Deuteronomy 15:10 (NIRV)
So give freely to those who are needy. Open
your hearts to them. Then the Lord your God will bless you in all of your work.
He will bless you in everything you do.
Shortly before
the turn of the century, two young students were working their way through
Stanford University. At one point their
money was almost gone, so they decided to engage the great pianist Paderewski
for a concert and use the profits for board and tuition. Paderewski's manager asked for a guarantee of
$2,000. The students worked hard to
promote the concert, but they came up $400 short. After the performance, they went to the
musician, gave him all the money they had raised, and promised to pay the $400
as soon as they could. It appeared that
their college days were over. "No, boys, that won't do," said the
pianist. "Take out of this $1600 all your expenses, and keep for each of
you 10 percent of the balance for your work. Let me have the rest." Years passed.
Paderewski became premier of Poland following World War I. Thousands of his countrymen were
starving. Only one man could help-the
head of the U.S. Food and Relief Bureau.
Paderewski's appeal to him brought thousands of tons of food. Later he met the American statesman to thank
him. "That's all right," replied Herbert Hoover. "Besides, you
don't remember, but you helped me once when I was a student in college."[1]
Have you ever
heard of the “year of release”? The year
of release was God’s command described in Deuteronomy 15:1-11 that provided a
comprehensive program of debt cancellation.
Wouldn’t that be something if such a law existing in our lives
today? Every seven years creditors were
commanded to cancel all outstanding debts for their fellow Israelites while
they were permitted to collect payment from foreigners (vs 1-3). It was God’s ideal that there shall be no one
poor amongst His people (v 4), but that ideal could only happen if His people
obeyed His commandments (v 5). God
promised to bless everyone so that they could be generous themselves. If anyone was in poverty, others would be
generous (vs 6-8, see also Acts 2:44 and 4:32-35). Yet that society, like all others, had people
who would look for loopholes (excuses) so as not to give generously (v 9). Such people would be in danger of God’s
judgment.
Deuteronomy 15:10
is a commandment to give generously.
There are blessings when you do (see also Proverbs 11:25, Proverbs
19:17) and judgment when you don’t (see
also Proverbs 11:26-28, Matthew
25:41-44). You must by all means lend
to someone in your life who needs it and not be upset by doing it. The Lord will bless you in ways you cannot
imagine.
Who needs your
“Paderewski-like” generosity right now?
No comments:
Post a Comment