THE COVENANT OF PROSPERITY Keep therefore the words of this covenant, and do them, that ye may prosper in all that ye do. Ye stand this day all of you before the LORD your God; your captains of your tribes, your elders, and your officers, with all the men of Israel, Your little ones, your wives, and thy stranger that is in thy camp, from the hewer of thy wood unto the drawer of thy water: That thou shouldest enter into covenant with the LORD thy God, and into his oath, which the LORD thy God maketh with thee this day: That he may establish thee to day for a people unto himself, and that he may be unto thee a God, as he hath said unto thee, and as he hath sworn unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. Neither with you only do I make this covenant and this oath; But with him that standeth here with us this day before the LORD our God, and also with him that is not here with us this day (Deut. 29:9-15).
The positive sanction of prosperity is assured on the basis of covenant-keeping. The theocentric focus of this law is God as the king of the covenant. God called His people to come before Him to ratify His covenant. There is no doubt that He initiated it. They were to respond to His call. They did not call Him; He called them.
This was an inter-generational covenant: "Neither with you only do I make this covenant and this oath; But with him that standeth here with us this day before the LORD our God, and also with him that is not here with us this day." Those who would later inherit from this generation would be bound by the same covenant stipulations. That is, the stipulations remained with the inheritance. The property could not be alienated from the legal terms that had established the original right of inheritance. This was not a seed law or a land law. It was the law of the covenant: past present, and future. This includes the church and every nation in covenant with God through the church. "Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof" (Matt. 21:43).
God's Call to Prosperity "Keep therefore the words of this covenant, and do them, that ye may prosper in all that ye do." These words constituted a call to prosperity. This was a call to dominion. It was a call to added responsibility. God expects more from those to whom He has given more than from those who have received less (Luke 12:48).
Because we live in a culture that attributes enormous importance to prosperity, we may find it difficult to believe that men need to be called to prosperity. Nevertheless, there are cultures in which envy is dominant. To own too much is to invite reprisals. The very idea of seeking prosperity is anathema in such cultures. To set oneself apart through wealth is regarded as a transgression of fundamental cultural values. This is especially true in primitive cultures.(1) This is what keeps them primitive.
A similar mentality has been pervasive in American fundamentalist circles for over a century. Economic success is considered this-worldly. To pursue it is to risk being identified as a person whose reference points are temporal rather than eternal. The same kind of hostility to wealth can be found in liberal and neo-evangelical academic circles. History professor Ronald Sider's best-selling book of the 1970's, Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger (1977), was a tract for its time. Two decades later, however, the allure of such tracts has diminished considerably. I can understand why Sider re-wrote his.(2) The lure of a well-funded retirement portfolio is much greater today. A retirement fund of half a million dollars is considered too small by professors who were cheerleaders for Sider in 1977.
This passage makes it plain that prosperity is a valid goal. This is why God has attached positive economic sanctions to His law. Obey Him, and you will tend to become wealthy. This tendency may be offset by uncharacteristic adversity, such as chronic sickness, or by a calling(3) that gains little monetary income, such as foreign missions. But on the whole, God's people are supposed to be abnormally prosperous because they are to be abnormally obedient. God rewards obedience. This means that covenant-keepers are to exercise dominion in history.
Wealth is a tool of dominion. As such, it is a legitimate goal. As surely as a tradesman seeks to own the tools that will increase his productivity, so should Christians seek to obey God's revealed laws. God's positive sanctions will pour down on those societies that obey Him. Men thus rewarded will find it easier to extend their influence into new areas or deeper into their own areas of service.
Future-Orientation The text prophesies that there will be other generations that will come under the covenant of prosperity. God was making a covenant with them, too. They might not ratify it nationally in the same way that this generation was being asked to ratify it. God would call them together to renew it every seven years (Deut. 31:10-12). He might not call them to proclaim verbally their allegiance to Him. They would not have to. Their possession of the inheritance would be proof enough that the terms of the covenant still were binding. The formal ratification by the conquest generation would represent the heirs.
If prosperity was to come to the conquest generation, why not also to each subsequent inheriting generation, as long as each would continue to uphold the terms of the covenant? The oath was binding across the generations. The covenant possessed continuity over time. Its authority would be demonstrated continually by the presence of visible sanctions. The inheritance itself was one of these sanctions.
It should have been obvious to everyone that over time, Israel's population would increase. A fixed supply of land in the face of a growing population would guarantee smaller plots for each succeeding generation. So, the inheritance was more than rural land. The economic inheritance was mainly the ability of covenant-keeping families to generate increased income. What was being guaranteed was not land but prosperity. God had delivered into the hands of Israel the secrets of amassing wealth. Would they keep the law and extend the kingdom grant? Or would they rebel?
God was setting before them a unique gift: the ability to create wealth. This process of wealth-creation could extend down through the ages. God was telling Israel that wealth was supposed to extend through the generations. This was their inheritance. It was intended to ratify the covenant: "But thou shalt remember the LORD thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day" (Deut. 8:18).
God was also setting before them a theory of history that was both linear and progressive. They could extend the covenant over centuries. This kingdom grant was theirs. It would provide their heirs with blessings. These blessings would testify to the continuing presence of God and to the continuity of His covenant. Israel's future would not be cyclical. They would not inevitably lose whatever God had given them. In fact, they could not permanently lose it, just so long as they did not break the covenant through lack of faith and lack of obedience. God was giving them a crucial tool of dominion: long-term future orientation. He was giving them the psychological basis of an upper-class mentality: faith in the future. It is this mentality that provides men with a way out of poverty.(4)
Neither linear time nor the concept of compound growth was common in any other ancient society. The concept of cyclical time was all-pervasive in the ancient world. What God was telling Israel was that continuity through time is provided by the covenant itself. A man's efforts today can lead to ever-greater wealth for his heirs. But these efforts must not be limited to thrift and technological experimentation. They must also be ethical. "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates" (Deut. 6:4-9).
Conclusion God called Israel to prosperity. He told them that their covenant ratification would extend to other people who were not present on that day. The covenant would carry down through the generations. The inheritance would constitute proof of the continuing validity of the covenant.
This was a new mental outlook for the ancient world: linear history and progressive history. History would be affected by what Israel would do that day. History would be shaped by the covenant. From Abraham before them to unnamed multitudes after them, the covenant would bind together the generations of Israel. This covenant would include growing wealth. God was not offering them per capita economic stagnation. He was offering them per capita economic growth. Prosperity means expansion: of wealth, of population, of dominion, of the kingdom grant.
Footnotes:
1. Helmut Schoeck, Envy: A Theory of Social Behavior (New York: Harcourt Brace & World, [1966] 1970), pp. 41, 295, 304, 305, 330.
2. See Appendix F: "The Economic Re-Education of Ronald J. Sider."
3. Calling: the most important thing you can do in which you would be most difficult to replace.
4. Edward C. Banfield, The Unheavenly City: The Nature and Future of Our Urban Crisis (Boston: Little, Brown, 1970), pp. 48-54.
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