THE DECEITFULNESS OF ACCUMULATED WEALTH

PROVERBS 11:24-28

          There is one who scatters, and yet increases all the more, And there is one who withholds what is justly due, and yet it results only in want. The generous man will be prosperous. And he who waters will himself be watered. He who withholds grain, the people will curse him, But blessing will be on the head of him who sells it. He who diligently seeks good seeks favor, But he who seeks evil, evil will come to him. He who trusts in his riches will fall, But the righteous will flourish like the green leaf (NASB).

INTRODUCTION

          Arthur J. Morris, banker and founder of the Morris Plan was fond of relating a fable of a miser who buried his gold in a hole in a field. Every night he went to count it and gloat over it. A servant discovered the gold and ran off with it. The rich man screamed in despair. A friend suggested, “You really haven’t lost a thing. The money wasn’t doing you or anybody else any good. You still have the hole left. Why don’t you pretend the gold is there, and come and look at the hole every night?”

          “Dealing with men and money for over forty years, there is one clear lesson I’ve learned—anyone who seeks only gold will look at an empty hole every night,” said Mr. Morris.

I.                  THE PROSPERITY OF THE GENEROUS VV. 24-25

          These two verses present a paradox in the economy of God. The philosophy of the world teaches that the one who collects and accumulates money becomes prosperous. But in God’s economy you become richer by being generous. The world says hold on to as much as you possibly can, but God says give in order to gain. The Psalmist says, He has given freely to the poor, His righteousness endures forever; His horn will be exalted in honor (Psalm 112:9). The paradox in verse 24 is that you expect the one who scatters to be in want and the one who withholds or hoards to increase all the more, but in God’s scheme of things it is not like that. Rather it is the other way round. When God blesses you He does not have you alone in mind. God blesses you so that you can become a conduit to spread His blessings to others. God blesses you so that you can become an instrument to spread His blessings. Wasn’t it the promise that God gave to Abraham? God said I will bless you so that you can become a blessing (Gen 12:2). The more you give to the Lord’s work and others, the more God increases the wealth. That is why Jesus said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). God blesses those who give freely of their possessions, time, and energy. When we give, God supplies us more so that we can give more. When you become stingy with what God has given you, you shut the door to God’s supply room. When we are generous with our money God commands us to test Him whether He would not open the windows of heaven and pours down His super abundant blessings on us (Malachi 3:10). Verse 25 states that there are rewards for being generous. Part of the rewards is that the person who is generous toward others will be providing for him/herself. The word generous literally means “the soul of blessing.” Blessing is used in the Bible to describe a “present” or “special favor” (Joshua 15:19). Sometimes when the Bible speaks of prosperity many Christians limit it to financial wealth. Yes, financial wealth is part of prosperity but it is more than that. Prosperity in the Bible includes spiritual blessings for you and your family. It includes God’s provision and providence for you and your family. A typical example of this is Joseph. When Portiphar bought Joseph from the Ishmaelites and took him to his house, because of Joseph God began to bless the home of Portiphar. Everything that Joseph did for him prospered and Portiphar knew the difference. God will reciprocate your kindness to His work and others.

II.   THE PROSPECT FOR LIFE: REALIZED DESIRES VV. 26-27

          Verse 26 reminds me of a time when there was severe draught in Ghana. This was in the early 80s. Food was in short supply and the demand was great. Some of the merchants took advantage of the situation and began to hoard their staples such as rice, corn, yam, bread, gari and others so that they could inflate the prices. Unfortunately for these merchants it was a military regime and their neighbors reported them to the regional Secretary. The secretary dispatched soldiers who came and sold the food staples below the original prices that consumers had wanted to pay for them. What Solomon, the wise king is saying to us is that a merchant’s response to supply and demand will influence the customer’s opinion of him/her. Some merchants hoard up the produce to raise the prices when there is a great need for the produce. This verse teaches that merchants must have a social conscience. You remember the parable that Jesus told about the rich fool? The reason why God took his life was because he did not have a social conscience. He thought only about himself. He did not remember God in his time of affluence. He was self-centered. Christians who are working but do not pay their tithes and offerings are like that. They are self-centered and because of that they miss God’s blessings. They might be earning $60,000.00-70,000.00 annually but they cannot figure out what they do with their money. The second part of verse 26 reminds me of Joseph when he became the prime minister of Egypt and the wisdom he demonstrated during the time of the severe famine. If he had not conserve the food supply and use prudence, his own family would have died of starvation. Everybody was able to get enough food to buy that the famine did not kill anyone in the land. A wealthy man died and a friend asked his accountant, “What did he leave behind?” “The accountant replied, all.” When you and I die we will leave everything behind. Sometimes people think that they can take their money and wealth with them when they die. I challenge them to seek wisdom from Solomon in the Book of Ecclesiastes. Have you seen or heard of a rich man who died but those who knew him/her did not say anything  positive about him/her? The hard truth is that you generally receive the consequences of the kind of life you pursue, whether good or evil (v. 27). There is divine justice for both the righteous and unrighteous, for both the generous and the miser. When you diligently seek good you are seeking divine favor. The Psalmist says, "For it is You who blesses the righteous man, O LORD, You surround him with favor as with a shield" (Psalm 5:12).

III.           THE PORTRAIT OF THE RIGHTEOUS V. 28

          People act on the false assumption that satisfaction can be found in possessions. We ignore well-publicized examples of tragic unhappiness that characterize many rich people and the way they die. If Christians develop and cultivate a right attitude toward possessions, the result will be a more simple, more relaxed, and a more enjoyable lifestyle. This is the plain truth; the object of faith determines security and prosperity. When you trust in your riches you put your security in riches, but when you trust in the Lord you put your security in the Lord. The righteous person trusts in the Lord and flourishes. The   term green leaf is a metaphor for prosperity and fertility throughout the ancient Near East. That is why in the first Psalm the Psalmist likens the righteous to a tree planted along the riverbank and its leaves do not wither and whatever he does prospers. The image of “falling” on the other hand uses the analogy of the physical act to portray coming to ruin. In other words, he who puts his trust in accumulation of riches will be destroyed. That is why the Bible says For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil (1 Timothy 6:10). The emphasis here is on the attitude and relationship of an individual or people toward money. The love for money is the cause for all kinds of evil. It is not the fact that a person has riches that keeps him/her from heaven but the fact that the riches have him/her.

          A person who trusts in his money worships a false god. The Apostle Paul equates the sin of covetousness with idolatry. Greed is a form of idolatry (Col. 3:5). I like the way the New Living Translation translates verse 28. Trust in your money and down you go! But the godly flourish like leaves in spring. Many people who have made the accumulation of wealth their main objective in life have faced their untimely death. In the same vein, the writer of Hebrews is very explicit: Keep your life free from the love of money, and be satisfied with what you have. For God has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you (Hebrews 13:5). The righteous does not fold his/her hands and expect God to rain manna from heaven as He did in the wilderness. The last time I checked God had stopped raining the manna from heaven. However, the righteous work harder but the difference is that the object of his affection is not the accumulation of wealth. God is the object of his affection and because God knows his heart, He makes sure that whatever he does prosper. This is similar to Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount when He said, “Do not be anxious about what you will eat or what you will drink, or what you will wear. But seek first His kingdom and righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 5:25, 33).

          What can you and I do to prevent the pitfall of greed or accumulation of riches to the detriment of our lives?

1.     Understand that God is the Owner of all that you have.

          Christians who do not practice generosity do not understand that God is the owner of everything they have. They think they are the owners. The earlier you understand this principle the better your life would become. We are stewards of our money and even our children. Our children do not belong to us; they belong to God. Your hard earned money does not belong to you; it belongs to God. You are just a manager and you will render account to God the way you invested or used it.

2.     Do not misplace your love and trust

Those who accumulate wealth or are greedy for gain have got it all wrong. You are to love and help people, but you are not to love money. Rather, you are to use some of the wealth God has given you to serve Him and help others. You are to love people and use things. Money or possessions are things. They were not part of God’s creation. Money is a medium of exchange, but people were made in the image of God. Don’t get the two confused. When you use some of the money God has given to you to help others you are doing the will of God.

          “Money is the article which may be used as a universal passport to everywhere except heaven, and the universal provider of everything except happiness.”

3.     Invest wisely and live a life of simplicity

          The Book of Proverbs exhorts us to be people of wisdom. A wise person will provide for emergencies, retirement, and personal responsibilities. To keep these areas in proper balance take thought and effort. There is an irresistible force in an economic system such as the one we have in the United States to spend, spend, and spend. Nevertheless, there are some things we should let go. Don’t follow the rat race of materialism. Peace and contentment do not spring from possessions and wealth. You and I that are Christians have to discipline our tastes and desires to be able to simplify our life, realizing that life does not consist of possessions.

4.     Practice Generosity

Learn to be generous. Human nature is self-centered and selfish, but generosity is an attribute of God who encourages us to practice it. Giving or generosity helps us gain a right perspective on our possessions. We realize that they were never really ours, to begin with, but God gave them to us to be used to help others. What then do we gain by giving? We gain freedom from enslavement to our possessions, the joy of helping others, God’s work, and we gain God’s approval. “Treasures in heaven are laid up only as treasures on earth are laid down.” Practice generosity and witness the blessings of God in your life and the life of your family.