“God wants you to be happy,” we hear. “Ask God for anything, and he will give it to you if you really believe in your heart.” “Sickness and suffering are not a part of God’s plan for your life.” Such is a theology born not of the Bible but of the prosperity gospel, which looks more like the kingdom of man than the kingdom of God.
But we find a different story in the Bible. The author of Hebrews gives us a glimpse of this different story in his “Hall of Faith” of Chapter 11. We have seen it clearly in the life of Moses, and many others, in our recent studies of Hebrews 11, in particular.
By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward. (Hebrews 11:24-26).
Moses, who, as the son of Pharaoh, was swimming in rooms of money, turned his back on worldly prosperity to pursue the purposes of God. He rejected comfort for the cause of the Lord. He gave up Pharaoh’s golden crown for Christ’s grisly cross.
In the same way, God calls us through his word to reject the gold-fever of this world for a greater purpose—to know and follow his son, Jesus. Possessing gold is not the same as embracing the prosperity gospel. Rather, the danger we face is not so much the gold we have but the gold that owns us. Whoever or whatever is competing against the Lord Jesus Christ for your full affection could be your gold.
But at the same time, what is gold to you might not be gold to me, and what is gold to me might not be gold to you. God does not call two of us to do the same people, but he does call us all to decide on our gold or our God.
Whatever comes between you and obedience to the Lord is a sin. That is why God’s word commends Moses for giving up the world’s gold for God’s glory. He gave up everything and anything that stood in the way of perfect obedience to God.
We all must grieve deeply in our hearts at the way the prosperity proponents talk about faith. They actually make greed into a virtue. Have faith to be rich. Have faith to be pampered. Have faith to be healthy. Have faith to get whatever, and whenever you want in life.
Such is a fake faith. According to the Word of God, faith is the willingness to let God rule supreme in everything. Faith says, “Have your own way, Lord.” Faith says, “I am willing to give up my gold for God’s glory any time.”
Such is what Moses did. He left Pharaoh’s palace for forty years to tend sheep in Midian. It was during this time that God retrained Moses on the meaning of prosperity, faithfulness, and purpose.
God was preparing Moses to long for the reward that only comes from God: the prosperity of a purposeful life, the blessing of being in God’s will, and the freedom of fellowship with God.
Choosing eternal treasure. The problem with those who promote the prosperity gospel is not that they want too much from God but that they settle for too little. Jesus reminds us that the treasure we lay up on earth is exposed to the destructive power of moth and rust and thieves. But the treasure we lay up in heaven is a safe investment, according to Matthew 6:19-20.
The short-term satisfaction of a pool full of money, sickness-free life and suffering could never compare to the security of an eternal reward. Moses decided that instead of spending his life collecting sand in a sieve, he would pursue a reward he could never lose.
Moses did not have to wait until death to experience the treasure of God’s glory. He walked with God. He spoke with him face-to-face. He knew God and was known by God. And here we are, almost 3,500 years later, still talking about a man born to a slave woman in Egypt: Moses, the man of faith! The man who walked with God!
