Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

A generous person will prosper;
    whoever refreshes others will be refreshed.
People curse the one who hoards grain,
    but they pray God’s blessing on the one who is willing to sell.
Whoever seeks good finds favor,
    but evil comes to one who searches for it.
Those who trust in their riches will fall,
    but the righteous will thrive like a green leaf.
Whoever brings ruin on their family will inherit only wind,
    and the fool will be servant to the wise.
The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life,
    and the one who is wise saves lives.
If the righteous receive their due on earth,
    how much more the ungodly and the sinner!

• Proverbs 11: 25-31

“Proverbs 11:24-26 scatters, yet increases. ” The principle here is that generosity, by God’s blessing, secures increase, while stinginess leads to poverty instead of expected gain. The person who gives receives far more in return (Ps. 112:9; Eccl. 11:1; John 12:24, 25; Acts 20:35; 2 Cor. 9:6—9).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

The Rev. MacArthur quote has been held over for a second week since two of the proverbs are part of this set.  They speak of generosity being a good thing and hanging onto your stuff being less desirable.

But the idea of a hoarder, in Proverbs 11:26, brings back memories of the Y2K “disaster” on New Years Eve 1999, and of the recent conspiracy theories about the supply chain disaster.  It seems that there will be conspiracy theories that lead to hoarding at each junction between political shifts and maybe as the wind blows, forever.

I had a friend who was highly educated at the Y2K (Year 2000 impending disaster since the computers had been designed to register the last two digits of the year – thus 1999 going to 2000 was really 99 going to 0, which was theorized that the electrical grid would collapse, air traffic control would lose sight of all the airplanes in the sky, etc.).  This highly educated man had a basement filled with gallons of water, just in case he needed to flush a toilet after the crash occurred.  He had dry goods and canned foods, enough to last months.  And he had ammunition for his weapons.  If the neighbors know that you are the only person “prepared”, they will storm your house, so you needed to be able to defend yourself.  The police computers and the phone system will probably not be working.  And this person was not the only one.  But the disaster never happened.

And we do not have to look for such big events.  In our area of Pennsylvania, if a housewife sees two or three snowflakes falling, she drops everything to go to the grocery store to buy milk, bread, and batteries.  And this is after she has done the same thing three times earlier that week.  She could have a refrigerator filled with milk, and she will go out for more.  This could be the BIG ONE, even though the weather man has already said nothing more than a dusting.

There is something to be said for preparedness, but this craziness shows a total lack of faith in God.  Have enough, but do not hoard.  And if you have more than your neighbor, do not defend your excess with your rifle.  Share it.  For whoever sees good will find favor, as the next proverb states.

The next proverb seems to double back to Proverbs 11:24-26 in that trusting in riches leads to a fall.

Whoever leads to the ruin of the family goes beyond financial.  Yes, someone that gets into financial trouble repeatedly can drain the resources of the parents and siblings, but ruin can be from reputation by a child willfully being disobedient just to cast a poor reputation onto the parents and siblings.

The last two proverbs of this chapter speak of the righteous being a tree of life, salvation for the wise, and receiving their due here on earth.  Then the corollary should be true regarding the fool and the wicked.

And now let us sing.

The following song is Gifts from God.  It is sung by the composer, Chris Tomlin, and featuring Chris Lane.  If we spend too much time hoarding, we forget that everything is a Gift from God.

“Back when I was a kid
I thought gifts from God only came from church
But the more that I live, the more I learn
It’s not always the way it works
Sometimes you don’t see it ’til you’re looking back
When you didn’t get to what you thought, you had to have
‘Cause He had a bigger plan than the one you had
Yours didn’t work out and aren’t you glad

When you take a look around, it ain’t hard to find
Everybody’s got the things that money can’t buy
If the ones you love are sitting right beside you
Then I say you got a lot
The best things in life are straight from His hands
Like the raising kids on a piece of land
A little peace of mind when the day is done
Where you think that comes from? That’s gifts from God
Oh, yeah

It makes you thankful for the hills that we climb, for the waves that we ride
For the lows and the highs, for the wrongs made right
For the songs we sing, for the dreams we dream
Makes you thankful for everything

When you take a look around, it ain’t hard to find
Everybody’s got the things that money can’t buy
If the ones you love are sitting right beside you
Then I say you got a lot
The best things in life are straight from His hands
Like the raising kids on a piece of land
A little peace of mind when the day is done
Where you think that comes from? That’s gifts from God
Yeah, you know that’s gifts from God

Hallelujah, every day’s a gift from God
Hallelujah, every day’s a gift
Hallelujah (Hallelujah), every day’s a gift from God
Hallelujah (Hallelujah), every day’s a gift

When you take a look around, it ain’t hard to find
Everybody’s got the things that money can’t buy
If the ones you love are sitting right beside you
Then I say you got a lot
The best things in life are straight from His hands
Like the raising kids on a piece of land
A little peace of mind when the day is done
Where you think that comes from? That’s gifts from God

Hallelujah, where you think that comes from? That’s gifts from God
Hallelujah, where you think that comes from? That’s gifts from God
Hallelujah, you know that’s gifts from God
Hallelujah, every day’s a gift from God
Hallelujah, every day’s a gift, gifts from God”

• Chris Tomlin, Gifts from God

Closing Prayer

Dear Lord,
We need Your wisdom.  We hold our cards close to our vest at times.  We do not trust You as much as we should.  We should be more generous.  Not everything is measured by how much we have, but what we do with what You give us.  And when someone in the family is rebellious, that is on them.  It is their decision.  We should never let our embarrassment, based on bad choices close to home, keep us from being out in the community, loving our neighbors.  The love that we show speaks louder than the rebellion.
In thy Name we pray.
Amen

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.