The Nature of True Blessings

 Enrichment is more important than riches.

Jon Tyson

 

THE TRICKY THING about discussing blessings is that the word means so many different things to different people.

Many consider the word only in financial terms.

Some pastors, because of ignorance or deliberate misinterpretation of the Scriptures, teach that mountains of cash is a birthright for the child of God. Are you a believer, but are not rich? Then you do not have enough faith.

So the thinking goes.

Setting aside the charlatans for a moment, those who honestly come by their interpretation of the promises of Proverbs—that blessings are all about the material world—could be forgiven for such a shallow interpretation.

Yes, the Wealthy Can Be Godly. Here's What It Takes.

 Lessons from one of the richest men of the Bible.

Mubariz Mehdizadeh

The book of Job is underrated.

While other passages and tomes get all the love, Job offers poignant and practical lessons regarding some of the most existential questions humans face. These lessons are myriad: faithfulness, suffering, evil, God's silence, integrity, holiness, justice, and more.

An important lesson we see right in the beginning is one that was not even a question for the book's original audience: the congruence of wealth and godliness.

As we read the first few verses of the book of Job, the narrative describes Job as both "blameless and upright" (1:1) and wealthy. In fact the passage describes Job as the wealthiest man of the east. (Such a designation probably means east of the Jordan river.)

In the ancient near east way of thinking, these two statuses should co-exist. Riches and honor result from integrity and faithfulness to God. Although the passage details no causal relationship between Job's godliness and his wealth, ancient minds would have read as much into the story. Whether or not such an inference is justifiable is up to interpretation.

Nevertheless, today we (and I mean culture in general) often villainize or look down upon the wealthy. We assume that they are greedy or unethical and love to take advantage of others.

Where do we get such notions?