What does your spending reveal about your heart? It’s easy to look at the lives of idolaters like the grandmother we’ll talk about today and see how their idolatry corrupted their hearts. But idolatry didn’t end with the Old Testament. And it isn’t exclusive to pagan people. The New Testament constantly warns believers about the idolatry in our own hearts.
And one revealer can be our spending. If we’re willing to pay $6 for a cup of coffee at Starbucks, $25 to go to the movies, or $80 or $100 for a pair of tennis shoes, but give grudgingly or not at all to the work of God, what does it say about our hearts and what we truly worship?
We’ll also look at:
How God protected the Messianic line of David and kept His covenant promise to him.
The value of godly counsel in the life of a leader.
And how God was able to use a brilliant and eloquent man who was willing to humble himself and receive truth from a couple of tentmakers.
Today’s Readings:
2 Chronicles 23 & 24
Psalm 83.9-18
Proverbs 21.2-3
Acts 18.1-28
What Does Your Spending Say about What You Love & Worship?
2 Chronicles 23 & 24:
A Murderous Grandmother
Before we talk about our spending, let’s look at a grandmother unlike any I’ve ever known. We first met her yesterday. Her name was Athaliah and she was the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel. She was married to King Jehoshaphat’s eldest son who succeeded his father as King. He ruled for only eight disastrous years at the beginning of which he had all his brothers murdered. Because of his wickedness, the Lord struck him with an incurable disease and he died a painful death (2 Chron. 21.18-19).
He was followed by Jehoshaphat’s youngest son and when he died, Athaliah sprung into action. She had all her grandsons killed and seized the throne (2 Chron. 22.10). That is all except one who was just an infant by the name of Joash. His aunt had hidden and protected him. John MacArthur says:
This is one of the most dramatic moments in messianic history. The human offspring of David have been reduced to one, Joash. If he had died, there would have been no human heir to the Davidic throne, and it would have meant the destruction of the line of the Messiah. However, God remedied the situation by providentially protecting Joash (2 Chr. 22:10–12) and eliminating Athaliah (1 Chr. 23:12–21).
Setting Things Right
When Joash was seven years old the High Priest, Jehoiada, and other faithful men stepped forward and began to set things right.
¹ In the seventh year Jehoiada strengthened himself, and made a covenant with the captains of hundreds: Azariah the son of Jeroham, Ishmael the son of Jehohanan, Azariah the son of Obed, Maaseiah the son of Adaiah, and Elishaphat the son of Zichri. 2 And they went throughout Judah and gathered the Levites from all the cities of Judah, and the chief fathers of Israel, and they came to Jerusalem.
3 Then all the assembly made a covenant with the king in the house of God. And he said to them, “Behold, the king’s son shall reign, as the Lord has said of the sons of David. (2 Chron. 23)
They protected and crowned Joash king and killed Athaliah. With Jehoiada’s wise and godly counsel the King restored the temple and temple worship and brought about a revival. Sadly, after the High Priest’s death, Joash fell into apostasy, even killing Jehoiada’s son.
But now, let’s back up and look a little closer at something that happened while the High Priest Johoiada was still alive.
Cheerful Giving
In chapter 24, the king commanded the rebuilding of the temple and reinstituted the temple offerings to support the work of God (2 Chron. 24.9). Look how the people responded in verses 10-11:
10 Then all the leaders and all the people rejoiced, brought their contributions, and put them into the chest until all had given. 11 So it was, at that time, when the chest was brought to the king’s official by the hand of the Levites, and when they saw that there was much money, that the king’s scribe and the high priest’s officer came and emptied the chest, and took it and returned it to its place. Thus they did day by day, and gathered money in abundance.
Notice “all the people rejoiced.” They saw giving to the work of God as a joyful opportunity.
How do you respond when the offering is taken at your church? Do you rejoice about the opportunity to give? Or do you give because you wonder what people will think or because you think God demands it? Do you give at all? Paul said:
So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver (2 Cor. 9.7).
And look at today’s reading in Proverbs …
Proverbs 21.2-3:
What Does Your Spending & Giving Say About What You Love & Worship?
Verse 2:
Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the hearts.
Our deceitful hearts can so easily allow us to justify our own selfish agendas. We can even appear very “spiritual” on the outside as we do it, but God sees our hearts. He sees what we value, where we focus our attention, what brings us joy and satisfaction, what we delight in, what we run to … what we worship.
Our English word worship comes from an old English word weorthscipe meaning “worthiness or acknowledgment of worth.”
So, what does your spending reveal about your heart? What do you find worthy?
Back to the questions in the introduction: If we’re willing to spend $6 on a cup of coffee at Starbucks, $25 to go to the movies, or $80 or $100 for a pair of tennis shoes, but give grudgingly or not at all to the work of God, what does our spending say about what we truly love and worship?
Perhaps some of us need to ask God to help us place more value on what He values.
Today’s Other Readings:
Psalm 83.9-18:
That They Would Know …
Notice that even as the psalmist prayed for God to defeat his enemies, his purpose was that the pagan nations would “know and glorify God.”
15 So pursue them with Your tempest,
And frighten them with Your storm.
16 Fill their faces with shame,
That they may seek Your name, O Lord.
17 Let them be confounded and dismayed forever;
Yes, let them be put to shame and perish,
18 That they may know that You, whose name alone is the Lord,
Are the Most High over all the earth.
When people attack or mistreat us, what is our heart attitude? Is the focus on us or the glory of God, a challenging question in our world today?
Acts 18.1-2
The Value of a Teachable Spirit
Here in Acts 18, we are introduced to a couple by the name of Aquila and Priscilla and a man by the name of Apollos. Aquila and Priscilla were tentmakers like Paul and became his close associates in the ministry. In Acts 18.24 we meet Apollos. The passage says that he was “an eloquent man and mighty in the Scriptures.”
But his doctrine was off base, so Aquila and Priscilla took him aside and “explained to him the way of God more accurately.” A couple of verses later it says this about Apollos:
27 And when he desired to cross to Achaia, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive him; and when he arrived, he greatly helped those who had believed through grace; 28 for he vigorously refuted the Jews publicly, showing from the Scriptures that Jesus is the Christ.
This eloquent man, instead of being puffed up with pride, was teachable and that allowed God to use him in a greater way.
Lord, I pray that you “weigh our hearts” and show us any areas of pride. Give us teachable spirits. And help us to focus more on You and Your kingdom whether in our spending or any other area of life. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Coming Up:
In the coming days, we’ll talk about how pride shows up in our lives, 10 secrets to finishing well, loving your enemies, what it means to be a contentious woman, and ask the question, “Could you be left behind?”
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Blessings as you grow in Christ,
Donna ♥
Note about this post:
I began blogging through the Bible in 2012 and have done so every year since then. These posts are the product of many edits and additions throughout those years. Some days I make major changes, other days fewer.
A while ago, I read Jen Wilkin’s book None Like Him about the attributes of God. One is His incomprehensibility. In it, she says, “God is incomprehensible. This does not mean that he is unknowable, but that he is unable to be fully known.”
I have found that to be true each year as I’ve gone back through the Bible. Sometimes I find myself feeling as if a passage just appeared there for the first time. I’m reminded that no matter how many times we read through the Bible, we have only scratched the surface. I hope you feel the same.
Indeed these are the mere edges of His ways,
And how small a whisper we hear of Him!
But the thunder of His power who can understand?” (Job 26.14)
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