Pondering Proverbs – Witness (7)

 

“There is one who scatters, and yet increases all the more, and there is one who withholds what is justly due, and yet results only in want. The generous man [lit. soul of blessing] will be prosperous [lit. made fat], and he who waters will himself be watered. He who withholds grain, the people will curse him, but blessing will be on the head of him who sells it.” Proverbs 11:24 – 26, NASB.

 

Do you know people who are constantly giving and yet increasing?

 

There are people who give and give and are content. Then there are those who seldom if ever give, who keep all they have, and are far from content – they chase contentment and satisfaction, and it eludes them. How can this be?

 

Paul writes of his coworkers and himself that they are, “as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing yet possessing all things” (2 Cor. 6:10b). Then, when discussing care and liberality toward others he writes, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich” (2 Cor. 8:9).

 

How did Jesus go from rich to poor?  Is not the answer in Philippians 2:3 – 8?

 

“…regard one another as more important than yourselves…Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross."

 

Our passage in Proverbs tells us, “There is one who scatters, and yet increases all the more…”

 

Can you think of a higher example of scattering than our Lord Jesus Christ in His Incarnation? Was not scattering His Way of Life in the Father? Was Jesus not constantly giving Himself away to the Father and to mankind? Do we not see the ultimate scattering on the Cross?

 

But what about “…and yet increases all the more”?

 

Here we return to Philippians, “For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name…” (Phil. 2:9). 

In His resurrection and exaltation we are drawn to our Lord Jesus Christ. Consider that during Holy Week, in the shadow of His impending crucifixion, our Lord said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (John 12:24).

 

Our Lord Jesus was scattered in the ground in death on Good Friday, on Easter morning He came out of the earth and since then He has been bearing fruit – we are His fruit, a fruit which would not exist had His life not been scattered.

 

Stephen, in turn, scattered his life, and a witness to his death, Saul of Tarsus, received the Holy Seed; Saul in turn, as Paul the Apostle, scattered himself so that others might receive the Holy One, our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

So then, my friends, what about us? Are we, in our Lord Jesus Christ, living as Stephen, living as Paul – as broken bread and poured out wine for others? Are we scattering…and in our scattering are we increasing in our Lord Jesus Christ?

 

Jesus says to us, “Give, and it will be given to you. They will pour into your lap a good measure – pressed down, shaken together, and running over. For by your standard of measure it will be measure to you in return” (Luke 6:38). Is not our Lord Jesus Christ to be our standard of measure?

 

As our passage in Proverbs tells us, “…he who waters will himself be watered.”

 

Paul wrote to Philemon (1:7), “For I have come to have much joy and comfort in your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you, brother.”

 

Am I scattering Christ to those around me? Am I refreshing others with Him?

 

Are you?