The Divine Economy of Scatter and Clench
Introduction: Two Economies
We live in a world governed by a certain kind of economic theory. It is a theory of scarcity, of limitation, of the zero-sum game. In this worldview, the central task of life is to accumulate, to gather, to build bigger barns, and to protect what is yours with a clenched fist. The man who dies with the most toys wins. This is the wisdom of the world, and it is a wisdom that smells of death. It is the logic of the grasping hand, the anxious heart, and the locked storehouse. It is an economy built on the fundamental lie of autonomy, the idea that we are our own, and what we have is ours to do with as we please.
But the Scriptures present us with a rival economy, a divine economy that operates on principles that are utterly antithetical to the world's way of thinking. It is an economy of abundance, of overflow, of seedtime and harvest. In God's economy, the way up is down, the way to gain is to lose, and the way to increase is to scatter. This is not merely a clever paradox; it is the fundamental law of the created order, because it is the fundamental law of the Creator's own character. God is a giver. The Father gives the Son, the Son gives His life, the Spirit gives Himself to the Church. The entire Trinity is an eternal fellowship of self-giving love. Therefore, the universe He made runs on the same principle.
This proverb before us is a direct assault on the world's scarcity mindset. It presents two men, two approaches to wealth, and two ultimate destinies. One man operates according to the world's logic and ends in ruin. The other operates according to God's logic and ends in abundance. This is not a prosperity gospel proof-text for fleecing the flock. This is a foundational principle of covenant life. It is about how the world actually works, and we ignore it at our peril. To try and live by the world's economic rules in God's world is like trying to breathe water. It cannot be done for long.
The Text
"There is one who scatters, and yet increases all the more, And there is one who holds back what is rightly due, and yet results only in want."
(Proverbs 11:24 LSB)
The Paradox of Faithful Scattering (v. 24a)
The first clause sets before us a man who seems to be a fool by every worldly standard.
"There is one who scatters, and yet increases all the more..." (Proverbs 11:24a)
The word "scatters" is an agricultural term. It is the picture of a farmer casting his seed into the field. To the man who doesn't understand farming, this looks like madness. He is taking valuable grain, grain that he could be hoarding or eating, and he is throwing it on the ground. He is losing it. He is diminishing his current supply with every handful he casts. This is precisely how the world views true Christian generosity. "You're giving how much to the church? You're having how many people over for dinner? You're spending your time and resources on what?" It looks like waste. It looks like irresponsible scattering.
But the farmer is not a fool. He is operating on a principle of faith. He understands that the seed he holds in his hand has a greater potential than simply being eaten. If he clutches it, he has a handful of grain. If he scatters it, he has a harvest. He is giving away what he has in order to receive back far more than he gave. This is the logic of God's kingdom. Jesus says, "unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit" (John 12:24). The principle of the harvest is death and resurrection. You must let go of the seed. You must "lose" it in the ground.
And the result? He "increases all the more." This is not a mechanical, tit-for-tat transaction. This is a covenantal reality. God has wired the world to reward open-handed, cheerful, faith-filled generosity. When a man gives his tithe first, not last, he is scattering seed. When a family opens their home in hospitality, they are scattering seed. When a Christian gives of his time, his energy, and his resources for the sake of the kingdom, he is scattering seed. And God, the Lord of the harvest, honors this faith. He ensures the increase. This increase may be financial, but it is not limited to that. It is an increase in joy, in fellowship, in fruitfulness, in blessing. The world of the generous man gets larger and larger.
This is because the generous man is living in alignment with reality. He understands that God is the owner of everything and he is merely a steward. His hands are open because he knows they will be refilled by the one who owns the cattle on a thousand hills. He is not giving away his own stuff; he is joyfully redistributing God's stuff according to the Owner's manual.
The Folly of Fearful Withholding (v. 24b)
The second clause presents the man who is considered wise by the world, but a fool by God.
"And there is one who holds back what is rightly due, and yet results only in want." (Proverbs 11:24b LSB)
This man does the sensible thing. He "holds back." He clenches his fist. He is a man of prudence, of careful calculation. He sees the tithe, the offering, the need of his brother, and his first thought is self-preservation. "I can't afford that right now. I have bills to pay. I need to build up my savings." He is the anti-farmer. He eats his seed. And in the short term, it seems to work. His pile of seed remains undiminished. He has what he has.
But notice the qualifier: he "holds back what is rightly due." The Hebrew here is "more than is meet" or "more than is right." This is not talking about responsible saving or budgeting. This is talking about withholding what God requires and what love demands. The tithe is not ours to give; it is God's to receive. To withhold it is to rob God, as Malachi says. To see a brother in need and to shut up our hearts against him is to withhold what is rightly due (1 John 3:17). This man's prudence is actually theft. He is stealing from God and neighbor, all under the guise of being responsible.
And what is the result of this sensible, prudent, worldly-wise strategy? It "results only in want." The very poverty he was seeking to avoid comes upon him. His world gets smaller and smaller. Why? Because he has cut himself off from the source of all blessing. He has declared his functional independence from God. He is trusting in his clenched fist, and a clenched fist can receive nothing. The man who eats his seed will have a full belly for a day, but an empty field for a lifetime. God ensures that the world built on the principle of selfish grasping will eventually collapse in on itself. The rust and the moth and the thief that Jesus warned about are very real. The leaky bags that Haggai spoke of are a covenantal curse. The man who tries to secure his own future apart from God will find that his future is one of perpetual, gnawing want.
The Gospel Economy
This proverb is not ultimately a piece of financial advice. It is a description of the gospel. The entire logic of scattering and increasing, of losing and gaining, finds its ultimate expression at the cross of Jesus Christ.
God the Father is the ultimate Scatterer. He did not withhold what was rightly His. He did not clench His fist around His only begotten Son. "He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?" (Romans 8:32). The Father scattered His most precious seed into the cold, dark ground of this world. He gave His Son over to death.
And Jesus Christ is the grain of wheat that fell into the earth and died. He was scattered on the cross. He poured out His life, His blood, His righteousness. From the world's perspective, this was the ultimate act of foolish waste. The ultimate loss. But what was the result? He "increased all the more." He was raised from the dead, and through His death and resurrection, He is bringing many sons to glory. He scattered His one life and is reaping a harvest of millions upon millions of redeemed souls. The harvest is the Church, the bride He purchased with His blood.
When we are united to Christ by faith, we are brought into this divine economy. We are freed from the scarcity mindset of the world because our God has already given us everything in His Son. We can now become scatterers ourselves. We can give freely, love generously, and live with open hands, not because we are trying to manipulate God into giving us more stuff, but because we are so overwhelmed by the generosity He has already shown us. Our giving is not a transaction; it is a response. It is the joyful reflex of a heart that has been filled to overflowing.
Therefore, look at your bank account, your schedule, your possessions. Are you a scatterer or a clencher? Are you operating by the world's logic of fear and scarcity, or by the gospel's logic of faith and abundance? The man who clutches his life will lose it. But the man who scatters his life for the sake of Christ and His kingdom will find that he increases all the more, both in this life and, most gloriously, in the life to come.