Before we leave our survey of money and economics in the Pentateuch, we need to consider the concept of blessings and curses. We have already seen how possessions were included in the promise of blessing to Abraham. This concept of blessing is picked up again later in the Pentateuch:
If you walk in my statutes and observe my commandments and do them, then I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. Your threshing shall last to the time of the grape harvest, and the grape harvest shall last to the time for sowing. And you shall eat your bread to the full and dwell in your land securely.
(Leviticus 26:3-5)
This blessing is conditional: it has an “if... then” structure. The blessings are largely physical, as seen in the agricultural prosperity mentioned here. There will be plenty to eat and to spare:
You shall eat old store long kept, and you shall clear out the old to make way for the new.
(Leviticus 26:10)
Leviticus 26 also lays out the consequences of disobedience, and this passage is twice as long as that which lays out the blessings of obedience. These include sickness, enemies, drought, cannibalism, exile, and fear. Many of them are the opposite of the blessings promised, including lack instead of plenty:
When I break your supply of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in a single oven and shall dole out your bread again by weight, and you shall eat and not be satisfied.
(Leviticus 26:26)
A similar list of blessings and curses is found in Deuteronomy 28:
And if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God. Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field. Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock. Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.
(Deuteronomy 28:1-6)
What does it mean for a kneading bowl to be “blessed”? It doesn't refer to miraculous multiplication of loaves, but simply having plenty to eat. In an agricultural society, this means having good rains (plenty of it, and at the right times):
The Lord will open to you his good treasury, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hands. And you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow.
(Deuteronomy 28:12)
Prosperity means having enough money to lend out, while lack means having to borrow money. (The opposite of how some people view debt today, where the capacity to borrow large amounts is seen as a sign of prosperity!)
Disobedience, however, brings a curse:
Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Cursed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock.
(Deuteronomy 28:17-18)
Rain is a blessing, while drought is a curse:
And the heavens over your head shall be bronze, and the earth under you shall be iron. The Lord will make the rain of your land powder. From heaven dust shall come down on you until you are destroyed.
(Deuteronomy 28:23-24)
How are we to understand these passages as Christians? Do the blessings and curses still apply to us?
On the one hand, Charles Spurgeon says, “Indeed, it has been said, with much truth, that the Old Testament promise was one of prosperity, but that the New Testament promise is one of tribulation.” On the other hand, the Westminster Confession of Faith appeals to Leviticus 26 to argue that the law is the rule of life for the Christian:
The threatenings of it [the law] serve to show what even their [the regenerate's] sins deserve; and what afflictions, in this life, they may expect for them, although freed from the curse thereof threatened in the law. The promises of it, in like manner, show them God’s approbation of obedience, and what blessings they may expect upon the performance thereof: although not as due to them by the law as a covenant of works.
(WCF XIX.6)
The two uses of “although” are helpful and instructive here: we suffer afflictions in this life as a consequence of sin, but we are freed from the curse of the law; we receive blessing for our obedience, but not because we deserve it.
The way to resolve these tensions is to understand that Jesus has suffered the curse for us:
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”— so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.
(Galatians 3:13-14)
If Jesus took the curse for his elect, ultimately there is only blessing in store for them, no matter what persecution, affliction, or tribulation they suffer in this life. Conversely, for the reprobate there is ultimately only cursing, no matter what prosperity or wealth they enjoy in this life. The blessings and the curses of the covenant still apply: for covenant-keepers, everything ends up as blessing, since Jesus took the covenantal curse upon himself; for covenant-breakers, all these blessings are turned into a curse. In this way, we need to take a long-term – or eschatological – view of things. This is not so much “spiritualising” the promises as looking at the bigger picture – beyond this life.
We will explore this further when we look at relevant New Testament passages, but for now it should be clear that this provides the groundwork for a biblical view of wealth: it is never sure evidence that a person is right with God.