In Your Bible Read This Out Loud:
Genesis 26:1-15
Memorise This Verse: Psalm 126:5
Afterwards Talk About This:
Why those in the bible who gave in very bad circumstances received such
good rewards.
Something To Do Before Next Time:
Read again about the poor widows who gave in 1 Kings 17 and Luke 21:1-4
Written Diploma Work: Write
one side on the people in the bible who gave in adverse circumstances
and reaped a harvest.
Meditate Word By Word On This Verse:
Genesis 26:12
This section will consider giving when
you are in a period where money is short and the temptation arises to
stop giving - certainly a lot of people will experience this at some
point in their lives. This section will encourage you to keep on giving
despite the circumstances and having seen the biblical examples of
people who gave in tough times, you will come to the conclusion that the
one time you need to give is when times are bad.
The bible gives many examples of people
who faced a tough situation and had to make a hard decision about
whether to give or not (the same choice that most of us will have to
make at some point in our lives). Wherever people chose to give their
obedience was rewarded and the bible shows in several places people gave
in the tough times and reaped blessings.
The first example is that of Abraham who
was faced with a very tough decision of giving something even more
precious than money and that was his son Isaac. Previously, God had
promised to Abraham that he would be the Father of many nations (Genesis
17:3), and after having a son by his maidservant Hagar, his wife Sarah
miraculously gives birth to a Son who is called Isaac.
Out of his two sons (Ishmael and Isaac),
God said to Abraham in Genesis 21:12 that it would be through Isaac that
his offspring would be reckoned, however in Genesis 22:1, God tests
Abraham and asks for Isaac to be sacrificed. Abraham faced a situation
that made giving his Son seem a ridiculous decision but he obeyed God
and chose to give and as a result God honours his gift and returns Isaac
back to him - it paid Abraham to be a giver of a large offering in a
tough situation.
A marvellous thing that happened to
Abraham was that his decision to be a giver passed down to his Son Isaac
and he is the next person who chose to give in a tough situation - the
story is related in Genesis chapter 26. Verse 1 shows that there was a
famine in the land but the Lord speaks to Isaac and tells him to remain
in the land and he will be blessed - Isaac resists the temptation to go
to Egypt and stays where he is.
In verse 12 Isaac faces a choice in a
time of famine should he hoard his grain or should he sow it in the
distant hope of a future harvest :- the obvious choice would be to hoard
his seed. Isaac chose to prove that his God was alive and sows his seed
in the time of famine and reaps a hundred fold harvest and verse 13
shows that it was no freak harvest - Isaac's wealth continued to
increase until he became so rich it aroused the envy of the Philistines.
Perhaps you are experiencing a famine in your finances, like Isaac you
will have seed that you can either sow or hoard Isaac chose to sow his
seed and he triumphed over his circumstances.
The third example of someone giving in a
particularly tough situation is the widow of Zarephath who ministers to
Elijah, the man of God - the story is related in 1 Kings chapter 17.
Verse 12 shows that she and her son are on the point of starvation and
they expect to die - all they have is a handful of flour and a little
oil. Elijah makes what appears to be an outrageous request when he asks
this starving woman to use what little food she has left to make him a
meal - the widow had to choose to be a giver in a very tough
situation.
Elijah delivers the word of the Lord to
the widow that if she obeys and gives Elijah the food then her small
stock of flour and oil will not run out no matter how much she uses it.
As she obeys the word of the Lord and chooses to give she receives back
a multiplied blessing and her store of food never runs empty even though
she faced a tough situation she chose to be a giver and received a
miracle in return.
Having looked at a widow in the Old
Testament who gave in a very tough situation we can also turn to the New
Testament and see another widow who gave in a tough situation the story
is related in Luke 21:1-4. As the financial gifts were put into the
temple treasury, the poor widow out of her poverty put all she had to
live on into the treasury - a fact that caught the eye of the Son of
God.
It could be the case that she was unaware
that anyone knew how much she put in - let alone that Jesus actually saw
her put her offering in moreover, she certainly was unaware that her
offering was to be recorded in the scripture for all eternity. Just as
Jesus knew about the widow's tough situation and commended her for her
giving, he also knows about your financial situation and will commend
you for your decision to give and your giving will catch the eye of the
master.
Too many Christians give the pathetic
excuse that they cannot afford to tithe and obviously think that these
poor words will be a sufficient excuse on Judgement Day when Jesus looks
at the way they have handled their money they are in for a rude
awakening. The starving widow of Zarephath gave away her food and the
poor widow put all she had to live into the treasury - you certainly
don't catch either of these widows claiming that they cannot afford to
give.
If anyone could hide behind the argument
about not being able to afford to give it would be these two ladies but
they knew better than to offer up such an obnoxious argument and they
got on and gave and received the reward. Is it not the case that on
judgment day, the giving of these two widows will frightfully expose
many respectable 'Spirit Filled' and 'Full Gospel' believers who claimed
all their lives that they couldn't afford to tithe.
The final example of giving in the tough
times is the believers of the churches of Macedonia who gave
sacrificially to the offering for the impoverished saints in Jerusalem -
as recorded in 2 Corinthians 8:1-15. Verse 2 shows that these believers
not only gave a substantial gift in the midst of 'extreme poverty' but
they also had overflowing joy in doing so - how often do you hear that
these days! Moreover, in the midst of their 'Extreme Poverty' verse 3
shows that they gave even beyond their ability to give financially
clearly they knew nothing of the 'I can't afford to tithe' attitude of
most Christians.
So, the examples of Abraham, Isaac, the
widow of Zarephath, the poor widow and the Macedonian believers all show
that when they choose to obey and give to God in a tough situation it
sparked a miracle in their situation. Psalm 126:5 says, 'Those
who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy. He who goes out weeping,
carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves
with him'. The bible never says that tough financial situations
exempt you from giving but as people in the bible sowed seed when times
were bad and their mind told them not to, they reaped a triumphant
harvest with which to laugh at the devil.
A House of
Prayer for the Poorer Nations
Pray for Indonesia
212,991,926 people, 80%
Muslim
Most populous Muslim nation but Islam
being rumbled by spectacular church growth.
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