Honor ADONAI from Your Wealth
3: 9-10
A proverb is a short and memorable saying designed to be our blueprint for living in the world that ADONAI has created. It is important to note that proverbs are not promises; they are generally true principles, all other things being equal.
There are two extremes in life. When good times roll and when hardship strikes. When life is sweet, trusting God with all our hearts feels unnecessary. But when life is bitter, trusting God with all our heart seems impossible. We need wisdom from those two seasons of life when we are on top of the world and when nothing seems to be going right. God is with us in both with wisdom that makes a positive difference. Earlier in Proverbs 3:5, ADONAI calls us to trust Him wholeheartedly. Now, in Proverbs 3:9-12, He leads us to trust Him when we are pushed out to these two opposite edges of our lives: plenty as seen here, and pain as seen in the next file (to see link click Au – Do Not Despise ADONAI’s Discipline).76
As Ray Ortlund relates in his commentary on Proverbs, Solomon gives us his counsel with an incentive. What is his counsel? “Honor ADONAI from your wealth.” The Hebrew verb translated honor means to treat ADONAI as weighty. The root verb means to be heavy, even as we might say today that a person carries social weight. That is what money communicates . . . prestige, rank, importance. It is all around us every day. In my part of God’s world, there are some extremely wealthy people. Whose prestige is their money enhancing? The sad truth is, too much of the time we honor ourselves with our money, and ADONAI gets second best (if He’s lucky). But Lady Wisdom changes us (see Am – Lady Wisdom’s Rebuke of the Foolish). She is saying, “Make ADONAI famous by means of your wealth. Use your money to increase His prestige in the world.” Why is using your money to make Messiah wise? Because the more we use our money for self-importance, the sillier we look. The pretense of it, the love of appearances, the overreaching – we do that because money has an almost mystical power over us. But the more we heap prestige on Yeshua by our money, the more weighty, and significant, and relevant we become. That is the irony of money. There are three things you must understand about these verses.
Counsel: First, some translations say: Honor ADONAI with your wealth. But a more literal translation is: Honor ADONAI from your wealth. What difference does that make? I might say, “Hey, I’m honoring the Lord when I pay my cable bill on time and when I take my wife out to dinner and so forth, because all my money belongs to God and I’m doing good things with it. I’m not doing bad things, and that honors the Lord.” That is how I might honor ADONAI with my wealth, and I could do that without ever giving a dollar away. But Proverbs 3:9a is actually saying: Honor ADONAI from your wealth. That is, He gets a cut from my wealth. I part with some of my money for His sake.
The second part of verse 9 explains how I truly honor ADONAI from my wealth . . . with the firstfruits of all your produce (3:9b ESV). The firstfruits were the best of the harvest. In Numbers 18:11-13, ADONAI describes the holy gifts which could be eaten by the priests and their families at their homes. Also, yours is the wave offerings that the people of Isra’el give (see the commentary on Leviticus Au – The Wave Offering and Priestly Portion). I have given these to you, your sons and your daughters with you. They could take these holy gifts home and share them with their families. This was a perpetual mitzvah. The food remained holy and was not to be violated by any unclean person. Everyone in your family who is ritually clean may eat it. Since the best items of produce were to be given to the LORD, they became the special food of the priests and their families. All the best of the olive oil, wine and grain, the firstfruits of what they give to ADONAI, I have given to you. The first ripe fruits of all that is in their land, which they bring to ADONAI is to be yours.
The concept that God gets “the best of the first” is a constant theme in the Bible. The olive oil and wine mentioned here were not the dregs, but the finest of the first ripe fruits. In giving the first and best to Ha’Shem, believers were affirming with confidence that there would be something left over for their own needs. And if not, faithful believers still bless the Lord. As of today, believers don’t worship ADONAI just to fill their stomachs. But they (then, and we now) expect that the giving of the first and best to God will often result in enjoying more abundance than ever for themselves and for their family. Tithing in the Dispensation of Torah was about 25 percent (see Numbers Cz – A Tenth of the Tithe), but that is not the standard for us today in the Dispensation of Grace (see the commentary on The Life of Christ Do – When You Give to the Needy, Do Not Do It to be Honored by Others: seven principles of scriptural giving).
Incentive: Then He will fill your barns with grain, and your vats will overflow with good wine (3:10 NLT). To truly honor God, calculate your wealth not from the net, but from the gross, because it says all your produce, that is, all our income. Don’t give Him the leftovers after we have taken care of ourselves. Think of it as ADONAI sharing His resources to expand the family business – The Gospel enterprise. He is entrusting into our care His own money, and we are investing His funds for His greater glory in the world today. He has made us investment brokers. We invest 10 percent as a tithe, and He pays 90 percent commission! He is such a good boss to work for.
ADONAI’s capacity to give far exceeds our capacity to receive. Yeshua said: The way you give to others is the way God will give to you (Luke 6:38b NCB). He doesn’t mean, “Give money to God and He will make you rich.” If that were the message, the Lord would not be honored, He would be used. Messiah isn’t arousing your greed. He means if you invest for His sake He will give you more money to invest for His sake. If you love Yeshua, nothing could make you happier than to honor ADONAI from your wealth. Why? Because of how He has treated you: Though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty he could make you rich (see the commentary on Second Corinthians Bo – The Poverty That Made Us Rich). Someone like that should be honored, don’t you think?77
Nevertheless, these verses in Proverbs are sometimes used by people who believe in the “prosperity gospel,” but that is to misuse them. First, there is no promise of abundant wealth, any more than there was a promise of long life and peace in 3:2. To claim a proverb as a promise is to misunderstand the type of literature it is. A proverb describes only a part, not the whole, of life, and so is not always applicable in a given situation or at a given time. Therefore, Yeshua, despite honoring the Father with His whole life, had neither a long life (3:2), nor barns overflowing with plenty (3:10). Second, the material prosperity is not limited with the size of the monetary gift, but with character (honoring the Lord). Such a character trait would involve not wanting to give wealth an inordinate place in one’s desires, so that truly honoring ADONAI would entail keeping your life free from the love of money because it is the root of all kinds of evil (First Timothy 6:10). The prosperity gospel misses the important emphasis in Proverbs on the theme of contentment by discovering your sweet spot in life (see Du – The Prayer of Agur).78
The Message of Proverbs: When considering business, industry, and wealth, the book of Proverbs has several clear teachings. So for a moment, set aside any preconceived ideas you may have about the problems regarding business and wealth in the Church today and consider what the book of Proverbs teaches.
1. Common sense: Proverbs abound with statements that we refer to as common sense. If you first do this, and then that, the result will be this. Those too lazy to plow in the right season will have no food at the harvest (20:4 NLT). This is simply a true statement of common sense. If you choose to stay in your warm house and sleep when you should be working in the field, you won’t have a harvest. The book of Proverbs is packed with these kinds of profound statements. It is a collection of natural, observable truths about life.
2. Self-preservation: Throughout the book of Proverbs the reader is taught to be diligent or he might be taken advantage of, or lose what he has. Notice the underlying message of the following two verses: Don’t agree to guarantee another person’s debt or put up security for someone else. If you can’t pay it, even your bed will be snatched from under you (22:26-27 NLT). These verses apply to one who is called co-signing for a loan, when one person pledges to share the risk with someone else. But the verse implies, “Why would you do that? Why take that kind of risk? If the fellow you are co-signing the note for goes belly up, you might lose your own bed!” This underlying thought saturates Proverbs. In essence, it teaches that there are consequences to the choices we make in life. Don’t make choices that might cause you to die, to fall into trouble, or to be led into poverty. If you want to be successful, there are some things you should do and others you shouldn’t.
3. Prosperity is the reward of diligence and frugality: A hard worker has plenty of food, but a person who chases fantasies ends up in poverty (28:19 Hebrews). This message is interwoven throughout the book. If you work hard and are diligent, you will be prosperous. Proverbs also warn against seeking wealth by other means. Wealth from get-rich-quick schemes quickly disappears; wealth from hard work grows over time (13:11 NLT). The path to prosperity is clearly taught in Proverbs. Those who love pleasure become poor; those who love wine and luxury will never be rich (21:17 NLT). The man who chooses to spend money on pleasure, living it up as he goes, will never accumulate much wealth. The path to wealth is hard work and a frugal lifestyle. It was true when Proverbs was written, and it is still true today. Material prosperity is the reward of diligence and frugality.
4. Poverty is the reward of laziness: Solomon describes some things he observed while taking a walk. I walked by the field of a lazy person, the vineyard of one with no common sense (24:30 NLT). Thorns had come up everywhere, the ground was covered with weeds, and its stone wall was broken down (24:31 BSB). Then, as I looked and thought about it, I learned this lesson: A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest – and poverty will come on you like a thief, and scarcity will attack you like an armed robber (24:32-34 Hebrew). This is another recurring theme in the book of Proverbs. Material poverty is the result of poor choices, especially laziness. If you are going to extract food and blessings out of this cursed earth, you will have to work for it. It will not come easily. Just as diligence and frugality have a reward, so does laziness. And the reward for laziness is poverty.
5. Planning and saving for the future: In Proverbs the lowly ant is held up as a positive example: Take a lesson from the ants, you lazybones. Learn from their ways and become wise. Though they have no chief, officer, or ruler, they labor hard all summer, gathering food for the winter (6:6-8 NLT). Notice the ant is not only a diligent worker, but it also plans ahead. ADONAI has placed within the ant the knowledge that summer doesn’t last forever. So while there is plenty, the ant gathers and saves for the coming winter. The lesson here is evident. A wise man knows that if he is going to succeed materially, he will need to plan ahead and save during times of plenty.
6. Material wealth is a blessing from God: Proverbs also shares some of the blessings of being rich. Wealth makes many “friends,” but poverty drives them away (19:4 NLT). This verse, along with others, says that a man who is wealthy will have more friends (hopefully for the right reasons). Material wealth also provides some earthly security. The rich man’s wealth is his fortress; the poverty of the poor is their ruin (10:15 NLT). The rich man is able to defend himself against many things in life, another advantage to having wealth. Different men in the TaNaKh, whom we hold up today as righteous, like Abraham (Genesis 13:2), Isaac (Genesis 26:12), Jacob (Genesis 34:23), Joseph (Genesis 41:37-44), David (2 Samuel 7:9), and Solomon (1 Kings 10:14-25), were very wealthy. I believe this is a fulfillment of God’s promise. One verse in Proverbs says it like this: Wealth is a crown for the wise, but the effort of fools yields only foolishness (14:24 NLT).
Though the road to wisdom is not easy, it is one with great rewards. Wisdom is better than material wealth. Solomon chose wisdom over riches (see the commentary on Solomon As – Solomon’s Wish: Solomon’s prayer for wisdom). But because of his choice, he also came into great wealth. As the book of Proverbs teaches again and again, wisdom, while not fail-safe, is the most certain route to legitimate and long-lasting material wealth. Of course there are exceptions. There were poor widows who were faithful to ADONAI and wealthy men who were ungodly. But in general, wealth is a sign of God’s blessing.79
There are many good books on building wealth. Take for example Dave Ramsey. His books have been best sellers, and many would say his message has saved their finances and marriages. But we might ask the question. Does God really intend for modern believers to purposefully accumulate wealth? Are large businesses generally a sign of God’s blessing? Is the book of Proverbs really the last word in financial teaching? Dave Ramsey isn’t the only one who likes to camp out in the teachings of Proverbs. You can learn more about running a business from Proverbs than from any business seminar because it provides a sound road map for accumulating material wealth. But before we conclude that Proverbs is the last word in Kingdom-focused living, we need to investigate further. What does the B’rit Chadashah teach? What did Yeshua Himself say on this topic (see Da – Sayings about Wealth).80
Dear heavenly Father, praise and thank You for being such a wise, loving and generous father. Like the gracious giving of Your Son, I am delighted to give my financial resources to You. You are worthy of my resources, whether I am wealthy or poor. The Macedonian churches set a remarkable example of giving out of their poverty, which all Your children should follow. Giving out of a heart of love for You is what You desire, not giving because someone feels pressured into it. Again, the Macedonians are a perfect example of giving eagerly though they were in poverty (Second Corinthians 8:1-4). More important than giving of money, is to give oneself first, as the Macedonians did. Moreover, it was not just as we had hoped, but they gave of themselves first to the Lord and then to us in keeping with God’s will (Second Corinthians 8:5). May I follow Messiah Yeshua’s self-sacrificing example of giving. For you know the grace of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah – that even though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, so that through His poverty you might become rich (2 Corinthians 8:9). Love that is only in words is not love. By their gracious giving may your children show the proof of their love (Second Corinthians 8:24b). In Messiah Yeshua’s holy Name and power of His resurrection. Amen
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