The Biblical View of Economics, No. 2

RV119-01

Our Daily Food

Starvation thus turns people to violence and to desperation moves – moves that include eliminating those who are elderly; sick; and, the children. We have in recent weeks heard the governor of the state of Colorado advising a program which was designed not to try to keep people who are elderly alive; and, not to try to provide them with the expensive medical services that are needed to keep them operational. Instead, Governor Richard Lamm of Colorado has offered the counsel to elderly people: "You have a duty to die and get out of the way. Let the other society, our kids, build a better life." His is reason for that is his concern over the rising costs of medical care. So, he is suggesting that the elderly should view themselves as leaves which are falling from the tree to form the fertilizer for the next crop of leaves which are to sprout forth. So, the concept of the quality of life ethic is increasingly taking hold in the mentality of American leadership.

In the old days, it was the biblical sanctity of life that controlled us: that God was the originator of life; and, that God and God alone had the right to decide when a life was to be terminated. Once that life was begun at the point of conception, it was to be preserved with everything that we as human beings had at our disposal to preserve that life from its initial conception to the oldest person that ever lived, until God Himself overrides human efforts and then takes the life of the person. But evolution says, "Human beings are all animals." It says that they are just animals to be used in a profitable and productive way. Therefore, as animals grow old and less productive, they should be culled out of the herd in order to make room for the younger and the more useful in the herd. This was a very interesting observation by a governor of one of our states.

This is precisely the mental attitude which will dominate the antichrist world: "Get rid of the people who are not productive and useless: the children; the elderly; and, the weak. Run them off and destroy them so that there are fewer mouths to feed. That will become very important in a world which is short of food and which is starving. The antichrist himself will resort to extreme controls, and to all kinds of brutal measures, in order to try to spread what food is available.

The basic problem for the antichrist world will be its failure to observe the divine law that God is the source of our daily food. I hope you have understood that now. This is why, in the Luke 11:3, which records the sample prayer that Jesus gave to His disciples, the state is included: "Give us this day our daily bread," or our food day-by-day. The point of that statement is that God is the source of our daily food. We must begin with that basic premise. Every human being must, when he thinks about the basic survival, which is food, think of it in terms of God, and no one else. Until you do that, you are far out of line with God's structure of the universe, and God's structure of our society, and far out of line of hope to be provided with what you need.

God supplied Adam's food, as we all knew, before the fall, with little effort on man's part. He cultivated the garden and he had great and prosperous food supplies. But after the fall, God still was the source of man's daily food. But now it was under the resistance of an earth which had been cursed because of Adam's sin. So, food now became a harder commodity to come by. Modern New Age thinking is directing people to look to the state, and to look to society for one's daily food instead of looking to God. That is the basic thrust of American thinking today. Look to society and look to government for your basic needs. Therefore, governments view the earnings of the labors of the nation as a national income to be divided up by an elite group from a central pot – an elite group of politicians.

So, while God is the only source of daily food, He provides it on the basis of economic principles which He has established. That's the other point to remember. God is the source of our daily food, but you won't get it unless you operate on His principles by which it is to be secured. There are definite principles laid down in the Bible if you want to get your daily food – if you want to get it directly from God without having to sponge it and steal it from somebody else. Societies which do not look to God for food, or do not seek it on the basis of His economic laws, invite starvation.

I want to remind you of the consequences of this condition within our society today, that you happen to be living in a part of the country where you may be the direct recipients of the disasters that are looming on the horizon, because government has interposed itself as the agent of providing people with its food and other needs. Government actions undermine the biblical principles of securing our daily food from God by certain economic principles that we observe. Instead, government has substituted programs for biblical economics to make it desirable to use welfare as the means for securing one's daily bread. It actually is more desirable to do it that way. The result is that we now have an immigration problem on all the states bordering Mexico, and this immigration problem is, in large part, due to government violating the biblical principle of how people get their food, and the economic principles by which it is to be secured.

The largest concentration of Mexican nationals on the North American continent lives, understandably, in Mexico City. However, few people realize that the second largest concentration of Mexican people live in the city of Los Angeles. There's a reason for that. If someone were to offer you a product that you did not want, you would not buy it. It's a basic principle in the business world that people will not buy and use a product that does not appeal to them. For example, if someone offers you a job without any pay, that would not appeal to you. People find it very difficult to get folks to work for them without paying them. There is not much of a market for nonpaying jobs. If the government were to offer you, as a social program, free rat meat sandwiches, the program, as a social service, would not be very successful, because there is not much of a market for rat meat sandwiches.

Obviously, when government offers something. It creates a market by making what it offers attractive. And that's why Americans don't mind looking to government for some kind of a check (for some kind of a payout) in one way or another, because certain things to them are desirable. When the government offers it, the government creates a market. There'll be someone out there ready to take it.

The United States government social programs are now available to Mexican aliens – programs of every kind. The result is that the government has created a market for those programs. The price is good. Even people who have had jobs that they were able to function with sufficiently, but they weren't all that good, have chosen to get out of their jobs, and to get into the social programs that the Socialist Party of the United States has been promoting, because they view themselves as the source for providing people's needs. This is totally in violation of the Word of God. The result is that they have created a market, and there are people who say, "Forget the work. I'll accept the welfare program. I like the price." The word has been spreading south of the border, and the aliens are pouring in because they like the price.

Now, all of these human viewpoint mentality politicians (that Americans persistently send to Congress, and are going to do it again) are trying to apply those same human viewpoint mentalities to coming up with a solution to stop the stampede across the border that they themselves created in the first place by violating God's economic principles, and creating a market for welfare recipients. Many surveys have clearly established that there are far more poor people in the United States today than there were several decades ago when the social programs for the poor were begun. You can go ahead and foam at the mouth, and sit there vibrating, and do whatever you want, but that is a fact of life. The programs have created a market for poverty. The programs have created a desire for people to become the recipients of welfare benefits, and to accept a life of poverty. And they have paid the great price of their own personal self-esteem, and their own personal loss of freedom.

Can you imagine what is going to happen to California; to Arizona; to New Mexico; and, to Texas when Central America falls to the communist people, as the American Congress is now determined that it must? When it falls to the communists, can you imagine what's going to happen to those of us who are border states? That stampede is going to grow like you can't imagine. The boat-people could not always make it in to escape the brutality of communism, but the feet-people will make it, and they will come pouring across. The people now are pouring across because they got the word of how they can get by in the United States as aliens with social programs that the government provides. They've got nothing to lose.

The people in Central America have gotten the word on the brutality of life under communism. Few Americans understand how brutal life is under communism: how fearful; and, how absolutely destructive it is. So, the average American does not understand how important it is to keep that beast of communism away from our borders.

Let me read to you an excerpt from the latest edition of the "Remnant Review" by Gary North, a Christian financial adviser. Gary North, in the May 4th, 1984 issue says:

"The welfare state has now created the Frankenstein monster that people like the Ludwig von Mises, F. A Hayek, and Henry Hazlitt predicted back in the 1920s and 1930s. It has created a subculture that is simultaneously dependent on the state, and resentful about this dependence. The state's bureaucrats administer the system so as to preserve a permanent subclass: their clients, and we pay for the programs. Let's face it: At zero monetary price, you'll have more demand than supply of welfare goods and services. It's never at zero price. People pay by forfeiting their self-respect and independence, but they pay no money for the privilege of tapping in.

"And word spreads. It spreads south of the border. The immorality of tax-financed welfare as a concept is now producing horrible results. If the state creates a market for poverty by offering benefits to the poor, then the free market will respond. It will produce more poor people. Some will be pulled from the marginally employed who drop out of the labor market; or, at least the legal, visible, taxpaying labor markets in order to receive tax-free welfare payments. But over the next five years, far more will be pulled from Mexico. The word is out. There are jobs here, and free education for your children, and US citizenship for children born in the United States. And if all else fails, there are welfare payments. Those of us who live in border states (and the largest share of hard money newsletter subscribers do) are going to bear the brunt of the immigration problem.

"In Texas, the conservative speaker for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate, Kent Hance, has raised this issue. His television ads claim that his liberal opponents for the nomination have both voted for increased welfare to illegal aliens. His response? 'There aren't enough jobs to go around for Americans.' That's a bunch of populist baloney. The labor unions may want us to believe that there aren't enough jobs. And the proponents of minimum wage laws may believe it. But market theory tells us that there is never a shortage of jobs at market prices. There's always a shortage of labor at zero price, which is why we have to pay wages to people to get them to work. Labor is a scarce economic resource, but what is true is that there is greater demand for free services than there is a supply of them. What was seen as a positive benefit for employers in 1920 (lots of hardworking immigrants) is now seen as a curse. Why? Because the immigrants today can suck taxpayers dry through the welfare system. But we've all been manipulated to death, so we just can't say this.

"Instead, our conservative representatives feel compelled to adopt outright nonsense in order to fight the immigrants. There aren't enough jobs to go around. What they ought to be saying is that there are too many restrictions on hiring laborers. Well, there are about to be a whole lot more restrictions. Senator Simpson's immigration bill is coming up for a vote this month. He wants to pass a law that would require a universal federal employment card. Anyone who wants to work must show the card. Any employer who hires anybody who doesn't have a card (illegal immigrants or anyone else) will be subject to fines. It is being sold as a measure to increase employment.

"Mexican Americans have seen a second aspect of the law: incipient racism. But nobody is admitting what it really is: a pro-trade union measure to reduce competition for those who are demanding above-market wages. Ultimately, trade unions can maintain such wages only by threat of violence, either directly or indirectly: government legislation with penalties. So, in the last analysis, this bill, if passed into law, will increase the control of the federal government over everyone. The Supreme Court will never allow selective enforcement of this bill. Employers who demand that only Mexican-looking people show their cards will be hit by civil rights suits by Mexican-American groups with the assistance from the ACLU, I hazard to guess. So everyone will have to get an ID card.

"This is the step I have feared for most of my adult life: a national ID card, and I think the public will buy it – if not this year, then when the blowup comes in Mexico, and the feet-people start streaming in. The boat-people couldn't get here, but the feet-people can. If this law gets passed, it will create added tensions between the Mexican government and ours. It will tend to jam up the flow of illegal aliens, which means added pressure on Mexico's border towns. This will accelerate the pressures of Mexican revolutionaries.

"But understand that the law in its initial stages may be obeyed, but within a few years (maybe less), it will prove to be unenforceable. At that point, there will be greater political pressure on Washington to make it work. What I fear is the next stage: a universal buy and sell card. If an employment card doesn't keep out the feet-people, then the next stage is obvious.

"My contact in Mexico told me of a very serious problem he faces. He wants to print evangelical materials for distribution. It's legal to do so in Mexico officially, but the government controls all sales of paper. He always finds that when he applies to the government for paper, there just doesn't seem to be any available. Censorship is unofficial, but it exists. The government can control who buys this key commodity. The bureaucrats can control communications.

"In a wealthy country, such as the United States, there are alternatives to paper. The coming of a telecommunication revolution threatens the long-run position of the post office as a monopoly. It also threatens the government's ability to open mail to inspect its ideological content. The ultimate goal of government during a declared emergency (the monopoly over paper supplies) is also threatened. So, if some sort of emergency is expected, the bureaucrats would telegraph their plans by tightening controls over non-post office communications. That's just what they've done."

Then Mr. North goes on to list the emergency orders which have been signed by the president in order to control, at an appropriate point in time that he declares an emergency, all communications between American citizens.

I think that's very fascinating because Garry North happens to be an amillennialist. He doesn't believe that Jesus Christ is ever going to come down to this earth to rule over a 1,000-year millennial kingdom. He doesn't believe that there's ever going to be a world like the antichrist world that's described in the Revelation. He doesn't believe that there's ever going to be a seven-year tribulation period on the face of this earth. But, lo and behold, what is he concerned about? One – a national ID card; and, two – a card to allow you to buy and sell. When I read this this week, I couldn't believe my eyes. It's awfully embarrassing to be amillennialist. God insists on doing it His way, and I just wish that He wouldn't upset people the way He does. All of these intelligent theologians knows that the Jew is finished. They know that the Jew will never again have a national homeland and freedom. They just know that Jesus Christ is never going to rule this world for a 1,000 years. They know that there's no tribulation period coming with an antichrist New Age. It's all a bunch of hogwash.

And yet here they are, apart from the Scripture, seeing the handwriting on the wall. The herd that is coming across our borders is going to be one of the major factors (the excuses) which is going to be used (just wait and see) – for every American to have to carry an ID card because you can't just ask a certain element (a certain racial group of our population) to carry it. Then the next step will be the buying and selling card, which, as we've already seen, is easily accomplished through the computer structure. This is what we're looking at. This is what we're going to be subject to. God's laws for securing food and general prosperity are being violated in spite of the fact that these laws are explicitly spelled out in Scripture. Because our nation is violating it, we're drawing in people across the border to benefit by those violations and that welfare which is being offered.

Biblical Economic Principles

1. Our Food comes by Productive Labor

   One: Able-bodied people are to secure their daily food from God by means of their productive labor. You have a job, and that's how you get your food.

2. God's Plan Comes First

   Two: Man is to give top priority to God's spiritual plans for his life, and to trust God to prosper his labors for securing material sustenance. You devote yourself first to exercising your spiritual gifts and to serving the Lord, and your job is woven around that as a secondary element that God is giving you in order to sustain the exercise of your spiritual service.

3. Government Redistribution is Prohibited

   Three: Man is to enjoy and control the fruits of his own labors rather than to have it confiscated by government for forceful redistribution. The Bible condemns the concept of a national income to be divided up as government deems best.

4. Avoid Preoccupation with Accumulating Wealth

   Fourth: Man is not to become so preoccupied with accumulating wealth that it becomes his god. The Bible warns us about making the accumulation of wealth the major feature of our lives. There are going to be a lot of Christians who have accumulated an awful lot of wealth, who are going to find themselves in heaven, very poor in rewards, because they did not use that wealth as a springboard for making themselves rich for all eternity by their investments in the Kingdom of God first.

5. Do not Steal

   We now continue with the principles by which you earn your daily food. The next one is that man is not to secure his daily food by stealing it from others who have earned it. Ephesians 4:28 says, "Let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labor, working with his hands; the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needs." The principle of the Word of God is, "Don't steal your food from other people who have done the earning." Don't steal it with your own gun. Don't use the gun of the government to steal it.

   James 5:4: "Behold, the hire of the laborers who have reaped down your field, and which you kept back by fraud, cries: and the cries of them who have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth." You may have to work for a company that says, "You have worked this week, but we only pay you for what you have done two weeks ago? We hold your wages and the income that you have made for us for a week or two weeks so that we may benefit by withholding your labors." The Word of God says, "That is stealing from a person who has already earned those wages, and has a right for you to pay him. When he has earned it, you are obliged before God to pay him."

   Acts 20:33: Paul says, "I have coveted no man's silver or gold or apparel. Yea, you yourselves know that these hands have ministered unto my necessities and to them that were with me. I've shown you all things now that, so laboring, you ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how it is said, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'" The apostle Paul made it clear that even in his own missionary service, he earned his own income, and supported himself and his associates. Furthermore, he said that the principle that is here is that we are to administer with our own hands for our own necessities, and that we are responsible, as Christians whom God has provided with material things, to concern ourselves for the weak; the elderly; the parents; the children; the orphan; the widow; and, those who need the help. And we are to remember that Jesus said, "It is more blessed to give than to receive." Why is that true? Because when you have given under the guidance and the administration of the Holy Spirit, you have exercised an act of mercy which stores treasures in heaven for you.

   So, it is far more valuable for you to be giving than it is for you to be receiving. All of us receive from the Lord what we need, and our luxuries, and we like to stand up in the Lord's Supper meetings, and thank God, and praise Him for what we received. However, I don't hear too many testimonies about folks saying, "I just thank God that He has enabled me to give." That's what has made you rich. What you received has not enriched you for all eternity, generally. But what you have given – that has.

   Proverbs deals with this subject, naturally. In Proverbs 16:8, we read, "Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues without right."

   Proverbs 16:22 says, "Understanding is a wellspring of life unto him that has it. But the instructions of fools is folly. And no greater folly is to be found indeed than in the instruction of fools on economics principles.

6. Families are to Build Financial Reserves

   The next principle is that a man's family is to build financial reserves. In Genesis 1:20, Adam was told that he was to subdue the creation. He was to exercise dominion over it, and he was thereby to bring it under his control for his use. He was to accumulate material possessions.

   Proverbs 13:22 says, "A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children, and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just." A good man leaves an inheritance to his grandchildren. How in the world are you going to leave an inheritance to your grandchildren, let alone to your own children, unless you have accumulated material possessions? So, the Word of God makes it very clear that we are to save. We are, in one way or another, to build financial reserves. We are not to live hand-to-mouth. All of you credit card dudes, that know how to do that, should take a second thought about how far you're living beyond what God entrusts to you in a weekly paycheck, and get yourself functioning within the context of what He gives you. And within that context, start putting aside and building up a financial reserve, so that, in time, when you pass on, then there will be something for your children to continue, and from you to your grandchildren.

7. Increase you Material Possessions by Investment

   The next principal is that man is to seek to increase his material possessions according to his ability by investments. There are some people who have a green thumb, and no matter what they plant, it grows. If you're like me, I have a green thumb too. When I plant things, everything turns moldy. It goes nowhere. Some people are like that in the financial world. They have a knack for investing in such a way that they get great returns. You look at them, and you stand back in awe, that there is just some kind of discerning ability capacity that they have. The Word of God says that, according to your abilities, you are to make investments.

   Matthew. 20:5:14-30 spell out that particular principle for us. This is the parable of the talents. The men were given two talents; five talents; and, ten talents. These men were given these monetary gifts to invest, so when their master returned, there would be a return on that investment. They did it, and they were commended and blessed for what they did. But when he came to the man who had received just one talent: he was afraid of losing it; he had ability to invest it; and, he refused to do it. Therefore, verse 26 says, "His lord answered and said unto him, 'You wicked and slothful servant. You know that I reaped where I do not sow, and gathered where I have not spread. You ought to have, therefore, put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming, I should have received my own with interest. Take, therefore, the talent from him, and give it unto him who has ten talents.'" He took it away from the one who had the least, and gave it to the one who had the most, because he showed himself trustworthy in investments: "For everyone that has shall be given, and he shall have abundance, but from him that does not have shall be taken away, even that which he has."

   That doesn't seem fair, does it fair? This poor guy doesn't have very much, and you take away what he has. Why? You give it to somebody who already has a lot, and who has made a lot, because that man who has made a lot, if he's a godly man, can be trusted with the money to invest it in God's work. Whereas the fellow who has little and does not do anything with it by investments (he does not multiply it), he is not to be trusted with God's money. It is God's money. That's the problem. We always think that when we get that check, it belongs to us. You don't have anything. You have zilch. What you have is what God gives you. If you don't think so, you just might learn the lesson by having enough heavy expenses; sickness; tragedies; and, crises of one kind or another, such that God will strip everything you have right off of you. Then you will soon learn whose money it is. If we have it, it is by His grace. If we keep it, it is by His graceful beneficence as well. So, man is to seek to increase his material possessions as per his ability to invest.

8. Be Thrifty and Save for Hard Times and for Old Age

   Furthermore, managed to be thrifty and save some of his wealth for hard times, and for his old age. Proverbs 21:17 says, "He that loves pleasure shall be a poor man. He that loves wine and oil shall not be rich (luxury foods)." So, for you Southern Kitchen specialists who like to live high all the time, the Bible says that you become poor, and you will come to a point in life where you'll have nothing.

   Proverbs 21:20 says, "There is treasure to be desired, and oil in the dwelling of the wise, but a foolish man spends it up." So, Proverbs says, "Yes, there are luxury items. Yes, there are times when you do go out to the big restaurant. Yes, in the hands of the ordinary Christian, there are luxury moments, but he balances that so that he does not impoverish himself.

9. Family Roles of Marriage

   Then there is the principle that it is the plan of God for the husband to be the breadwinner and for the wife to be the mother and the homemaker. It is a serious, serious crime against the Word of God, and against the moral law of God, for a mother to be employed who has small children at home that need her attention, and need to be cared for. It is a serious violation. Any time you hand your little child over to someone else, you know that that person is influencing that clean slate. I don't care how good that person is, that person is never as good as you, and they are never as careful as you are. They are never as capable as you are. You, by God's arrangement, are the best person to write on that clean slate.

   Therefore, the Word of God, recognizing that, has made this statement in 1 Timothy 5:8: "But if any provide not for his own, and especially for those of his own house, he has denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel." So, God says that any father who does not provide for the material needs of his family is no better than the grossest kind of unbeliever. You're nothing more than somebody who is a leech on public society, living off the welfare system when you could be taking care of your own family.

   The German word for woman or wife is "Frau." There are some people who know enough German that they love to take the expression which summarizes what God said to Adam that: "From now on, he would live by the sweat of his brow." They love to quote the Lord as saying, "You will live by the sweat of your 'Frau.'" That is totally unscriptural. So, get off of living by the sweat of your wife unless your circumstances in life are such that she can be free to engage with you. For indeed, the very end of the book of Proverbs gives us that splendid picture of the homemaking wife whose children are at a stage in life where she herself can engage in business and prosper the family income. And the Bible recognized that as a very legitimate thing to do. But this thing of having small children, and then having a wife work rather than be at home to care for their children, and be prepared to care for that husband, and carry him through at the end of his day as well, is such insanity that you wonder what possesses the human mind. What kind of greed is this? What kind of shortsightedness is this? What kind of shooting yourself in the foot is this?

   However, you can go ahead and do it. One of the problems when you have little children is that you don't think that there's ever going to be a day of accounting. You don't think that there's ever going to be any change in them. You don't think there's ever going to come a time when the chickens are going to come home to roost. And suddenly, when they're there, you can't do anything about it. I can guarantee you that I've had many people who looked back with great regret and grief – women, who would to God, that they had stayed at home and cared for the family instead of being out there doing something in the business world in order to earn something more for the family that the family could have gotten along just fine without. It is the plan of God to get your daily food from God via the efforts of the husband.

10. The Riches of Bible Doctrine Truth

    There's another principle, and that is that a believer who is trustworthy with material wealth that God gives him will be entrusted with the real riches of Bible doctrine truth. There is a connection between how you handle material things and how much spiritual discernment God will give you. It's interesting. There is a connection between how you handle the material wealth that God gives you and the spiritual discernment you will have.

    Luke 16:11 says, "If, therefore, you have not been faithful in the unrighteous money, who will commit to your trust the true riches?" What are the true riches? The true riches are the spiritual knowledge of doctrine and the implications of that truth. And the Bible says, "If you can't be faithful with money, God is not going to give you good spiritual discernment either."

    John 6:27 also says, "Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for that food which endures unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall give unto you, for God the Father has sealed Him." Here again the principle is that there is a food that is short-range, but there is a food that will go with you forever. When you die, you leave behind all of your material goods. That's a principle of life. But you take with you the spiritual things. Nobody could ever rob you of your spiritual maturity structure. That goes out there with you into eternity. But you leave behind the material things. So, the Word of God says, "Don't let your material things deny you the things that you can really take to enrich your eternity.

11. Give to God's Work

    Another principle says that those with the spiritual gift of giving to God's work are entrusted with far more money than they need for their daily living. There are certain believers that have been given a spiritual capacity to turn loose of their money. Not all believers have this. All believers are called upon God, on a weekly basis, to invest financial gifts in the Lord's work. That is an obligation and a duty which is upon us. 2 Corinthians chapters 8 and 9 spell out in detail for you how a Christian is to handle his money relative to God's work. But one of the nine operational spiritual gifts today is that of giving, which is beyond what an ordinary Christian does in his weekly contributions to God's work. That Christian has been given a unique capacity to give, and, therefore, he has also been entrusted with a considerable pool of wealth from which to do that giving.

    Romans 12 says, "Or he that exhorts, on exhortation (spiritual gifts being mentioned here): he that gives, let him do it with liberality. There is the capacity to give because God has given you the means for the giving. In 2 Corinthians 9:8, we read, "As it is written, 'He has dispersed abroad. He has given to the poor. His righteousness remains forever. Now he that ministers seed to the sower both minister bread for your food, and multiply your seed sown, and increase the fruits of your righteousness; being enriched in everything to all bountifulness which causes through us thanksgiving to God." God provides for the seed, so to speak (the seed money, or the seed food) with which we multiply the harvest. Then we are entrusted with these funds so that we may enrich others who are in need of that enrichment, primarily enriching God's work so that people are rich spiritually, so they can learn something like these economic laws, so they can get their daily food in abundance, and so society can function under God's blessing. These cause such blessing that people rise up and they thank God for you and for what you're doing. The spiritual gift of giving is so exercised that people are so glad that you have so much money, because they honor you, and they praise God for your faithfulness.

    Proverbs 11:24-25 says, "There is he that scatters, and yet increases; and, there is he that withholds more than is fitting, but it tends to poverty." He says, "There's the man who has material wealth, and he's giving it out; he's investing it; he's putting it into the Lord's work.

    He's just cranking it out like old Mr. LeTourneau, who started off in his earth moving machinery business on a personal agreement that whatever he earned at those slim early stages when things were hard, and there wasn't much income, nevertheless, he was going to begin with God on 10%. And he thought it was fair that he should live on the other 90%. As the years went by, and God prospered his business and his efforts, he kept changing the figures. God got 20%, and he lived on 80%. Then as things got better, he moved up to where he was getting 50%, and God was getting 50%. When he came to the end of his life, an enormously wealthy man, he was living on 10% of his income, and God was getting 90% of it. And the 10% was more than he could begin to use up. It is investing in terms of your gift of giving. That man had the gift of giving. And this is what this verse in Proverbs is saying. Here was a man that the more he gave out, the more God gave him.

    However, it says that, on the other hand, there is this character that's got money more than he'll ever be able to use. And he's so stingy with it; he self-directs it; and, he gets poorer all the time. Nothing works. His investments blow up; everything goes wrong; and, nothing pans out.

    Proverbs 11:25 says, "The liberal soul shall be made fat, and he that waters shall be watered also himself." You couldn't put it any clearer than that. If you play square with God with your finances, He will trust you with greater responsibility in finances. That is the principle.

12. Use your Money as God's Faithful Steward

    Once the person has accumulated wealth, he is not to depend on it for his security instead of looking to God, but he is to use it in divine good works as God's faithful steward. I have seen many times, in over three decades of ministry, where people who didn't have much in life, over the years, became prosperous. When they were in those early stages, they were just strapped and looking to the Lord for their day-by-day necessities, and God was coming through. Then, as they prospered and they accumulated wealth, they got detached from the principle that: "My daily food comes from God," and they were no longer so dependent upon Him and expecting from Him as they were when they had little. When they had a lot, they didn't have to ask God to supply their daily needs. Don't fall into that trap. Just because you've got enough money to carry you for six months, don't fall into the trap of thinking that you don't have to go to God and say, "I'm dependent upon you to meet my daily material needs," because you do. You have to keep looking to Him and depending upon Him for security. In the meantime, what He has given you, you invest in divine good work production. You don't let it sit there idle.

    1 Timothy 6:17-19 put it this way: "Charge them that are rich in this age that they be not high-minded, nor trust in uncertain riches; but in the living God who gives us richly all things to enjoy; that they do good; that they be rich in good works; ready to distribute; willing to share; laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come that they may lay hold on eternal life." What that means is that they may lay hold on eternal life with a prosperous life waiting before them.

    In Luke 12:15 tells us to invest our reserves in divine good production: "And He said them, 'Take heed and beware of covetousness. For a man's life does not consist of the abundance of the things which he possesses." You may have a lot, but that's not enough to carry you through. You are still dependent upon God to carry you through. Overnight, you may learn the hard way that He is the only source of your daily food.

    Galatians 6:9 puts it this way: "Let us not be weary in well-doing, for in due season, we shall reap if we don't faint.

    Then we go back to the book of wisdom, the book of Proverbs. Proverbs 11:28: "He that trusts in his riches shall fall, but the righteous shall flourish like a branch." That is the same principle. You can go ahead and trust in your riches if that's what you want to do, but you can expect a fall sooner or later. It's still going to come from God. And what you have in reserve is not for you to lean on and say, "This is what I'm going to trust in." God says, "You take that reserve, and you invest it in God's work." That is the economic principle for reserves beyond the reasonable provision for yourself and your future.

    We will close with Ezekiel 7:19: "They shall pass their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed. Their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the Lord. They shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their stomachs, because it is the stumbling block of their iniquity." Here is a vivid description of what's going to happen. God is telling the Jewish people, the people of Judah, what is going to happen to them here because of their dependence upon their material possessions. God says, "There's a man over there across in the nation of Babylon, that great Nebuchadnezzar, and he's just itching to get his hands around your throat. But you're all so cocky. You've been storing up your Krugerrands, you've been storing up your pre-1965 American coins, all of which are 90% silver. And you've got them stashed away here and stashed away there. And you've been hitting the old local coin dealer, and buying those hundred-ounce engel hard silver bars, and you have your reserves.

    God says, "You have it, but when Nebuchadnezzar comes in, you're going to be throwing the stuff out in the street. It's going to be worthless, because you can't put it into your stomach for food. Then you will learn what great tragedy you brought upon yourself. I prospered you, and instead of using your gold and silver for My work, and to advance My cause, and to keep your respect toward Me as the provider of your daily bread, you turned to your own self-indulgent confidence, and now I'm going to bring you down. And then what are you going to do with your gold and silver?"

    If God speaks to you and me like that, it would behoove us to sit and listen. But did they listen? No, you know very well that they didn't. Nebuchadnezzar came up over that hill; saw the city of Jerusalem; and, said, "Take it. Move in." When they came up with their gold and silver, as they did, Nebuchadnezzar said, "Thank you kindly. That's just what I need." He stripped their gold and silver, and ran them through with the sword. When they got to the temple, he said, "Look at this. These Jews have gold and silver all over here. Strip it. Look at these valuable things that they are using on the altar: these chalices; these little sensors; and, these little shovels for taking the ashes. They are solid gold. Can you believe that? Ship it back to Babylon." He stripped them, and their gold and silver was nothing.

Dr. John E. Danish, 1984

Back to the Revelation index