MONEY MANAGEMENT

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

“The merchant uses dishonest scales and loves to defraud. Ephraim boasts, ‘I am very rich; I have become wealthy. With all my wealth they will not find in me any iniquity or sin.’”

Hosea 12:7-8

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Ask anyone about the first Bible verse that comes to mind when they think about the topic of money and you will most probably get this:

The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. 1 Timothy 6:10

We see this happen even today, right?

How often do we find people get so obsessed with the matter of money that they are willing to do anything to get it, increase it, and sustain it?

Too often, I am afraid. Sadly, money often draws people into sin. It’s true today and it certainly was true in Hosea’s day as we continue to study Chapter 12 in this book. Look again at these two verses:

“The merchant uses dishonest scales and loves to defraud. Ephraim boasts, ‘I am very rich; I have become wealthy. With all my wealth they will not find in me any iniquity or sin.’” Hosea 12:7-8

How bad was the issue among God’s people?

The scriptures tell us that merchants were using dishonest scales out of a desire to defraud others. Let me use a modern day example to explain.

Suppose you went to the store to buy food and some of the food pricing was based on weight. One of the items you look at is meat and you want to purchase some hamburger. You look at the price looks reasonable enough, $3.85 a pound and the package says that you are buying three pounds in a family pack. You think you are getting a good deal but guess what? The label says you are buying three pounds but the actual weight of the hamburger you are buying is two and a quarter pounds. In other words, you are being defrauded by being charged for more than you actually purchase.

After leaving the meat, you go to the fruit section and there, you see some peaches that catch your eye. The price is $1.75 a pound, a price you like so you toss six peaches in the bag and head to checkout. When the cashier places your fruit on the scale at the register, the scale reads out that the peaches weigh seven pounds and you get charged accordingly. There’s only one problem. The peaches only actually weigh four pounds so you have been charged for three additional pounds of peaches and this, coupled with the hamburger, made the grocery store a nice little profit, albeit, illegally.

This is the equivalency of what was going on in Israel during Hosea’s day. Some of the items people would purchase would be weighed out by weighing it on a scale against a standard weight. In other words, a scale with one pound of grain placed on one side would balance if a one pound standard weight was placed on the other side. Merchants figured out that if the standard weight placed on one side of the scale was labeled one thing when it was really another then they could make more money off the people by duping them.

Take the pound of grain on one side of the scale. The merchant would have a weight that would be labeled two pounds that was actually just a one pound weight. And so when the one pound of grain was placed on one side of the scale, the two pound weight would be placed on the other side and the scale would go to balance, leading the merchant to charge the customer for two pounds of grain before sending them away with a single pound. Voila! Profit!

Obviously, this sinful deception was not going to fly with God and so he called out the wickedness point blank. You can bet punishment was to follow.

One other thing God mentioned in regard to money and His people involved Israel adopting a belief that wealth would somehow conceal them from iniquity or sin.

Ephraim boasts, ‘I am very rich; I have become wealthy. With all my wealth they will not find in me any iniquity or sin.’”

The nation of Israel had prospered, becoming very wealthy, so much so that it influenced the way they viewed themselves. Looking at their words, we see they believed that affluence could mask sins, their riches serving as a cloak for their iniquities. It was about as delusional as it gets given the truth that God sees everything but that’s what money can do to someone. It can blind them from the reality of things.

I think after seeing what happens here and elsewhere in the Old Testament where sins connected to money happen prevalently, we can gain a better understanding as to why Timothy would write what he did. He was trying hard to open the eyes of believers to the pitfalls and dangers of money and wealth if one allows their prosperity to rule their lives more than the Lord. And His words were just a follow on to these words from our Savior Jesus:

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”  Matthew 6:19-21, 24

Here we find Jesus warning those He was teaching as well as us today to beware of money and the impact it can have on us. It reminds me of a saying I use often:

“Don’t put too much of your heart into your possessions or soon your possessions will possess you.”

It’s true. Money can be our master. If it weren’t, Jesus would not have made it clear that we can either choose to serve money (treasures on earth) or God (treasures in heaven). Those were the two options He presented.

Note what happens here.

If you love money, you will hate God. If you devote yourself to money, then you will despise God. You have to make up your mind as to where your loyalty lies but choose carefully because Jesus tells us that wherever our treasure is, there our heart will be also.

Friends, this is the key to wealth management in our lives. It starts with identifying where your treasure is.

If it’s in money, then that’s where your heart will be. If it’s in some other form of capital, then that’s where your heart will be. And when your heart is where your worldly treasure is, then it can’t possibly be in God at the same time. Jesus certainly doesn’t give us an indication there can be an ounce of shared devotion. He made it clear you can’t love God and money at the same time.

But something amazing happens when we make Jesus our treasure in life:

Our hearts become totally devoted to Him and when that happens, then everything that is of Jesus will start to be of us. We will start to live and love as He did, we will start to serve the Father selflessly as He did, and we will never tire in our efforts to try and help others find their way to salvation.

This is the life that comes when we make Jesus our treasure, the One who brings us riches far greater than what this world can offer, the One who told us He is the way and the truth and the life, the only way to God the Father.

Have you made Him your treasure today?

Amen

In Christ,

Mark
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