SCATTERING

Proverbs 11:23-27 (KJV)

The desire of the righteous is only good: but the expectation of the wicked is wrath.

There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty.

The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be watered also himself.

He that withholdeth corn, the people shall curse him: but blessing shall be upon the head of him that selleth it.

He that diligently seeketh good procureth favour: but he that seeketh mischief, it shall come unto him.

Of all of those passages in Proverbs that have to do with money, stewardship and property, probably Proverbs 11:24 is my favorite.

·   It’s descriptive.

·   It makes sense.

A person would have to chose to ignore the Bible to misunderstand the plain sense of these words, “There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty.”

It can stand on it’s own two feet. But it doesn’t stand alone.

Verses 23-27 combine together to give us a message on the subject of generosity.

Notice first,

I. A DEFINITION

Vs 23

The desire of the righteous is only good: but the expectation of the wicked is wrath.

A. The righteous man desire’s good.

Put into the context, I think he desires not only good for himself but for others also.

The word desire means to long for something but it also means to be satisfied by something.

When you get your heart’s desire you are satisfied.

What else would a person ever want but his heart’s desire?

The righteous desires, longs for and is satisfied with good.

Notice the righteous desire only good

·   Not wealth

·   Not power

·   Not fame

He desires good and that alone.

B. On the other hand, the expectation of the wicked is wrath.

The word expectation is similar to desire – it’s the thing he wishes for.

He obviously doesn’t wish for wrath on himself.

The wicked person wants vengeance on everyone who he is angry with.

And he probably has a lot of people he is angry with.

With that as a definition, let’s move on to

*II. A DESCRIPTION

Vs 24

There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty.

A. Because the righteous desire good, he scatters.

He takes what he has and he lets it out for the benefit of others.

And it increases.

It likely increases for himself, but it also increases in the good of others.

They are blessed and helped and they are then able to be a blessing and help others in kind.

The word “scattereth” is an interesting one.

It obviously means to distribute but it is unique.

It is a primary word meaning it is a root. Other words can develop from it, but it does not develop from other words. and it means:

·   Scatter

·   Scattered

·   To scatter

·   To be scattered

The idea of scattering something seems “wanton” and maybe a bit “reckless”.

It doesn’t have an eye for a return.

It is given freely.

It only seeks to do good.

But because it is given freely for good, it tends to perform better than some things that are done only for profit.

*B. The wicked, on the other hand “withhold”

He withholds more than is meet, more than is sensible.

Notice that you can’t scatter more than is meet, but you can try to keep more than is meet.

I think about tithing:

·   You can’t give more to the work of the Lord than you should but

·   You can give much less to the work of the Lord than you should.

We have two verses that offer what I call,

*III. A DEVELOPMENT

Vs 25-26

The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be watered also himself.

He that withholdeth corn, the people shall curse him: but blessing shall be upon the head of him that selleth it.

A. When you desire good and scatter freely

You benefit personally

Not only does your own return satisfy you, but it compensates you abundantly

It is kind of a bad thing now because there are so many who are fat and there are so many who are so fat.

Time was, only wealthy people could have gotten fat.

And even if you weren’t wealthy, if you were able to put on a few pounds, it wasn’t going to hurt you because you had to work so hard to survive.

B. When you withhold your possession

It will be a curse to you

Notice he isn’t asked to give away his corn.

He is only asked to sell it – I think it would be right to suggest that he sell it at a reasonable price.

I think of Joseph in Egypt.

God foretells to him that there will be seven years of plenty and then seven years of famine.

Joseph is authorized by Pharaoh to store up corn during the years of plenty so they have food enough for the years of famine.

But they only store it up in Egypt.

All of a sudden the famine comes and the countries all around Egypt hear there is food in Egypt.

Joseph sells not only to the Egyptians, but also to those other lands.

As the famine extended and the people’s money began to run short, he began to accept their possessions and then even their land in exchange for food.

Can you imagine how Egypt would have grown in:

·   Wealth

·   Property and

·   Geographically

All because Joseph was willing to sell to people other than Egyptians?

Lastly there is what I will call,

*IV. A DEDUCTION

Vs 27

He that diligently seeketh good procureth favour: but he that seeketh mischief, it shall come unto him.

Here is the conclusion for the discussion this passage offers us

A. The one who diligently seeks good receives favor.

Better than money, or any other sort of wealth, would be the favor of others.

B. He that seeks mischief, gets mischief

Mischief means:

·   unkindness,

·   unpleasantness

·   bad things

Desire good for others.

It will work to your favor.