Leviticus 26 - Prosperity or poverty?

The first part of Leviticus is full of blessings, the second, and longer, part of full of bad news. There are some parts of the church that preach a "prosperity gospel", there are others who effectively preach a "poverty gospel", and there are still others who seem to preach a "God doesn't really make a difference" gospel. So before moving onto the rest of this chapter it might be helpful to take a realistic, and hopefully Biblical, look at this matter and how we should approach life.

First, it is not true that if only we had enough faith and obedience then we would have perfect health and untold wealth. In the coming year somethings will go wrong in our life, there will be some suffering. This will happen for (at least) four reasons:

• There is still sin in our lives. We are being sanctified, but this is a process, and will not be completed until Christ returns. So we will suffer some of the consequences of this (though God does spare us from an awful lot).
• There is sin in other peoples lives, and most of these people have not even repented and turned to Christ. So we will suffer because of their sin.
• We are all imperfect and make mistakes. Again, God spares us from a great deal, but we will still suffer some of the effects.
• Part of the package is sharing in Christ's sufferings. God's kingdom advances when people are prepared to pay a price, prepared to suffer for the sake of the kingdom and for the sake of other people. Sharing in Christ's work is part of the blessing and glory of the gospel.

So there will be some suffering, sometimes a terrible amount. Now God will use this (i) as part of the process of sanctification in our lives; and (ii) as part of the process of building the kingdom.

Now let's go on to the blessings. We are now in the kingdom of light, we are no longer under the dominion of darkness, so let me tell you what else will happen this year. There will be times in this year when I experience new revelation from God, new awareness of His love and magnificence. There will be some problems and issues in my life that get resolved. There will be some seemingly insurmountable problems and situations where I experience victory. There will be areas of life where I experience new levels of progress and success. I will see more of God's goodness.

Not every problem will be resolved, not every sin and weakness will be dealt with, but there is no circumstance, and sin or weakness, in your life that cannot be dealt with.

We need to look forward with faith, hope and love. We need to be realistic, but we also should have great expectations. Our faith in Christ should gives us hope and strength to live life to the full, and to be overcomers.