God is a God of abundance. There is nothing in him that smacks of insufficiency, lack or limit.
He not only created our planet; he created another eight that make up our solar system. That is all our minds can naturally accept, but God has created more. Much more.
Our sun is a star. In addition to our sun, there are an estimated 200 billion other stars in our galaxy. The closest of those stars to our solar system is called Proxima Centauri and is about 4.3 light-years away. (It would take 53 BILLION years to get there by plane!) Some of the stars we can see at night with the naked eye are more than 1,000 light-years away. And we’ve only been looking at stars in our galaxy.
If the universe were a beach, then our vast Galaxy is but one of many grains of sand. NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope can see up to 50 million of these galaxies in our universe!
Now I say all this to make the very important point that God is a God of unrelenting abundance. He was not content with a planet, a solar system, or even a galaxy, but the realm the order of him created from him is much, much larger than the most brilliant human mind can comprehend.
However, from that abundance, when we focus on the little planet Earth, we can see that God has created it with an incredible amount of wealth. There are vast natural resources found below the earth’s surface, such as minerals and oil. God gave us plants and trees that reproduce after his own kind. We have animals on the ground, birds in the air, creatures in the sea, and the sun in the sky. And in all of this, God has given us the ability to use these resources to create wealth for ourselves.
So how do we see God working all of this through his people in the Scriptures?
the old testament
Contrary to popular belief, the great people of the Bible enjoyed great wealth.
Abram was ‘exceedingly rich’ (Genesis 13:2), Jacob became ‘very rich’ (Genesis 30:43) and Isaac ‘became a very rich man and his wealth kept increasing’ (Genesis 26:13).
King David was ‘a man after God’s own heart’ (1 Samuel 13:14), but he was also incredibly rich. The Bible tells us in 1 Chronicles 29:3 that he gave all the gold and silver in his personal reserve for the construction of the Temple (millions of pounds in today’s terms, probably over a billion)!
We delight and admire the timeless truths and incredible wisdom found in the book of Proverbs. But who wrote most of it? Only the richest king who ever lived and will live, King Solomon. Once, the Queen of Sheba visited him and gasped at the extent of his wealth.
And when we look at the scale, detail, precision, expensive materials, and skilled labor that went into the construction of Solomon’s Temple, it tells its own story of wealth, abundance, and excellence.
We’re not told as many details about the prophets, but Jewish custom tells us that Isaiah came from royalty, Jonah had enough money to finance a trip to a faraway country, and Jeremiah seemed to have no problem buying £4,000 worth of land. when God instructed him (Jeremiah 32:9).
The new Testament
Even Jesus had a degree of wealth! The kings (probably quite a few more than the legal three who establish Christmas carols) brought unbelievably rich gifts at his birth. Wealthy women supported him and his 12 disciples throughout his ministry.
Jesus rightly spoke about the pitfalls of riches, but he was also comfortable with riches. He even produced it miraculously!
In his first public miracle we do not see Jesus surprising crowds by healing the sick, raising the dead, or walking on water. We see him holding a party by providing extra wine! He took 135-gallon containers used for ceremonial washing and turned the water in them into wine. And not just any old wine, but fine wine. That’s the equivalent of about 800 bottles of wine from each container – at £20 a bottle at today’s value, he’s looking at a total of £16,000 in wealth created, from each container!
We can also see when he produced a meal for the multitudes, not once, but twice! With crowds probably around 15,000 (the writers only recorded men in those days), we see Jesus taking the offering of fish and bread from the young men, blessing it, miraculously multiplying it, and feeding everyone. There were even full baskets left over! Taking the value of a tuna baguette on the market today at £1.50, we can see that Jesus created around £35,000 in wealth. Of course, the focus of the account is that he was meeting a need and teaching a principle, but he created a great deal of value for himself nonetheless. And the disciples didn’t have to go and spend that money on food themselves.
And yet to show that the beginning of the miraculous provision was not just about great wealth, we see Jesus instructing Peter to go fishing on the banks of the rivers, catch the first fish that bites, and open his mouth. In it he would find a coin that would be used for the temple tax of Jesus and Peter (Matthew 27:17).
We can browse further through the pages of Scripture to the writings of the apostle Paul. He had enough money to make three trips around the world and supported his team. He was also a tent maker (a very prosperous business). And listen to this: Scripture tells us that Paul not only knew what it meant to live in want, but he also “knew what it was to have plenty” (Philippians 4:12).
And you?
Am I saying that God wants us all to be millionaires? No. Am I saying that wealth directly equates to godliness? No. Am I saying that we should all strive to be rich? No. What I am saying is that Christians are called to greatness, but unfortunately many settle for mediocrity. Yes, there will be troubles and times of tribulation in this life, but that doesn’t negate the fact that God wants us to share in his riches. His plan is for us to prosper. He wants us to pay our bills and be out of debt. He wants us to succeed and prosper. And not just for our own good, but for the good of those in our sphere of influence.
I am not talking here about a certain amount of money that God wants to bless you with. But with the principle that God wants to bless you according to his abundant riches, just as he blessed those who obediently followed him in the Scriptures. And that blessing includes riches (The blessing of the Lord brings riches, and he adds no burden to them. Proverbs 10:15, NIV).