Today we are going to look at a famous story from the Old Testament.  As I read over this account, it brings to mind old felt-board Sunday School lessons!  But aside from the nostalgia, there is a principle hiding behind this awesome passage of God’s delieverance.  For those of us who know the story, the Lord miraculously refills the widows jars of oil to deliever her and her sons from their desperate situation.  While the events that occur after Elisha shows up is full of great lessons and applications, I am approaching this scene from a different angle.  I want to focus in on what happens before the jars are filled.

“The wife of a man from the company of the prophets cried out to Elisha, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that he revered the LORD. But now his creditor is coming to take my two boys as his slaves.”  Elisha replied to her, “How can I help you? Tell me, what do you have in your house?”  “Your servant has nothing there at all,” she said, “except a small jar of olive oil.” (2 Kings 4:1-3, NIV)

The scene is desperate.  A widow and two children have nothing.  This situation on its own is a prescription for hard times, but there is another dynamic–the widowed home is drowning in debt.  The Bible doesn’t tell us how or why they got there, but we do know that the creditors are coming to take the sons away to work off the unpaid debt.  It is a hopeless situation (which is just the kind of place where God loves to show up…but again, a post for another day!).  A poor widow has lost her husband and is in danger of losing her two sons.  It is a bleak picture–one we would never hope for our own household.   There are a lot of lessons we can learn from reflecting over what this passage teaches us:

1. Debt caused desperation at death.  The creditors are coming for the two children.  The provision of the oil is used to pay off the debt (7).  Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that everyone should be debt-free in case they die an untimely death, but we should consider what the “creditors” might come for in the event of our own passing.  Luckily for us here in America, no one will be hauling away our children to cover for debts, but a foreclosure, repossessed car, and garnished wages don’t exactly ease the losing of a loved one.  I know that widows are not personally liable for debt signed only by the deceased, but the deceased’s remaining assets are.  If you run your household united (as the Bible calls you to), then your very way of life will come under attack from creditors.  This will create  a mess any loving spouse would do their best to avoid.

2. Where would your “household” be if you were to pass away?  Death is taxing enough on our emotional, physical, mental, and spiritual reserves (even losing someone we will see again in heaven).  Adding financial chaos into the equation only makes it worse.  A father of two children, this story resonates strongly with me.  I think about what my family would be up against if I was to go home to my Maker.  I think, for those of us willing to be honest, these words give a chilling call to financial responsibility.  Out of love, we should do the utmost to make sure our spouse and children would not find themselves in a similar circumstance.

3. We are foolish to think we can wait until we are “old” to prepare for death.  I am just taking a shot in the dark here, but it doesn’t appear the children are old enough to take over and run the household.  I can’t say this for certain, but it seems the kids are relatively young.  (We at least know they were young enough not be married off and having households of their own.)  In this case, we might presume that the husband died relatively young.  Again, this is a chilling call to all willingly to take it to heart. 

In conclusion, I think we would be wise to consider the financial obligations we are placing upon our household–and what those debts would mean if we were to head to heaven before we were “ready”.  We can write off this passage to “cultural irrelevance”, but to do so would be foolish…and certainly not in our family’s best interest.

If you haven’t read my post “The Bible’s Connection Between Debt and Slavery”, you can read it here.  Essentially, in biblical times slavery more commonly resembled what we might think of as indentured servitude (more so than the African Slave Trade of the 1600-1800s).  I believe that when we purposefully read God’s word and attempt to apply it to our own life, it will always bear fruit.  Therefore, if we recognize that slavery in the Bible—in many cases but certainly not all—had to do with paying back debts that could not be repaid, then we free ourselves to find timeless principles in the Bible’s teaching regarding slavery.  We find financial instruction buried in texts that we would read over without giving a second thought to our pocket books.  Passages like this one:

“Were you called while a slave? Do not worry about it; but if you are able also to become free, rather do that. For he who was called in the Lord while a slave, is the Lord’s freedman; likewise he who was called while free, is Christ’s slave. You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men.” (1 Cor. 7:21-23, NASB)

A loose connection (and yes, I agree that it is a loose connection) can be made between this passage and our financial life.  It would make sense in the cultural and historical context of these verses to assume that one potential reason for the slavery spoken of here is unpaid debt.  Therefore, we will try to take that connection between debt and slavery and apply it first to this passage, and second to ourselves.  If we dig deep into this passage from such a vantage point, I believe we can extract the following financial principles from this text:

“Were you called while a slave? Do not worry about it…for he who was called in the Lord while a slave, is the Lord’s freedman.”

- Often a Christian is heavily entrenched in debt before they learn about the Bible’s strong warnings regarding borrowing.  At times, a believer in this predicament is tempted to beat themselves up over their financial situation.  The Bible instructs you to relax, rest in the fact that you are Christ’s possession.  This will put your finances in proper perspective.  Move forward acting in accordance with your new knowledge and honor your existing debts with integrity. 

“But if you are able also to become free, rather do that.”

- As a follow up to the previous point, the Bible argues that if you have the ability to get free of your debt—by all means, do it!  If we are honest, we have to think almost all Americans fit into this category.  There are very few situations where a person living in our country does not have the ability (over the long-term) to wrestle free from their debt.  If freedom is obtainable, the Bible encourages us to pursue it.

“He who was called while free, is Christ’s slave.”

- Those of us with financial freedom (debt-free or disposable income) must not make the mistake of thinking that our liberation from leveraging frees us from our obligation to Christ.  We belong to Him.  We are Christ’s slave.  Our financial decisions must serve His interests above our own (especially if we used biblical instruction to gain financial freedom in the first place!).

“You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men.” 

- We belong to Christ.  We are not to willingly become enslaved to men.  Does this mean that we are not to borrow any money from this point forward?  Hmm.  I don’t think we can go quite that far, but it does create quite a challenge for those willing to reflect on such an ultimatum.  I will leave this up to your prayerful consideration, but will challenge you:  at the very least you must ask yourself why you are willingly adding financial obligation into your life.  This will bring limits to your freedom.  If our finances belong to Christ, why would we place added (and perhaps unnecessary) restrictions/payments on our financial freedom?

I hope you find my thoughts on this passage intriguing.  I know I have never considered the financial ramifications of these verses until now.  Again, I hope you see that my goal of this post is to challenge your thinking.  These ideas are far from being airtight, ready for entry into a systematic theology book, but offer spiritual food for thought nonetheless.

I know, I know, it seems like this topic is a little “overdone”, but I think at times us crusaders of Christian finance often make a statement connecting debt to slavery without really explaining it.  We sometimes assume our Christian brothers and sisters already understand what we are talking about.  What I have found is: the average believer sees the connection of debt and slavery as a figurative description—almost a metaphor.  This is the purpose of today’s post.  The biblical connection between debt and slavery is far more than mere metaphor.

What is slavery in the Bible?

First things first: when we say “slavery” and the Bible says “slavery”, we often mean very different things.  Our first thought of the word brings to mind the cruelties of the African Slave Trade.  The atrocities of the 1600-1800′s are an unthinkable stain on world history (and sadly, the Christians that supported it).  Millions caught up in the trading of men, women, and children into a life sentence of cruelty and forced labor.  The Bible does address this type of slavery:  “He who kidnaps a man, whether he sells him or he is found in his possession, shall surely be put to death.” (Ex. 21:16)  Plain and simple, anyone who stole another man/woman and sold them was to be put to death.  This is the Biblical stance on chattel slavery.  Regrettably, Christians in this time period of history misused and distorted scripture to justify this type of slavery.  Moving forward, we must recognize that the Bible’s use of the term “slavery” is often not what we think.

What is the Bible’s usage of the term? 

The best comparison in our vocabulary is the concept of indentured servitude (though not necessarily in all cases).  This is the reason more modern translations of the Bible replace the word “slave” with “servant”.  Essentially, if a person was unable to pay their bills, then they must honor their debt by the sweat of their brow.  This type of service had certain constraints on it in the Old Testament law, and—most importantly—the service was completed when the debt was repaid through labor.  In light of this, we can begin to understand the famous (and sometimes infamous) proverb:  “The borrower becomes the lender’s slave.” (Prov 22:7, NASB).  This passage is literal.  It simply means what it says.  There is no metaphor hiding underneath Solomon’s words.  He plainly states that the borrower will in fact become the lender’s slave in the event the debt cannot be paid off.  Therefore, the Bible is describing a literal type of slavery (servant-hood, if you prefer) when debts could not be repaid.

What does this mean for me?

Aside from being a neat spiritual nugget to chirp out at our next Bible study, we must seek to apply this portion of God’s word to our life.  What principle, if any, is to be found in this passage for the contemporary Christian?  A simple answer is this:  Debt will cause your productivity to belong to another.  In biblical times, this was more of an all or nothing thing—slave or free.  Today, however, the lines are a lot less clear.  We fail to see that debt places our productivity into the hands of our creditors.  Because this process is gradual, we lose sight of the fact that as debt increases, our ownership of our own productivity decreases.  Our prosperity loses its potential to be invested in God’s kingdom as debt increases. 

The further we trudge into debt, the more our efforts, income, and assets come under the ownership of our creditors.  This could be everything from money going out in interest payments to garnished wages to liens on our possessions and properties.  The more we leverage the more our resources belong to someone other than us.  (I know God owns everything, but follow my argument here.)  Bound by integrity and biblical instruction (Ps. 37:21), we must pay back what we have borrowed and thereby have little control or say as to where our money goes.  Our influence over our money has disappeared.  On the other hand, the further we get out of debt the more our freedom increases to invest in God’s kingdom.  Our choices—to avoid debt or get into it—will have a remarkable effect on our freedom financially and beyond.

Ok, ok I know my title is a little risky—shock factor, if you will.  However, when you look deeply into the Old Testament language and cultural practices of the times, the connection between debt and slavery is not as far-fetched as we might think.  And, if we are willing to be honest with ourselves, there is a principle hiding there that is anything but outdated.

In biblical times, slavery was more like indentured servitude.  (The Bible condemns chattel slavery—i.e., the African Slave trade of the 1700-1800s.  Exodus 21:16.)  For a variety of reasons, a person who could not pay a debt had to honor that debt by working it off as a “slave”.  Hence, the proverb:  “The borrow becomes the lender’s slave.”  (Prov. 22:7, NASB)  When you couldn’t honor your debts financially, you were forced to pay it off by the sweat of your brow.  In the book of Nehemiah, we see this practice first hand:

“We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards and our houses that we might get grain because of the famine.’  Also there were those who said, ‘We have borrowed money for the king’s tax on our fields and our vineyards.  Now our flesh is like the flesh of our brothers, our children like their children Yet behold, we are forcing our sons and our daughters to be slaves, and some of our daughters are forced into bondage already, and we are helpless because our fields and vineyards belong to others.” (Neh. 5:3-5, NASB)

There are a lot of things going on in this passage.  The people of Israel have fallen on tough times (famine and heavy taxes), they are trying to rebuild the walls of the city, and God’s commandments for usury have been ignored.  While there is a lot we could gain from digging deep into this Old Testament book, today I want to focus in on one aspect:  “behold, we are forcing our sons and our daughters to be slaves.”   Taxes, famine, and high interest put the average Israelite in a bind.  As was the practice of the day, they had borrowed all they could on their land, productivity, and houses yet still were unable to put bread on the table and pay the king’s tax.  Therefore, they were up against the only remaining possibility:  sending their kids into slavery (indentured servant-hood).  Their children had to help carry the weight and consequence of their parent’s debt.

At this point, a lot of Christians may have objections due to cultural context:  complaints like it was the royal tax, famine, and abusive usury that sent their kinds into a life of slavery.  In this, protestors would be correct.  There is a lot in this passage that, contextually, does not hit home for us.  But, I think we move on too quickly if we do not challenge ourselves with the same principle:  Am I sending my children into “slavery”?  Am I sending them into a life of paying off debt?

This begs the question:  How does a parent send their children into the snares of debt?  I came up with a few thoughts (but certainly not an all-inclusive list):

1. Student loans.  Sometimes parents pressure their children to go to college, but then unload the financial burden on their departing adolescent.  I am not implying that parents have an obligation to pay for their child’s college education, but there is something wrong with assuming your child will go to college and pay for it, and not giving them the tools or knowledge to take on that challenge with wisdom.  They will simply borrow their way through school (without much consideration of the consequences), and will spend the next several years buried in debt.  Help them navigate these waters, most likely their first major financial decision, with wisdom.

2. Lifestyle. Parents can often rush their children’s into financial “success”.  They want their children to drive a nice car, live in nice neighborhood, and on, and on.  This level of expectation often sends young adults heavily into a lifestyle leveraged to the hilt.  Allowing your children to start modestly (most likely how you started out!) will help them in the long run.

3. Modeling.  Often, a child’s pathway into deep debt is simply following after the example set before them.  As parents, we must fix our own finances before we are ever able to help our children.  Then, we must do our best to give them the financial skills to be successful.

Certainly there are others, but I felt a few examples would give hands and feet to the principle I am trying to get across:  Do not send your children into a life of paying off debt.  I challenge parents to consider the financial legacy (be it debt, discipline, or knowledge) that they are passing on to their children.  You want the best for your children—do all you can to not “send them into slavery”.

Normally I try to avoid commenting negatively on current events/authors/books/etc. because it can create divisions that might not be necessary, instigate battles that really aren’t worth fighting, and divert our attention off of the centrality of Christ and the gospel.  But, when I read this I felt led to make a post.  However, I do want to clarify that this post is NOT a rant against megachurches or a critique of the Crystal Cathedral’s theological soundness (Trust me, there is already plenty of that material out there!)  Instead, what I intend to do is look at their situation and see if there are any lessons that Christians and churches can learn from.  I found several things:

1. “Faithful with a few things…” (Matt. 25:21)  The first reaction to this article is something like:  “43 MILLION IN DEBT!?!  Are you kidding me?”  I will be the first to admit, the number is astounding but I think we aren’t being honest with ourselves.  The church had 10,000 members.  What if we downsized the number by one decimal place?  What if it was a church with 4.3 million in debt and had around a 1,000 members.  Then, all of the sudden we have a situation not too unlike many churches in America.  It’s only because the numbers are so high that the debt seems shocking.  But in reality, they have done what many churches across the land have done.  (That’s $4,300 debt/member for those of you who want to compare apples to apples in your own orchard.)  Don’t get me wrong, I am NOT trying to argue that the 43 million is no big deal.  Quite the contrary.  I hope the craziness of the Crystal Cathedral’s debt causes all of those thousand something churches with a few million in debt to reconsider their situation.  There really is no difference between the two in my mind.  Jesus said who is faithful with little, will be entrusted with much.  Let’s make sure that we look to ourselves before casting any stones.  Let’s strive to create a church 100% in debt to the Lord not a to a lender.  (Check out my post on whether or not churches should borrow money here.)

2. “How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market.” (John 2:16)  When you read the article, there is outstanding debt to vendors, advertisers to live animal rental (I didn’t know such a thing existed!).  There are lawyers, repayment plans, and a coalition of vendors.  When you read all of these things it makes it sound a whole lot more like a business than a church.  Again, easy to cast the stone without looking to ourselves.  I think this is one of the biggest cultural shifts in the American church over the past 20 years.  Churches are tempted to become a business packaging a product for consumption than a church offering the gospel.  Again, I am NOT trying to bash the Crystal Cathedral.  I just think when you look at the complexity of its operation, it appears to resemble a business more than a church.  Christ strongly condemned the men who turned the temple into a market.  I fear He has similar feelings towards some of the things going on in churches today.  I pray that Christians in America would begin, like Christ, to purge such tendencies from our churches.  This is no small matter.  Think about the intensity with which Jesus took to this task.  Pray for purity in our churches.

3. “He who gathers in the summer is a son who acts wisely.” (Prov. 10:5)  A pastor is quoted saying that the church couldn’t cut expenses fast enough when contributions decreased.  Many churches lack financial margin.  A church, no matter how big or small, must be able to weather storms and survive droughts.  In a way this ties back into point number one regarding leveraging, but I think all churches can step back and think about how they would fair if contributions dropped by 30% (as they did for the Crystal Cathedral). 

All in all, it is easy to cast the stone at the Crystal Cathedral without looking at ourselves.  I think they made mistakes similar to many churches across America, albeit on a much larger scale.  Let’s take what we can from this event and learn from it.

An in depth studying of Biblical borrowing should leave believers with mixed emotions.  Borrowing is never forbidden in the scriptures, but according to Burkett- it is always presented in the negative.  The most compelling argument, in my opinion, is that God never once used a loan to accomplish His work.  There is not a single example of God leveraging His work anywhere in the Bible.  Throughout the Bible God always used contributions not credit to fund His work. Why should we assume this model has changed?

In light of these things, Burkett comes up with 5 Reasons Why Churches Should Not Borrow (summarized)

1. Church leaders must study Scripture to see if borrowing is a compromise.
2. Borrowing denies God’s people the opportunity to see His blessings and generosity coming from His people as His provision.
3. Servicing debt restricts a church’s ability to serve.
4. The loan puts pressure on pastors to keep everyone happy and everyone giving.
5. Contributions go to interest payments not the work of the Gospel: “Many major denominations spend more on interest payments than on foreign missions.”

In conclusion, I (along with Larry Burkett) believe that a church that decides not to borrow has taken the higher road.  I believe this for the following reasons.

A church committed to avoiding debt demonstrates…

1. Patience as they wait for God to provide the resources.
2. Trust in God to provide what is needed.
3. Submission to the will of God in the event funding does not arrive.
4. A powerful witness that God will provide for His work.
5. The ability to bless others instead of servicing debt.
6. Freedom to follow God’s instruction not terms of contracts.

You are about to buy a new car.

A new car you ask? That’s it? How could that be the biggest financial mistake for college graduates? What about student loans? Listen carefully to my theory on this and see if you agree:

Let’s say Joe College has just graduated from University and landed his first job. Though not a ridiculous amount, Joe is carrying some student loan debt (Let’s say 15k).  Then he lands a management position making 40k a year. This is quite a paycheck compared to making $7 an hour working the front desk at the University Rec. Center. Joe doesn’t have any assets, any savings to speak of, or much financial planning of any kind. Buying a house is out of the question. Lured by the new paycheck, an embarrassment of how his 96 Neon looks in his company’s parking lot, and desire to “pay himself back” for the cheapness of college living, he purchases a new car for 24k. The payments are “easy”. Only $450 a month and he is riding in style. And now, Joe has made the biggest financial mistake of his life.

Here is why:

1. Joe has chosen to use debt to stretch his lifestyle beyond what is reasonable (purchasing a car that is 60% of your annual income is not reasonable.) This is a habit that will most likely stay with him for the rest of his life.

2. He has chosen lifestyle over responsibility. He has chosen to use his income to live better instead of cleaning up his student loan debt (opportunity cost). This is a habit that will most likely stay with him for the rest of his life.

3. He has let other people’s opinions influence his financial decisions. This is a habit that will most likely stay with him for the rest of his life.

4. He has traversed into the dangerous waters of “rationalization” to make an unreasonable purchase by convincing himself he deserved it. This is a habit that will most likely stay with him for the rest of his life.

5. He has chosen to put a lot of money into something that depreciates instead appreciates. This is a habit that will most likely stay with him for the rest of his life.

6. He has looked at the payments instead of the price tag. This is a habit that will most likely stay with him for the rest of his life.

The issue is not the car but the: “This is a habit that will most likely stay with him for the rest of his life.” The decisions will continue and the price tag will only get larger and larger. On the other hand, if Joe decides to live below his means, pay off his debt, divorce himself from other’s influence, avoid rationalization, seek appreciating assets, and look at life through price tags not payments, those habits will stay with him for life.