Today’s Reading: Job 35, 36, & 37

This is becoming almost unbearable. The more I read, the more I want to scream, “You’re whole theory is based on a false assumption!” The assumption, of course, is that God makes good people prosperous and bad people have to suffer. It doesn’t work that way. Never has.

But as I read the words of Elihu, I’m reminded that even now, several thousand years later, many people still have not learned this lesson. In fact, if you turn on your TV on a Sunday morning and tune into any number of stations broadcasting a TV preacher, you will likely hear words very similar to Elihu’s:

He does not take his eyes off the righteous;
he enthrones them with kings
and exalts them forever. (Job 36:7)

….

If they obey and serve him,
they will spend the rest of their days in prosperity
and their years in contentment. (Job 36:11)

In fact, I’m sure that some of those TV preachers have used these very verses (completely out of context) to justify their “theology” of prosperity. But the TV preacher and Elihu have missed it. They have completely missed it. God does not use stuff as an indicator of righteousness. Contentment isn’t his goal for his people. In fact, if you or I spend our days content and comfortable in this incredibly broken world, we have almost certainly missed it.

One only has to look at the life, the words and the actions of Jesus to understand that the closer you are to God, the more troubled you are by this world. The closer your heart aligns with the heart of God, the more it breaks when you look at the people of this world. The more your eyes are attuned to God’s vision, the more you are filled with compassion, empathy and pain for those around you.

Those who “get it” aren’t content with this life. And even though some may prosper financially, for those who “get it,” prosperity is never the goal, or the litmus test, in their pursuit of God’s ways.