Tag Money

Grandpa Solomon’s Retirement Advice

Todd R 2 Comments

Have you ever asked yourself what Solomon, son of David, king of Israel, and author of much Biblical wisdom, would have to say about modern retirement?  Probably not, but I’m going to write about it anyway, because Solomon actually had some relevant advice.

Since this blog is not a source of income, I have a day job which happens to involve helping companies help their employees save and invest for retirement.  In American culture, retirement has in some ways replaced heaven as the future we hope for.  Advertisements promise retirees can do all the things they dreamed of doing during their working years.  Travel.  Relax.  Read those books you’ve been putting off reading.  If you can, buy a yacht.  After all, if you’ve worked so hard for it, you deserve it, they say.  Like many marketing schemes, something good and prudent (saving for retirement) is wrapped in a lot of gloss to get you to do something you might not do otherwise.  Sacrifices made now are worthwhile because of a later reward.

A photo I took from a Florida beach over the Atlantic near sunrise. I’d like to retire here, but heaven is better.

Thinking about this, I made the connection that Solomon[1] when writing Ecclesiastes was acting in the role of a wise, Godly grandfather in a way that offers a sharp contrast to the story of retirement that goes unchallenged in our culture.

In Ecclesiastes, Solomon lays out an argument that he lived almost the exact life pictured in our retirement ads but learned to regret it.  While still a very young man, he had the power and wealth to try anything he wanted.  He planted vineyards and drank a lot of wine.  He built gardens and pools and acquired many servants and property.  He also had 700 wives and 300 concubines.[2]  He could have everything he desired – everything the retirement ads would show you if they could be R-rated – but he ended up disappointed.  Ecclesiastes is his advice to those who come after to not repeat his mistakes.

While a blog post can’t cover all of Ecclesiastes, I must add that Solomon did encourage us to invest for the future, but also not to place all our bets on one specific vision of the future: “Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days.  Give a portion to seven, or even to eight, for you know not what disaster may happen on earth.”  (Ecclesiastes 11:1-2).  A long, healthy and prosperous retirement is one possible future among many, but eternity with God is a future certainty.  Earlier in the book, Solomon writes: “He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.” (Ecclesiastes 3:11)  God gives us a sense of what He has planned for us, but not many of the details.  We should not foolishly ignore the future, but we should not cling to one future we desire at the cost of the present God has given us and the future He already knows everything about.

Solomon encourages everyone – young and old – to live more in their own moment, enjoying the gifts God has given them and sharing those gifts with the people around them.  While Solomon is encouraging the young to not repeat his own mistakes, he is also encouraging the old to share their perspective.  In both cases, Solomon is telling us not to stress too much about what may or may not happen, but to invest what we have in light of what will be meaningful in eternity.  Joy comes from enjoying the relationships and things God has blessed us with now, not from sacrificing the now in light of a false vision of retirement.

Solomon recommends joy in God’s provision, and so I close with this quote, and pray that we all experience joy and thankfulness in the gifts God has given us today.  Don’t keep them to yourself.

“Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do.  Let your garments be always white. Let not oil be lacking on your head.  Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your vain life that he has given you under the sun, because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going.” – Ecclesiastes 9:7-10

[1] I’m going to proceed for the sake of argument that Solomon is the author of Ecclesiastes, although I know some debate that and it’s not explicitly stated.
[2] 1 Kings 11:3

“Whatever Works”?

Todd R 4 Comments

Proverbs in the Bible can be hard to understand, like many parts of the Bible.  Sometimes one proverb seems to contradict another, as these two seem to:

Photo by Jacek Dylag on Unsplash

“A bribe is like a magic stone in the eyes of the one who gives it;
            wherever he turns he prospers.” – Proverbs 17:8
“Whoever is greedy for unjust gain troubles his own household,
            but he who hates bribes will live.” – Proverbs 15:27

What are we to make of this?  Can both statements be true and can both statements contribute to our growing in wisdom?  Of course, the answer is yes, or they wouldn’t both be there in the Bible.

The reason the two Proverbs aren’t a contradiction is that the first just tells us the way things are, but the second tells us the way things should be.  Said another way, Proverbs 17:8 is descriptive and Proverbs 15:27 is prescriptive.  The first makes no judgement as to the eternal value of bribes, but the second suggests that those who reject bribery will have eternal reward.  Both Proverbs are true, but in different ways.

Put the two proverbs together and we see that, even though bribes can be effective, God’s people should hate them.  Christians shouldn’t be pragmatic and do whatever works, but they should seek to do what is acceptable to God, even if it’s not effective in achieving worldly ends.

The wise should understand how bribes work, but the wise also know that “whatever works” often isn’t the right answer.

Putting Our Money Where Our Faith Is

Todd R Leave a comment

We often make decisions without really knowing our own motives.  Without really thinking about why we are doing what we do.  However, if we estimate how many of our decisions are based on money from how often the New Testament talks about money, people probably follow financial motives more than they think they do.  Jesus spoke a lot about money, and so does the rest of the New Testament.  Too often our main concern is: will this make us money, or will this lose us money?  This post will briefly look at 3 stories from the book of Acts about money as a motivation.

The first comes from Acts chapter 16.  Verse 16 says, “As we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune-telling.”  The Old Testament law clearly forbids fortune-telling (Deuteronomy 18:10), but the owners of this slave seemed to only care that the fortune-telling made them a fortune.  Unfortunately for them, Paul cast the spirit out of the girl, leaving her owners frustrated.  Verse 19 says, “But when her owners saw that their hope of gain was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the rulers.”  Paul and Silas ended up in prison, eventually to be miraculously freed, and the slave girl’s owners ended up poorer.

The next story comes from Acts chapter 19.  When Paul was in Ephesus and bringing many to Christ in the power of the Spirit, the new disciples gave up their other idols.  In response, a silversmith named Demetrius stirred up some opposition to Paul:

“Men, you know that from this business we have our wealth.  And you see and hear that not only in Ephesus but in almost all of Asia this Paul has persuaded and turned away a great many people, saying that gods made with hands are not gods. And there is danger not only that this trade of ours may come into disrepute but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis may be counted as nothing, and that she may even be deposed from her magnificence, she whom all Asia and the world worship.” – Acts 19:25b-27

Did the silversmith care that many were finding salvation in Jesus?  No, he (and his fellow tradesmen) only cared that this new religion was hurting their business profits.  This led to a riot that lasted several hours and had to be quieted by the authorities to keep the Romans from violently intervening.

The last story shows a massive contrast from the first two, and is recorded in Acts 19:18-19, right before the riot in Ephesus occurred.

“Also many of those who were now believers came, confessing and divulging their practices.  And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver.”

Warren Wiersbe estimated that “The total value of the magical books and spells that they burned was equivalent to the total salaries of 150 men working for a whole year!”  While the money was already spent, these new believers could have sold the items for some amount of money and recovered some of their cost, but they probably thought that if these items were evil, nobody should have them.  The financial cost wasn’t a concern for them.  They just wanted to get rid of things that separated them from God.

What a different perspective!  While the new believers willingly burned expensive objects related to magic arts, the owners of the fortune-telling slave girl and the idolatrous silversmiths were too concerned about money to consider Jesus.

Which perspective do we have?  Do we ever disobey God because we think it will help financially?  Do we ever hold on to things that are spiritually harmful because they cost us money?  Or are we willing to follow Jesus no matter the cost?

Today let’s pray that God will reveal where our loyalties are misplaced and help us to take a step in a better direction!  Let’s pray for the strength needed to follow through and not turn back.

“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” – Jesus, in Matthew 6:24

Render to God

Todd R Leave a comment

The phrase “render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s” which Jesus spoke in Luke 20:25 is likely a familiar one.  I had a friend in college who worked at Little Caesar’s pizza, and he showed up at Bible study with some pizza from there one night.  We had agreed to split the cost, so when he walked in he said “render unto Caesar!”  We all got the reference and a couple of us laughed (I admit one of them was me).

The “render to Caesar” saying comes from a time where some scribes and chief priests tried to get Jesus in trouble, as they often did, trying any means necessary to condemn Him.  In this case, they first flattered Jesus, trying to catch Him off-guard, then asked Him, “Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar, or not?”  They thought if Jesus said yes, it would upset the Jews who wanted their Messiah to overthrow Rome, and that if He said no, it would upset the Romans and perhaps they would arrest Jesus as a revolutionary.  They thought they had Him trapped, but His answer quoted above was unexpected by them, yet truthful and insightful.

Often the lessons taken from this story have to do with Jesus’ ability to thwart the attempts of His enemies to catch Him in His words, or with the Christian’s obligation to pay taxes, or with something about the relationship between the Jews and Rome.  There are several good applications.

Another important application that’s key to the story, can be highlighted if we shorten the saying to “render…to God the things that are God’s.”  This last part of the quote is where Jesus subtly tells those trying to catch Him that they weren’t giving to God the things they should be.  Although they were the religious leaders of their day, they were focused on the wrong things, like their money and their resentment against the government.  Or even their obsession with arguing with Jesus.

Photo by Adi Albulescu on Unsplash

What are the things that are God’s and that we should render to Him?

Paul helps answer this in Romans 12:1, which says “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”

Here Paul says that the thing we should be rendering to God is our very selves, and Jesus implied this when He said “render…to God the things that are God’s.”  This answer said to the Jews, and everyone listening, that their Messiah wasn’t only going to overthrow Rome, but He was going to overthrow all kingdoms, including those we build in our own hearts and minds.  From an eternal perspective, the many flaws of Roman rule under which the first-century Jews lived were minor inconveniences, including the paying of taxes and other, real abuses.  Jesus wants us to focus on the real challenge: what to do about mankind’s rebellion from God?  This is the real mission of the Messiah.

Luke follows the “render to Caesar” story with a question some Sadducees asked Jesus about the resurrection, also to try and catch Him saying something wrong.  The story was not put there by accident, but in the sequence, I think we see that there is in fact a resurrection, and that our resurrected selves will be much different than our current selves.  Our new selves will be able to perfectly worship God, and we will be able to fully offer our “bodies as a living sacrifice” while we can only do so imperfectly now.

In the meantime, we don’t get a free pass to do what we want because we aren’t perfected yet.  Every day and every moment, we are to “render…to God the things that are God’s” in ways the religious leaders of Jesus’ day (as well as the audience of most of the Old Testament prophets) failed to do.

In closing, I’ll quote the OT prophet Micah, who differentiated between the animal sacrifices of ancient Israel from the “living sacrifice” God requires:

“With what shall I come before the LORD,
            and bow myself before God on high?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
            with calves a year old?
Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams,
            with ten thousands of rivers of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
            the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”
He has told you, O man, what is good;
            and what does the LORD require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
            and to walk humbly with your God?”  (Micah 6:6-8)

Today, “render…to God the things that are God’s.”

The Destiny of the Wealth of Nations

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Here in the United States, the year 1776 is celebrated as the political beginning of the nation, because the Declaration of Independence was approved on July 4 of that year.  Also in 1776, The Wealth of Nations by economist and philosopher Adam Smith was published and is foundational to our nation’s economy.  Its full title of An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations shows its purpose was to explore what makes some nations more well-off than others, with Smith concluding that capitalism, especially the elements of free trade and competition, was the best system.  I won’t argue here for capitalism or about where wealth comes from, but about where wealth is destined to end up.

Interestingly, the phrase “wealth of the nations” appears in the Bible 3 times, all in Isaiah 60 and 61, and the phrase “wealth of all the surrounding nations” appears once, in Zechariah 14.[1]  All of these references describe the future reign of the Messiah when all nations and peoples will acknowledge Him as Lord and dedicate their wealth in tribute to Him.

Isaiah 60:4-5 is the first mention of the phrase, and it says:

“Lift up your eyes all around, and see;
            they all gather together, they come to you;
your sons shall come from afar,
            and your daughters shall be carried on the hip.
Then you shall see and be radiant;
            your heart shall thrill and exult,
because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you,
            the wealth of the nations shall come to you.”

The next few verses read like an inventory of goods (camels, gold, flocks, ships, lumber) and places (Midian, Sheba, Kedar, Tarshish, Lebanon), showing that no thing and no place is excluded from the tribute to God.  Wealth from every source belongs to Him.

In the same chapter, verse 11 declares about the eternal city of God:

“Your gates shall be open continually;
            day and night they shall not be shut,
that people may bring to you the wealth of the nations,
            with their kings led in procession.”

When we inquire into future of wealth, rather than its past and its sources, we find that the wealth of the nations is all His.  We own nothing.  We are only stewards and caretakers, regardless of what economic system we live in or believe in.

“The earth is the LORD’S and the fullness thereof,
                        the world and those who dwell therein” – Psalm 24:1

Soli Deo Gloria

[1] It may be where Smith got his title idea, or it may just be coincidence.