Source of Wealth

It is interesting that Abraham told the king of Sodom, that he had sworn an oath, to Melchizedek, and therefore, to God, agreeing, that he would not take anything from the king of Sodom, so that the king of Sodom couldn't say, "I have made Abram rich" (Gen.14:23).

Abraham said, " I have lifted up my hand unto the Lord, the Most High God, the possessor of heaven and earth, that I will not take from a thread even to a shoe latchet, and that I will not take any thing that is thine, lest thou shouldest say, 'I have made Abram rich'..." (Gen.14:22-23, KJV)

"...I have lifted up my hand and sworn to the Lord, God Most High, the possessor and Maker of heaven and earth, that I would not take a thread or a shoelace or anything that is yours, lest you should say, 'I have made Abram rich'" (Gen.14:22-23, Amplified)

"I have raised my hand to the Lord, God Most High, Maker of heaven and earth...and I've sworn not to take even a thread or a shoestring. I won't take anything that's yours, so you can't say, 'I made Abram rich'" (Gen. 14:22-23, Beck)

"...I lifted up my hand to the Lord God the most high, the possessor of heaven and earth, that from the very woof thread unto the shoe latchet, I will not take of any things that are thine, lest thou say I have enriched Abram..." (Gen.14:22-23, Douay Rheims)

There are a couple observations from this narrative:

1) God is the one, through Melchizedek, that demanded that Abraham promise, by an oath, that he would take nothing from the king of Sodom.

2) God wanted the credit, as Abraham's covenant partner, for enriching Abraham's life; making Abraham rich.

3) The expectation is, that a covenant relationship with God, produces wealth.

God, the author of the covenant, would not have made Abraham promise, not to take any of the spoil from the victory in battle, which according to that culture, would have been Abraham's legal right to do so; so that the king of Sodom could not claim that he made Abraham rich, unless God knew, that riches were a direct consequence of the covenant, and that Abraham had to continue to walk by faith, with God as his total source.

The irony is that, at this point in the narrative, Abraham was already rich. When Abraham came up out of Egypt, the scriptures say, "...Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold" (Gen. 13:2). God had already made Abraham rich, He just didn't want an ungodly king taking credit for the wealth that God had blessed him with.

The two aspects emphasized by Melchizedek, were:

1) God is the possessor of heaven and earth ( He owns it all)

2) He is the deliverer (Savior) from all your enemies

Abraham gave Melchizedek tithes of all the spoil from battle (Gen. 14:20). The tithe is the sign, or the obligation of the covenant, and demonstrated that Abraham had accepted God as his God. In the same way, the tithe demonstrates who we are in covenant relationship with, and whether God is our God.

Even after these events, God again reminded Abraham of who He is:

"After these things, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, 'Fear not, Abram: I am your shield [protector/deliverer/savior], and I am your exceedingly great reward [financial source of blessing]' " (Gen.15:1).

Despite the religious resistance, to the Word of God, the scripture clearly teaches that financial wealth and prosperity, is a natural result of covenant relationship with the Father.

Deuteronomy 6:5, states that covenant loyalty is demonstrated, "...out of all your heart; out of all your soul; and out of all your strength...". In the LXX [the Greek translation of the Old Testament], the word used to translate the word "strength", [which is ("meod", 3966, Strong's) in the Hebrew], is not the Greek word (ischys), which normally has the meaning of "strength", but the Greek word used is (dynamis) [1411, Strong's]; which is where we get our English word "dynamite" from. (Dynamis) is only used in the New Testament of God's divine or supernatural power.

Just two chapters later, in Deuteronomy 8:18, the scripture says that, "you shall remember the Lord your God; for He gives to you strength (ischys) to produce power (dynamis), that He should establish His covenant which He swore by an oath to your fathers..." . This same verse, in the English translation, from the Hebrew, says, "... He gives you the power to get wealth...", where the word (dynamis), in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, is used to translate the Hebrew word for "wealth".

"Remember it's the LORD your God who gives you the power to get wealth, fulfilling His covenant He made by an oath with your fathers..." (Beck)

"...He it is who is giving to thee power to make wealth, in order to establish His covenant which He hath sworn to thy fathers..." (Young)

 This reiterates the fact that, in Deuteronomy 6:5, the emphasis is that, you are to love the Lord your God, out of all your heart; out of all your soul; and out of all your "wealth". Wealth is a natural, or supernatural consequence of covenant.

God wouldn't tell you to "love" Him, (or demonstrate your covenant loyalty to Him), out of all your wealth, if wealth was not a natural consequence of the covenant relationship. In other words, it would be unjust for God to demand giving to Him, out of your wealth, if He hadn't provided the means and the actual substance of wealth, to you. How can He justly, put a demand on your life, to give something that you don't have, unless true covenant means that wealth is part of the package ?

The relationship is that God's divine power, seen or unseen, is what causes wealth to be created in your life, and God says He is fulfilling His covenant towards you by helping you gain wealth.

We must embrace the truth of the scripture to open our minds up to this reality. If we have allowed ourselves to be religiously brainwashed, to think that poverty is a sign of true godliness, then we have made the word of God of no effect by our religious tradition (Mk.7:13; Matt.15:6), and we are impoverished spiritually, which has made us impoverished naturally.

You Are God's Best and God's Best is Yours