The land the Lord is bringing them into was a land of abundance. Now all that we see in the Old Testament is a shadow of what is to come. So what does this say about our life in Christ? Should it be one of unadulterated prosperity as some prosperity teaching would have us believe? The answer is yes and no. There are two reasons for the "no" part. One is that we are receiving the fullness of His blessing, we have not received it all yet. Sin still has effect, both in ourselves, in the lives of others, and in the world in general. The second is that as well as being part of the problem, we are also part of the solution. We are called to share in Christ's sufferings. So there are times that we suffer so that others can be set free. However, we need to have a clear idea of where we are going, and we should expect to receive some blessings in this life. If you try and draw up some legalistic list of what we can expect to receive now, and what will come later you will get nowhere. We are in a relationship with God.
The key time of danger comes not when threats abound, but when we are enjoying victory. For then the deceitfulness of our hearts will tend to lead us to think that we have achieved this victory by our own means and efforts. The Lord does things in our life to show us that we are utterly dependent upon Him, but we need to learn these lessons.
Now one answer to the problem is never to have any victories, that way you will never be subject to this temptation! And this is the way that much of the church seems to follow. It is not the way we are meant to follow. We need to learn to live in the victory, to follow the Lord at all times, to know that all the good things we have come from Him.
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