If he be
earnest and honest, patient and God-fearing, he prospers; God brings
him through. His raiment doth not wax old, neither doth his foot
swell, through all his forty years' wandering in the wilderness. He
is not tired out, he does not break down, though he may have to work
long and hard. As his day is, so his strength shall be. God holds
him up, strengthens and refreshes him, and brings him through years
of labour from the thought of which he shrank when he was young.
And so the man learns that man doth not live by bread alone, but by
every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God; that not in the
abundance of things which he possesses, not in money; not in
pleasure, not even in comforts, does the life of man consist: but in
this--to learn his duty, and to have strength from God to do it.
Truly said the prophet--'It is good for a man to learn to bear the
yoke in his youth.'
After that sharp training a man will prosper; because he is fit to
prosper. He has learnt the golden lesson. He can be trusted with
comforts, wealth, honour. Let him have them, if God so will, and use
them well.
Only, only, when a time of ease and peace comes to him in his middle
age, let him not forget the warning of the latter part of the
chapter.
For there is another danger awaiting him, as it awaited those old
Jews; the danger of prosperity in old age.
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