Joshua 1:7-9 - Prosperity Gospel
- Chad Werkhoven
- 3 minutes ago
- 4 min read
Learn to chew your spiritual cud. Yes, you read that correctly.
Joshua 1:6–9
CONTEXT: After a decades long exodus through the wilderness, Israel is on the banks of the Jordan River, ready to enter Canaan. Moses has died, and God is calling Joshua to lead, and reminding him what the keys to true prosperity and success are.
5 No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you. 6 Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their fathers to give them.
7 “Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law (tô·rāh) my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. 8 Keep this Book of the Law (tô·rāh) always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”
Canons of Dordt
Point 5 - Perseverance of the Saints
Article 14: God’s Use of Means in Perseverance
And, just as it has pleased God
to begin this work of grace in us by the proclamation of the gospel,
so he preserves, continues, and completes his work
by the hearing and reading of the gospel,
by meditation on it,
by its exhortations, threats, and promises,
and also by the use of the sacraments.
Summary
God makes two primary promises to the newly minted leader of His people - promises that extend to you as well. The first promise is one we've become very familiar with in this past year: God's grace is stronger than you are. God tells Joshua that no one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life. In other words, as the Apostle Paul would rhetorically put it - writing thousands of years later and in a different language, but inspired by the exact same Holy Spirit - if God is for us, who can be against us? (Romans 8:31).
The reason you can have such strong certainty and assurance is because of God's omnipresence. We often describe this word as meaning that God is everywhere all the time, which is true, but here God personalizes the concept, telling Joshua (and us) that I will be with you; I will never leave you or forsake you. In other words, God will always be omnipresent in your life; therefore, be strong and very courageous (a command God repeats three times in today's short passage!).
The second promise God makes here just sounds plain wrong. Maybe you also have a visceral reaction to what's often referred to as the prosperity gospel, in which a celebrity huckster 'preacher' twists Biblical truth into some contrived formula to make all your wildest dreams come true. Such heretics ought to make you sick and angry!
But don't miss what God promises His people: He tells them, in no uncertain words, that they will be prosperous and successful! Generally speaking, when you do everything written in the Book of the Law, things will go well for you. But going well does not always equate to wealth and riches. Divine prosperity and success is defined by a disciple who does not turn from the tô·rāh to the right or to the left. In other words, true success is achieved when you look like Christ, who perfectly kept the tô·rāh on your behalf.
Dig Deeper
God doesn't just lay out the possibility of prosperity and success, He explains exactly how to achieve it. He instructs His people to keep this tô·rāh always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. In the Old Testament, words like laws, precepts, commandments, and several other synonyms don't just refer to the lists of rules that Moses handed down. Rather, they're shorthand for all of God's Words.
Chances are you have the same visceral reaction to a word like meditation that you do for prosperity gospel. The practice has been hijacked by hippies and 'mindfulness' advocates, who promote it as a way to empty your mind in order to harmonize it with its surroundings. This is NOT AT ALL what God means!
True Biblical meditation is just the opposite: it's about filling your mind with truth, not emptying it. And the best way - really the only way - to do so is through the continual consumption of scripture. Whereas most translations use the word meditate, the NET Bible renders God's command to memorize it [God's Word] day and night. The Hebrew word literally means to mutter. In other words, keep your mind filled with Scripture by keeping your mouth filled with it. Read it, recite it, sing it, pray it and memorize it.
Most of our readers live in a rural setting, so you'll get this illustration a bit quicker than your urban brethren. Do what cows do. They eat - voraciously. Then they lie down and chew their cud. You can't actively read the Bible every minute of the day. But you can - and must - learn to chew your spiritual cud. Recall what you've read and heard, and then chew on it through all of your other activities.
ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, who will never leave or forsake us;
ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that you'll keep God's Word always on your lips, meditate on it day and night, so that you might be careful to do everything written in it;
ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:
Read the New Testament in a year! Today: Revelation 17
Comments