THE PRACTICAL AND THE PROPHETICAL
Proverbs 22:16 (KJV)
He that oppresseth the poor to increase his riches, and he that giveth to the rich, shall surely come to want.
Proverbs 22:22–23 (KJV)
Rob not the poor, because he is poor: neither oppress the afflicted in the gate:
For the LORD will plead their cause, and spoil the soul of those that spoiled them.
One of the reasons why I like studying the book of the Proverbs is because it is filled with practical wisdom.
All of the Bible is really.
One of my Daily Visits with God last week I read 1 Samuel 12:7 where Samuel reasoned with the children of Israel concerning the nature of the king they had asked for.
I wrote my thoughts down in a blog I called “Reasoning Skills.”
Someone wrote back to me and said they needed that devotion to help them try to resolve a dispute they had with another person.
I was able to give them the Lord’s Model Prayer and explain how it too can be used to teach how to appeal to someone with whom we have a disagreement.[1]
1. Acknowledge the other’s position (Our Father)
2. Give them respect (Hallowed be thy name)
3. Be prepared to give them what they deserve (Thy kingdom come. they will be done)
4. Make your request and state you case (give us this day…)
5. Reaffirm their value in your eyes (For Thine is….)
So, as I said, the Bible is a very practical book.
Christian business people remark all of the time how that even non-Christian businesses often unwittingly use Biblical principles in business precisely because it is practical, sound and wise.
There are whole models of Biblical counseling built upon a practice very similar to what I did with the Lord’s Model Prayer.
The book of Psalms, for instance, represents every human emotion imaginable and even combinations of those emotions.
So one way to teach the book of Psalms is to
· Identify the emotions represented in the Psalm
· Analyze the Psalm’s treatment of that emotion,
· Record and catalog your analysis, and then
· Teach your analysis as an authoritative treatment when you deal with someone facing that emotion
So, for instance, say you encounter someone who is battling loneliness.
· Psalm 139 describes a person who is alone.
· She how the Psalmist works his way out of loneliness and then
· Teach that Psalm to the person who fights this problem
The Bible is a practical book.
Proverbs especially, is loaded with practical teaching on principles of stewardship.
I have been pastor here over 18 years yet I do not believe I have had as much response to any preaching and teaching as much as I have this series of lessons.
About the only “complaint” I have had about it is several parents who have said they wished I were teaching it to their teens.
But I want to tell you; the Bible is a useless book if it is only a practical book.
What makes the Bible useful is that it is a prophetic book.
It is a supernatural book.
There are a lot of wise people who have developed a thousand practical tools for good money management.
The Bible is useful because it stretches our eyes past the paper and pencil of financial accounting and casts our gaze into the treasures of heaven.
With that in mind there are four things the Proverbs warns us not to do:
*I. OPPRESS THE POOR TO INCREASE WEALTH
Proverbs 22:16 (KJV)
He that oppresseth the poor to increase his riches, and he that giveth to the rich, shall surely come to want.
Practically speaking, one of the easier ways to increase wealth is to take it from those with less.
Our state does that with the lottery.
I could not find a definitive number how much money Washington brings in each year from the lottery. I did see that in 2014 they had roughly $121 million toward college tuition.
That’s a lot of money.
Here’s the thing; wealthy people are not the ones buying those lottery tickets.
They may not all be technically poor, who gamble on those things — I watched a soldier buy a hand full of them the other day.
But it’s not the wealthy buying them.
It’s people who hope they can get wealthy by buying them.
The state spends hundreds and hundreds of thousands of (lottery) dollars each year to advertise the lottery.
I promise, the people watching those ads are not those you and I would think of as wealthy.
They are far too busy to watch much television.
It is the person who wishes he was wealthy who watches hours and hours of TV each day and is duped into buying lottery tickets through the advertisements he or she sees.
The state can make money off the poor, but that does not make it right.
Charismatic Televangelists do the very same thing, by the way.
Do not
*II. GIVE TO THE RICH (I am sure this is also to increase wealth)
Proverbs 22:16 (KJV)
He that oppresseth the poor to increase his riches, and he that giveth to the rich, shall surely come to want.
This giving could be financial, or it could be some other sort of favor or benefit.
The point is do not use what we have in order to win the favor of the rich in order to get from them wealth.
There is nothing wrong with being friendly and even generous to someone who has more than you have.
There is something very wrong with using that generosity for the purpose of getting from them.
Thirdly don’t
*III. ROB THE POOR BECAUSE HE IS POOR
Proverbs 22:22 (KJV)
Rob not the poor, because he is poor: neither oppress the afflicted in the gate:
This is like a crime of opportunity.
There is a very well known Fundamental Bible College who, a number of years ago, forced an evangelist who was a member of their “Campus Church’s” congregation to quit because the college did not want to be associated with his resistance of the government’s tax codes.
He was physically escorted off the campus by campus guards and, when he attempted to use appeal through a Christian legal ministry, was advised that he could never hope to win against this college — they would just out money him.
It might be possible to rob the poor because he is poor.
That doesn’t make it the right thing to do.
*IV. OPPRESS THE AFFLICTED IN THE GATE
Proverbs 22:22 (KJV)
Rob not the poor, because he is poor: neither oppress the afflicted in the gate:
The phrase “at the gate” is the key to this portion of the passage.
The gate would have been the place where legal matters were settled.
Whenever the Bible speaks of someone sitting at the gate, it means he has risen to a place of such importance in his city that he is a judge and ruler.
People would take their problems to the leaders and the gate to get their differences settled.
I think I know someone who is right now being victimized by the state government simply because the state knows they can’t afford to fight them.
The state might win, but that does not make it the right thing for them to do.
This family needs our prayers.
Let me end with,
*V. THE PROPHETIC REASON TO HEED THIS WARNING
Proverbs 22:23 (KJV)
For the LORD will plead their cause, and spoil the soul of those that spoiled them.
Notice that the Bible says the Lord will “spoil the soul…”
God might not necessarily take away the wealth of those who do the wrong thing for gain.
But He will judge them.
And there are some kinds of judgment far worse than doing without.
