While doing some Bible study a while back, I ran across the phrase, “The Insanity of Prosperity.” The phrase was used by in a Bible commentary to describe how great prosperity can affect people. The phrase caught my attention so I decided to write about it.
Introduction
God built into our human nature the desire to achieve, to succeed, to accomplish, and to grow. These are all normal desires that propel us forward. We want to do better and to see our children do better and most of us work to make that happen.
However, it is essential that we understand that God gives us the ability to succeed, that God is the One who provides. If we do not understand this, and take too much credit for our successes, we might become proud in a bad way. To be sure, we are the ones doing the work, but even that capability comes from our Creator.1
Idolatry
We might just think of idolatry in terms of worshiping an object such as a statue or celestial body like the sun. As Matthew Henry points out, “Self is the great idol which all the world worships, in contempt of God and his sovereignty.”2
Smith’s Bible dictionary tells us more about modern day idolatry:
“The modern objects of idolatry are less gross than the ancient, but are none the less idols. Whatever of wealth or honor or pleasure is loved and sought before God and righteousness becomes an object of idolatry.”3
I have several examples from the Bible where we see this idolatrous behavior taken to the extreme.
Extreme Examples
Great prosperity and power, combined with great pride, can lead to warped thinking. Following are three kings that illustrate this for us.
The first example is the King of Tyre. (This where I saw the phrase, the “insanity of prosperity,” used by the Bible commentator.)
King of Tyre
In Ezekiel 28, God gives the prophet a message for the king. Verse 2 says,
“Son of man, say to the leader of Tyre, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD,
“Because your heart is lifted up
And you have said, ‘I am a god,
I sit in the seat of gods,
In the heart of the seas’;
Yet you are a man and not God,
Although you make your heart like the heart of God.””
The sentence given by God, written in about 586 BC, is that other nations will overtake them. Because of the king’s pride, God says,
“Therefore, behold, I will bring strangers upon you, the most ruthless of the nations. And they will draw their swords against the beauty of your wisdom and defile your splendor. They will bring you down to the pit, and you will die the death of those who are slain in the heart of the seas.”4
The Insanity
The King of Tyre’s condition is explained in Ellicott’s commentary,
“The point of the charge is inordinate pride, begotten of great prosperity; this prosperity, being attributed to his own powers instead of to its true source, led him to imagine himself almost more than mortal. [This is] what may be called ‘the insanity of prosperity.’ ”5
Pharaoh
Another of Ezekiel’s prophecies is written against Egypt and reveals Pharaoh’s pride. In Ezekiel 29:2 & 3, the prophet writes,
“Son of man, set your face against Pharaoh, king of Egypt,
and prophesy against him and against all Egypt. “Speak and say,
‘Thus says the Lord GOD, “Behold, I am against you, Pharaoh, king of Egypt,
The great monster that lies in the midst of his rivers,
That has said, ‘My Nile is mine, and I myself have made it.’”
God’s judgment is summarized in verse 9:
“And the land of Egypt will become a desolation and waste. Then they will know that I am the LORD. Because you said, ‘The Nile is mine, and I have made it.’”
Reverend Joseph Benson notes Pharaoh’s prosperity: “This king was, indeed, exceeding prosperous, and reigned uninterrupted for twenty-five years; by which he was so elated, as we learn from Herodotus, that he was wont to boast, that not even any god could dispossess him of his kingdom.”6
The Judgment
God’s decree against Pharaoh, Egypt, and its rivers was that Egypt would be desolate for 40 years. Even after the Egyptians returned to the land, they would thereafter remain a small and lowly nation. Egypt would “never again lift itself up above the nations,” to rule over other them.7
Biblical commentators Keil and Delitzsch, writing in the late 1800’s conclude, “The truth of the prediction in Ezekiel 29:13-16 has been confirmed by history, inasmuch as Egypt never recovered its former power after the Chaldean period.”8
Nebuchadnezzar
Another king who succumbed to this warped thinking was written about in Daniel. Nebuchadnezzar made an image for everyone to worship. It is not known what the image depicted. Bible commentators generally believe it was either an image of Nebuchadnezzar himself, or his father Nabopolassar, or of his chief god Bel.
Whatever the case, the king demanded that everyone worship the image or be killed. In Daniel 3:15b, Nebuchadnezzar says, “But if you will not worship, you will immediately be cast into the midst of a furnace of blazing fire; and what god is there who can deliver you out of my hands?”
By saying this, Nebuchadnezzar was making himself equal to, or greater than, the gods! Some time later, the king went a step further in his warped thinking. As Daniel 4:30 records for us,
“The king reflected and said, ‘Is this not Babylon the great, which I myself have built as a royal residence by the might of my power and for the glory of my majesty?’”
While Nebuchadnezzar was still speaking these words, God’s warning to him was fulfilled. Nebuchadnezzar became like a beast of the field and ate grass for a period of time.
The Warning
Just twelve months earlier, Nebuchadnezzar had a dream which was interpreted by Daniel in Daniel chapter 4. In the king’s vision, he heard an angelic watcher saying,
“And let him be drenched with the dew of heaven,
And let him share with the beasts in the grass of the earth.
“Let his mind be changed from that of a man,
And let a beast’s mind be given to him,
And let seven periods of time pass over him.
“This sentence is by the decree of the angelic watchers,
And the decision is a command of the holy ones,
In order that the living may know
That the Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind,
And bestows it on whom He wishes,
And sets over it the lowliest of men.”9
Daniel interpreted the dream for Nebuchadnezzar and warned him of the consequences of being proud. Daniel explained that unless the king humbled himself before God, he would become as a beast of the field. (Daniel 4:24, 25)
God humbled King Nebuchadnezzar for his pride. At the end of that period, the king’s reason returned to him and he, “blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever.” (Daniel 4:34) Nebuchadnezzar concludes with this:
“Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise, exalt, and honor the King of heaven, for all His works are true and His ways just, and He is able to humble those who walk in pride.” (Daniel 4:37)
Conclusion
We have looked at three examples where the pride of man rose to the point where they thought they were equal with God. The root problem for these extreme examples is that they did not give God his proper place in their lives, nor did they revere Him. They exalted themselves to the point of idolatry and God had to humble them.
Application
Most of us in the U.S. are prosperous or have the opportunity to be prosperous. We must be careful so that our prosperity and the pursuit of it, does not control our lives. We may not act like the extreme examples, but if not careful, these things could turn into idols and we could become slaves to them.
In an exchange with some Jews who had believed Him, Jesus explains how one gives up their freedom and becomes a slave. He says,
“If you abide in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” They answered Him, “We are Abraham’s offspring, and have never yet been enslaved to anyone; how is it that You say, ‘You shall become free’?” Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.”10
The prosperity and freedom that can come with it will not automatically make us slaves. But if our pursuit of it gets out of balance and becomes sin in our lives, then we make ourselves a slave.
Appendix
I have written several additional articles concerning the biblical view on money:
1 Deuteronomy 8:18 “But you shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who is giving you power to make wealth, that He may confirm His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day.”
2 Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
3 Smith’s Bible Dictionary entry for idolatry
4 Ezekiel 28:7 & 8
5 Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers on Ezekiel 28:2
6 Benson Commentary
7 Summarized from Ezekiel 29:10-16. (The quote is from verse 15.)
8 Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (The Chaldean period they refer to starts circa 568 BC.)
9 Daniel 4:15b-17 (This is the last part of Nebuchadnezzar’s vision.)
10 John 8:31-34