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+--- Thread: What Is Your Treasure? (/thread-826.html)
What Is Your Treasure? - Ed Hurst - 07-04-2021
In the Old Testament, as was typical across the entire Ancient Near East, a man's greatest treasure was the people under his dominion. He could lose everything material, but if he had good people in his household, he could rise again to wealth. So it's natural that the whole focus of our worldly ambitions should be people. This is part of the meaning of shalom -- the focus is on people as the greatest treasure God could ever give you.
Thus, I've taught that when running a business under the Covenant, the primary objective is to employ and prosper as many people as possible. It's not a matter of putting money in the bank; God will take care of that. You just focus on bringing a good level of prosperity to as many people as possible. Furthermore, your moral obligation is to start with your own kin. Pull in as many family members as possible as employees before you start branching out into hiring more distant family. That's God's Word.
Every entity that violates this principle is blessed only by Satan. Even when a business management favors, say quality of the product, over mere profit-taking, then they will be blessed to some degree by God. Not so much the operation itself, but the people involved will be personally blessed, because that's how God does things. Whether that means God will prosper their business operations is much more complicated, but the underlying truth remains that God does what is in their best interest if they open the doors to Him.
Keep in mind that some very hideous operations are allowed to prosper for the sake of becoming a scourge in God's hands. His plans will ever be inscrutable to us, but the principles of shalom remain. It's not human need as measured by humans; God puts moral blessings first. A critical element in those moral blessings is that we strive to bless people who place themselves under our covering in any way.
Your greatest treasure is people. All material goods exist to bless the Lord's name through blessing people.