Biblical Wisdom for Financial Crisis: Good News in Bad Times – A Bible Study

8/8/2019 Biblical Wisdom for Financial Crisis: Good News in Bad Times A Bible Study

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Biblical Wisdomfor Financial Crises

Good News in Bad Times

Tim Dearborn


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Biblical Wisdomfor Financial CrisesGood News in Bad Times

Tim Dearborn

Wld Vs ittl


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2008 by World Vision International

All rights reserved. No portion of this publication may be reproduced inany form, except for brief excerpts in reviews, without prior permissionof the publisher.

Published by World Vision International, 800 West Chestnut Avenue,Monrovia, California 91016-3198 U.S.A.

This book is also available in French, Portuguese and Spanish fromWorld Visions Global Centre at the above address.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are from the NewRevised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1989 by the Divisionof Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christin the U.S.A. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Editor in chief: Edna Valdez. Production: Jim McAllister. TranslationsManagement: Ann Abraham. Copyediting: Beth Strahle. Proofreading:RLou Norquist. Cover design and interior layout: Rebekah Roose.Translators: Nathalie Fauveau, Carolina Meese. Cover photo: VichhekaSok/World Vision.


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Contents

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

Section 1 Family Financial Crisis: Evicted from Eden . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

Section 2 National Financial Crisis: Total Economic Collapse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

Section 3 Organisational Financial Crisis: Parable of Bigger Barns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8

Section 4 Personal Financial Crisis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Section 5 Personal Financial Crisis: Parable of the Manager who Lost his Job . . . . . . 12

Section 6 Worldwide Financial Crisis: Global Food Shortage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14


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Introduction

In the past ew months, nancial disaster has struck or millions o people that has destroyed theirdreams or their uture. Many people who enjoyed the auence o developed countries have suddenlyound themselves cast onto the rocks o nancial ruin. Hundreds o thousands have lost their jobs, homesand livelihoods and their prospects or the coming months seem bleak. Hard times are ahead. Is there anygood news?

Tis is a harsh new reality or some, but nothing new or most people in the world. Hal the worldspopulation endure nancial crises as the substance o daily lie. Every moment is burdened by a struggleor survival and a search or daily bread.

While a drop in the stock market in developed nations propels thousands into crisis, it drives millionsin the majority o the world into even deeper economic desperation. Remittances sent home by amilymembers who work abroad dry up. Overseas development assistance tends to be dramatically cut.Business investments in developing economies shrivel. Local employment is threatened. Prices or dailynecessities like cooking uel, grain, rice and beans increase beyond the reach o those who are poor.Charitable giving to und the work o NGOs diminishes. A calamitous drop in the stock markets ookyo, London or Wall Street generates lie-threatening emergencies in the street markets o the worldsvillages and slums.

Since this is the daily reality o most o the worlds people, in so-called developed nations as well as those

that are not, we are right to expect that God has something to say to us about it. We believe the Bible isinspired by God and is useul or teaching, or reproo, or correction, and or training in righteousness,so that everyone who belongs to God may be procient, equipped or every good work (2 im. 3:16-17).Rather than reading only stock reports and news analysis to determine how to chart our course in thistroubled time, we do well also to examine Holy Scripture.

Scripture abounds with ascinating stories and accounts o nancial dealings. As an organisation, we hearthe call o God that is repeated throughout the Bible:

o place our trust in God and not money.1. Tereore, we do not turn to money as the solution or all ourproblems or or those who are poor, but to the God o the rich and poor alike.

o nd our power in prayer, and not in our possessions.2. Tereore, we renew our commitment toprayerul intercession or our personal and global economies.

o live personal and organisational liestyles that express solidarity with the God o the poor.3.Tereore, we commit ourselves to personal and organisational simplicity and rugality.

o identiy with those we serve who are powerless and poor, rather than with those with whom we4.associate who are powerul and prosperous. Tereore, we seek to ollow the way o our incarnate Lord.



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o exert our inuence and resources or the benet o those who are poor.5. Tereore, we serve asa voice or those who are not heard, advocating among governments, churches and individuals or thepowerless and oppressed.

We believe God can use this current global nancial crisis to re-orientate our lives more ully in thisdirection.

o understand Gods will and ways in the midst o nancial crises, we will explore six accounts oeconomic disaster in the Bible. We hope this will shed light to guide our personal and corporate responsesduring this time.

Te ollowing passages are selected because they reect the entire range o nancial crises: individual,amily, national and global.

Family Financial Crisis: Evicted rom Eden Genesis 3:16-241.

National Financial Crisis: otal Economic Collapse Jeremiah 29:1-232. Organisational Financial Crisis: Parable o Bigger Barns Luke 12:13-343.Personal Financial Crisis: Parable o the Penniless Son Luke 15:11-324.Personal Financial Crisis: Parable o the Manager who Lost his Job Luke 16:1-155.Worldwide Financial Crisis: Global Food Shortage 2 Cor. 8:1-156.

We pray this will be ruitul or individuals, amilies, small groups and work teams. May the Spirit oGod bring encouragement and guidance, whether these studies are read in the context o threatenedauence in developed countries, or in the contexts o grinding poverty or the majority o the world!

May God guide and encourage us so that we may growand help others to growin trusting in theGod who says, My grace is sucient or you, or power is made perect in weakness (2 Cor. 12:9).

Tim Dearborn, Director of Christian Commitments ProgrammesWorld Vision InternationalNovember 2008


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Sct 1

Family Financial Crisis: Evicted from Eden

Our hearts have room for only one all-embracing devotion, and we can only

cleave to one Lord. - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Te rst crisis in the Bible occurs in its opening pages. We think o the story o Adam and Eves Fall as aspiritual crisis. It certainly was that. However, it was also a disaster with economic consequences.

rd Gss 3:16-24

Dscuss

How does the portrayal o human work in these verses compare with lie in the Garden beore thezFall as described in Genesis 1:28-31; 2:15?

Cts: The Freedom of Dependence

Rejecting the reedom o dependence on God provoked an economic crisis. Adam and Eve now had toprovide through sweaty labour, conict and enmity. Strie over money is unquestionably a major sourceo marital conict as well as conict between communities. Is this now our lot, and all we can do isendure and wait or the day when it is not so? Te way back to Eden is barred.

Tough Adam and Eve were evicted rom Eden, God did not abandon them. God still provided. Wesee this in the rst verse o Genesis 4 ollowing their departure rom the Garden. Here we read therst conession o aith and praise uttered in the Bibleand it is spoken by Eve! She could have beenangry with God. She could have abandoned trust and aith. Teir lie was now a lie o sweat and strie.Astonishingly, outside o Eden, Eve now did what God had asked them to do within ittrust God.Celebrating the birth o their rst child, Eve proclaims, I have produced a man with the help o theLord (Genesis 4:1). With the help o the Lord! One o the main messages o the book o Genesis, andindeed the entire Bible, is that our reedom and ullment are not ound in sel-determination andautonomy, but in dependence and trust. Finding ullness o lie requires rearming our dependence andliving in trust.

itgt

Share examples o amilies you know who have trusted God in the midst o economic diculties.zWhat made this possible?

What does it mean to approach our nances with dependent trust in God?z


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Dear Lord, orgive us or so quickly doubting your goodness. Free us to entrust our lives and our

nances to you. Like Eve, may we proclaim, With the help o the Lord I have brought orthsomething good.


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Sct 2

National Financial Crisis:Total Economic Collapse

Simplicity of heart can ourish only in the fertile soil of trust, and it is the

Old Testaments revelation of the faithfulness and goodness of God that

opens the door to that trust. - Richard Foster, Freedom of Simplicity, p. 15

Tere are many national nancial crises described in the Bible. Te captivity o three successive kingso Israel is described in 2 Chronicles 36, one ater the other, dragged of in chains to Babylon byNebuchadnezzar. Each had done evil in the sight o the Lord (vs. 5, 9, 12). False prophets told Israelsleaders in Babylon that it would soon be all right. Tey would be able to go home, and their prosperitywould be restored. Te prophet Jeremiah sent them a letter with some rather diferent news.

rd Jh 29:1-23

Dscuss

We preer politicians and religious leaders who promise us prosperity, peace and protection. Ratherzthan that, Jeremiah tells the captives to seek the peace and prosperity o their captors (v. 7). Howwould you have responded to that?

Cts: Creative Hope

In v. 11 Jeremiah reminds us that our deliverance does not depend merely on human efort, but on Godspurposes and aithulness. God has plans or shalom, or our ourishing. God promises us a ourishinguture, and God calls us to be rooted in our present circumstances, regardless o how bad they may be.

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I you were writing a letter rom God, like Jeremiah, to your nation today, what would you write?z

What does it mean to be rooted in our present nancial diculties and seek Gods peace andz

prosperity or those around us?



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I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals

a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity,

equality and freedom for their spirits. I believe that what self-centred men

have torn down other-centred men can build up.I still believe that one day humankind will bow before the altars of God and

be crowned triumphant over war and bloodshed, and non-violent redemptive

goodwill will proclaim the good of the land. And the lion and the lamb shall

lie down together and every person shall sit under their own vine and g tree

and none shall be afraid. I still believe we shall overcome.

- Martin Luther King, Jr., Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech, 1964.

Py

Lord, may we seek the nancial well-being o those around us, even those who have caused us harm,

or in their well-being we will nd our own. May our compassionate creativity today be uelled byour condence in your promises or tomorrow.


Sct 2 ntl Fcl Css: Ttl ecc Cllps


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Sct 3

Organisational Financial Crisis:Parable of Bigger Barns

Let us treasure up in our soul some of those things that are permanentand

not those which will forsake us and be destroyed, and which only tickle our

senses for a little while. - Gregory of Nazianzus

Many o Jesus parables dealt with money and nancial problems. In the next three studies, we willlook at parables about money. Tis rst passage contains some o Jesus most amousand mostchallengingteachings about nances.

rd Luk 12:13-34

Dscuss

Jesus launches a direct assault on two emotions that dominate and dele our approach to nances:zgreed and anxiety. What remedy does he give?

Te parable o the man who needed bigger barns conronts the olly o trusting in our savings andz

possessions as sources o security and solutions to our needs. What do you think it means to be richtoward God (v. 21)?

Cts: Sources of Condence

Even beore the present global nancial crisis, anxiety and greed ruled the lives o millions. God wills adiferent kind o communitya diferent kind o social organisation. Te antidote to greed and anxietyis not bigger barns, but redirected hearts and changed societies. Gods people are to live diferently thanthe nations o the world (v. 30). Jesus contrasts people who build bigger barns to store up treasuresor themselves (v. 20), with his little ock, who sell their possessions to support those in need (v. 33).For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also (v. 34). Rather than greed or ear ruling ourlives, rather than our goal being to amass things in bigger barns, we are ruled by a diferent power and

directed toward a diferent goal.

itgt

What are the implications o this parable or our approach to nances?z

How can we use our inuence to advocate or those who are poorand to help those who areztempted to build bigger barns to hold their wealth diferently?


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Lord, we give ourselves aresh to you today.

Empower us to share in the lives o those who are poorso that together we will receive the blessedness o the kingdom.Unite us in Christ to share in the lives o those who are hungryso that together we will receive the blessedness o ood.Fill us with your Spirits compassion to share in the tears o those who are weeping,so that together we will enjoy the blessedness o laughter.Redirect our hearts, our lives and our organisationso that no one will one day hear your dreaded woe to you.In the name o the Father, Son and Spirit.Amen.


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Sct 4

Personal Financial Crisis

Although giving must have a large place in Christian experience, the control

and use of money must have an even larger place.

- Richard Foster, Money, Sex and Power p. 44

Tere are ew parables o Jesus that are better known than the story o the Prodigal Son. However, maybewe have not read it beore as also a parable about nances.

rd Luk 15:11-32

Dscuss

Te parable beautiully describes the extravagant love o the Father. However, its also a parable aboutzmoney. List all the economic issues described in the parable. Who else committed nancial sins,besides the son?

Cts: Surprised by Grace

Te penniless son was not the only sinner in the story. In the ar country, amine struck. Yet, obviously,

some had ood, or even the pigs were ed. o drive the point home urther, Jesus stresses peoples sin ogreed: and no one gave him [the penniless son] anything (v.16). Tere was also the oten-discussed sino the elder brother: more concerned with airness than with amily, with justice than with rejoicing. Inthis simple parable, we see the extravagant love o God even when we ruin our lives. But we also conronthere the tragic sin o our lack o love, o not caring about others sufering. Te Father gives reely,extravagantly, multiple timesregardless o how undeserving people are. We tend to give cautiously (i atall), only when we think we can spare it and others deserve it.

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Share examples o people who have expressed extravagant, gracious love to others who havezsquandered their money.

What might be some implications or how to respond to our own, and others, nancial destitution?z


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Prosperity may dilute prayer Christians in developing countries spend less

time pondering the effectiveness of prayer and more time actually praying.

The wealthy rely on talent and resources to solve immediate problems, and

insurance policies and retirement plans to secure the future. We can hardlypray with sincerity, Give us this day our daily bread when the pantry is

stocked with a months supply of provisions. - Philip Yancey, Prayer, p. 15.

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Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Ty kingdom come. Ty will be done, onearth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and orgive us our debts, as we orgive ourdebtors. In the name o the Son who bore and redeemed prodigal lives, Jesus Christ.Amen.


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Sct 5

Personal Financial Crisis:Parable of the Manager who Lost his Job

Although giving must have a large place in Christian experience, the control

and use of money must have an even larger place.

- Richard Foster, Money, Sex and Power p. 44

One o the strangest parables Jesus ever gave is the story o the manager who was about to be red romhis job or doing lousy work, and wasting a rich mans possessions.

rd Luk 16:1-15

Te key to understanding the parable is ound in the meaning o the word unrighteouswealth or mammon (vs. 10-13). In Jewish society, unrighteous or dishonest wealth wasmoney gained through charging interest. Some Jews got around this prohibition by lendingcommodities rather than money, and charging interest on them. In the parable, when themanager was about to be red or doing poor work, he quickly orgave the interest in theorm o additional jugs o oil and containers o wheat.

Dscuss

Te manager was dishonest, yet his boss praised him. Why?z

What do you think Jesus means in vs. 8-9? Is he suggesting that we can buy our way into a betterzplace in heaven?

Cts: Following only One Master

Jesus never commends the managers dishonesty, only his shrewdness in using money. Te manager usedmoney to win riends, protect his boss rom accusations o breaking the religious law, and earn the respecto his employer. In the previous parable, the Penniless Son squandered his athers money. Here, theManager wasted his masters money. For both, their possessions belonged to someone else. So it is with allGods people. Te earth is the Lords (Ps. 24:1). All our possessions belong to God. Unless we live with

the recognition that God possesses our possessions, our possessions will possess us. Tere can only beone master (v. 13). When we recognise that we do not own our possessions, we are reed to use them orothers benet. In so doing, we grow in our ability to be entrusted by God with true wealth (v. 11).


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itgt

Share examples o people who have been surrounded by caring riends when they have been out oz

work. What contributed to this?How can we approach our nances so as to pursue true wealth?z

Money has demonically usurped the role in modern society which the Holy

Spirit is to have in the Church. - Thomas Merton

Py

Lord, make us aithul stewards o our money, that we may use it to build community. Free us romserving our nances. Help us to live with only one Lord.


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Sct 6

Worldwide Financial Crisis:Global Food Shortage

Tell me, what is yours? If only each one would take as much as he requires

to satisfy his immediate needs, and leave the rest to others who equally need

it, no one would be richand no one would be poor.

- St. Basil (329-379 AD)

Te book o Acts records a global ood crisis. Prophets predicted a severe amine over all the world; andthis took place during the reign o Claudius. Te disciples determined that according to their ability,each would send relie to the believers living in Judea (Acts 11:28-29). From AD 41 to 51, there wereunprecedented ood shortages. Troughout the empire a combination o droughts and oods drovearmers rom their land. Tose in Judea were especially hard hit. In 46-47 AD hundreds died in thestreets o Jerusalem rom starvation.

rd 2 Cths 8:1-15

Dscuss

What are the qualities that describe the Christians in Macedonia?z

What do you think a air balance has to do with generosity?z

Cts: Charity as justice

Paul moves the discussion o generosity beyond kindness and benevolence to something much deeperaquestion ofair balancethat creates greater equity between those experiencing abundance and thosein need. Charity is not an optional act o kindness, but an essential step toward justice. o make thebalances air is to ensure justice. Paul roots our generosity in the very nature o God and Gods gracemaniest in Christ (v. 9). Our giving is in response to his. Tus, the Macedonians rst gave themselvesto the living God. Receiving grace rom God instilled abundant joy in their spirits. Teir generosity did

not ow rom abundant auence, but rom their experience o abundant grace.

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Describe examples o churches that have expressed amazing generosity in the midst o their ownznancial hardship. What gave them the capacity to do this?

How would your own, and your churchs approach to nances, change i you gave as an essential actzo justice rather than an optional act o kindness?


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ake my lie, and let it be consecrated, Lord, to Tee.

ake my moments and my days; let them fow in ceaseless praise.ake my hands, and let them move at the impulse o Ty love.ake my eet, and let them be swit and beautiul or Teeake my silver and my gold; not a mite would I withhold.ake my will, and make it Tine; it shall be no longer mine.ake my love, my Lord, I pour at Ty eet its treasure store.ake mysel, and I will be ever, only, all or Tee.- Frances Havergal


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Biblical Wisdom for Financial Crisis: Good News in Bad Times – A Bible Study

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Transcript of Biblical Wisdom for Financial Crisis: Good News in Bad Times – A Bible Study