a people clearly successful though certainly disobedient. Pragmatic success and spiritual failure—a strange but possible combination. So Israel is dominant if not obedient; she enjoys superiority even if she does not maintain fidelity. This text carries its admonition for God’s people in any age. For one thing, it tells us that it is possible for the believer’s life to display the marks of success and yet be a failure in the eyes of God. Christian success (whether personal or in the form of a glossy