Settled

“The sons of Reuben and the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh, consisting of valiant men, men who bore shield and sword and shot with bow and were skillful in battle, were 44,760, who went to war. They made war against the Hagrites, Jetur, Naphish and Nodab. They were helped against them, and the Hagrites and all who were with them were given into their hand; for they cried out to God in the battle, and He answered their prayers because they trusted in Him. They took away their cattle: their 50,000 camels, 250,000 sheep, 2,000 donkeys; and 100,000 men. For many fell slain, because the war was of God. And they settled in their place until the exile. Now the sons of the half-tribe of Manasseh lived in the land; from Bashan to Baal-hermon and Senir and Mount Hermon they were numerous. These were the heads of their fathers' households, even Epher, Ishi, Eliel, Azriel, Jeremiah, Hodaviah and Jahdiel, mighty men of valor, famous men, heads of their fathers' households. But they acted treacherously against the God of their fathers and played the harlot after the gods of the peoples of the land, whom God had destroyed before them. So the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul, king of Assyria, even the spirit of Tilgath-pilneser king of Assyria, and he carried them away into exile, namely the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh, and brought them to Halah, Habor, Hara and to the river of Gozan, to this day.”

1 Chronicles 5:18-26

There are so many stories about the people of Israel and their ridiculous propensity to fall into sin, cry out for rescue, be rescued, only to fall into sin again. I keep reading and hoping that they'll get it right one day. Though, I suppose if someone were to read my story they'd see the same cycle and (maybe?) have the same hope. Still, it seems so odd that in this passage, for these people, a mere 5 verses was all it took for them to go from victory to destruction. What in the world happened?

"They settled into their place," "lived in the land," and "they were numerous."

An even more succinct way of putting it: they prospered.

And in their prosperity they turned to idolatry.

There's an important lesson for me in this passage. Where there is warfare, I am more prone to depend upon and cry out to the Lord. I am more inclined to have a heart oriented toward trust in God and gratitude for every moment that I 'survived.' It's war, and the struggle tests my allegiance.

But, life is not always war. There are also times of peace. There are times of prosperity. And these are the times in which I am most prone to grow comfortable, to forget the war and the One Who carried me through it. War may test my allegiances, but peace is what reveals them.

This is why the heresy of the so-called "prosperity gospel" is so dangerous. People find it very easy to cry out to God in their troubles. Even atheists, agnostics, and otherwise non-believing people tell stories of praying, of throwing up a 'Hail Mary' in their desperation. "Jesus take the wheel," they say, "but only when I'm absolutely at my very end and I can't do anything else for myself anymore." However, with the prosperity gospel, people are taught that God intends to bless and to give abundantly to His children. This much is true. But, what happens when tragedy strikes? What happens when their "seed gift" doesn't return a hundred fold as promised? What happens when the loved one that He supposedly healed gets worse or dies?

It turns out that they've been deceived into believing that blessing is the only thing God intends for His children. It turns out that, in the land of plenty, their true allegiance has been revealed - and it's not to God. It's to His blessings. It's to the good, comfortable things in life. It's allegiance to some mutated form of faith, some false god that offers no explanation for the suffering in this world and expects people to live in some fantasy world where difficulties apparently don't affect his followers. The problem is, that doesn't present the world as it actually is, as we know it to be.

Just like the Reubenites, Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh discovered, our prosperity, if not properly understood and oriented in gratitude to God, leads us down the path of comfort to idolatry. Idolatry of what? In the passage, the people had cities. They were surrounded by the people of the land. So, we don't know for certain, but we can guess that there was probably idolatrous materialism. We are indeed told that they "played the harlot after the gods of the peoples of the land." There's was a very literal idolatry. But, in our prosperity we do the same thing. We turn to different idols, but idols nonetheless. Technology, opinions of others, sports, etc. We even idolize comfort itself. Our hearts, Luther's 'idol factories,' love to take good things and make them gods in our own images.

And again, just like the people here discovered, we learn something more about who God is and how He relates to people. Idolatry leads to exile, separation from God. When we refuse to give up our idols and give our worship to God, we too end up in exile. In the present, this means being separated from His presence, His protection, and even what we began idolizing in the first place - His promises of prosperity. In the ultimate sense, it means eternal separation from God in hell. Only when we surrender our lives, in wartime and in peace, trusting in Christ as our Savior and turning to Him as Lord, do we find escape and salvation. In Him alone is the right kind of prosperity - that which leads to gratitude for and worship of God. In Him alone do we find peace and rest in suffering. In Him alone do we find a way to live that actually makes sense of the world that God created for us.

So, remember in the midst of the battle that victory belongs to the Lord. Trust Him to fight for you. Take refuge in the shadow of His wings. But, don't forget in times of peace and prosperity how you got there, and Who it was that made it possible. Being settled and prosperous is a good thing. The danger lies in worshiping those good things, rather than the Giver of them.