Proverbs on Wealth 
Part 6: Giving It

Baxter T. Exum (#1748)
Four Lakes Church of Christ
Madison, Wisconsin
August 11, 2024

Good morning and welcome to the Four Lakes congregation! If you are visiting this morning or joining us online or on the phone, you are our honored guest! We are glad to have you with us, and we’d like to ask that you fill out a visitor card – either online or on a card from the pew in front of you. And we also invite you to pass along any questions or prayer concerns.

We had a very good clothing give-away yesterday! The last I heard, we had 86 families come through and help themselves to the clothing we made available. We are thankful to Patsy for coordinating this, and we are thankful to all of you who helped – not only yesterday, but in the months leading up to yesterday – in so many ways. We even had several of our recent visitors and friends of the congregation come and help, and we are especially thankful that all of you chose to be with us yesterday.

And speaking of ways to help, we are jumping right into a new one! It is once again time to collect school supplies for the kids over at Kennedy Elementary, a school roughly two blocks east of here. There are at least a dozen homeless students at the school (right here in this neighborhood), and several years ago we reached out to the principal and the social worker and we asked, “How can we help?” That led us to start collecting school supplies as well as after school snacks (later in the school year). Ann Grodi is coordinating our collection this year, and if you can help, we are putting the list up here right now, we are putting it in our PowerPoint announcement slide rotation before and after Bible class and worship, I have shared this by email, we’ve put it on social media, we will have it in the bulletin for several weeks, and we have also put it on the bulletin board back there. So, I think we have communicated – with the spoken word, in print, digitally, in multiple formats (and now by YouTube and the telephone livestream) – so, if you would like to help, we invite you to join us in this effort. You can even take a picture of the graphic up here and use it as a shopping list over the next few weeks, if you’d like to do that. One of our members has already sent an Amazon order to my house. I sent the email on Friday, and when we got home from the give-away yesterday, the first donations were waiting on our porch, and they are now in the entryway. Please see Ann if you have any questions. 

We are here this morning to preach the good news that God loves us. He sent his only Son to this earth to offer himself as a sacrifice in our place, he was buried, but he was raised up on the first day of the week. This is the good news, and we obey this good news through faith, repentance, confession of Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, and baptism (an immersion in water for the forgiveness of sins). And this morning we are sharing some good news from David Willis, a friend who preaches in American Samoa. You may remember that we just so happened to run into David on our trip to Hawaii ten years ago. He had a layover and ended up giving a very interesting report to the church in Honolulu on a Wednesday evening, and I have enjoyed keeping up with his work through the years. David posted early last week and he says that, “There was great rejoicing this morning when John, LJ and Zelene Raynar were baptized into Christ.” As I was looking through the pictures, somebody made an interesting observation. They said (to brother Willis), “You're an usung hero my brother – not like some who travel half the world to preach one sermon and have a holiday on the church's dollar. God bless you.” Again, very interesting! There is a value to short-term missions, where we may travel to preach a time or two in a far-off place, but brother Willis has literally dedicated his life to preaching in American Samoa, and there is a tremendous value to that. It takes years, decades even, to get to know people, to be trusted by the congregation, and David has done and is doing that, and we are thankful for his good work over there. There are many more examples we could have shared this week, but we’ve shared these by way of encouragement: If you are ready to do what these three have done, or if you would like to learn more, please let us know. We invite you to get in touch using the contact information on the wall up here, or if you are joining us on the phone, you can send a text or give me a call at 608-224-0274.

This morning, we are headed back to the book of Proverbs! In the big picture, we are covering the book very sporadically (to say the least), and as of this moment we have now covered 391 of the 915 Proverbs, or right at 43%. And in this series within a series, we are now looking at everything King Solomon says about WEALTH. So, I have scoured the book for any references to wealth or money or riches or treasure, and there have been so many that we’ve been arranging these by sub-topic. Several weeks ago, we started with Solomon’s advice on GETTING wealth. Then we moved along by taking a look at how to LOSE your wealth. We then looked at the idea of ENJOYING OUR WEALTH. Last week, we looked at what King Solomon had to say about POVERTY. Today we’ll be looking at the value of GIVING our wealth to others, and then we plan on closing this series next week with some bonus verses on LAZINESS. So, this is where we’ve been, where we are, and where we are heading. And as you might have noticed, we are being somewhat flexible with this arrangement.

Today, though, we come to a series of proverbs where King Solomon communicates to his sons, giving them some advice concerning GIVING THEIR WEALTH TO OTHERS. And I would give the reminder, once again, that in terms of wealth, King Solomon is speaking from experience. Back in 1 Kings 3, when he first took over as king, God invited Solomon to ask for anything. And instead of asking for wealth, or power, or the lives of his enemies, King Solomon asked for wisdom. What a wise request! And in response, God not only gave him wisdom, but gave him everything else as well, including wealth. And by the time we get to 1 Kings 10:23-25, the Bible says, “So King Solomon became greater than all the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom. All the earth was seeking the presence of Solomon, to hear his wisdom which God had put in his heart. They brought every man his gift, articles of silver and gold, garments, weapons, spices, horses, and mules, so much year by year.” One author has estimated Solomon’s net worth at roughly $2 trillion by today’s standards. And here we are today, 3000 years later, learning from Solomon’s wisdom concerning how to handle wealth.

And today, we come to a series of eleven Proverbs where King Solomon shares some wisdom on giving it away. Specifically, we are talking about giving wealth to the poor. And as we noted last week, we should also remember that poverty may be complicated. Just summarizing all of what King Solomon says on this issue, he realizes that some may be poor due to OPPRESSION. In other words, those in power may actually cause poverty through low wages, or heavy taxation, or high-interest loans, or any number of other policies designed to benefit those who rule. Secondly, some may be poor due to CALAMITY. We think of natural disasters, or injuries, or famines, or weather events, or various diseases. Through no fault of their own, some are poor due to things that happen beyond their ability to control. We talked about “unexpected medical expenses” being a leading cause of bankruptcy these days. Something happens, and all of a sudden you owe the hospital hundreds of thousands of dollars. But then, also (thirdly), some poverty is caused by PERSONAL SIN – a lifetime of laziness has some consequences. We might say the same thing about getting caught up in some forms of gambling, or overspending, or crime in general. Sometimes we make a terrible decision and end up in poverty.

So, instead of the rich just assuming that all poor people are lazy, we need to go into this realizing that poverty may be complicated. On one hand, then, the solution to poverty may not be a case of just working  harder. And on the other hand, if poverty truly is the result of sin, there’s no amount of money I can give that will fix it, and it may actually make the situation worse. So, let’s just jump into it again this morning with a quick overview of these eleven Proverbs on the idea of giving our wealth to those in need.

    1. In the order we find these in Proverbs, we start today with Proverbs 11:24, where King Solomon says that, “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.”

At first, this doesn’t make sense. We have a guy who is scattering something, but what he has “increases all the more.” Usually, when we scatter something, we have less of it, and we certainly do not increase. However, can’t we think of a case where this is true? I’m thinking about scattering seeds. When we scatter seeds, we have less in the bag of seed, but ultimately those seeds we scatter will hopefully grow, and then we do end up with more in the end. We may say the same thing about investing. There is a sense in which we take money and “scatter” it by investing in a business opportunity, for example, and we end up with more money in the end than we had in the beginning (assuming everything goes well). So, I think that’s what is going on here. There are times when we benefit by scattering; and there are times when we may hold back when we should be giving, and we end up in need. It’s the principle of sowing and reaping. By giving to the poor, the wise person doesn’t end up destitute himself, but he actually becomes stronger. There is a benefit to “scattering.”

The other side of this is that there is another person who “withholds what is justly due,” and this person ends up in need himself. So also, there is a downside to those who cheat their employees or hold back wages that are due. You would think that saving would cause someone’s bank account to increase, but that’s not the way it works, Solomon says. By being generous to good employees, the business actually gets stronger. And again, this is a proverb. This is not a math equation, this is not an iron-clad guarantee, but this is something that King Solomon has observed over time: Generally speaking, those who are generous will prosper, and those who are not (those who are stingy) will end up in need themselves.

    2. King Solomon’s next observation comes to us in the next verse, in Proverbs 11:25, where he says that, “The generous man will be prosperous, and he who waters will himself be watered.”

Some translations have Solomon saying that the “generous man” or the “man of blessing” will become “fat.” To many of us, being “fat” is not a goal that we have! I am trying my hardest NOT to be “fat,” but in Solomon’s time, if you were “fat,” that was a sign that you were doing pretty well. If you were “fat,” you had an abundance. The poor were skinny, and the wealthy were “fat.” So he’s saying here: The one who blesses others will, in fact, be blessed himself. Solomon, then, has noticed that when people make the decision to be generous, that generosity empowers them to have even more to share in the future.

And the second half of this proverb suggests that “he who waters will himself be watered.” This is obviously not to be taken literally! I don’t need to be “watered.” Plants, though, do need to be watered, so he’s using water as an illustration. In a time and place when water could be scarce, if you shared your water with others, that blessing would have a way of coming back to you over time – not just literally, with actual water, but maybe in many ways. Those who are generous are surrounded by those who pour into them just as they pour themselves into others. Generosity encourages generosity.

Many of us, though, will often prefer that people pay attention to us, instead of the other way around. So, we have this Proverb as a reminder: Even though it may not be our natural inclination, make a decision to be generous, knowing that that generosity has a way of coming back to us. Go water and encourage someone who’s having a tough time spiritually right now. Make a call. Stop by for a visit. Send a text. Mail a card. Do something that needs to be done. And as we noted last week, do this for those who will never be able to pay us back, and God will take care of it. Solomon would encourage us, then: Whenever we have an opportunity to be generous, go above and beyond whatever you would have done before reading this Proverb – tipping at restaurants, tipping the housekeepers at a hotel, paying those who serve in other ways, because “...the generous man will be prosperous, and he who waters will himself be watered.”

    3. This next one also comes in the very next verse, as King Solomon says, in Proverbs 11:26, “He who withholds grain, the people will curse him, but blessing will be on the head of him who sells it.”

So, we have a curse and a blessing, and it all hinges on whether a farmer is willing to sell his grain. If he withholds grain (during a time of famine, I would assume), the people will curse him. If, on the other hand, he sells it (even though it might be to his own disadvantage), the people will bless him. In my mind, based on the scenario here, I’m guessing we are talking about a fairly wealthy landowner who perhaps controls the market on grain. On one hand, if he refuses to sell, the price goes up, and he benefits. But on the other hand, if he sells some or all of what he has, he is blessed. By the way, let’s notice that he isn’t even GIVING grain away in this scenario. And he may even be selling at more of a profit than he normally would (we aren’t told here). But he sells. And the point here is: He sells it, even when it might have been better for him financially to not sell it for a while. But in this case, there is a blessing on those who sell and a curse on those who do not. To have more than enough of something and to refuse to give or to sell it to someone in need is the essence of selfishness. And this reminds us that we can either bless or curse our own families based on how we behave financially. We may think of Joseph who coordinated that effort in Egypt to stockpile grain during the seven years of plenty. A key part of his plan was to share that grain, even selling it to other nations, during the seven years of famine. He did not hoard all of it for himself, and he was blessed for his management of that crisis.

    4. Solomon’s next observation comes in the form of a warning in Proverbs 14:21, where he says that, “He who despises his neighbor sins, but happy is he who is gracious to the poor.”

And based on the second half of the verse, I’m assuming the first part of the verse is addressing someone who despises his neighbor because the neighbor is in poverty. This person sins. But why might someone despise a neighbor for being poor? Perhaps his house is run down and may affect my property values. Perhaps I resent the reminder that I may need to be helping somebody. Maybe I just assume that that guy is lazy and needs to get his act together. Maybe I assume that his poverty is the result of sin. Who knows. But for some reason, Solomon has noticed that people have a way of despising their poor neighbors, and he describes that as sin. This is a warning. Don’t do that! But on the other hand, “happy is he who is gracious to the poor.” So, you can sin (by despising your neighbor) or you can be happy (by being gracious to your neighbor). I don’t know about you, but I would prefer being happy! 

    5. Solomon’s next observation is similar and comes to us in Proverbs 14:31, where he says that, “He who oppresses the poor taunts his Maker, but he who is gracious to the needy honors Him.”

How many would dare to taunt God to his face, but as we learn here (and as we learned last week) to despise or taunt the poor is to despise or taunt God himself. Last week, Jim read that passage from Matthew 25, where Jesus pictures the Judgment and says to the lost, “...to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.” It is impossible to be a true disciple of Jesus and mistreat the poor. It doesn’t matter how often we sing, “Oh, how I love Jesus.” If we oppress or ignore the poor, we do not love Jesus. As John writes in 1 John 3:17, “But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him?” Some of the strongest warnings in scripture are about caring for the poor. Going back to Deuteronomy 10:17-19, God reminds his people right before crossing over the Jordan, “For the Lord your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God who does not show partiality nor take a bribe. He executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and shows His love for the alien by giving him food and clothing. So show your love for the alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.” When we oppress the poor, we oppress the Lord himself, but when we are gracious to the needy, God has mercy on us.

    6. Solomon’s next observation is one of my favorites, and this one comes to us in Proverbs 19:17, where he says that, “One who is gracious to a poor man lends to the Lord, and He will repay him for his good deed.”

Normally, when a bank loans money, they expect to get that money back some day, with interest. When we loan a tool to a friend, we may not expect interest, but we usually hope to get the tool back. When we were in Hawaii, we drove by a “tool library.” What a neat concept! They aren’t giving tools away, but they are loaning them out, expecting them to be returned. So also when we loan a car or a tool to a friend. However, when we give to the poor, we don’t really expect that gift to be returned. And that’s alright, Solomon says, because when we give to the poor we are actually lending to the Lord, and the Lord is good for it. They may not be able to pay us back, but the Lord will.

You know, there’s an interesting passage in Luke 6 (starting in verse 30), where Jesus says,

Give to everyone who asks of you, and whoever takes away what is yours, do not demand it back. Treat others the same way you want them to treat you. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners in order to receive back the same amount. But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

This policy of giving to those in need is based, Jesus says, in the love and mercy of God. We are to be merciful, just as He is merciful. So, when we are kind to someone who can never pay it back, we are simply doing for others what God has done for us, and God will take care of it in the end. God “owes us one,” so to speak. God is “in our debt,” in a sense.

    7. Solomon’s next observation comes to us in Proverbs 21:13, where he says that, “He who shuts his ear to the cry of the poor will also cry himself and not be answered.”

To “cry” is to call for help. This is a call of distress. Help me! Something terrible has happened to me and I need some help over here. And in this case, the cry for help comes from “the poor.” And based on what we plan on studying next week, I’m just going to assume in advance that this guy isn’t crying for help because he’s lazy. That’s not what’s going on here. This person is legitimately poor, and he’s poor in a way that he needs help. How bad would it need to be for you personally to “cry” out to somebody for help? I don’t know about you, but that’s a “my children are starving” kind of situation. In my opinion, anything short of that, I’m gonna try to handle myself. So, this is a desperate cry for help. This man has no other options. Perhaps he is hungry and cold, at the point of death.

But notice, there’s another character in this situation who hears the cry and “shuts his ear” to it. So, this isn’t “there are poor people out there somewhere who may need my help.” No, this is a desperate man right here in front of me who is calling out for help. But, the one who hears this cry “shuts his ear” to it. He ignores it. He refuses to help. He keeps on going. He crosses over to the other side of the road. This man is represented by the priest and the Levite in the Parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10. These men weren’t being called upon to solve world poverty, but they were confronted by a dying man along the trail, and they turned away. They had the ability to help, but they “shut their ears.”

For those who do this, Solomon says that there is a time coming when they will cry and “not be answered.” So I just want us to notice that there are consequences for NOT helping. I’m thinking of the Rich Man who wouldn’t even share crumbs from his table with the poor man Lazarus at his gate, but the time came when the Rich Man died and God wouldn’t even answer his desperate cry for even a drop of water to cool his tongue in those flames.

    8. The next observation is similar to some of the others and comes in Proverbs 22:9, where King Solomon says, “He who is generous will be blessed, for he gives some of his food to the poor.”

Some of you might have a footnote (or it may even be in your translation), something about “he who has a bountiful eye.” Apparently, it’s a figure of speech. It means “generous” (which is why it’s translated like this in the NASB and some others), but it’s a neat picture. In my mind, I’m thinking of someone who’s always on the lookout for some way to help others, because helping truly starts with seeing! If I don’t see a problem, I can’t help fix that problem. I think of those times when Jesus “saw the crowds” and was “moved with compassion.” It started with an observation. Sometimes we go through life oblivious to the suffering around us. I drove here this morning, 15 miles across the city of Madison, in my little bubble, listening to the radio, and I didn’t interact with any other human beings. My commute was very simple and very much alone. Now compare that to taking the city bus. If you haven’t done it, I would suggest taking the city bus from time to time. You meet some very interesting people on the bus and have some very interesting conversations. Otherwise, we tend to be quite isolated from the suffering in the world around us. But the Lord, it seems, wants us to be on the lookout for ways to help; he wants us to be looking for ways to be generous. And there is a blessing on the one who sees and who then “gives some of his food to the poor.” This isn’t some massive donation, this isn’t the kind of gift that’ll rename the university dining hall, but this is simply sharing a meal, some of “his food.” In my mind, I buy a meal, I see a need, and then I eat half of what I would have eaten by sharing the other half with someone in need. That’s pretty personal. But it starts with being aware.

    9. King Solomon’s next observation is different than the others and comes to us in Proverbs 28:8, where he says that, “He who increases his wealth by interest and usury gathers it for him who is gracious to the poor.”

So, we have the wealthy increasing their wealth through “interest and usury.” Our financial system is quite a bit different than what they had back then, so I think we would summarize this under the heading of “dishonest gain” or perhaps “excessive interest.” James warns about the wealthy who would take advantage of the poor by withholding wages, by cheating their employees; even condemning and putting to death those who were righteous. Often, the poor have no recourse, but the wealthy have time, and money, and armies of attorneys.

But the message here is that ultimately, justice prevails. Those who get rich by cheating the poor are actually just collecting riches that’ll be handed over to those who are “gracious to the poor.” God will take from the unrighteous rich and give it to those who will help others – perhaps through legal action, perhaps through a revolution of some kind, perhaps through death, or maybe some other way; but God will work it out.

    10. Our next observation is similar to the others and comes later in this chapter, in Proverbs 28:27, where King Solomon says that, “He who gives to the poor will never want, but he who shuts his eyes will have many curses.”

In the second part of this one, instead of someone who “shut his ears” to the cry of the poor, now we have someone who “shuts his eyes” to the poor. Someone sees poverty but then looks away from it. This is willful ignorance. And we understand the temptation. Maybe we’ve done it. We see someone at the intersection up ahead, and we may be tempted to think, “Oh no. Not again. How can I avoid this?” And I know we have some safety issues here – stopping in traffic, causing an accident, and so on – but maybe there’s some other way to help. Maybe we run into that same person at a nearby Kwik Trip and offer not cash, but food. Perhaps we offer to eat together. There are many ways to accomplish the goal of this passage, which is to give to the poor. We certainly don’t want to “shut our eyes” and end up with “many curses.”

    11. All of this brings us to Solomon’s last observation on giving to the poor, in Proverbs 29:7, where King Solomon says, “The righteous is concerned for the rights of the poor, the wicked does not understand such concern.”

So again, ignorance is no excuse. Only here, instead of closing his eyes or shutting his ears, the truly righteous person “is concerned with the rights of the poor.” The righteous person makes a point of going out and learning what his poor neighbors are going through and perhaps researching what he can do to help – coming up with a plan and doing it. This doesn’t happen by accident, but the righteous person makes an effort. The righteous person is “concerned” and then acts on that concern. The wicked, though, just don’t really care. They don’t have that concern. So, with this last Proverb, we have a challenge: Pay attention! Keep an eye out for those in need, speak up, and help in a way that is truly helpful.

Conclusion:

This morning we have pretty much wrapped up our study of King Solomon’s wisdom concerning wealth, and we’ve focused in today on what he has to say about SHARING IT. In closing, I would give some brief advice for those who may be wondering: How do we know some need that we run across is truly legitimate? And I would say that yes, not all those who say that they are poor and afflicted are actually poor and afflicted. Some will fake it. I have seen this. I have fallen victim to this. We think of Joshua who failed to consult God, who failed to do his research, and fell victim to the scam of the Gibeonites. Not good at all. But the other danger, and I think the greater danger, is that we are too skeptical, so skeptical that we fail to act. So, we have to be wise, but we also have to act with compassion. And we may need to get creative. I like performing an act of service – mowing a lawn, shoveling a driveway, cooking a meal. I’m a fan of the fuel-only gift cards at Kwik Trip that can’t be spent on tobacco or alcohol, but can only be used for gas. Here at church, and also personally, we would much rather give an item as opposed to giving cash. Several times, for example, we’ve had pekpole call, looking for cash to help purchase shoes for work. Several years ago, we got a call from a guy who just got a new job and needed some new work boots from Walmart. Instead of giving him $100 cash, Aaron went with him to Walmart and purchased those boots. We got a similar call just a few weeks ago from a guy who got a new job cleaning Madison city busses, but he needed some new shoes. Personally, instead of selling an item, I like finding a way to donate it to somebody I know, and so on. If you have your own ideas, please let me know. But next week, we hope to have a little bonus study on LAZINESS. It just seemed to fit in here, and Solomon has quite a bit to say about it.

As we close our study this morning, let’s go to God in prayer:

Our Father in Heaven,

You are the God of all wealth, the God of both the rich and the poor, and we come to you this morning asking that you open our eyes and ears to the desperation of the poor all around us. We pray for hearts of compassion, we pray that our hearts would never be hardened to the suffering of this world. We pray for the resources we need to reach out, we pray for wisdom, and we pray for the courage to love others just as you have loved us. Show us, Father, how to use what you have given to us. Use us to meet the needs of those around us.

We come to you this morning in Jesus’ name. AMEN.

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