Hoard

“it will not be stored up or hoarded”  Isaiah 23:18

Hoard – Money.  The power of this world.  The stuff that measures us.  The goal.  The driving passion.  We are secretly envious of those who have it while we castigate their affluence.  We hold up the banner of the poor while we salt away some for a rainy day.

God has quite a bit to say about money.  The trouble is that we won’t want to hear it.  We want God to tell us that all those rich people are going to be judged.  We want God to agree with us – and spread the wealth by giving us some.  Our indecision about giving money away only shows how powerful its grip really is.

In this prophecy about Tyre, Isaiah says that production (the substance of wealth) is not to be profaned.  It is to be sanctified to its rightful owner, God.  How do I sanctify money?  It’s simple.  I don’t collect it.  I don’t salt it away.  I don’t use it to replace my constant conscious dependence.  In fact, the best sacred use of money is to give it away.

Oh, my.  That cuts.  Give it away?  How can I do that after I have worked so hard to get it?  Everything about money shouts to me – keep me, save me, store me.  It is the temptation to let money imprison me with the chains of false security.  When I begin to hold on to more than I need, I suddenly find that I need more to hold on to.  Robin Leach made a career of showing us just how incredibly powerful the temptation is to hold on to more.  Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous lauded those who kept it.  But God is interested in the Lifestyles of the Weak and Powerless.  Those are the ones who let God be God (something He is quite anxious to be, by the way).

Isaiah got it right.  Do you want a quick and easy test for the grip of money on your life?  Do you want to know how tight the chains really are?  Begin to practice the impossibly ridiculous economics of Christ – ” Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow” (Matthew 6:42).  You might not be Robin Leach material today.  Praise God you aren’t.  You have less to struggle with to enter the Kingdom.  But the chains of money can hold you just as tightly.  Break the chains.   Let money slip through your fingers like water, nourishing the parched soil.  It was never yours.  You just got the privilege of seeing it pass by. 

There are two ways to be rich, but only one of them makes you free.  Chasan (to hoard) will give you riches in chains.  Giving it away will make you free of the prison of riches.