If you want to argue concerning the significance (or unsignificance) of blessings and curses in the New Covenant, please don't do so in this thread. For those inclined to such a position, I would recommend reading the below referenced book in it's entirity before letting your beliefs solidify. The following is taken from "Blessing or Curse" by Derek Prince, pp. 53-56 (Chosen Books, July, 2003, my bold)..._________________________________________________Two related phrases from Deuteronomy 28 are: "Cursed shall be your basket and your needing bowl" or trough (17); "You shall not prosper in your ways" or you will be unsuccessful in everything you do (29).The full ourworking of this curse, however, is most graphically presented in verses 47-48:"Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things, therefore you shall serve your enemies, whom the Lord will send against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakendness, and in need of all things."Moses here presents two opposite alternatives. Verse 47 describes God's will for His obedient people: to "serve the Lord your God with joy and gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things." The NIV renders this: to "serve the Lord your God joyfully and gladly in the time of prosperity."Verse 48 describes the curse that will come on God's people if they are disobedient: to "serve your enemies, whom the Lord will send against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in need of all things." Consider what is depicted in this verse: hunger, thirst, nakedness and need of all things. Combine all four elements into one situation, and the result can be defined in a single phrase: absolute poverty.Taken together, verses 47 and 48 point to a simple conclusion: prosperity is a blessing and poverty is a curse.Over the centuries, however, a tradition has developed within the Christian Church that poverty is a blessing. Certainly God has great compassion on the poor, and Christians should have the same attitude and be willing to make great personal sacrifices on their behalf. But Scripture never suggests that God inflicts poverty as a blessing upon His believing people. In this respect, the revelation of the New Testament harmonizes with that of the Old. In 2 Corinthians 9:8 Paul sums up the abundance of God's provision for Christians:"And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, have an abundance for every good work."In this one terse sentence Paul doubles and redoubles his words to emphasize the generosity of God's provision for His people. The word abound or abundance occurs twice. The word all- or its equivalent- occurs five times: all grace... always... all sufficiency in all things... every good work. Such is the measure of God's provision. It transcends mere sufficiency and lifts us to a level of abundance, where we have something over and above our own needs and can minister to the needs of others. It would be unscriptural, however, to interpret poverty and abundance by the materialistic standards of contemporary Western civilization. In John 6:38 Jesus revealed the motivation of His life on earth: "For I have come down from heaven not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me." The motivation of the disciple must be the same of that of the Master: to do God's will.It is from this perspective that "poverty" and "abundance" must be defined. Poverty is having less than all you need to do God's will in your life. The greater gap between what you need and what you have, the greater the degree of poverty. Abundance, on the other hand, is having all you need to do God's will- and something over to give to others. God's abundance is not provided for us to squander on carnal self-indulgence, but for every good work, that is, sharing with others the blessings of grace that have enriched our own lives.When poverty and abundance are interpreted in this way, it follows that there is no absolute standard that can be applied to all Christians. The standard for each believer must be determined in relation to the will of God for his or her life.These conclusions about poverty and abundance need to be furhter qualified in two ways. First, we must recognize that faith to appropriate God's abundance is certain to be tested. There may be periods when we have to content ourselves with the barest sufficiency.. Such periods, however, should be temporary. Once our motives have been purified and our faith has stood the test, God will release His abundance in the measure that He can trust us to use for His glory.Second, we must recognize also that there is a higher level of wealth than just the material. When Moses turned his back on the wealth and luxury of Egypt and settled in a remote corner of the desert, the writer of Hebrews says that he esteemed "the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt" (Hebrews 11:26). Moses did not settle for poverty. He exchanged material riches for riches of a higher order. In the same way today, there is the kind of Christian who renounces material wealth deliberately in order to serve God in a sitution where wealth would be an encumbrance. Often this is a prerequisite for identifying with the poor and oppressed of the earth. In Proverbs 13:7 Solomon contrasts such a person with one whose only wealth is material:"There is one who makes himself rich, yet has nothing; And one who makes himself poor, yet has great riches."There are also many Christians in our day who are enduring affliction and persecution for Christ's sake. They may be deprived of everything that could be described as material wealth, but in its place they are heirs to wealth of a higher order. Nevertheless, this does not alter the basic nature of persistent material poverty. Where this is not the direct outcome of commitment to Christ, it is normally a mark of a curse, whether it affects an individual, a family or a larger social group._________________________________________________"Used by permission of Chosen Books, a division of Baker Book House Company, copyright (c) 19__. All rights to this material are reserved. Materials are not to be distributed to other web locations for retrieval, published in other media, or mirrored at other sites without written permission from Baker Book House Company." www.bakerbooks.com
