“The wicked earn no real gain, but those who sow righteousness get a true reward.” Proverbs 11:18 NRSV 

What is righteousness? Is generosity confined to the financial?

“Some give freely, yet grow all the richer; others withhold what is due, and only suffer want.” v. 24

I have often wondered how it is possible to gain more when giving. How can it possibly be the truth? Yet these verses speak about more than just material gain, or even a sort of karmic payback for one’s actions. I have seen this in my life the last number of years in Ireland in a vivid and unique way. There are three salient cultural concepts intertwined here in scripture, which I have already outlined in my post on Jabez. These verses show interplay between honor, collectivism in society, and limited good.

Generosity fosters love and loyalty and kindness and friendship. I have seen it at Tiller + Grain! I love my barista job at that little cafe. My boss, Clair Dowling, the most fab, fun, and warm-hearted boss ever, is a generous person. Whether it is giving free cookies to our favorite customers despite their cries of “I’m on a diet,” purposely under-charging for huge portions of food, or going out of her way to suit any customer’s taste or strict dietary requirements, her goal is to create customer loyalty.

I also love amazing food, great coffee, and people just as much as Clair does, and for me generosity looks like giving surprise free coffees, saving someone’s face when they spill something, or just genuinely taking an interest in the people who come visit, whether daily regulars, or first-timers. As a foreigner, I only realized how generous the Irish could be once I had earned their strict loyalties. Customers turned into friends by the end of 2020, as they began rejoicing in my victories, or mourning my hard times. I’m more than just their barista. This is why I love the job so much.

“A generous person will be enriched, and one who gives water will get water.” v. 25

The richness of being generous is manifold, especially when giving a precious and extremely limited resource such as water. In ancient Israel, there were two ways of getting water: either drawing from a well, or a cistern. A cistern is different in that it collects rainwater, like a giant underground cavern. Fresh springs are rare in the land, and so cisterns were a main source of water, and not very reliable. Israel already does not receive much rain. Because the land is prone to drought, the preciousness of water cannot be emphasized. None of us has probably ever felt true, life-threatening thirst, but the writers of the Bible probably did.

When someone else is in most desperate need and you give, out of your own limited resources, you can be sure your greatest needs will be met. I have experienced it from my Irish family, and it is humbling to receive. It only makes me more generous in turn to those who could use my help. So, although the wicked may turn a profit, the real reward is living in right relationship to God and your community.

“The people curse those who hold back grain, but a blessing is on the head of those who sell it.” v. 26

Perhaps this verse will help to better understand the concept of limited good: that is, that resources are limited and should be divided equitably for society to flourish. Why is it wicked to “hold back grain?” This creates scarcity, thus driving up the cost. If we’re talking about the latest Yeezy kicks, then sure, make a profit. In a capitalist country like the US this doesn’t seem too bad. Yet in a drought-prone land like Israel, a shortage of something as basic as grain could not only cause deaths by starvation, but if too scarce, could eventually cause society to collapse.

The latest archaeo-scientific advances show us that due to successive droughts brought about by climate change from the 13th to 12th century BCE in the Levant (Israel/Palestine/Jordan), entire city-state civilizations collapsed, due to their dependence chiefly on grain. This is what ended the Bronze Age and ushered in the Iron Age, from whence Israel and the Bible emerge.

There is no functioning or flourishing of society without the trade of grain. There is an especially symbiotic relationship between pastoral nomads (see: shepherds and goatherds) and the sedentary agrarian population. Neither one could survive without the food produced by the other. The settled population would trade grain for milk, and the nomads milk for grain, and therefore bread. In that economy, grain was both currency and food. We know this from the Joseph cycle in Genesis 37-50. This is why it is dishonorable—shameful—to “withhold grain.” A limited commodity could not be hoarded for the benefit of one household, not least of all because it so negatively affected others.

“Those who trust in their riches will wither, but the righteous will flourish like green leaves.” v. 28

Therefore, only trusting in riches makes one a selfish and self-sufficient person. For them, their world is dog-eat-dog. There is no open heart to trust in others or foster love, and therefore no help from the community in a calamity. This is why the Hebrew word here for “wither” means “to fall,” because they will fall like withered leaves. They are not truly connected to a source of life in community. We see this comedically played out in the TV series Schitt’s Creek.

Righteousness, then, as Proverbs shows us, is not simply being clean before God, it intricately connects us to others. Loving God and loving your neighbor is how Jesus sums up the Law and the Prophets: this is righteousness. In the eyes of God, our actions out of our relationship with Him should consequently equal righteousness in the eyes of the community. We should be a credit to our communities! This goes beyond, of course, the financial. This is the economy of righteousness.

In conclusion, let us be deeply grateful to the communities that hold us, especially in these times of drought. May we never forget that we can each contribute to the shalom, or total well-being of one another, because we all have something unique that the other needs. Let this gratefulness for our communities spur us on to be even more generous, of both heart and of resource.