Deuteronomy 32:15 "But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked: thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness; then he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation."
Is there such a thing as being too prosperous? I think our immediate answer
would be a resounding "no". Yet, if we think of it in terms of
today's passage of Scripture, we can see there is a danger. We read God's
instructions to Joshua, "Only be thou strong and very courageous, that
thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant
commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou
mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest. ( 8 ) This book of the law
shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and
night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein:
for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good
success." (Joshua 1:7-8) Jesus said to His disciples, "I am come that
they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." (John
10:10) We can see God's design for His children is that we will have
success and prosperity in our lives.
The next question would need to entail us thinking, "What, exactly, is
prosperity?" We would be thinking in wrong terms if we only think of
prosperity in terms of monetary success, positional success in our work field
or society, or in terms of power. Though these things are not wrong in
themselves, the danger is in the manner in which we look at prosperity. If
showing ourselves to be prosperous in the eyes of other individuals, then we
may have a wrong attitude toward prosperity. That focus may actually be
"out of focus" in relation to God's design for our prosperity.
Jesus declared in His Sermon on the Mount, "Blessed are the poor in
spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 5:3) There is
a sense in relation to God's viewpoint that our being poor is actually a state
of being rich in comparison to the world's viewpoint. I do not understand
the "poor" in the Matthew verse to necessarily mean poor in a
monetary manner. Rather, this poor is to be considered as a state of humility
before the Lord and even before other people. When we are humble before
the Lord, we are able to enter into the blessings of the kingdom of Heaven as
we go from day to day. And at that point, we are truly prosperous with an abundance
of living.
So, what was the problem that is stated in our verse for today? First,
the term "Jeshurun" is a symbolic name for Israel (or any other
nation or individual) who thinks of themselves as being self-sufficient.
Jeshurun (the self sufficient one) waxed fat (became rich). What happened
when they thought of themselves in terms of being rich? They "forsook God
which made (them)." They suddenly turned away from the very One Who
had brought them out of their poverty in bondage, provided for their every
need, and brought them into a land that was freely given to them. They turned
from the Almighty God and placed their confidence in the "almighty
dollar".
My question today concerns our approach and attitude toward life as an
individual and as a nation. Have we become so rich that we have declined
in our thoughts concerning God? Have we come to the place that we feel
ourselves to be self-sufficient? If so, we stand on dangerous
ground. How do we esteem the "Rock of our salvation"? Do
we truly honour Him, praise Him, worship Him, exalt Him in our daily lives?
May God help us never to be so self-sufficient that we lose our need for
God.