People are increasingly using the terms prosperity and flourishing. The English word prosperity often reflects several different Hebrew and Greek words. Unlike English, prosperity in the Bible seldom refers to financial success, but generally points to achieving growth, goodness, and prudence in life. Generally, such a state is the result of following God’s will. Individuals and organizations can achieve prosperity.
Some writers anglicize a Hebrew word and develop the concept of prosperity under the label of shalom. It describes a state of well-being, rest, and freedom from violence. Writers in the area of poverty and racism refer to shalom.[1]
Several issues arise in the discussion of prosperity. One is the problem of works righteousness in which salvation and the good life depend on achieving a certain level of proper behavior and good deeds. The correct works results in righteousness (which means being in proper relationship with God and others). The apostle Paul opposes this doctrine held by some rabbinic Jews during the time of the NT. Some contemporary Christians mistakenly assume the OT teaches works righteousness ignoring the grace foundation of God’s relationship with Israel.
Another problem is the misunderstanding of retribution theology. Retribution theology pervades the OT and NT. Clear representations of this thinking are Psa. 1 and the beatitudes in Matt. 5. Retribution theology, when properly understood, states that life goes better when it is lived the way God describes.
Retribution theology is often misunderstood in a mechanistic way that if you do right, you will always prosper, and if you do wrong, you will always suffer. Others mistakenly argue that if you are suffering, you must have done something wrong or if you are rich, you must have done something right. Literature such as the lament psalms, Job, Habakkuk, and some of the statements of Jesus reveal that good people do suffer and evil people do prosper. A common form of this misunderstanding is the “health and wealth gospel,” or the “prosperity gospel” which promises riches and prosperity for those who engage in the speaker’s mission. The short book The Prayer of Jabez is an example of this mechanistic view of retribution theology.
Perhaps one of most sustained treatments of prosperity comes in Isa. 40-66. The material is poetic, constantly changes topics, and requires regular identification of the antecedents of pronouns, but despite the difficulties it contains some of the loftiest statements of prosperity in the Bible including these:
Isaiah 40:28-31: The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. 29 He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. 30 Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; 31 but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.
Isaiah 41:10: 10 …fear not, for I am with you, be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.
Isaiah 65:17-24 17 “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind. 18 But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. 19 I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and be glad in my people; no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress. 20 No more shall there be in it an infant that lives but a few days, or an old man who does not fill out his days, for the child shall die a hundred years old, and the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed. 21 They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. 22 They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. 23 They shall not labor in vain, or bear children for calamity; for they shall be the offspring of the blessed of the LORD, and their children with them. 24 Before they call I will answer, while they are yet speaking I will hear.”
The last statement is particularly instructive for Isaiah cites God saying that he will create a world of wonderful prosperity here and now. However, such language about new heavens and new earth is continually pushed into the future and finally into the eschaton (eternity) in the book of Revelation. The reason such prosperity does not happen now is that people do not ask God to bring this future into reality (Isa. 65:1). Isaiah, thus, identifies human sin and the wicked forces in the world as preventing such prosperity from occurring. Isaiah, however, never gives up pressing for this new world, and neither should we.
Resources on prosperity
Abraham Smith, s.v. “Prosperity,” in New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible.
Randy Woodley, Shalom and the Community of Creation.
Nicholas Wolterstorff, Until Justice and Peace Embrace.
Peter Yoder, Shalom: the Bible’s Word for Salvation, Justice, and Peace.
[1] See for example, Bryan L. Myers, Walking with the Poor, pp. 51, 113-117, 122 and Soong-Chan Rah, Prophetic Lament: A Call for Justice in Troubled Times, pp. 103-04.