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Proverbs
Proverbs
The New International Version Chapter 22
Do not be one who shakes hands in pledge
or puts up security for debts;
27 if you lack the means to pay,
your very bed will be snatched from under you.
The lover of money will not be satisfied with money; nor the lover of wealth, with gain. This also is vanity.
How much better to get wisdom than gold!
To get understanding is to be chosen rather than silver.
Transition: From Abraham to Isaac
Transition: From Abraham to Isaac
The last segment on the sacrifice of Isaac begins a transitionary section in Genesis as we move from Abraham to the continuation of the promise in Isaac. Isaac, surprisingly, doesn’t return with Abraham down the mountain. Having faced the reality of his death, Isaac becomes a man, a patriarch in his own right, and the story of Genesis begins moving us from Abraham to Isaac. The first step in that journey is the loss of Sarah, Isaac’s mother and Abraham’s wife.
Abraham: The Loss of a Spouse
Abraham: The Loss of a Spouse
The loss of a loved one is a part of life. Abraham takes the time to weep for his wife, a practice that ANE cultures no doubt do better than we often do. Nevertheless, this story’s focus is primarily on Abraham’s deal with the Hittites, not on the loss of Sarah. This is because, even back then, death often brought on new and unfamiliar challenges, and even financial challenges. Not only must Abraham find a way to cope with the loss of his wife emotionally, he must also find a way to cope financially.
Abraham: Playing the Haggling game
Abraham: Playing the Haggling game
This new financial challenge presents itself to Abraham in the form of a lack of land. Abraham has not yet been given the promised land, and so he has no place to bury his wife. Thus, Abraham enters into a haggling game with Ephron the Hittite.
While we might read this as a friendly transaction, the rules and customs of ANE haggling reveal that Ephron was attempting to pull one over on Abraham by giving him the land as a gift. Abraham would rather pay an exorbitant price for the land now than to be in debt to the Hittites later.
Betting on Hope: Stewardship in light of Promise
Betting on Hope: Stewardship in light of Promise
Why did Abraham pay so much for this land though? It was a bet on hope. Burial places were of great significance in the ANE. Family burial places were handed down from generation to generation, and this burial place would be no different. Sarah would be buried here, as would Abraham, Isaac, Rebekah, and even Joseph would be buried here.
Abraham believed the promise that God gave him, that his descendants would inherit this land. That is why he was willing to pay so much for a place to bury Sarah, as opposed to returning to Haran where they had come from to bury her.
Haggling and Hope
Haggling and Hope
As followers of Christ, we are called to be good stewards with the money and resources we have been given. But being a good steward isn’t always about making lots of money. Instead, it’s about using the money and resources we do have wisely.
How much better to get wisdom than gold!
To get understanding is to be chosen rather than silver.
Then Jesus said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property. So he summoned him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Give me an accounting of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.’ Then the manager said to himself, ‘What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.’ So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ He answered, ‘A hundred jugs of olive oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.’ Then he asked another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He replied, ‘A hundred containers of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill and make it eighty.’ And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes.
“Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”
The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all this, and they ridiculed him. So he said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of others; but God knows your hearts; for what is prized by human beings is an abomination in the sight of God.
“The law and the prophets were in effect until John came; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is proclaimed, and everyone tries to enter it by force.But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away, than for one stroke of a letter in the law to be dropped.
“Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and whoever marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery.
“There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side.He called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.’ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.’ He said, ‘Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father’s house— for I have five brothers—that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.’ Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.’ He said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’ ”
Luke 16
