Prosperity and Adversity

"Consider the work of God; for who can make straight what He has made crooked? ¹⁴ In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider: surely God has appointed the one as well as the other, so that man can find out nothing that will come after him."

Ecclesiastes 7:13-14

Written by the wisest king who ever ruled, Solomon affirmed the sovereignty and goodness of God.  God allows the rain to fall upon the just and the unjust, and He allows situations we view as good and bad.  Though God's ways are higher than ours, He can be known by all as the loving, compassionate, gracious, and awesome God He is.  Knowing He is in everything and can redeem it for our good changes the way we view prosperity and adversity, for He has appointed one as well as the other.

It is erroneous to assume "bad" things which happen are of the devil, and that good things are the product of our deserving them.  God created our bodies to feel physical pain, and pain serves a useful, practical purpose.  In a similar way trials work for our good, to strengthen our faith and turn our eyes towards God in renewed hope.  When his wife urged him to curse God and die in pain and sorrow, the response of Job is recorded in Job 2:10:  "Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?"  The things men or even Satan meant for evil God can use for good.

During the reign of King Solomon the nation of Israel enjoyed prosperity and peace to a degree previously unknown.  After Solomon's death, however, the nation was suddenly divided when the northern kingdom rebelled against the rule of Rehoboam, his son.  When Rehoboam amassed an army to fight against the northern kingdom which had crowned Jeroboam king to reclaim it, God revealed through the man of God what He had previously said:  "This thing is from me."  Knowing the division was from God prompted Rehoboam to accept what he once previously fought against.  The situation was from God, and God was for him.  The wise find cause for rejoicing in God regardless of circumstances, for God is worthy to be praised and our hope, life, and peace is in Him.

The God who divided Israel into northern and southern kingdoms would purify His people through many trials and difficulties:  the northern kingdom would collapse and fall, Jerusalem's walls would be breached, the Temple broken apart and plundered, and God's people would be brought into captivity in Babylon.  But the God who kills also makes alive, and true to His promise God delivered His people from bondage and caused them to return to the land of their fathers and be restored.  No longer would they be entrenched in idolatry as before but would worship the God of their fathers.  God at times employs temporary adversity to prepare the way for enduring prosperity.  Prosperity and adversity come from the LORD, and all who trust in Him find rest for their souls.