads, “And then you will have good success.” The word used here for success is identical to the Hebrew word used for prosper in verse 7; the meaning is to “act prudently and with wisdom.”

What an interesting and thought-provoking flow there is in these scriptures. As I see it, what the Lord is saying is, “Ask for the right thing — ask for wisdom. Wisdom will get you on the right path and keep you there. Moments of breakout, of advance for you, will come. As you are centered in Me and are keeping My Word in you, My wisdom will continue to flow in you and will protect your forward progress.”

Remember that Joshua was being installed as the leader of a nation. God spoke to him about his “way” or his “journey.” What we learn from this is that the principles God was establishing for Joshua are also true for us. God will give us wisdom and will teach us how to draw on Him and His Word for wisdom. Wisdom will get us and keep us on the right road to success in our life’s journey.

Success is a relative term. To one person it may mean having enough to eat and a dry place to sleep. To others, success means having a good job, a nice home and money in the bank. Success to the child of God cannot be measured by material possessions, bank accounts, or academic degrees. To a child of God, success means fulfilling God’s plan for his or her life. Joshua stepped boldly into God’s plan for him and it is recorded in Joshua 11:23: “So Joshua took the entire land.”

EAT YOUR WAY TO SUCCESS!

“This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success” (Joshua 1:8, ESV).

This verse is a declaration of the availability of success as we step into our future — if we will hear and do what God is saying! This was the heart of God’s instructions to Joshua to make him a succcessful leader as he led the Jewish people into their future.

The Book of the Law was the Word of the Lord that had been given up to that time. This week we will talk briefly about the place of the Word of the Lord in our lives. Next week we’ll discuss “success and prosperity.”

I love the Word! Seeing the priority my father placed on the Word in his life has a lot to do with my appreciation of the Word and its place in my life. My dad began almost every day by spending time taking in the Word of God.

I don’t understand fully how the Word works in me — I just know it does. Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the word of God is living and active.”

I don’t really understand how a steer can eat grass and then end up on my plate in the form of a steak or a hamburger. The transition of grass to steak escapes me and, frankly, I am not going to pursue it. But the principle is the same with the Word; I don’t know exactly how it works its work in me, I just know that it does.

The Word of God is alive and full of the spiritual nourishment we need. When we consciously take in the Word, it works in us whether we realize it or not. I like the way the Amplified Bible speaks to this in 1 Thessalonians 2:13:

“And we also [especially] thank God continually for this, that when you received the message of God [which you heard] from us, you welcomed it not as the word of [mere] men, but as it truly is, the Word of God, which is effectually at work in you who believe [exercising its superhuman power in those who adhere to and trust in and rely on it].” 

The word “effectually” in the Greek is energeo, from which we get our word energy. This passage is saying that the Word is “powerfully at work in us.” It speaks of God’s active work, through His Word, to change us, our thoughts and our behavior.

You don’t have to be a theologian to understand this. The key issue is that you put a value on the Word and that’s what I learned from my dad. Morning after morning as I came into the kitchen, I saw him sitting at the kitchen table with his Bible open in front of him. He was prioritizing his day by putting a value on the Word and its place in his life. My dad was not a pastor, he was in management at a large lumber company in Vancouver, B.C.

Honestly, there are some days I read the Bible and when I’m finished I’m not certain what I was supposed to get out of that passage. This used to bother me but not anymore and here’s why. My wife is a wonderful cook but not every single meal she prepares is a five-star culinary delight nor does it need to be. I know I need to eat a couple of times a day and if I don’t, then hunger and weakness starts to set in. So sometimes I eat something not because it’s a culinary delight but because I know I need to. I need to eat because I need to have the energy and nutritional value the food provides.

This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth

In extremely simple terms, “the mouth” has two basic functions: inhaling and exhaling. We take in food, air, water through the mouth. We exhale used air and speak words through the mouth. This passage is telling us that we should be doing the same with the Word. We need to learn not only to be taking in the Word but also speaking it out through our confessions of faith, learning to pray the Word, and engaging in Word-filled worship.

It is my opinion that many Christians today have never learned to put a proper value on the Word. Fast food and occasional eating is not going to cut it if we are looking for full nutritional value. There are some extremely good daily reading guides available and a wonderful variety of translations, so there is really no excuse for not getting the Word into us.

The primary issue is that we establish the value/importance of the Word for ourselves. We tend not to put things into our mouth that we don’t value. Maybe we could entitle this devotional, “Eat your way into the future.”

IS OUR WORLD UNRAVELING?

Does it seem to you that things around us are unraveling more quickly than ever? I’m not talking about just the economy and international affairs but about how quickly the world around us changes. On Thursday, July 7, I went to bed without having checked the news on TV and didn’t know that our world had changed because of an event right here in my hometown. I’m speaking, of course, of the killing of five policemen and the wounding of nine more.

Dallas is reeling under the vicious impact of these senseless killings, and the impact has spread across our land. One of my longtime friends e-mailed me a few days ago and said what a lot of us are feeling about the shootings: the events are “so unsettling and frightening.”

As I have wrestled with my own feelings and what should be my focus as a Christian, as a father and grandfather, to what is going on around us, I have found myself frequently thinking of Daniel 1:8:

“Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king’s food, or with the wine that he drank.”

Daniel and his friends had been kidnapped and taken from their homes in Israel to live in Babylon and were being prepared for life in the court of Nebuchadnezzar.  

There are two words in verse 8 that we need to be familiar with. The first is resolved, which is translated “purposed” in older versions of Scripture. The use of the word here means that Daniel had an opinion or a philosophy that was firm, well established, immovable. The second word is defile and it means to be polluted or stained.

Daniel’s resolve was not about food and wine. I repeat—this was not about food and drink but about the godless lifestyle that they were symbolic of. Daniel was not down on Nebuchadnezzar nor was he advocating a specific dietary structure. Daniel was making sure that he did not get entangled in a philosophy of life that would destroy his relationship with God.

I believe that Daniel’s resolve was birthed out of his concern: “How do I maintain my life with God while living in this pagan community?” The conclusion Daniel arrived at is valuable for us today.

While our society is unraveling and becoming more violent and volatile, it continues to become increasingly secular, and the invisible pollution of secularism intensifies. This is the air we breathe every day! How do we continue breathing this and not be polluted?

Daniel saw what was going on around him and came to a point of resolve. He and his friends chose to put the Lord first in everything, but that choice would not be without its challenges. Daniel ended up being thrown into a den of lions because he would not compromise his desire to honor God. His friends were thrown into the fireplace because they refused to worship at the feet of the prevailing idols of their day. However, all these young men experienced the protection of God that was released unto them because they chose to honor Him and put Him first in their lives.

Daniel and his friends continually saw the favor and blessing of the Lord upon their lives while they lived in Babylon. Their testimonies were not destroyed because they dwelt in a hostile environment; in fact, the opposite was true.

These Jewish immigrants lived their lives honorably and made an impact in the Babylonian culture. Nebuchadnezzar made this statement when the three Hebrews walked out of the fiery furnace unscathed: “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who sent His angel and delivered His servants, who trusted in Him,and set set aside the king’s command, and yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any god except their own God” (Daniel 3:28, ESV).

I believe the key to Daniel’s success is found in Daniel 1:8. Had Daniel and his friends not made this commitment of spirit unto the Lord, there would have been no success in the fire pit. Instead, there would have been three kosher charcoal briquettes, Daniel would have been lunch for hungry lions, and the prophecies of Daniel would never have been written.

Daniel purposed/resolved to honor God as first in his life and it unleashed the plan of God for his life was unleashed. “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33, ESV). When this Scripture speaks of “the kingdom of God,” it is referring to His kingly rule in our lives; “righteousness” means that we seek to do that which pleases Him. In response to this “resolve,” He pledges with covenant faithfulness to respond to the seeker. The toxic savagery of a world system falling apart cannot destroy the purpose for which God created you, and honoring Him and living fully in His plan for you brings His hand of grace and protection.

PATH OF CONFIDENCE PART 3

I WILL NOT LET YOU SINK!

“Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have success, wherever you go” (Joshua 1:6-7, ESV).

A timeless technique used to get a point across is repetition. Not once or twice but three times in the first nine verses of Joshua 1, Joshua was told to be “strong and courageous.” These verses were God’s message for Joshua as he assumed leadership after the death of Moses, and God repeated these words to drive home the point. Apparently God felt that the quality of being strong and courageous needed to be emphasized and if it wasn’t understood and embraced, the results would be less than what was needed for victory.

The first mention of strength and courage is about leadership (verse 6). The courage to lead is vital; sometimes those who are called upon to lead don’t have the courage to do so and the results tend to be disastrous. I believe President George W. Bush had the courage to lead; in contrast, in my opinion President Bill Clinton did not, and he led by taking opinion polls and using his personal charisma. This is not courageous leadership. Courageous leadership will not always be popular but it will be true leadership.

The second emphasis on courage is in verse 7; this was a clear command that Joshua was to have an unswerving loyalty to the Word of God. At times, that kind of fidelity demands the courage to say, “I am going to do what the Word says and not what our times, the culture, and opinion polls suggest.” We need a major dose of this in the church right now! I would rather have the blessing of the Lord than the applause of the world!

In verse 9, for the third time Joshua is commanded to be strong and courageous as he steps out into his future. “Have not I commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.” There is implied here the uncertainty that comes with stepping out into the unknown. Human nature is always fearful and critical of what it does not know or understand. The future will always be uncertain to our human spirit but it is never uncertain to our heavenly Father.

How can we define this strength and courage Joshua speaks of? It is what comes out of a relationship and the understanding of a promise. In verse 5 the promise is hinted at and referred to when it says, “I will be with you,” and in verse 9 it is laid out clearly for us: “The Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

The literal Hebrew meaning of the phrase, “I will be with you,” in verse 5 is, “I will not let you sink.” The Patterson New Revised rendering is, “You may be up to your neck in alligators but your neck is mine and I’m not going to let them get you!”

The word picture being painted here and the use of the repetition of the command to be “strong and courageous” is not a type of arrogant or haughty leadership. It typifies a leader who is very aware of the complexities of life, of his own shortcomings, but at the same time is totally and irrevocably committed to the Lord, to the Lord’s call on his (or her) life, totally committed to being a useful servant. This person has settled it in his heart and spirit: “I belong to the Lord and I will follow Him all the way. I will go in His strength! I will find my strength in Him; when I am weak He is strong! I will hold fast to Him!”

True courage and strength does not disregard secular business models and technology but understands that the highest priority is to know God and to discover what His plan is for the future. True courage lays hold of the plan of God and will not let go.

Daniel was a man who showed great courage and his story lives on as an example of someone who thrived in difficult circumstances. One of the great revelations to me personally about Daniel and how he traversed the incredibly tumultuous times he lived in is found in the very revealing statement of Daniel 11:32: “But the people who know their God shall stand firm and take action.”

There is a universal application of this truth but Daniel’s statement is part of a prophetic word that finds its greatest fulfillment in the day in which we are alive. Daniel was prophesying about us!

THE PATH OF CONFIDENCE - PART 2

The instructions God gave to Joshua right after the death of Moses are contained in Joshua 1:1-9. Forty years earlier, God brought the Jewish people out of bondage in Egypt. Their disobedience, grumbling, and lack of faith kept them wandering in the desert for forty years . . . on a journey that should have taken only a few months. God was so displeased with the Jews’ behavior that He decreed that the whole generation would have to pass away before He would allow the next generation into “the Promised Land.” Joshua and Caleb were the only ones from the old generation God allowed to go into “their future.” The death of Moses was the trigger that released this forward movement.

“Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give them—to the Israelites. I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses” (1:2-3, NIV).

I like clear instructions, and God’s instructions here are immediate and very demanding. I believe the Lord was saying to Joshua and then, through Him, to the people, “I have led you this far; I have prepared you for this time; I have made a promise to you and it is now time to get up from where you are and possess your future.” 

Some people possess their future and others let the future possess them. In Numbers 13 and 14 we read about the twelve men Moses sent in to spy out the Promised Land. Ten of the spies let the future possess them when they allowed it to become a place of fear and uncertainty. Only Joshua and Caleb saw the future as a great opportunity, filled with confidence born of a relationship with God. They knew the future was theirs to possess.

God’s words to Joshua were a command to action. Inherent in the command was the understanding that God’s people were ready; He doesn’t send people into their “Promised Land” before it is time. But they have to be willing to step up and possess the future; they have to want to move from where they are toward what God has for them.

We live in a tragic moment in the Church in America. The wave of easy “believism” of today leads many to conclude that if I just think good thoughts and push away the bad thoughts, my life will be fine. I am not interested in imposing legalistic demands but we must understand that God demands a response from us. That’s why He was explicit with Joshua, “Arise, go!” What He is saying is, “Your future is here and it’s up to you to possess it. You must get up and start moving toward the goal and as you move forward, I will be with you and direct your steps.”

“I will give you every place you set your foot, as I promised Moses.” What was the promise to Moses that God was now reminding Joshua about? 

The promise to Moses is found in Deuteronomy 11:22-25: “If you carefully observe all these commands I am giving you to follow—to love the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways and to hold fast to him—then the LORD will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations larger and stronger than you. Every place where you set your foot will be yours: Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the Euphrates River to the western sea. No man will be able to stand against you. The LORD your God, as he promised you, will put the terror and fear of you on the whole land, wherever you go.”

Wow, that’s quite a promise! We are told that “if we follow God’s instructions, love Him and hold fast to Him” then He will move the opposition out of our way. What seems to be insurmountable opposition will be moved.

What comes to your mind when you read the words “hold fast”? I think of my grandson who, when he was little and confronted by a situation he was uncertain of, would run and grab onto the leg of his dad or mom. That is exactly the picture of what we are to do, “run to Him and grab on for dear life.”

And God’s promise to us is that as He was with Moses and as He was with Joshua, so He will be with us! Jesus restates this for us when He said at the end of His earthly ministry, “I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).

As we walk into the unknown of our future, of all the promises God makes to us, I believe this is the greatest. I am thankful for His provision, for His protection, for all the benefits that daily come our way, but most of all I am thankful for His promise to accompany me into my future. “I am with you . . . to the very end.”

And I intend to “hold fast”!