ECONOMY 13 – SAVING
Laying foundations for Saving in the Law
• God wants & makes the physical world. Possessions are a good thing.
• Man is made a steward, caretaker, developer of the world under God, the Creator and Owner of this world
• God wants maintenance, looking after, preserving, developing, increase
• God wants us to have ownership and authority
• God establishes the concept of time.
• Regular days (morning and evening), months (moon), year (seasons) brings the concept of time, of change, of future possibility and need for planning.
• Different seasons demands planning, planting in season, storing against other seasons
De 5:19
• Protection of private property makes saving possible. If widespread theft > saving is simply loss or foolishness.
• God prevents this by prohibiting theft, therefore affirming ownership.
Biblical examples: Saving is normal & good
Ge 26:14 Isaac has great possessions of herd, great store of servants
Ge 41:36 Joseph storing grain in Egypt to prepare for the coming famine
Ex 16:5 Manna is storable on 6th day > gather double for rest day
Le 25:22 7th year > 6th year storage is eaten & sown in the fields in the 8th year
Le 26:10, De 28:5 obedience > blessing = eat old storage, to make room for the new
Ps 144:13 Blessing of filled barns, increasing herds
De 28:17 Disobedience > cursed be your basket and your store
1 Ch 29:16 David storing up materials for the temple building
2 Ch 31:10 people bringing offerings to temple > have plenty, also great store
1 Ki 9:19, 2 Ch 8:4,6 Solomon builds storage cities (taxes? grain? horses?)
1 Ki 10:10 Queen of Sheba giving Solomon a great store of spices
2 Ch 11:11 Rehoboam fortifies strongholds > stores of victuals, oil, wine in them
2 Ch 16:4 King Ben-Hadad of Syria raids the store cities of Naphtali
2 Ch 17:12 King Jehoshaphat of Judah builds fortresses and storage cities
Principles around Saving
Labor > Saving the surplus at the right time
Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers it food at harvest’
• affirmation of labor, planning, good use of produce, careful storage for future
• foregoing comfort, indulgence now for a greater future benefit or value
• thinking & working beyond immediate need, self-initiation & self-responsibility
Ensuring income before attending to comfort
• First priority has to be production, securing income, only then comforts, luxuries
• Counter Example: Esau (Ge 25:32), who sells valuable birthright for a meal now
“In the house of the wise are stores of choice food and oil, but the foolish… devour all”
Proverbs
Quick-rich schemes
Pr 28:20 The trustworthy will get a rich reward. But the person who wants to get rich quick will only get into trouble / will not go unpunished.
Pr 20:21 An estate quickly acquired in the beginning won’t be blessed in the end
Pr 28:22 The miser is in a hurry to get rich but and does not know that loss is sure to come
Pr 28:19 Anyone who tills the land will have plenty of bread, but one who follows worthless pursuits will have plenty of poverty.
Pr 21:5 The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to want.
• avoid the forever lure of quick-rich schemes > they are not blessed, usually involve unrighteous gain, cater to greed, devalue normal labor & faithfulness
• Create wishful thinking, but not: real labor, diligence, application of oneself
• Warning: Pyramid schemes like ‘Destiny’, ..
• Saving versus generosity? To become stingy for focus on saving is not blessed
• labor > good accounting > profits taken but also re-investments made
• Concept of slow multi-generational family-based increase of wealth
• Together with pass down of increasing wealth there needs to bee an Increasing discipleship of character, self-control, stewardship & management skills
• Goal: to be able to pass something on, not ‘retirement as soon as son has a job’,
• Rather: continual work and increase as long as work is reasonably possible.
The good leave an inheritance to their children’s children, but the sinner’s wealth is laid up for the righteous.’
• again: multi-generational build up of wealth in the family
• Why not children but children’s children? By the time a father has put a son through schooling, he may not have been able to save much, to for example give him an interest free loan for starting a business.
• But the grandfather, not having great financial strains for the last 20 years may well be able to give an interest free loan or inheritance advance to a grandson
• Landa Cope: it takes two godly generations to get out of deep poverty
‘Divide your means / give portions to seven, yes to eight, for you do not know what disaster will come upon the land’… In the morning sow your seed, and at evening do not let your hands be idle; for you do not know which will prosper, this or that or whether both alike will be good.
• Affirmation of labor, application of skill, innovation, risk taking
• Savings are assumed, then how to keep them or re-invest them > diversity assets as disasters or financial set-backs are always possible.
• Careful, thoughtful, planful, aware of future, knowing there is always risk … but not paralysis ‘nothing to be done’ or fatalism ‘whatever will be will be’.
• No false security, no over-worry, no self-condemnation if something fails
• assumes that there can be enough savings to divide seven or eight ways
• no over-specialization
Lu 14:28-30
Prioritise and evaluate the costs
‘But don’t begin until you count the cost. For who would begin construction of a building without first getting estimates and then checking to see if there is enough money to pay the bills? Otherwise, you might complete only the foundation before running out of funds. And then how everyone would laugh at you! They would say, ‘There’s the person who started that building and ran out of money before it was finished!’
• need for planning, realistic assessment, cost calculation, savings versus expenses
Counter points
• Greed, abuse of the weak, unrighteous gain is neither blessed nor lasting.
Jesus: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust corrupts and where thieves break through and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust corrupts, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
• Warning of false priority of wealth over God and his kingdom.
• Jesus cracks the narrow, Pharisaical, law-derived understanding rich=righteous
• Wealth is not the ultimate value, not lasting, too little to base everything on
• Jesus enlarges concept of value or wealth: financial aspects not most important
• Heart follows treasure > tithing, giving, putting wealth to good use keeps healthy
Do not covet your neighbor’s wife, your neighbor’s house, or field, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
• Warning of greed, coveting, demanding, passively envying others’ things
Luke 12:16-21
Overconfidence, false security, pride in savings
‘And he gave them an illustration: “A rich man had a fertile farm that produced fine crops. In fact, his barns were full to overflowing. So he said, ‘I know! I’ll tear down my barns and build bigger ones. Then I’ll have room enough to store everything. And I’ll sit back and say to myself, My friend, you have enough stored away for years to come. Now take it easy! Eat, drink, and be merry!’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! You will die this very night. Then who will get it all? ’Yes, a person is a fool to store up earthly wealth but not have a rich relationship with God.’
• Wrong conclusion: independence, false security, work stop, selfish use only
1 Ti 6:17 ‘As for those who in the present age are rich, command them not to be haughty, or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but rather on God who richly provided us with everything for our enjoyment.
Pr 18:11 ‘The wealth of the rich is their strong city; in their imagination it is
like a high wall.
Pr 11:28 ‘Those who trust in their riches will wither; but the righteous will flourish like green leaves.’
• warning of pride, false security or identity in wealth, independence of God
• positive view of wealth: given by God for enjoyment, but also: develop, use, share
2 Co 9:8
God provides abundantly > power to do good
“And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work.”
Rich are to store up good works
Rich people are to be rich in good works, generous and ready to share, thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future,
• Savings, wealth are fine, give the power to share, to do good, to put to right use
• foundation for future > meaning financial gain & enjoyment is not ultimate goal
‘Manipulative Savings’ > Prohibition of hoarding
The people curse those who hold back grain, but a blessing is on the head of those who sell it.
• Hoarding of essentials in order to make exorbitant gain is prohibited