Grace - God's Sufficiency - Grace
Orientation. 2 Kings 4:1-7
After their slavery in
Egypt God had to give Israel a body of law so that they could govern themselves
and have law and order within the nation. The basis for that law, which we know
as the Mosaic Law or the Sinaitic covenant, was grounded in their identity. It
is important for us to understand that law has its ultimate foundation in God.
Two key verses that we find in the law are Exodus 19:6 NASB “and you
shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation….” The meaning of the
word “holy” for most people has something to do with being morally pure, but
the core meaning of the word is the idea of being set apart for the service of
a deity. The idea of being a holy nation emphasizes being set apart for the
service of God and it emphasizes that Israel above all other nations on the
earth has the unique and distinct role in history. That is the foundation, and
so God is going to expect them to live differently from everybody else, and
that the way they govern themselves and the way they live is going to say
something about the person of God and is supposed to reflect His character in
justice, compassion, love and grace. And in Leviticus 20:7 is a statement that
is found in several other verses, NASB “You shall consecrate
yourselves therefore and be holy, for I am the LORD your God.” That first
statement focuses on what we would call positional holiness. They are in a
position as a nation of being set apart to God—the legal position: bound to God
by a covenant, the Mosaic covenant which is a legal contract. They are
positionally holy and distinct and set apart to God. Leviticus 27 is talking
about their experiential holiness, their experiential sanctification; that is
terms of how they live, how they think, how they operate, how they govern
themselves, how they engage in business, how they raise their children and how
they educate the next generation; these are unique and distinct, and that is a
call to be holy, and whenever we find this statement it is always ground in
this statement: “For I am the Lord your God.”
By application, that comes
over to the believer today. We are to consecrate ourselves and to be holy
experientially because God is the one who redeemed us. Once we are saved by
faith in Christ alone we are positionally set apart to God. We are bound to Him
by a contractual relationship, also made with Israel, called the new covenant, which doesn’t come into
effect until later but it has secondary benefits. We have a positional
relationship based on faith alone in Christ alone and then as we grow and
mature we have a secondary experiential relationship—experiential
sanctification, experiential holiness, our walk with the Lord—whereby we are to
be set apart for His service. So there has to be cleansing, utilization of 1
John 1:9, in order for us to continue to grow and mature as believers.
So the nation was set
apart to God. They had a unique government, they were a theocratic [God rules]
kingdom, which doesn’t mean religion doesn’t have a high place in the
culture—which is what modern pagans want us to think. We hear many people today
who do not like the “evangelical right” or the fact that they try to be
involved in politics or influence government, and they say all they want is a
theocracy. Never believe that; that is the enemy’s propaganda. God established
a unique thing in Israel, a theocracy where God was the ruler, and the bureaucracy was carried
out by the priests; but it was because Israel was to be a special people. As God identified Himself
with Israel and identified Israel with Him He gave them a law to govern them. He
entered into this contract with the people and in that covenant he spelled out
their responsibilities to Him. Because He had redeemed them they had new
responsibilities toward God. God spelled out the fact that if they were
faithful in fulfilling these responsibilities they would have certain benefits,
and if they were disobedient and irresponsible there would be certain penalties.
We call these blessings and curses [judgments]. What we see is that these legal
stipulations are tied ultimately to a relationship with God, so that the
benefits and the penalties come not on the basis of having a right political
theory or a correct economic theory but ultimately everything is impacted by
their relationship with God. The Bible says we cannot have prosperity and
freedom in this life in any system of economics or politics unless we first
have spiritual freedom and freedom from sin. That is the real issue. If we
don’t have freedom from sin then we are slaves in our thinking and slaves in
our souls, and it doesn’t matter what the economic or political system is. On
the other hand, if we are spiritually free in our soul then we have real
freedom and it doesn’t matter what the external political or economic system
might be. So we see an important principle in the law, especially in Leviticus
26 where these blessings and curses are outlined: the principle that economic
prosperity or collapse was based on spirituality, morality, integrity and
character. That is what the Bible teaches: that economic prosperity is
ultimately the result of spiritual prosperity. That is what we see all through
the Scriptures.
The northern kingdom is
going through famine and crisis at the beginning of 2 Kings chapter four, and
we see this in a family of believers. The husband found it was necessary to
enter into some form of indebtedness, probably to someone he worked for, and he
dies and has this debt. 2 Kings 4:1 NASB “Now a certain woman of the
wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, ‘Your servant my husband
is dead, and you know that your servant feared the LORD; and the
creditor has come to take my two children to be his slaves.’” The
term “feared the Lord” was technical in the Hebrew meaning that he was a
strong, mature believer. The Hebrew word for “creditor” is nasha really means the usurer. The Hebrews had s synonym for it,
“the one who bites.” He was the loan shark. He has now come to collect his debt
and because she doesn’t have anything he wants to take her two sons to be
slaves, indentured servants, which was legitimate under the law but not in this
kind of a situation. You could indenture yourself but not someone else, and
that is where this creditor was out of line. Elisha is going to give the woman
a solution.
2 Kings 4:2 NASB
“Elisha said to her, ‘What shall I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the
house?’ And she said, ‘Your maidservant has nothing in the house except a jar of
oil.’” That is all that is left and the creditor wants to take
everything from her and leave her with nothing to sustain her. To understand
what the creditor is doing we need to look at Leviticus 25:35ff. This is a key
passage on the use of money. The Mosaic Law does not directly apply to us but
what we see in the Mosaic Law, as well as other aspects of Scripture, is a
reflection of economics and God has designed economics in creation. There are
many places in the Mosaic Law as well as in the Gospels and things that are
stated by Paul in the New Testament that all agree with each other and reflect
God’s viewpoint on how we are to handle money and the financial resources that
we have, and not to become enslaved to money which happens when we get too involved
in debt. Debt can enslave a person more than anything else and wipe them
out.
Leviticus 25:35 NASB
“Now in case a countryman of yours becomes poor and his means with regard to
you falter, then you are to sustain him, like a stranger or a sojourner, that
he may live with you.” It is the individual’s responsibility within the nation
to take care of other individuals who are going through economic crisis. But if
someone has indebted himself and is mortgaged to the hilt because he has
pursued a materialistic dream, then when his son, daughter or best friend or
neighbor loses their job he has sacrificed his spiritual ministry in their
lives because he has enslaved himself to debt. Verse 35 says we are to take
care of others. This is not for someone who was being lazy or irresponsible.
Leviticus 25:36 NASB
“Do not take usurious interest from him, but revere your God, that your
countryman may live with you.” The interpretation of this verse has been really
screwed up so that usury became either an excessive interest or something else.
Notice the context. It says “interest from him.” That is, from the unemployed next door
neighbor who doesn’t have any resources. The point is that the interest was not
to be charged on a loan that was necessary for the survival of the individual
or the family. It is not talking about commercial loans or loans for
investment, it is talking about when a loan is necessary in order to help
someone survive, dealing with them in grace and generosity and not take
advantage of their dire straits in order to put extra money in the pocket. All
of the passages in the Scripture that prohibit
usury only prohibit in the
case of giving money to the impoverished who have no way of paying it back at
that time. The focus is on grace.
Leviticus 25:37 NASB
“You shall not give him your silver at interest, nor your food for gain.” So
what is this creditor in 2 Kings 4:1 doing? He is violating the law. That is an
illustration for us of how the pagan practices of the surrounding nations had
infiltrated Israel so that there is no concern or compassion for those
who were destitute because of the famine, those who were on the frontline of
feeling the impact of God’s judgment on the nation. It shows that the nation as
they have gotten away from God have lost their sense of genuine compassion,
lost their grace orientation, and are just out for whatever will bring them a
profit.
Leviticus 25:38 NASB
“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan {and} to be your God.” Notice that God is going to
ground His commands, not in some abstract principle of economic theory, but in
His own character and how He has demonstrated that in the life and history of Israel. They were impoverished and enslaved in Egypt and God gave them everything they needed in order to
survive and to be delivered.
Leviticus 25:39 NASB
“If a countryman of yours becomes so poor with regard to you that he sells
himself to you, you shall not subject him to a slave’s service.” Within the
Mosaic Law there is the escape hatch for the people who become destitute. They
can become and indentured servant to another Israelite for a maximum period of
six years—because every seventh year was a year of jubilee and all indentured
servants were set free. There were only short term loans. With long term loans
meant becoming enslaved to mortgages and debts. Keeping loans short term there
was the opportunity to be redeemed from that slavery and financial bondage.
There are regulations,
though, on how to deal with the poor. Exodus 22:25-27 NASB “If you
lend money to My people, to the poor among you, you are not to act as a
creditor to him; you shall not charge him interest. If you ever take your neighbor’s cloak as a pledge,
you are to return it to him before the sun sets, for that is his
only covering; it is his cloak for his body. What else shall he sleep in? And
it shall come about that when he cries out to Me, I will hear {him,} for I am
gracious.”
Deuteronomy 23:19, 20 NASB “You shall not charge interest to
your countrymen: interest on money, food, {or} anything that may be loaned at
interest. You may charge interest to a foreigner, but to your countrymen you
shall not charge interest, so that the LORD your God may bless you in all that you undertake in
the land which you are about to enter to possess.” Why does it make a
distinction between Jew and Gentile here? The point is that the other Jews were
freed from slavery just like they were, so you can’t enslave them again. The
underlying thought is that as Jews the presumption is that they are spiritually
free so they are not to be enslaved again, but the gentiles were spiritually
enslaved by sin; they are already slaves so they can be put in bondage
financially. But there was still the escape hatch, the year of jubilee.
Leviticus 25:40 NASB “He shall be with you as a hired man, as if he
were a sojourner; he shall serve with you until the year of jubilee.”
Deuteronomy 15:1ff defines that. “At the end of {every} seven years you shall
grant a remission {of debts.} This
is the manner of remission: every creditor shall release what he has loaned to
his neighbor; he shall not exact it of his neighbor and his brother, because
the LORD’S remission has been proclaimed. From a foreigner you may exact {it,} but your hand
shall release whatever of yours is with your brother.” The point here is that
there was only short term indebtedness and God always provided a way for those
who put themselves into indentured servitude in order to survive a financial
collapse could purchase their way out or, if they waited for seven years, then
at the year of jubilee they were released.
We all need to recognize
that we were all born impoverished. The only way we have anything is by the
grace of God and therefore anything that we own, from a biblical viewpoint, is
simply on loan for God. We are therefore, as the New Testament says, stewards
or administrators of the resources that God gives us. He is the ultimate source
of everything and se we are not to hoard it in a greedy or miserly fashion but are
to have those resources available to help others who are truly in need.
Three
principles:
1. All things that we have and enjoy come from God.
2. When we focus on material blessings and possessions
above God, when we focus more on serving our own indebtedness than serving God,
then this is idolatry and it destroys our spiritual life. Matthew 6:24.
3. When we get in debt it limits our options. It limits
our ability to serve God through giving. Romans 13:7, 8.
Underlying much of this
picture is the picture of God’s redemption of man. Sin is a picture of being in
debt. We are enslaved by sin; we are in debt, as it were, because we are under
the penalty of spiritual death and condemnation. Then Jesus Christ redeemed us;
He paid the debt. That is the idea of expiation. Colossians 2:11-13. That
certificate of debt was nailed to the cross, and it was paid for by Jesus
Christ.
Deuteronomy 15:5, 6 NASB
“if only you listen obediently to the voice of the LORD your God,
to observe carefully all this commandment which I am commanding you today.
For the LORD your God will bless you as He has promised you, and
you will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow; and you will rule over
many nations, but they will not rule over you.” Because of their prosperity
they would be able to lend to many nations.
2 Kings 4:3 NASB
“Then he said, ‘Go, borrow vessels at large for yourself from all your
neighbors, {even} empty vessels; do not get a few.” Don’t limit the
grace of God. [4] “And you shall go in and shut the door behind you and your
sons, and pour out into all these vessels, and you shall set aside what is
full.” We are not going to run out of resources because God is the
source of all things. This radically changes any economic theory because all
economic theories are grounded on the fact that the universe only has finite
resources. But if the universe is God’s creation there are infinite resources.
[5] “So she went from him and shut the door behind her and her sons; they were
bringing {the vessels} to her and she poured. [6] When the vessels
were full, she said to her son, ‘Bring me another vessel.’ And he said to her,
‘There is not one vessel more.’ And the oil stopped. [7] Then she
came and told the man of God. And he said, ‘Go, sell the oil and pay your debt,
and you {and} your sons can live on the rest.’” This would take care of them
into the future, and the implication is throughout the entire period of the
drought. God’s grace abundantly supplies for us and takes care of our needs. 2
Corinthians 9:8 NASB “And God is able to make all grace abound to
you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an
abundance for every good deed.” God is always going to supply everything we
need in order to fulfill His plan. The Greek word translated “sufficiency” is arkeo [a)rkew]. In
the active voice it means that something is enough, it is adequate, enough to
meet the demand, and it is sufficient. In the passive voice it means that we
are to be content or satisfied with something. We are to be satisfied with His
supply because He gives that which is needed in order to fulfill His purposes.
God’s grace will never run out; it will take care of every need. In all of our
weakness God supplies the strength.
Illustrations