The Lord's High-Interest Loans Text: Proverbs 19:17
Introduction: God's Peculiar Economics
We live in an age that is drowning in economic theories, and yet has no real understanding of wealth. Our culture is obsessed with balance sheets, portfolios, and retirement plans, but is utterly bankrupt when it comes to true, lasting treasure. The world has two basic approaches to money, both of them godless. The first is the Mammon approach of the grasping materialist: get all you can, can all you get, and then sit on the can. His life is a frantic scramble to accumulate, driven by the fear that he will not have enough. The second is the Marxist approach of the grasping socialist: he sees what the materialist has accumulated and, driven by envy, devises sophisticated ways to steal it in the name of "social justice." One worships his own greed, the other consecrates his own envy.
Into this dreary, dead-end debate, the Word of God speaks a completely alien word. It presents us with an economic system that is entirely upside down from the world's perspective. It is a system where you get by giving. You become rich by scattering. You secure your future by letting go. And in our text today, we find one of the most startling principles of this divine economy. It is a principle that, if truly grasped, would revolutionize our finances, our churches, and our communities. It is the principle of the divine, high-yield investment.
The book of Proverbs is intensely practical. It is not a collection of ethereal platitudes for the stained-glass set. It is hard-headed, boot-leather wisdom for the marketplace, the home, and the street. It teaches us about the birds and the bees, kings and fools, and, most certainly, about dollars and cents. And this particular proverb is a direct challenge to our natural, fallen assumptions about our resources. It tells us that our calculations are all wrong because we consistently leave the primary actor, God Himself, out of the equation.
We think in terms of scarcity. We look at our bank accounts, we look at the needs around us, and we conclude that we cannot afford to be generous. God thinks in terms of infinite abundance. He looks at our little acts of faithfulness and sees an opportunity to display His boundless resources and covenant loyalty. This proverb is not a sentimental encouragement to be nice. It is a staggering financial promise from the Creator of heaven and earth. It is an invitation to participate in a business transaction with God Almighty, a transaction in which He, out of sheer grace, makes Himself the debtor.
The Text
He who is gracious to a poor man lends to Yahweh,
And He will repay him for his bountiful deed.
(Proverbs 19:17 LSB)
The Divine Transaction (v. 17a)
Let's look at the first clause:
"He who is gracious to a poor man lends to Yahweh..." (Proverbs 19:17a)
The first thing to notice is the character of the giver. The word is "gracious." This is not about the mechanical, joyless doling out of funds to meet a quota. This is not the reluctant check written to the tax man, who then redistributes it through some bloated, impersonal bureaucracy. This is a disposition of the heart. To be gracious is to be full of grace, to show favor. It assumes a personal, cheerful, and willing generosity. This is the kind of giving that flows from a heart that has first received grace. Because God has been infinitely gracious to us in Christ, we are enabled to be gracious to others. Ungracious giving, done from a spirit of compulsion or for show, is not what is in view here.
The object of this grace is "a poor man." The Bible is unflinchingly realistic about poverty. It recognizes that poverty can be the result of laziness and folly (Prov. 6:11), and it has sharp words for the sluggard. But it also recognizes that poverty can result from oppression, injustice, or simple misfortune. The righteous man, we are told elsewhere, "considers the cause of the poor" (Prov. 29:7). He does not give indiscriminately, but he also does not use the possibility of foolishness as an excuse to harden his heart to all need. He is gracious. He investigates, he helps, he is open-handed.
Now here is the astonishing part. This gracious act toward a poor man is reckoned in the courts of heaven as a loan to Yahweh Himself. Think about that. The Lord, who owns the cattle on a thousand hills, the one who cannot be put in anyone's debt because He owns everything, voluntarily puts Himself in the position of a borrower. When you see a brother or sister in genuine need, and you meet that need for the glory of God, you are not throwing your money away. You are not just giving it to that person. You are making a direct, personal loan to the sovereign God of the universe. God identifies so closely with His people, particularly the humble and the needy, that He takes their debts upon Himself. He says, "Put it on my tab." This is the same principle Jesus articulates in the parable of the sheep and the goats: "Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me" (Matthew 25:40). Our dealings with the poor are our dealings with Christ.
The Guaranteed Repayment (v. 17b)
The second clause follows with airtight, covenantal logic.
"And He will repay him for his bountiful deed." (Proverbs 19:17b)
Because the transaction is a loan, it necessitates repayment. And because the borrower is Yahweh, that repayment is absolutely guaranteed. This is not wishful thinking. This is a divine promise, as certain as the rising of the sun. God is no man's debtor. He will not default. He will not file for bankruptcy. He will repay.
Notice the nature of the deed: it is "bountiful." This echoes the "gracious" spirit in the first clause. This is not about stingy, begrudging scraps. It is about a bountiful, open-handed spirit that reflects the bounty of God. And God's repayment will be in kind. "Give, and it will be given to you," Jesus said. "Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap" (Luke 6:38). God does not just pay back the principal; He pays with interest. And His interest rates are glorious.
Now, we must be careful here. This is not the crass "seed-faith" heresy of the health-and-wealth charlatans, who treat God like a cosmic slot machine. This is not a formula for getting rich. The repayment from God is not always, or even primarily, financial. God repays in His wisdom, in His currency, and on His timetable. He may repay with financial prosperity, yes. But He may also repay with a healthy family, with children who walk in the truth, with peace in the midst of trial, with wisdom for a difficult decision, with a sudden rescue from a calamitous situation, or with a rich reward in the new heavens and the new earth. The point is not to dictate the terms of repayment to God. The point is to trust the character of the one who has promised to repay. Our generosity is an act of faith, demonstrating that we believe God's promise is a more secure asset than the money we currently hold in our hand.
The Gospel Economy
Like everything in the Old Testament, this proverb finds its ultimate fulfillment and deepest meaning in the Lord Jesus Christ. This principle of divine economics is the very structure of the gospel itself.
We were the poor man. In fact, we were worse than poor. We were utterly destitute, spiritually bankrupt, and hopelessly in debt to the law of God. We had nothing with which to pay. We were formless and void, sitting in darkness.
And Jesus Christ, who was infinitely rich, became the gracious giver. He saw our poverty. He had compassion. And He did not simply lend to us; He gave everything. "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich" (2 Corinthians 8:9).
On the cross, Jesus performed the ultimate act of graciousness to the poor. He saw us in our wretched state, liable for an infinite debt, and He said to the Father, "Put it on my tab." He lent Himself to Yahweh, as it were, as a substitute for us. He gave His own life as a bountiful deed on our behalf.
And how did the Father repay Him? "Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name" (Philippians 2:9). God the Father repaid the Son for His bountiful deed by raising Him from the dead, seating Him at His right hand, and giving Him all authority in heaven and on earth. He repaid Him with a bride, the Church, a people for His own possession, rescued from every tribe and tongue and nation.
Therefore, when we are gracious to the poor, we are not just obeying an Old Testament proverb. We are living out the very pattern of the gospel. We are demonstrating that we understand the grace that has been shown to us. We give freely because we have been freely given everything in Christ. We lend to the Lord because He first lent His only Son for us. Our generosity is not a means of getting things from God; it is the joyful, reflexive, downstream overflow of having received all things in the gospel.
So do not be afraid to be generous. Do not let the world's pinched, scarcity-minded economics govern your heart. You serve a God of infinite resources and inviolable promises. See the need around you not as a drain on your resources, but as a glorious, God-given investment opportunity. Make a loan to Yahweh. His credit is good.