Prompt: Marriage, children, and wealth, by Thomas Kinkade

"God bless you!"

We usually hear this greeting among Christians. It is a prayer wishing the well-being of the person you are talking to.

In the previous article, I shared about the blessing of God as a cure to hostility. We learned from the Bible that God's blessing comes to us first before this blessing will work through us.

In reading the story of Jacob's life, we see that the blessing uttered by his father in Genesis 27:29 in the name of God worked out in Genesis chapters 29 and 30. The blessing of God came to Jacob's life in concrete forms:

• in his marriage

• in having children, and

• in increasing his wealth

Of course, this blessing did not come easy. There were struggles that Jacob must overcome and that's part of life.

In this post, I would like to share with you these concrete expressions of God's blessing in the form of prayer.

I pray that God will bless the readers of this article with a happy marriage.

To those who have been married for many years, I just want to ask this question:

Are you happy in your married life? How about those who have been married for less than ten years? Are you happy with your spouse?

I believe that those who are still single are aspiring that someday you will find your special someone who will give you a big smile on your face that no parents can give. I also believe that as parents we wish our kids that when they grow up and are ready to have their own family, they will have a happy marriage.

Unfortunately, having a happy marriage does not happen accidentally. It is a result of God's blessing. Proverbs 18:22 says:

He who finds a wife finds what is good and receives favor from the LORD.

In the New Living Translation, it reads like this:

The man who finds a wife finds a treasure, and he receives favor from the LORD.

The same thing is true in finding a husband. It is also like finding a treasure.

There is this famous Christian love song that says like this:

I don't need to follow any rainbows
Search the world to find my dream come true
And I don't need a lucky star to guide me
I found my treasure in you

In other words, finding a wife or a husband is like finding a treasure. Have you thought about that? Have you thought that your wife or your husband is your treasure? You should.

Someone said that the greatest gift a father can give to his children is to love their mother. The same thing is true in the case of the mother. The greatest gift a mother can give to her children is by remaining faithful and loving their father.

A happy marriage is a sign of God's favor. It is a concrete expression of God's blessing.

During Old Testament times, their marriage custom was different from ours. Jacob had four wives. Among his four wives, Rachel was his favorite. This caused rivalry and tension within the family. This teaches us that polygamy is not the ideal goal in marriage.

Marriage is a special arrangement instituted by God himself between two individual persons. It should be an exclusive relationship and no other has the right to interfere in such exclusivity. This is why in the Bible adultery is punishable by death. An act of adultery is an act of marriage dissolution. It means, covenantally, marriage is already dead.

However, though adultery ends marriage causing its death, in Christ there is always hope. Jesus is the God of resurrection. There is life beyond death. The power of the gospel can bring a dead marriage back to life.

And so it is my prayer for the readers of this article that you will have a happy marriage and that your marriage will reflect the relationship of Jesus to his bride, the church. And please don't follow Jacob. Jacob had a terrible married life due to the prevalent practice of polygamy during those days. But the blessing of God worked in his life despite human shortcomings.

I pray that God will bless the readers of this article in having healthy and God-fearing children.

One impressive observation in reading about the family life of Jacob, you will see that all the names of his children are either related directly or indirectly to God. Their names show this.

• Reuben's name means "the Lord has seen my misery"

• Simeon means "the Lord hears"

• Levi means "attached"

• Judah means "praise"

• Dan means "God has vindicated"

• Naphtali means "struggle"

• Gad means "good fortune"

• Asher means "happy"

• Issachar means "God has rewarded"

• Zebulun means "honor"

• Joseph means "may the Lord add" and

• Benjamin means "son of my right hand"

Source: NIV Bible

All in all, Jacob had 12 sons and one daughter, Dinah. That's a big family. This family grew into a nation. The name of each of Jacob's sons became a tribe after so many years. A powerful nation emerged from Jacob's family as a result of God's blessing.

I do not know what will happen to your future. Perhaps, one of your children will become a business tycoon someday. No one knows. Or perhaps, one of them will become a pastor of a big church or will make a great contribution in his chosen field.

The most important thing in raising children is to raise them in the fear of the Lord. Once you achieve that, you can rest and have peace in your mind that no matter what challenges you face in life, all will be well for God is with them.

I pray that God will bless the readers of this article by increasing your personal property.

Since my encounter with Gary North, I have been talking a lot about reading a biblical text from an economic lens. This is very important. Most pastors ignore economic realities and after reading stories like this, they tend to spiritualize it. As a result, they fail to grasp economic insights that will greatly improve their way of life.

Our text says that Jacob became very wealthy. He

grew exceedingly prosperous and came to own large flocks, maidservants and menservants, and camels and donkeys (Genesis 30:43).

Yes he resorted to some tricks, which his father-in-law and brothers-in-law interpreted as "stealing" (Genesis 31:1). And so we see here like in the case of Abraham and Lot, property causes misunderstanding and conflict even among siblings. This is because of envy.

In our time, envy has been legalized and institutionalized. Exodus 20:5 is being violated by policymakers today in the name of equality and justice. For us Christians, the Ten Commandments provide us with a stable standard of justice. The eighth commandment is very clear that private property has a biblical basis and theft both in its ancient and modern forms is a violation of this law.

In what way, this law is being violated in our time? To answer this, we must first compare the Old Testament economy to the modern-day economy.

An economic system in the Old Testament is described as pastoral. In that type of economic system, the role of animals, particularly domestic ones is very important. Like today, animals serve as sources for food production such as milk and meat. Other uses of animals include as raw materials for garments and as a means of transportation. It is no wonder therefore that wealth in the Old Testament is measured in terms of huge quantities of livestock.

Today, someone's wealth is no longer measured in terms of possessing a huge number of animals. Instead, someone's wealth is measured in terms of the size of your bankbook, the number of your paper assets, the total amount of your equities, and just recently owning digital assets. People think that these types of wealth are secured from the hands of thieves. Perhaps yes, in the case of digital assets that are truly decentralized; they cannot be stolen by policy-makers.

But as long as you remain in the legacy system, your personal property is not safe. With the widespread influence of various forms of socialism (interventionism, welfarism, central planning, progressive taxation, Statism, corporatism, and crony capitalism), stealing has already been institutionalized. I see this as the economy of theft. Remember that all these versions of socialism are hostile to private property. And the most subtle form of stealing is using legislation. Frederic Bastiat exposed this as a "legal plunder."

Unknown to many, legal plunder is widespread in our time. Most politicians are concerned only with the visible and short-term effects of economic policies. As a result, they fail to see the "unseen," the indirect and long-term consequences of laws made for the sake of the poor. In reality, these policies are subtle ways to steal the property of others, in the name of redistributing wealth under the banner of "justice." This economy of theft is violating the eighth commandment and we cannot violate it without suffering the necessary consequences. No wonder, the global economy is in crisis.

It is my prayer that Christians will read the Bible carrying with them the pressing questions of our day: spiritual, moral, and economic. We confidently believe that the Bible has the answer to these questions. As we discover the answers to these questions, we will find ways and means to protect our property and the future of our family from institutional theft.

Conclusion

The blessing of God is not an empty greeting or prayer. It is real and powerful. It touches the day-to-day realities of our lives. I do pray that God will bless you with a good marriage, with godly children, and with growing property.