Feast: Prosperity's Consequences
#FT22-01-AM
Martin G. Collins
Given 10-Oct-22; 66 minutes
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transcript:
"You will own nothing and be happy."
How many of you have heard that statement said by Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, one of the most powerful people in the world.
What the World Economic Forum is not telling us common people of the world is that even though "you will own nothing and be happy," we, the elite (speaking from Klaus Schwab's attitude), will own everything and be happier as we devour everything!
Now as Anthony B Mueller, a professor of economics, warns, "The main thrust of the forum is global control. Free markets and individual choice do not stand as the top values, but state interventionism and collectivism [which you know of as a type of communism]. Individual liberty and private property are to disappear from this planet by 2030." That is his prediction. And he is one of those who is in the know.
Human reasoning tells us, "I don't want a lot of money. I just want a little more than I can spend." And I mean, sadly, many of us subliminally think that. When is enough enough? Is this what prosperity is all about, acquiring more than we can spend or acquiring more than somebody else has?
Prosperity is a close relative of abundance; and abundance indicates that a person possesses an exceptional degree of material or spiritual blessings. Regardless of whether human effort is involved or special divine grace, it is always a gift from God but not necessarily a special gift for human effort. Sometimes it is just a flat-out blessing that we have not earned from human effort.
Prosperity is success that comes to those who have been active in achieving it or by divine special grace usually because of effort. Ecclesiastes 4:9 tells us prosperity is the state of those who have a good reward for their labor.
Please turn with me to Genesis 39. Now in Genesis 24, the servant of Abraham prays that the girl who comes to the well will be the future betrothed of Isaac. And when Rebecca arrives, he watches her, intent to learn whether the Lord had made his journey prosperous or not. So prosperity is not only about money and material possessions in that way. This shows the combination of divine and human effort that results in prosperity.
In Genesis 39, Moses records that the Lord caused all that Joseph did to prosper in his hands.
Genesis 39:1-5 Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. And Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him down there. The Lord was with Joseph, and he was a successful man; and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian. And his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord made all that he did to prosper in his hand. So Joseph found favor in his sight and served him. Then he made him overseer of his house, and all that he had he put under his authority. So it was, from the time that he had made him overseer of his house and over all that he had, that the Lord blessed the Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake; and the blessing of the Lord was on all that he had in the house and in the field.
As God's people, as we go to our jobs, our bosses or our companies are blessed. As we do anything, that we go help with someone, they are blessed. And so that is our way of life—living a life that blesses other people. It is a giving way of life.
The most well known statement about prosperity in the Bible is the declaration in Psalm 1 that whatever the godly person does shall prosper. And this follows on the heels of the image of the well-watered tree that produces its fruit in its season.
Psalm 1:1-3 Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper.
That is the life that we live as members of God's church. The life that we live always prospers. Now it may take some time, but in the end, whatever God has in mind for us, it ends in good, if it is not already prospering us along the way. In this we see prosperity in terms of a process that leads to fulfillment of the purpose for which a thing or person was created and we were created to prosper but not necessarily financially in this world. Although sometimes we do.
In the Old Testament prosperity is pictured first in terms of fruitful work, resulting in sustenance of physical life. Because Israel is an agrarian nation, biblical prosperity is in large part agricultural. The king's prayer in Psalm 144 is a good summary of the Old Testament idea of prosperity.
Psalm 144:12-15 That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth; that our daughters may be as pillars, sculptured in palace style; that our barns may be full, supplying all kinds of produce; that our sheep may bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our fields; that our oxen may be well laden; that there be no breaking in or going out; that there be no outcry in our streets. Happy are the people who are in such a state; happy are the people whose God is the Lord!
So although Klaus Schwab is trying to be happy by gaining all the wealth of the world, we already have that because God is our Lord we have happiness, we have the joy of the Lord.
This prosperity in Israel included vigorous sons, dazzling daughters, full granaries, and abundant livestock. And it is interesting here that complaining is seen as the tendency of those who do not have such prosperity, as do those who submit to the Lord.
Psalm 147:12-14 adds a nationalistic note of peace within the borders and abundant crops as a part of that prosperity.
Now does the blessing of prosperity always mean that it is a well deserved blessing from God? It is amazing how many people throughout the years that I have met have thought that; mainly in mainstream Christianity but also sometimes in the church.
In the Old Testament context of the covenant, prosperity is a sign of God's approval and blessing. Abraham and many of the patriarchs were very wealthy. Genesis 13:2 says Abraham was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold. David acquired great wealth and Solomon received even greater wealth as a mark of God's acceptance of his attitude. Israel entered the Promised Land as a special gift from God and it was very rich since it was part of the Fertile Crescent, a lucrative trade group and strongly desired by other, more powerful nations, no doubt designed by God.
The single most well known image of the Promised Land as the land of abundance and prosperity is characterized by the phrase, "a land flowing with milk and honey." Everyone in here, I know, has heard that phrase. Israel, however, was to always acknowledge the hand of God in their good blessing. But sadly, just as people do today, Israel forgot to be thankful for what God had provided.
Deuteronomy 8:7 "For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land. . .
Deuteronomy 8:9 . . . a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you shall lack nothing in it. . .
Deuteronomy 8:10-12 . . . When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which He has given you. Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes which I command you today, lest—when you have eaten and are full, . . .
Deuteronomy 8:14 . . . when your heart is lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God who brought you out out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage."
The same warning holds true for the Israelite nations today. But because they are disobedient and have neglected the knowledge that God has given this abundant and prosperity to them, judgment is coming and disaster is looming; and we see the writing on the wall, as we have already heard brought up.
Obedience and righteousness lead inevitably to blessing and success, but unrighteousness and disobedience lead to cursing and impoverishment. Hezekiah is a model for all those who seek to live prosperous lives.
II Chronicles 31:20-21 Thus Hezekiah did throughout all Judah, and he did what was good and right and true before the Lord his God. And in every work that he began in the service of the house of God, in the law and in the commandment, to seek his God, he did it with all his heart. So he prospered.
II Chronicles 32:27-31 Hezekiah had very great riches and honor. And he made himself treasuries for silver, for gold, and for precious stones, for spices, for shields, and for all kinds of desirable items; storehouses for the harvest of grain, wine, and oil; and stalls for all kinds of livestock, and folds for flocks. Moreover he provided cities for himself, and possessions of flocks and herds in abundance; for God had given him very much property. [We have to take note there, God gave him these things. He may have worked hard to work with God in receiving them. But God is the author and the supplier of these things.] This same Hezekiah also stopped the water outlet of Upper Gihon, and brought the water by tunnel to the west side of the City of David. Hezekiah prospered in all his works. However, regarding the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, whom they sent to him to inquire about the wonder that was done in the land, God withdrew from him, in order to test him, that He might know all that was in his heart.
All that blessing God gave him, which was more than we can imagine, and then God decided, ok, we are going to take it all away. And why did He do that? To test him. So when that happens to us, we should realize that everything is a test. When we are in God's church, God is testing our attitudes. He is testing our resolve. He wants people who are problem solvers in His Kingdom, not people who just want to kick up their feet on the desk and say, I have faith in God. We have to be very active.
II Chronicles 32:32 Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and his goodness, indeed they are written in the vision of Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, and in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel.
Notice God left him to try him; that God might know His character and motives completely. And this is the main reason for our trials today. We may be fruitful and faithful, obedient and serving, but that does not mean that everything will always go smoothly for us. So God knows us inside and out, and He wants us to truly know ourselves, our weaknesses, and our strengths, that we may grow in spiritual character.
But for the most part, in the Old Testament, prosperity became a mark of responsible obedience to God. Continued prosperity is seen as a reward for diligence and this diligence brings a level of security in what God is providing, and in the fruit of righteousness of a person's labor.
But prosperity is not always accompanied by righteous behavior, as you well know. Jeremiah expressed confusion as to why the wicked so frequently prosper.
Jeremiah 12:1-2 Righteous are you, O Lord, when I plead with You; yet let me talk with you about Your judgments. Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why are those happy who deal so treacherously? You have planted them, yes, they have taken root; they grow, yes, they bear fruit. You are near in their mouth but far from their mind.
You think about the number of people who use God's name in vain. It is coming right out of their mouth but they do not believe in Him nor do they trust Him; they do not respect Him.
Psalm 1 depicts the prosperity of the righteous over and against the desperate plight of the wicked. But frequently, from our perspective, there seems to be no such certainty. In physical life, the equation of righteousness with wealth and poverty with sin is not absolute. Even with hard work the physical outcome is not uncertain.
Ecclesiastes 11:4-6 He who observes the wind will not sow, and he who regards the clouds will not reap. As you do not know what is the way of the wind, or how the bones grow in the womb of her who is with child, so you do not know the works of God who makes everything. In the morning sow your seed, and in the evening do not withhold your hand; for you do not know which will prosper, either this or that, or whether both alike will be good.
There is another scripture that says that time and chance happen to all men (Ecclesiastes 9:11). So sometimes it is just something that just happens. It is not something that God has done or not done to us.
Please turn over to Psalm 73. Often it is the wicked who prosper. Sometimes the term "the rich" is synonymous with the term "the wicked." Psalm 73 recounts how the speaker came near disaster caused by the prosperity of the wicked.
Psalm 73:1-7 Truly God is good to Israel, to such as are pure in heart. But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled; my steps had nearly slipped. For I was envious of the boastful, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For there are no pangs in their death, but their strength is firm. They are not in trouble as other men, nor are they plagued like other men. Therefore pride serves as their necklace; violence covers them like a garment. Their eyes bulge with abundance; they have more than the heart could wish.
I find this interesting to just think about in simple terms. Even if something breaks in your house, say your air conditioning unit, you have to dish out the thousands of dollars for it. That hurts and that is a trial. But if you are wealthy, you are rich, you just pay for it and it is over. So the rich do not necessarily have the same trials that we have, but they have other trials on a spiritual level that are greater than ours. And so it is interesting that the perspective is totally different when you have money and when you do not, even from a human reasoning standpoint.
The most startling example of this reversal of the wicked prospering rather than the righteous is found in Job, who by all human logic should have prospered. At the outset, he seemed the epitome of the wise, righteous, and consequently wealthy patriarch. But disaster struck and deprived him of all his prosperity. Job reached a milestone in his life, carefully analyzing his trials, and when he disconnected prosperity and suffering from human effort, he pointed out that the wicked often prosper in life, even receiving prominent funerals. Job's three "comforters" applied various traditional approaches in their attempt to understand his plight, but none were sufficient answers. So the Lord said to them,
Job 42:8 "My servant Job shall pray for you [talking about how Job is to pray for his friends]. For I will accept him, lest I deal with you according to your folly; because you have not spoken of Me what is right, as my servant Job has."
Job 42:10 And the Lord restored Job's losses when he prayed for his friends. Indeed the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.
I found it very interesting that praying for his friends was part of what he was rewarded for. So we should take note of that and pray for our friends, pray for the brethren. Well, we will leave some people out because our list would probably be more like a scroll and it would take us all day to go through it. But we sure certainly have to pray for each other.
Prosperity cannot always be viewed as a metaphor for God's approval. Job was a righteous man. And when he began going through his severe trial and was cursed rather than prospered, he had quite a time with it. He was a righteous man who had learned valuable lessons by the end of his trial. And he prospered! Only God can determine when to prosper someone. He is not going to prosper us if it is going to do us spiritual damage. And so there may be things that we have to overcome before we actually are prospered in a certain area.
New Testament prosperity seems to change somewhat from Old Testament coverage of prosperity in its implication of righteousness. It is mainly an Old Testament premise that earthly prosperity is an extension of a person's spiritual life. Jesus Christ coming to earth as a flesh and blood human being was a massive reversal of the Old Testament idea of prosperity. In II Corinthians 8 Paul speaks of Christ becoming poor compared to His previous glory and wealth, so that we may become spiritually rich because of His sacrifice and by following His example.
II Corinthians 8:9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might be rich.
That is rich in spiritual character, salvation, and eternal life.
Please turn over to Mark 10, verse 17. Now, beginning with the New Testament writings, prosperity ceased to be a metaphor for spiritual blessings and righteousness. In fact, it can insulate individuals from the more important demands of seeking first the Kingdom of God. So the rich young man of Mark 10 is not automatically regarded as righteous and he fails the test, unlike the disciples of Jesus.
Mark 10:17-27 [Jesus counseling the rich young ruler] Now as He was going out on the road, one came running, knelt before Him, and asked Him, "Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?" So Jesus said to him, "Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. You know the commandments: 'Do not commit adultery,' 'Do not murder,' 'Do not steal,' 'Do not bear false witness,' 'Do not defraud,' 'Honor your father and your mother.'" And he answered and said to Him, "Teacher, all these things I have kept from my youth." Then Jesus looked at him, loved him, and said to him, "One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me."
But he was sad at this word, and went away sorrowful, because he had great possessions. Then Jesus looked around and said to His disciples, "How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!" And the disciples were astonished at His words. But Jesus answered again and said to them, "Children, how hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." And they were greatly astonished, saying among themselves, "Who then can be saved?" But Jesus looked at them and said, "With men it is impossible, but not with God; for with God all things are possible."
So our attitude toward prosperity is now an indicator of the level of our commitment to God.
Now, in Luke 19:1-10, Zacchaeus, who became inordinately rich as a result of usury, demonstrated his repentance by making restitution. James denounced the wealthy who oppress their workers. On the other hand, John prayed for the physical well-being of Gaius in II John 2. So we see a change in the emphasis of the role of material prosperity. Prosperity is not always a blessing for righteousness.
The prosperity of itself is a blessing from God, but how we use it is where we get into trouble. Abraham is a typical example of a wealthy God-fearing man who used his wealth righteously. The right use of wealth requires generous liberality towards those in need.
I Timothy 6:17-19 Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy. Let them do good that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.
(This is almost, in a way, an offshoot of the offering sermonette today by Richard [Ritenbaugh] and we see the thread in this area going on through the messages.)
The use of prosperity and wealth directly affects our eternal life. When wealth is hoarded, it has already become a god because it has become our focus. The possession of material wealth brings with it great dangers. We read earlier in Deuteronomy 8 where there is the danger of failing to acknowledge that God is the source of the blessing. Here is a question: do we thank God for the food that we eat during the course of the day? Two meals, three meals, or whatever it might be, we have to make sure we are thankful for those things at all times.
And there is the related danger of trusting in riches. Psalm 52:7 says, "Here is the man who not did make God his strength, but trusted in the abundance of his riches, and strengthened himself in his wickedness."
This danger of trusting in riches is so great that Christ said that it was extremely difficult for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. The disciples rightly concluded that all men have this besetting sin, to which Christ replied that God alone can change the heart.
Another danger associated with prosperity is materialism and that is making riches the center of our interest. This was the case of the wealthy farmer in Luke 12:21 who was not rich toward God. Materialism is a flaw of the church in Laodicea. Revelation 3:17 accuses the Laodiceans of not only being materialistic, but also of thinking they do not need God's help. "You say, 'I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing.'" It is the epitome of the attitude that we are talking about here.
Another danger associated with prosperity is covetousness or the desire to be rich. It is an evil against which the Scriptures frequently warn. The love of money is described as a root of all kinds of evil in I Timothy 6.
Now the time represented by the Feast of Tabernacles is a time of rejoicing and a time of sacrifice, and not a time of unhappiness, depression, or greed. The first day of the Feast of Tabernacles is a day of sacrifice even more so than the rest of the Feast. They are all days of sacrifice but it begins with more sacrifice on the first day.
The ancient Israelites were required to offer through the priesthood, on each of the seven days of the Feast, two rams and fourteen lambs and a goat as a sin offering and successively on these days, a diminishing number of bullocks. No special offering of the earth's fruit was made.
The sacrifices symbolize that we owe everything to God. And because of our sin, we owe Him our lives because sacrifices could be abused. Several times, Old Testament writers, especially prophets, warned against sacrifices being performed without the proper attitude because the wrong attitude negates your offering, negates the value of a sacrifice. Proverbs 15:8 says, "The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright is His delight."
Please turn to I Samuel 15. One of King Saul's primary errors occurred after God told him to completely destroy the Amalekites and all that they possessed. He spared their king and allowed the Israelites to save the best sheep and cattle (as his excuse went), "To sacrifice to the Lord." By saying that he thought it made okay to disobey God. And then he was rebuked by the prophet Samuel.
I Samuel 15:20-23 And Saul said to Samuel, "But I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, and gone on the mission on which the Lord sent me, and have brought Agag, the king of Amalek; I have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. But the people took of the plunder, sheep and oxen, the best of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal. So Samuel said [speaking to Saul], "Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He has also rejected you from being king."
It was quite a punishment there he received. For a king it would be one of the worst he could receive.
Saul's attitude toward God was casual at best; and he feared the people he ruled more than God. As a result of his faithless attitude, he became rebellious. Hosea 6:6 tell us God wants us to have the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
Now, we know the physical sacrifices are ineffectual in taking away the penalty of sin under the New Covenant. Speaking to God, the author of Hebrews says,
Hebrews 10:6-8 "In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You have had no pleasure. Then I said, 'Behold, I have come—in the volume of the book it is written of Me—to do your will, O God.'" Previously saying, "Sacrifice and an offering, burnt offerings, and offerings for sin You did not desire, nor had pleasure in them" (which are offered according to the law).
So sacrifices were added to the Feast of Tabernacles. For the first time God temporarily imposed in Leviticus 23:36-37 special burnt offerings on each of the seven days of the Feast of Tabernacles. When He initially revealed the Festival of Ingathering, or Tabernacles, God did not command any burnt offerings. You find that in Exodus 23:16 and also Exodus 34:22. It was only when the nation sinned again and again that first year after the Exodus, that God imposed the sacrifices of the law to remind them of their sins and to teach them that the coming Messiah would shed His blood for them. But the Israelites focused on the details of the animal sacrifices and completely overlooked their true purpose after a time.
It was not until well into the 40th year after the Exodus that God commanded Moses additional sacrifices for the Feast of Tabernacles for a special purpose. You can read the account of that in Numbers 29:12-34.
Upon entering the Promised Land, the Israelites were to offer as burnt offerings: 13 young bulls on the first day of the Feast, 12 on the next day, 11 on the third day, then 10 and 9 and 8, and finally 7 on the seventh and last day of the Feast. That makes 70 young bulls.
Why 70? There must be a significance to that. To offer a young bull was not an ordinary sacrifice. Leviticus 4:13-21 tells us that when Israel as a nation sinned and sought forgiveness, a young bull was offered. Ordinary Israelites could offer lambs or goats or doves. But the sacrifice of a bullock was required of the nation or its leaders as a whole. And these sacrifices during the Feast of Tabernacles represented nations or their leaders or forerunners.
Genesis 10 gives us an answer to the number 70. The sons of Noah were three. Their sons and grandsons, and later descendants listed in Genesis 10 as forerunners of the tribes (or nations) were 67 of them. That adds up to a total of 70 nations at about the time of the Tower of Babel.
The Jewish Talmud, which I only trust basically for historical information, states, "To what do these 70 bullocks that were offered during the seven days of the festival correspond? They correspond to 70 nations." A footnote to this quotation reads, "Seventy is a traditional number of Gentile nations and the 70 bullocks are offered to make atonement for them," during the Feast of Tabernacles, which is interesting because the Feast of Tabernacles is a time when the Gentiles will have their opportunity en masse, as well as the Israelites to live God's way of life.
Now, even Jesus' apostles did not understand this great spiritual truth until God revealed His will through Peter at the time of the conversion of the uncircumcised Italian Cornelius, recorded in Acts 10. But when the other apostles and brethren heard Peter's account, they glorified God.
Acts 11:18 When they heard these things they became silent; and they glorified God, saying, "Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life."
What happens when pleasures are the chief aim of a person's life? We have talked about this somewhat. But let us continue on with this idea. The ultimate choice in life lies between pleasing oneself and pleasing God. A world in which people's first aim is to please themselves is a battleground of violence, division, and exhaustion.
James 4:1-3 [you are very familiar with this] Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.
James is setting before God's people a basic question: whether our aim in life is to submit to the will of God or to gratify our own desires for the pleasures of this world. So he warns that, if pleasure is our policy of life, nothing but contention and hatred and division will follow. And the result of the overmastering search for pleasure is wars and battles, confrontations, contention, envies. And the feverish search for pleasure produces long drawn-out resentments that are like wars and sudden explosions of hostilities that are like battles.
Now, the root cause of this unceasing bitter conflict, of course, is wrong desire. Is it not interesting that the Ten Commandments end with the forbidding of covetousness, or wrong desire? God probably designed it to be the last to hang in our minds so that we are more reminded of it, possibly because it is one of the easiest ones to overlook as we go through life. There are others that we could say are more important, but that one there is probably the one that is shrugged off the most, other than the Sabbath because of the deception that is going on in mainstream Christianity. God probably designed it that way but we are not sure. Well, we are sure He designed it and He definitely designed it that way. For that purpose we do not know for sure, but it is one possibility.
The pleasure-dominated life has certain inevitable spiritual consequences and I am going to give you a few of these.
The first one is that it sets people against one another. Desires are inherently warring powers. James 4:1-3 does not mean that they war within a person, although that is also true, but that they set people warring against each other. And the basic desires are for the same things, for money, for power, for prestige, for worldly possessions, and for the gratification of bodily lust. James warns wealthy people of God's coming judgments in the next chapter.
James 5:1-5 Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you! Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days. Indeed the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of the Sabaoth. You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts as in the day of slaughter.
Is that not a description of our society today right before God's judgment comes upon the world? What a contrast today's society—the world as a whole—is to the way the Millennium will be; and the eternal life that we will have. Eternal life is a quality of life. I do not know how we can say eternal life is a length at all because there is no length to it. It is infinity. So it is a more quality of life than a length.
When everyone is striving to possess the same things, life inevitably becomes a competitive arena. Some people will even trample each other in the rush to acquire material things and they will do almost anything to eliminate a rival. I always think it is extra sad around Christmas when you see people lining up for the sales and trampling one another. It is human nature in the raw.
II Timothy 3:1-5 But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but, but denying its power. And from such turn away!
Is that not the feeling that we get when we watch the news or when we look at the world or we maybe go to work and we are involved with the world, that we just want to get away from it or turn our backs on it because it just gets to us so quickly.
Obedience to the craving for pleasure drives people apart because it drives us to internal rivalry for the same things. Obedience to the will of God draws us together because it requires sacrifice and submission. It is God's will that we love and serve one another. That cannot be repeated enough.
The second way that the pleasure-dominated life has certain inevitable spiritual consequences is that craving for pleasure drives a person to wrong actions. These things are very clear but they need to be stated. Craving for pleasure drives a person to wrong actions. It drives them to envy and to enmity and even to murder.
In the extreme, before a person can arrive at a wrong action, there must be the driving emotion of desire in their mind. He may restrain himself from the things that the desire for pleasure incites him to do. But if that desire has taken up residence in his mind, because he has entertained the idea, he is in great danger of ruinous action.
Let us turn over to Galatians 5, verse 16. You are very familiar with these. You probably have them mostly memorized. We have a wonderful advantage as God's people. God's Spirit helps us to resist these wrong desires, but it does not make us immune to them.
Galatians 6:16-21 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the penalty of the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
It is definite and it is succinct as it can be about whether or not we will inherit the Kingdom of God. Thankfully, those are descriptions of a worldly person. We may occasionally sin. As God's people, we are able to repent, but it is not our way of life. And you can feel a separation every day between us and the world.
The steps of the process are simple and terrible in the human mind. Both, depending. It works this way: we allow ourselves to desire something, that thing begins to dominate our thoughts, and we find ourselves involuntarily thinking about it in our waking hours and dreaming of it when we sleep. It begins to be what is aptly called "a ruling passion" and it can take control of us.
The next one, number three, is, craving for pleasure in the end shuts the door of prayer. If our prayers are simply for the things that will gratify our desires, they are essentially selfish and therefore God does not answer them. The true goal of prayer is to God—"Your will be done." The person whose prayer is pleasure-dominated cannot be satisfied because a selfish person like that can rarely pray correctly. He must remove himself and make God the supreme priority.
What I am trying to show here is the major conflict and also difference between the world today and the World Tomorrow.
Now, the New Testament is clear that this overmastering desire for the pleasures of this world is always a threatening danger to spiritual life. It is the cares and riches and pleasures of this life which combine to choke the good seed.
Luke 8:14 "Now the ones [that is, the seed] that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity."
So there is a great danger to a person who has just been called because Satan definitely wants to choke out that strong desire to obey God and fought to live his way of life.
In life we must choose whether our own desires or the will of God is the main object of our desires. And if we choose our own desires, we separate ourselves from God and from other members of the church.
The fourth craving for pleasure turns a person inward, making him self-centered. He gives less, he helps less, he cares less, he sacrifices less or not at all. And when we are focused on serving others, we have less distractions from what is truly important.
Colossians 3:1-2 If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things of the earth.
Even a member of God's church can become a slave to passions and pleasures when he allows malice, envy, and hatred into his life.
Titus 3:3-5 For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy, He saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit.
God warns us in Haggai 1:2-11, that greedy ways result in our putting our income in bags with holes. Some people wait for more leisure and wealth before they give their time and money to God. Often they are dissatisfied with their lives and deceive themselves to think that temporary material things are going to make them happy. Not so! It will never make them completely happy.
Why pursue temporary material things when pursuit of God's way of life results in permanent and eternal things? There is just no comparison between the material things of the world and those spiritual things of God. They are permanent and they are eternal. Why would we ever want to trade off what we have in this material world for that? I mean, what we have rather than for the eternal life. We do not think that way but in our actions, sometimes we do that.
Back to James 4. We human beings are made of flesh. No surprise there. Our human existence is temporary and here today, gone tomorrow. In James 4, James speaks of the uncertainty of life,
James 4:13-14 Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit"; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.
In the Millennium the whole world will understand the purpose of life and the human potential for eternity. They will understand that during this life we were mortal heirs who may become immortal inheritors of the Kingdom of God, the Family of God. And by living in temporary dwellings during the Feast, we portray the world during the Millennium, in which everyone will understand the truth of God's plan for humanity and every obedient person will live with joy and happiness. And we very much look forward to the Millennium, but we look forward even more (which we should) to eternal life in God's Kingdom.
All flesh will eventually die. Only by receiving the seed of eternal life by way of God's Spirit can a person hope to live forever. How long is forever? There is not a definition to forever when it means eternity. I John 5:11 tells us that, as Christians, we have that eternal life abiding in us. Our physical bodies with all their imperfections, their weaknesses, and their aches and pains, are only meant to last long enough to give us the opportunity to live God's way of life. The apostle Peter expressed this thought when he was getting up in years and realized that the hour of his martyrdom was approaching as Jesus had foretold. He wrote,
II Peter 1:13-14 Yes, I think it is right, as long as I am in this tent [or this temporary dwelling, this body], to stir you up by reminding you [speaking to the church], knowing that shortly I must put off my tent, just as our Lord Jesus Christ showed me.
Today people fret about the shape of their nose or the color of their hair or the wrinkle increases that come with age and they spend their lives in anxious pursuit of more luxurious ways to pamper, clothe, shelter, and transport these temporary dwellings we call our bodies. And they miss the point entirely.
They do not understand what life is about because they do not understand that we are merely pilgrims preparing for an eternal inheritance. Our tents were not designed to last forever and they were only meant to last long enough to get us to our eternal inheritance. Then God will give us an eternal palace, if we are in the church and if we are firstfruits.
II Corinthians 5:1-4 For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed [as it is bound to be], we have a building from God, a house [that is, no longer a temporary tent] not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life.
So if we overcome and endure to the end, we will be made immortal. Paul, who himself was a tentmaker by occupation, understood and preached the reason for which we were born into these physical temporary bodies. He understood our potential and preached it.
Philippians 3:20-21 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.
The purpose for human life is to become members of the God Family as Christ is a member. If we seek first the Kingdom of God and all His righteousness, all these things will be added to us. Righteousness includes sacrifice, something that society knows nothing about, not genuinely, not correctly.
The Millennium will be marked by a society of spiritual sacrifice. We are to live a life of sacrifice by our physical and spiritual conduct, especially here at the Feast.
Romans 12:1-2 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
It is our reasonable service here at the Feast to present ourselves a living sacrifice for the use of our Creator. Hebrews 13 elaborates on this.
Hebrews 13:15-16 Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.
So, as the elect, we are to live a life of sacrifice now by offering "spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ," that the world will not be learning to offer until after they are in the Millennium, or the Last Great Day.
Under the New Covenant, the sacrifices are spiritual. That is, our act of faith, using our spiritual gifts, prayer, praise, serving, thanksgiving, and righteousness. A life of sacrifice is diametrically opposite a life of wrong desire. Jesus' apostles asked Him if the time had come for the fulfillment of the Feast of Tabernacles when the Kingdom would be restored to Israel. Every Jew knew the prophetic week ended with the seventh month of the year of God's calendar. Moses and Peter were both inspired to compare a day to 1,000 years with God.
But it was not until Christ revealed to John in the book of Revelation (in chapter 20, verses 4 and 6) that the picture became clear. The Feast of Tabernacles in the seventh month pictures a millennial Sabbath, that is, as far as we can determine, 1,000 years of rest from sin following 6,000 years under the government of Satan. That demonic government has promoted attitudes of self-righteousness, self-centeredness, covetousness, and greed. Satan's way of life is centered on get.
During the Millennium, a substantial amount of wealth will be sent to Jerusalem, the headquarters of the spirit of beings on earth. And there will be an abundance of wealth that will not be kept for themselves by the righteous nations of the earth. The wealth will be freely offered to the church of God, the Family of God, and even the Gentiles will bring wealth to Zion, a code word for the church or Jerusalem. Speaking to the church of God in the Millennium, God inspired Isaiah to describe the abundance the Gentile nations will bring as offerings. You can read about that in Isaiah 60.
Christ made the decision to sacrifice Himself. In order for us to do for others as we would like them to do for us, we must sacrifice. This is a major aspect of what the training ground of the Feast of Tabernacles is all about, not just the rejoicing. The Spirit of God leads us to rejoice while we sacrifice in service to God and each other.
The Millennium will bring with it prosperity on a grand scale for those nations that obey and fear God. And those nations are represented at the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem each year.
The millennial picture in Zechariah of every person hosting his neighbor under his vine and under his fig tree is an indication of balanced prosperity.
Zechariah 3:10 "In that day, says the Lord of hosts, "everyone will invite his neighbor under his vine and under his fig tree."
So true prosperity will be a major characteristic of the Millennium, not only in a limited way with material wealth, but even more so in spiritual and physical health. Contentment and faithfulness regarding wealth is necessary for the proper use of prosperity. Prosperity must be received with contentment for what God has given us.
I Timothy 6:6-8 Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we will carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content.
For a final scripture, please turn to Luke 16. Faithfulness in the use of wealth will be necessary in handling the prosperity of the Millennium.
Luke 16:10-11 "He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much. Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?"
We are being tested right now as to how we spend God's money here at the Feast that He has given to us to look after and to use correctly.
As spirit beings in the Kingdom of God, we will not be interested in material wealth. Material wealth rusts or it rots or it fades away. But the true riches from above, true prosperity, is the awesome blessing of salvation and eternal life, and the wisdom to use whatever God commits to our trust righteously and faithfully.
The Kingdom of God always prospers! What a wonderful place it will be with beings who have the mind of Christ using that prosperity in a giving and a loving way for the betterment of others. What a life that will be!
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