Investment, Wages, the Role of Religion. Selected Verses. Acts 4:32-5:16
There was a clear warning in
the Old Testament that if government gets very large then the trajectory of government,
because of the inherent depravity of the human heart and the trend toward power
accumulation, is towards increased taxation and a reduction of freedom.
The time of 1 Samuel 8 was
when it had come out of the period of the judges but was not in the period of
the king. It was at the very end of the period known as the judges, covered in
the book of Judges and the book of Ruth, and the first eight chapters of 1
Samuel also take place during the judges, and the last judge is actually
Samuel. Samuel now is quite old and his sons have all become apostate, were not
responsible, and the people recognize that they cannot rule the nation.
1 Samuel 8:1 NASB “ And it came about when Samuel was old that he appointed
his sons judges over Israel…
[3] His sons, however, did not walk in his ways, but turned aside after
dishonest gain and took bribes and perverted justice.” One of the
things seen throughout the Mosaic Law was the emphasis on justice and
righteousness in dealing with people economically. It is just and righteous for
people to own property, to control their property, to make as much money as
they can from their property and to pass that wealth on to the next generation.
That is righteous according to the Mosaic Law. But according to the Mosaic Law
the poor and the rich were to be dealt with in the same way. In a court of law
the judges were not to take into account the economic status, social status or
political power of the people before them.
Now we see the situation where Samuel’s sons have turned their backs on
the Lord and on the training that He gave them.
Parenthesis: One thing noticed in the last
decade or so is that we have an epidemic in this nation of the next generation
of children who have rejected what their parents have stood for and have
rejected the truth of Scripture. More every year we see this estrangement
between parents and children.
Remember that the theme in the book of
Judges was that everyone did what was right in their own eyes. They let the
culture of relativism seduce them, and there is probably nothing more seductive
to the sin nature than a culture of relativism and a culture of socialism. This
is because both relativism and socialism absolve the individual of any
responsibility or accountability for their life. Samuel’s sons got sucked into
this. 1 Sam 8:4, 5 NASB “Then all the elders of Israel
gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah; and they said to
him, ‘Behold, you have grown old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now
appoint a king for us to judge us like all the nations.’” (Give us
a socialist system to judge us, just like all the European nations—same
principle) They were saying: ‘We want to be like everybody else, we don’t want
God to be our King.’ That is essentially what they are saying.
1 Samuel 8:6, 7 NASB “But the
thing was displeasing in the sight of Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to
judge us.” And Samuel prayed to the LORD.
The LORD
said to Samuel, ‘Listen to the voice of the people in regard to all that they
say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me from being king over them.’” It is a
spiritual problem. That is the foundation here. It starts with the rejection of
the authority of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; it starts with the
rejection of the absolutes that He has revealed; now they just want to do it
like all the other pagans.
1 Samuel 8:8 NASB “Like all the
deeds which they have done since the day that I brought them up from Egypt even
to this day—in that they have forsaken Me and served other gods—so they are
doing to you also.” The reason there is wealth and prosperity in
some parts of the world and poverty in other parts of the world has nothing to
do with money; it has everything to do with theological belief. That has been
documented in a paper that was written in the early 1980s by a man at the
London School of Economics. [9] “Now then, listen to their voice; however, you
shall solemnly warn them and tell them of the procedure of the king who will
reign over them.”
Samuel then tells the people what the
consequences of this are going to be. They have just asked for big government.
Instead of having freedom with limited government when they get a king they are
going to have big government, and this is what big government is characterized
by—increased taxation, taking away freedom, taking away opportunity. 1 Samuel 8:11
NASB “He said, ‘This will be the procedure
of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and place {them}
for himself in his chariots and among his horsemen and they will run before his
chariots.’” He is going to increase the military and they would
have to feed and supply all of the soldiers, so that would mean increased
taxes. [12] “He will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and of
fifties, and {some} to do his plowing and to reap his
harvest and to make his weapons of war and equipment for his chariots.” The
government now is in the business of production; agriculture is now the
responsibility of the government rather than the individual.
1 Samuel 8:13 NASB “He will also take
your daughters for perfumers and cooks and bakers. [14]
He will take the best of your fields and your vineyards and your olive groves
and give {them} to his servants.” This is different from verse 15;
this is eminent domain, where the government is now going to say: Look, you
have a great piece of land there, we can really manage
that better as the government than you can as an individual. You have a great
business there; we can make it more profitable and more equitable if we run it
than if you run it as a private owner. [15] “He will
take a tenth of your seed and of your vineyards and give to his officers and to
his servants.” That is theft by government. But because the
government is operating under authority there is no authorization here for
revolt against the government. God doesn’t say at the end of this that if they
do this you can overthrow the king. He is saying that the result of this is
they are reaping the consequences of the bad decisions of your fellow citizens,
so what you are going to get is what you deserve; don’t revolt, there is no
justification there.
1 Sam 8:16, 17 NASB “He will also take your male servants and
your female servants and your best young men and your donkeys and use {them}
for his work. He will take a tenth
of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his servants.” Now
he is going to increase taxation. The trajectory here is that the government
gets legalized theft (violating the eighth commandment) because of power.
1 Samuel 8:18 “Then you will cry out in that day
because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the LORD
will not answer you in that day.” “For yourselves”—whose
responsibility is it that you get the government that you have?
[19] “Nevertheless, the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel, and
they said, ‘No, but there shall be a king over us, [20] that we
also may be like all the nations, that our king may judge us and go out before
us and fight our battles.’” They don’t want to be responsible for their bad
decisions.
What we see here is that in the Old
Testament there is specific warning against the encroachment of government in
the area of economics and taxation, and that that is the trend of history, the
normal trajectory of every government.
The importance
of investment and personal accountability. Matthew
25:14 NASB “For {it is} just like a man [analogous to God] {about}
to go on a journey, who called his own slaves [analogous to Israelites] and
entrusted his possessions to them.” What He is going to point out here
is the failure to utilize what God has given, but that is not the point we want
to focus on here. [15] “To one he gave five talents,
to another, two, and to another, one, each according to his own ability; and he
went on his journey.” The principle here is that God is the
ultimate owner of our resources and He distributes the talents and the wealth
as He will. So He is the ultimate determiner of things. Some have more than
others, and because God distributes that way it is by definition righteous.
Matthew 25:16 NASB “Immediately
the one who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and gained
five more talents.” This is what is interesting, because in all of
the distortions of the usury laws in the Middle Ages—that you couldn’t make money
by investing money—here it is a recognition of the legitimacy of using money to
make money, investing in something and selling it so that the investment
doubles (increases) its money. [17] “In the same manner the one who {had
received} the two {talents} gained two more. [18] “But he who
received the one {talent} went away, and dug {a hole} in the ground and hid his
master’s money.” He doesn’t exploit that which his master had
given him.
Matthew 25:19 NASB “Now after a
long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them.
[20] The one who had received the five talents came up and brought
five more talents, saying, ‘Master, you entrusted five talents to me. See, I
have gained five more talents.’ [21] His
master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with
a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of
your master.’” God praises him because he doubled his money.
Matthew 25:24 NASB “And the one
also who had received the one talent came up and said, ‘Master, I knew you to
be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered
no {seed.} [25] ‘And I was afraid, and went
away and hid your talent in the ground. See, you have what is yours.’
[26] “But his master answered and said to him, ‘You
wicked, lazy slave, you knew that I reap where I did not sow and gather where I
scattered no {seed.}’” He didn’t say: You poor impoverished
person. You just got born into the wrong socio-economic level, were a victim of
prejudice, so we are going to take the five talents the first guy made and give
it to you! [27] “Then you ought to have put my money in the bank, and on my
arrival I would have received my {money} back with interest. [28]
Therefore take away the talent from him, and give it to the one who has the ten
talents.’” Clearly Jesus understood that charging interest was
valid under the Mosaic Law. [29] “For to everyone who has, {more} shall be
given, and he will have an abundance; but from the one who does not have, even
what he does have shall be taken away. [30] Throw out the
worthless slave into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping
and gnashing of teeth.” Punishment for
irresponsibility. In other words, under the first divine institution
there is personal accountability and if you are lazy, are inept and you waste
what God has given you, then there are negative consequences.
Another passage is Matthew
20:1-16—principles about employers and the rights of employers to determine
wages; not wage and price controls, not minimum wage law.
Matthew 20:1 NASB “For the kingdom of heaven is like a
landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers
for his vineyard. [2] When he had
agreed with the laborers for a denarius for the day,
he sent them into his vineyard.” A denarius was not a lot of money
but it was about the common every-day laborer earning.
He agreed to this, so that means they had negotiated a deal. This was the best
deal the laborers could get. It also indicates that
what underlies this is a contract and the legitimacy of a contract between an employee
and the employer—an agreed-upon wage. [3] And he went out about the third hour
and saw others standing idle in the market place; [4]
and to those he said, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I
will give you.’ And {so} they went.” Now they don’t negotiate for
a wage. He just says that at the end of the day he would pay them what is
right. [5] “Again he went out about the sixth and
the ninth hour, and did the same thing. [6]
And about the eleventh {hour} [5pm] he went out and found others
standing {around;} and he said to them, ‘Why have you
been standing here idle all day long?’ [7]
“They said to him, ‘Because no one hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the
vineyard too.’ [8]
When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call
the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with
the last {group} to the first.’ [9] When
those {hired} about the eleventh hour came, each one received a denarius.”
That didn’t make them feel real good! They
were having issues with the landowner now. But the principle is that the
landowner has every right to determine what the wage is and the one who works
for it (the first ones hired) has the right to negotiate for that wage, and
they could have said no. Matthew 20:10 NASB “When those
{hired} first came, they thought that they would receive more; but each of them
also received a denarius.” They had an assumption that was based
on the concept that they would do something that they had not negotiated for;
they had unrealistic expectations. [11] “When they
received it, they grumbled at the landowner, [12]
saying, ‘These last men have worked {only} one hour, and you have made them
equal to us who have borne the burden and the scorching heat of the day.’
[13] But he answered and said to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing
you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius? [14]
Take what is yours and go, but I wish to give to this last man the same as to
you.’”
What we see in both of these parables is
an emphasis on personal responsibility. All of the laws that have been passed
in the last 60-70 years from social security up to the last health care bill
are built on shifting responsibility from the individual to government. The
more we shift responsibility to government the less freedom we will always
have. What happens is that as a culture we have voluntarily given ourselves to
tyranny and to control of government.
Scripture teaches a key principle: the
responsibility of the individual. In 2 Thessalonians 3:10-12 we have the
principle that those who don’t work don’t eat. The Bible emphasizes the fact
that we are to be compassionate to the poor. We have limited resources and we
have responsibilities as to how we are going to utilize that for the poor, but
it is the responsibility of the individual, not the responsibility of
government.