Posted on 05/22/2022 1:08:04 AM PDT by Pilgrim's Progress
“The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender. He that soweth iniquity shall reap vanity: and the rod of his anger shall fail” (Proverbs 22:7-8).
This is obviously true. Here is your problem with credit. You borrow money from somebody, and they can tell you where to go, what to do, and how to do it. Or they will pull the strings on the credit. When someone goes in to borrow money, they ask him for collateral. What they really want to know is, “What does he own?” They might want to put some mortgage against what he owns. In some cases, they will. At any rate, they will repossess it if he doesn’t pay them back.
Creditors have control over the borrower. They run them, so, “the borrower is servant to the lender.” You become a slave to that lender’s money. You become a slave to J. C. Penney, Sears, and all the rest of them when you use those charge cards. If you don’t believe it, just make the minimum payment over the space of a year and see how much money you have actually given them while not even making a dent on your debt to them.
“He that oppresseth the poor to increase his riches, and he that giveth to the rich, shall surely come to want” (Proverbs 22:16).
“Rob not the poor, because he is poor: neither oppress the afflicted in the gate” (Proverbs 22:22).
“The rich ruleth over the poor.” It is just a rule of life, and a temptation, for the rich to rule over the poor. Most rulers are rich. Even in a republic, such as we have. It’s been a long time since we’ve had a president that was reared in poverty or was just an average run-of-the-mill guy when he was elected. Abe Lincoln might have been born in a log cabin, but by the time he became president, he was a very wealthy lawyer. It is just generally true that most politicians are wealthy, and from wealthy families—with the right education, and the right strings pulled for them along the way.
Now, God rules over both the rich and the poor. If the rich misuse their rule, God will hold them to account over it. If the poor justify their condition as an excuse to rob and steal, God will take them to task over that. God will give the rich the rule, but they had better do it right, and the poor better obey and do it right. This is the catch. Neither one of them had better use their position to do wrong.
Lessons to learn from this verse: 1) Don’t buy on credit. 2) Discipline yourself by saving up until you have the means to buy something with cash. 3) If you do have credit make the payments on time even if you have to sacrifice to make the payments. 4) Don’t get behind, once that happens you are truly a “servant to the lender.”
What a man sows is what he reaps. Haman sowed iniquity, he reaped vanity. We see something like this in 14:3: “In the mouth of the foolish is a rod of pride: but the lips of the wise shall preserve them.” The Devil has a rod. He tries to beat the nations with it. It will fail. “He that sows iniquity shall reap vanity,” eventually God will take it away from him.
The Syrian in Isaiah 10:5-14 is a rod of God’s anger. God eventually brings judgment upon him. His rod will fail.
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