TRUNEWS with Rick Wiles - Date: August 24, 2026. Lesson 166-2026. Title: When Faithful Stewardship Produces Enough

Episode Date: August 24, 2026

In today’s Morning Manna, Rick Wiles and Doc Burkhart conclude Proverbs 27 with verses 25–27 and Solomon’s picture of faithful stewardship. The hay appears, the flock provides, and ultimately there is enough for everyone under the steward’s care. This lesson explores the partnership between diligent labor and God’s provision, the importance of tending the foundations that sustain what He has entrusted to us, and a biblical vision of prosperity centered on sufficiency rather than accumulation. Faithful stewardship works within God’s seasons, recognizes that He gives the increase, and measures success by whether His provision reaches those entrusted to our care. Lesson 166-2026 Teachers: Rick Wiles and Doc Burkhart You can partner with us by visiting MannaNation.com, calling 1-888-519-4935, or by mail at PO Box 399 Vero Beach, FL 32961 MEGA FIRE reveals the ancient recurring cycles of war and economic collapse that have shaped history for 600 years. These patterns predict America is now entering its most dangerous period since World War II. Get your copy today! www.megafire.world Get high-quality emergency preparedness food today from American Reserves! www.AmericanReserves.com It’s the Final Day! The day Jesus Christ bursts into our dimension of time, space, and matter. Now available in eBook and audio formats! Order Final Day from Amazon today! www.Amazon.com/Final-Day Apple users, you can download the audio version on Apple Books! www.books.apple.com/final-day Purchase the 4-part DVD set or start streaming Sacrificing Liberty today. www.Sacrificingliberty.com

Welcome to Morning Manor. Welcome to Morning Manure North. Your teachers, Rick Wiles and Dr. Burkla. Get your Bible and notebook and get ready to here before. Well, come on in and get a seat and get comfortable. Welcome to Morning Manna. I'm Rick Wiles.

Morning Manor is the weekday Bible study program that is watched by multitudes of Christian saints in many nations. You are not alone right now as you're watching Morning Manna. There are believers joining you in Africa and the UK and Ireland and throughout Europe, Asia, the Caribbean Islands, the USA, Canada, Mexico, Central, and South America, everywhere in the world. We have Morning Mata classmates in this virtual world. in this virtual worldwide Bible study program.

It's amazing what technology allows us to do. You imagine what the apostles would have done with the technology that we have available today. You know what they would have done? They would have preached the gospel in all the world, and then the end would come. So let's get it done. Let's get the gospel preached in all the world.

There's one place. Some place, there is the last place. There will be a time and a place that it will be the last place to hear the gospel. And when the gospel has been preached in all the world, but in shall come and Jesus Christ shall return. That's why we're preaching the gospel to gather in his inheritance. He inherited the souls of mankind. They are rightfully his.

He paid for them on the cross with his blood. And we are helping him, we are servants helping him gather in his inheritance, which are the nations of the earth. Well, today we finish our study of the 27th chapter of the book of Proverbs. Tomorrow we begin chapter 28. We started this study of Proverbs 10 or 11 months ago. It's been a long time. Obviously, we're taking our time, walking our way through the Book of Proverbs. We're not in a rush.

We don't have to be any place at a certain time. This may be too slow for some people. They want it quick and fast. Give me the Bible points. I'm going to move on. I've got other things to do. We take her time. And our classes are usually 60 minutes, sometimes 70, 80 minutes.

We try to keep it to 60 minutes. to 60 minutes. If you're watching on Faith TV, it's a 30-minute program. And so if you're on Faith TV, you need to go over to our website, manna Nation.com, or my channel on YouTube, Rick Wiles Today, and that's where you can find the archive of lessons. So as we go off the air on Faith TV today, if you want to see the rest of the lesson, go to manana nation.com. All right? So why are we taking our time? Because we are extracting the spiritual nutrients that are in each verse. You and I, our souls need to be fed, just like our bodies need food every day. Our soul needs food too. And we, man does not live by bread alone, by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

That's what we're doing here today. This is the morning manna. And I would love for you to be part of our ministry. And join and praying for us and in contributing financial support. You can do that at manana nation.com. All right, let's pray and invite the Holy Spirit. He's already here. We're just formally saying to him, we need you.

We desire you. Please lead this Bible study class. Let's pray. and then Dr. Raymond Burckhard will introduce today's lesson. Almighty God, our Father in heaven, Father, we pray to you in the name of our Savior, your son, Jesus Christ, and we formally invite the Holy Spirit

to take his seat at the head of the table and lead this Bible study class. Bring forth wisdom and understanding, revelation, and knowledge of your word so that we live better, more productive lives in this world that glorify you, that bring praise to you because of the way that we act upon your word in our daily lives. Father, I pray that you bless the people who are watching and listening, open up their ears and eyes to receive this knowledge.

in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. Welcome to morning manna, everyone. We are finishing up chapter 27 today, and we appreciate you sticking with us on this journey through Proverbs and in chapter 27. It's been an interesting journey here. And today is going to be no exception of that. You ever have a passage of scripture that you know you've read and you know you've probably maybe even talked about or discussed, but you go back again and you say, is that in the Bible? this is one of those passages today. It really, really is. It's Proverbs chapter 27 versus 25 through 27. Another triplet in chapter 27 as we close out the chapter here. I'm going to read to King James and then also the Septuagin here. And so if you got your Bibles, open up to Proverbs 27. Let's read together. And let's start with the authorized King James version.

the hay appeareth, and the tender grass showeth itself, and the herbs of the mountain are gathered. The lambs are for thy clothing, and the goats are the price of the field, and thou shalt have goat's milk enough for thy food, for the food of thy household, and for the maintenance of thy maidens. Then the subtuagint, take care of the herbage in the field, and thou shall cut grass and gather the mountain hay, that thou mayst have wool of sheep for clothing, pay attention to thy land, that thou mayest have lambs.

My son, thou hast for me words, very useful for thy life and for the life of thy servants. Now, if you listen carefully to that passage today, you would have made connections to yesterday's lesson. All right, so we're coming to the close of chapter 27. Now, most chapters in Proverbs end with a warning, a contrast between the righteous and the wicked,

or a sobering observation about folly's consequences. Chapter 26 ended on that single Hebrew word mid-cake, ruin. Now, chapter 27 ends instead with milk, wool, and a fed household. So verse 23 issues the command, know the state of your flocks. Remember that from yesterday's lesson? Verse 24 gave the reason, riches are not forever. Now, verses 25 through 27, give, the result of that counting, knowing the state of your flocks,

a detailed summarized inventory of what faithful sewardship actually produces over time. Verse 25 describes the agricultural cycle that makes the whole system work. One depends upon another. Hay appears. Tender grass shows itself. Mountain herbs are gathered in their season to feed the lambs, care of the lambs. then verse 26 describes the eel lambs providing clothing

goats providing purchase price so you can buy more land the flop generating both immediate provision and expanding capacity that comes from the faithfulness of what we talked about yesterday verse 27 describes the sufficiency or rather I would say the abundance

goats milk enough for the owner enough for his household for his kids and enough for the servant girls who work in it her vision, reaching every person under the roof from the master to the least ranked worker. Now, King Solomon ends his most practical chapter, not with an accumulated fortune, which he could easily have said, right? But he ends it with a well-fed household. He keeps it simple. He keeps it, you know, where it's the basic sustenry. And the vision toward which faithful stewardship points is not necessarily wealth in the abstract,

but sufficiency. Sufficiently shared everyone under the roof provided for, including those with no ownership stake in it. Rick, it's going to be a fascinating lesson today. Like I said, this is one of those passages that I think many times we just kind of gloss over and don't let it register. But there is a lot of good stuff in this today, isn't there? There is. And Doc, before we get started, I got to, I want to comment about our new locations. Okay.

So Doc is in his outdoor patio overlooking the city of Manila, Philippines. And I'm in, I'm either in O San Juan or Havana, Cuba. I'm trying to figure out where I'm at. So these are images that we've created. And what I want to point out to you is that just a few years ago, for us to have a studio that looks like the one I'm in right now, with the old San Juan or Havana, the old world, Mexico, the old world look, it would have cost us a minimum of at least, I mean,

$100,000 to build it. And this is if we did it in-house. If we had hired professional TV studio company, we're looking at $250,000 to go to studio like this. Same way with Doc. I decreed that look. We would have spent a vast sum of money. That's just a few years ago.

This is how fast technology has changed. that we don't need giant buildings and studios and lights and production department and all that and you know I used to have

you know floor directors and cameramen and audio people and it's like it's not needed anymore we can do these productions with a very small staff and we can change

we can change our backgrounds in a matter of minutes It is absolutely amazing, Doc. I thought green screen technology was awesome. And then we went to, we invested in virtual reality. That was amazing. But they're all obsolete today. And so just pointing this out to our supporters to know

that we are seeking to do more with the donations that give us more to to ban the message rather than investing in how the message is recorded. That's the difference now. Okay, so now we're at the close of Chapter 27. And as Doc pointed out, you know, it's ending with promise of clothing and food, good things. I got to warn you tomorrow when we start chapter 28, Solomon's in a completely different mood. Because chapter 28, he's haranguing about corrupt politicians and evil judges and immoral governments.

So it's a different chapter. Let's finish chapter 27, verses 25. The hay appearth, and the tender grass showeth itself and the herbs of the mountain. are gathered. The hay is uncovered. It's revealed. You can see it. The tender grass has appeared.

He's describing the natural agricultural sequence on which the entire economy of ancient Israel depended. That scene brings back warm memories to me. grew up in western Maryland surrounded by farms. And I, that smelled fresh hay, you know, clover, fresh cut clover. You know, doctor, there's a roma as I come back. You know, if you lived on a farm or lived near a farm, you just, you know those, those aromas. So the verse is tracing the progression that any farmer would recognize.

eyes. The hay is cut and clear. New growth emerges in its place. The wild herbs on the hillsides have been gathered and everything's been done in the proper season. There's a sequence. Each season, each stage has its own timing and each depends on the previous stage having been handled correctly. That's a really important observation to note that each stage was handled correctly so that by the time you get to the second, the third to fourth stage, everything is in order. If you study the Bible, you understand the importance of order that God established a divine order when he created the universe. He spoke a divine order into existence, and that order is still operating today. Right. The critical observation in this lesson describes work in

cooperation with a divine order of the universe established by God at creation, rather than working against it, in defiance of it, rebelling against us. ignoring it, neglecting it. Get in the flow of the divine order. Just go with the flow. I'm telling you, once you learn the principles of heaven's divine order, the smartest thing you can do is to lay back and float in it. Just go with the flow.

It will think current will take. you to blessings if you if you try to go against it you're working against the ways of heaven somebody right now you're getting a revelation you're like that's what's wrong with my life that's why things are not working outright yes because you're going against the flow this is why we we are taking our time through the book of proper to help people understand the principles of wisdom and success so that you flow with it instead of fighting against it or ignoring it or neglecting it so this observation in the statement in in verse 25 he's referring to learning to flow with the divine moral order the farmer does not create the grass he cuts it and he cuts it when it

is ready. The farmer does not manufacture the new growth. He clears the ground so it can emerge. The farmer does not command the mountain herbs to appear. He gathers them when they do appear. And everything is done according to its timing and its sequence in order. And you have to understand how creation works. So this cooperation, with divinely established rhythms is the practical shape faithful stewardship takes in ordinary life. The shepherd of verse 23,

who knows the faces of his flock, remember that lesson? Just days ago, the wise shepherd actually recognizes the faces of his flock. That shepherd knows the seeker knows the seasons of his land, when to cut, when to let grow,

when to gather, when to wait. So diligence is not merely effort, but it is effort rightly timed to what God has already set in motion at creation. This proverb also implies patience because it counterbalances any reading of verses was 23 and 24 that would promote anxious activity. The hay appears in its season, not on demand.

The grass shows itself when the conditions permit. So the steward's diligence operates within a timetable that he or she did not set and cannot accelerate. And as part of that man or woman's faithfulness, it consists in accepting the limitations that are imposed on us by God's order that he established. You have to work within the framework. Matthew Henry observed that God's providence supplies the growth

while human diligence supplies the gathering and that the partnership is such that neither party's contribution can substitute for the others. So the farmer who does not gather loses what God provided. And the farmer who gathers where God provided, nothing labors in vain. The whole thing rests on you cooperating with the Lord's natural rhythms. Right. And so that requires you to, first of all, be cognizant of God's order and be willing in submitting yourself to that order. So we see in verse 25 the doctrine of providence and the ordinary.

So what do we mean by that? That's the conviction that God's sustaining care generally operates most often not through some dramatic interventions, although God bless, you know, that those things do happen. but generally God's providence operates through the reliable cycles he built into creation and maintains continuously. And we're talking about, you know, daily cycles, seasonal cycles, cycles, cycles across decades of time. So Genesis 822 gives us the foundational promise. This is after the flood, okay? So God is making a promise here after the flood while the earth remaineth.

seed time and harvest cold and heat summer and winter and day and night shall not cease God is establishing a cycle and an order at that time and so that agricultural cycle that we see here in verse 25

that problem is 27 rests entirely on that covenant guarantee by God to all of humanity given to Noah after the flood and it's been honored ever since so Acts

1417 gives Paul's testimony to his pagan audience on precisely this point. In fact, he says this is evidence of God. He says, God left not himself without witness in that he did good and gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons cycles, filling our

hearts with food and gladness. So the appearing hay that we're talking about in our passage today and the emerging grass are in Paul's thinking, in Paul's theology, Rick, a standing witness to God's goodness of every person, every culture. And I absolutely agree with that.

I think those cycles are absolute evidence of a loving, faithful God, that he loves humanity. Whether we're talking about those daily cycles, the cycles of the moon, the seasons, longer cycles in humanity, I think they are evidence of God. relationship between divine provision and human labor established years worth stating carefully because both errors are really, really common here. So the first error treats provision as entirely

divine, that there is, you know, human beings have nothing to do with it. Dismissing labor as unnecessary, even as evidence of insufficient faith, right? A position in scripture, nowhere supports, and 2, The Thettonians 310 explicitly contradicts. The second treats provision as entirely human. That's all up to us, crediting the harvest to, you know, man's agricultural skill while forgetting who made the grass grow in the first place. So the error that we see in Deuteronomy 817 warns against this, too, thou say in thine heart, my power and the might of mine hand have gotten me this wealth.

No, it didn't, buddy. It sure didn't. The biblical position hold both together. We read in 1 Corinthians chapter 3, verses 6 and 7, and it states in the context of ministry, but the principle really is a general principle that applies across all areas of life. I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planted anything. neither he that waters, but God gives us the increase. But still, Rick, you had to have somebody that plants and somebody to harvest. Okay?

So human labor is genuine. It's necessary. And it's commanded. The increase is God's, and he alone supplies the increase. So when it comes to us as believers, followers of Christ, the believer who plants and waters faithfully, works with, within the seasons and rhythms God has established and recognizes it, that there's ups and downs,

that there's times of the year, and then receives the increase as a gift rather than as a wage. Knowing that it's that same diligence, Rick, applied in a season God had not prepared, would have produced nothing at all. And I think the last 10 years of my life, Rick, I've really come to terms with this concept

of seasons and cycles in life. And, you know, I'm in a season of life personally in my own life. I'm getting a little bit older, and things change. Your body changes, the way you operate and change. You know, I don't move as fast as I used to. I'm not as good on stairs as I used to be. You know, my taste have changed. You know, things like that.

There's seasons in our lives. too. And I think that there's a lot of people that struggle with that, but I've learned now, in like what Paul said, in whatever state I'm in, they're with to be content. And so I'm now in this season of life where I'm well seasoned now, that season of life where I'm accepting that. I'm like going, this is different. This is a new season for me. And therefore, I have a different expectation and a different responsibility now than I, used to. And so it would do believers well to listen carefully to this teaching today because they could learn a lot in just moving the flow of God in their lives by accepting the cycles

and seasons in their lives. You know, I hear you. I'm thinking it was probably somewhere around 2010 that I started to become aware of the cyclical nature of life. It was probably, pretty late in my life, become aware of. Because this is not taught. It's not taught in schools, colleges, not taught in families, is not taught in churches. Of any place, the church should be teaching the cyclical nature of life. Of Genesis 822, while the earth remaineth, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, shall not cease. At creation, God established cycles.

He said, as long as the earth remains, these cycles will remain. They will not cease. So, you know, all the climate change, doomsayers and social influences who talk about, you know, the world is going to, you know, horrible catastrophes are coming. My answer is no. Now, while the earth remains, these cycles shall not cease. Amen. And establishes God as the authority of, not man.

Yes. Not man. God. That's right. So the next time some climate change person is trying to scare you, you just remember, God created this earth. He'll decide when the earth ceases to exist. He'll decide when the earth ceases to exist as he commanded it to exist in Genesis. Let's take a look at the Septuagin. The King James Version says the hay appears and the tender grass showeth itself and the herbs of the mountains are gathered.

The Septuagin says, take care of the herbage in the field and thou shall cut grass and gather the mountain hay. How do we describe the differences here? The Septuagint converts to King James' description into a command, whereas the King James observes that the hay appears, and the grass shows itself. That's a statement about what happens. The Septuagint instructs us to take care of the herbage

and to cut the grass and to gather the hay. The Septuagin is making the emphasis on people doing what must be done. It's not denying the cycles. It's saying, sure, these cycles take place, but you've got to do your part. So the shift changes the verses functions. The King James presents the agricultural cycle as the setting within which stewardship ship is operating. The Greek Septuagint presents the specific task that the steward must actually perform. Both are true, and both were complementary. But the Septuagin's imperative form makes the

human responsibility unmistakable, because in the King James, humans are not commanded to do anything. The Septuagin says, this is your responsibility. This is your assignment. Mr. and Mrs. Schumann. So the Septuagin's phrase, take care of the herbage. It's speaking of attentive care in oversight. Now, that takes us back to verse 23 that we studied last week, that commanded us to know the same.

state of our flocks. So the Septuagint extends the shepherd's diligence explicitly to the land itself. This is really important. Not only are you responsible to know the state of your flocks, you are responsible to know the state of your land. Yes. Doc, this was a revelation to me as I prepared this lesson. This really was an eye-opener for me. Not only do the animals require knowledge and tender care, okay, but the ground that feeds them requires your knowledge of the ground, and it requires you're tending to the ground.

Now, farmers will say, what's new about this? This is what we do. okay this is not a new revelation to a farmer gardener of course you've got to take care of the ground but what about your ground

you may not be a farmer or a gardener but you've got land and I'm not talking necessarily about physical real estate you have a domain you have something that you work upon that you walk upon

there's something in your life that's your land again it may not be physical dirt, but do you know your land? Do you know the land that produces a harvest for your life? You know the harvest, but do you know the land? Doc, that was the one, that's the revelation that got to me. Then two focus on the harvest and not the land.

So, Doc Burkhart, you come from Missouri farm country, and you have a doctorate in theology. So let's put these two together. A farm boy with a doctorate degree. Okay? So is the Septuagint's extension agriculturally sound and theologically sound? Well, setting aside the doctorate of theology here,

just speaking as Missouri farm boy here, you can't have flocks without good pasture. And so a flock cannot be maintained without pasture. So these two passages, the one we covered yesterday and the one we're covering today, go hand in hand. A pasture cannot be maintained without care. So the steward who attends to his animals while neglecting the land that sustains him has attended to only half of his trust. And the neglected half will eventually take the intended half down with it. So the practical application here naturally extends to really every domain of stewardship.

Know what's happening in your life. Attending to the visible asset while neglecting the systems that sustain it is incomplete faithfulness. The pastor who tends his congregation but neglects his own soul. The business owner who tends his customers but neglects his staff. the parent who tends the children neglects the marriage all have attended to the flock those are all good things right but they've let the pasture fail

what the flock is sustained on and so if anything this portion of scripture is teaching us that there's a balance in our lives and that there are different cycles that take place depending on whether we're tending a flock, tending a pasture. We have to take care of both. You can't have one without the other. There's a responsibility. You may say, well, I love my family, and what I'm going to do is I'm just

going to stay home all the time and spend time with the kids. I'm not going to go to work. I'm not going to do that. I'm just going to spend time with the kids, and that's all I'm going to do. Well, that sounds noble until the bills come, until the mortgages do, until everything else. pay for food. How are you going to put food on the diet? How are you going to feed your kids, peanut butter sandwiches? And so you have to, there's a responsibility to work too. And so there, if anything else, I think this is teaching us a balance in life in that, yes, we have responsibilities and we have things that give us joy and produce a harvest. But then we have those things that feed the harvest. And we can't neglect that either. And as I mentioned,

earlier, you know, understanding these seasons and cycles of life, you know, that there's a time to plant and a time to harvest, like we read in Ecclesiastes, that in our own lives, it's the same way. You know, I'm not 22 years old anymore. You know, I'm 62. I have different abilities and different knowledge and different wisdom now than I did when I was 22. there's a time and place for all these different things and so the believer needs to understand that and balance it out and I like what you said earlier

flow with the cycle of God okay that doesn't just mean just kind of float on the water but understand how the currents are flowing understand the cycles you know for a number of years you and I observed the news but after a while you see a cycle in the news you see a daily cycle, a monthly, seasonal cycle in the news, and then you see cycles

over longer periods of time in the news. The principle remains the same. Once you understand that, you know what, it takes a lot of stress off your life. It takes a lot of you thinking, it all rest on you. It doesn't all rest on you. A lot of it's resting on God,

but also being active in the cycle. of God, too. Okay, verse 26. The lambs are for thy clothing and the goats are the price of the field. Doc, this was an eye opener for me as I prepared for this lesson.

I saw things in business. I never saw before. If you're a business person, you really need to pay attention to this one. What can you learn about a king who's been dead for 3,000 years who's talking about lambs and goats.

Well, he just happened to be the richest man who ever lived. He was richer than Warren Buffett, richer than Bill Gates, richer than Elon Musk. Let's pay attention to him. The lambs are for thy clothing and the goats are the price of the field.

The first is describing two distinct returns from a well-tended flock. The first return is immediate provision. The lamb supply wool, and the wool supplies clothing. This is consumption. The direct media of a present need from the flock's ongoing produce. Doesn't talk about eating the lambs, does it? If you ate all your lambs, you wouldn't have any wool. If you didn't have any wool, you didn't have any clothing. Just think about that principle. Do you spend every dime you get? Do you spend every dollar that gets in your hand?

Solomon is not telling you to eat every lamb. He's saying, you need these sheep to supply wool, and the wool will be turned into clothing. People who spend every dollar that they get never have anything in the future because they consume it on their present needs. And they go, I don't know why I can't get ahead in life because you ate your lamb. Yeah. That's why you ate your lamb. This is going to be a revelation for some people right now. Your financial situation will change when you stop eating your lambs.

Oh, preach it, Rick. The family is clothed because the flock was tended to. Your future will be financially secure when you tend to your flock, a flock that God has given you, that's producing for you daily. Instead of slaughtering it at the shopping mall or on Amazon, because that's what we're doing. We're slaughtering our flock at Amazon every day. Should I just stop?

You want me to go on? You're in this far, Rick. As we'll go. Hey, I'm talking to myself, too. I like to buy things on Amazon. So that's the first return. The second return is expanded capacity. The goats supplied the, this was the Revelation doctor.

This was a big one to me. The goats supply the purchase price of the field. you don't buy a field to put your goats on, you have goats so you can buy a field. That completely changed my thinking. This is an investment. The conversion of flock surplus into additional productive land,

which will in turn support a larger flock, which will in turn produce a larger surplus. Now we're in the rhythm, aren't we? We're in the flow. and you're growing, you're expanding, you're prospering, because now you're flowing with God's principles of wisdom. The tending of what one has becomes the means of acquiring more capacity to tend.

The sequence that is embedded here is really significant that we pay attention to it. Faithful attention to a small crust produces both present sufficiency, that's the lambs that provide the wool, and expanded future capacity, the goats that give you the money to buy the land. Neither comes first accidentally. The clothing and the field both arrived because the flock was known, tended to, and cared for over time. Because it's a complete total opposite mentality of Wall Street and London and all the stock markets because they want instant profits. They're not interested in waiting years.

They want profits in a quarter, three months. And if you don't produce profits in three months, we're selling. and going someplace else. And what does that lead to? Speculation. Speculative investments. That's right. One of the worst flaws in our modern Western financial system.

Jesus said in Luke 1610, He that is faithful in, that which is least is faithful also in much. The field purchased with the goats is the much that follows faithfulness. in the least. The pattern is not that God rewards faithfulness with unrelated blessings, but that faithfulness intending naturally produces the surplus that enables expansion.

This proverb also implies something about the pace of legitimate growth. The field is purchased with the price of goats. It's accumulated. It's tended. It's grown over seasons. It's not purchased with borrowed money. And it's not purchased with speculation and leverage. Again, this flies in the face of modern business practices.

Oh, you're going to be deep in debt. Our economy runs on debt. No, it runs on usury. Yeah. It's this old-fashioned usury. And the money lenders are making a fortune. Money lenders make a fortune on people not knowing the book of proverbs. Doc, knowledge of the book of proverbs would in modern banking.

Yes, it would. So the expansion that's described here is organic. It's funded by the productivity of what was, already faithfully managed rather than acquired by risk that outruns the steward's actual capacity. Doc, I am a, I'm an admirer of, and this will probably shock a lot of, if you're really religious stuffy, that you'll just, you'll wake will pop off, okay? I'm an admirer of Steve, of Steve Wynn. He owns casinos, okay?

I pray for this man. I try to pray for him every day. I pray that he'll be saved. I know he's lost. I understand that. He owns casinos. I get it. But he's a brilliant businessman.

He really is a brilliant businessman. And I learn a lot listening to him, talk. But in return for the knowledge he gives me through his videos, I return it by praying for his soul. Okay, so I'm praying for his soul to be saved. But I heard him recently, Doc, talking about his company's spectacular growth. And he said that most important day is structured capital, capital structure. And what he meant by it was he simply never took on any new project that threatened to topple him.

that he only would advance, he would only take on the risk that he could handle, that if that new venture failed, it would not damage all of his other assets. Right. That he would have enough assets to absorb the losses. See, a lot of people get in trouble because they start expanding at a rate

that they don't have the assets to protect what they already own. And they start taking a risk. So, like I said, this is organic growth. It's funded by the productivity of what was already faithfully managed rather than acquired by risk that outruns your actual capacity. Adam Clark, Methodist, theologian. He observed that this proverb pictures a self.

sustaining economy in which each element supports the others and that it's wisdom lies in the ordering, the sequence, the ordering, the cyclical rhythm, okay? The flock feeds the family and buys the field. The field feeds the flock and the whole system grows through faithful attention rather than through dramatic acquisitions. Right. You know, and the theological significance of verse 26 here, Rick, concerns that biblical relationship between faithful stewardship and legitimate increase. And this is a relationship that scripture continues to affirm without endorsing

the prosperity assumptions frequently attached to it. Okay. Christ's parable of the talents in Matthew chapter 25, when the last things he taught before the crucifixion establishes the pattern that verse 26 illustrates, the servants who traded faithfully, faithfully, with what was entrusted to them, produced an increase. And that increase was both commended and it was rewarded with greater responsibility. And so the servant condemned. in that parable was the one who produced nothing, who neglected his fields, who neglected his pasture, who neglected what had been invested in him, not the one who produced less than another. You know, there were degrees of success there, but there was some success.

So diligent stewardship is genuinely the ordinary path to sufficiency and increase. Proverbs consistently teaches this, but really drives it home in this past. and, you know, frankly, experience largely confirms it. Now, in the New Testament 1 Timothy chapter 6, verses 1718, it gives the correct posture for those whose faithful stewardship has, in fact, produced increase. It says in that passage, charge them that are rich in this world,

that they be not high-minded, nor trust to none certain riches, but in the living God, that they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate. Increase received is increase held in trust and directed outward, Rick. So let's connect this verse back to verse 24.

For riches are not forever, and doth the crown endure to every generation? Remember when we asked that question in our previous lesson? The field purchase with goats is itself temporary. Subject to the same impermanence that governs all wealth and all creation, the faithful steward acquires it,

he tends it, and holds it in the same open hand with which he holds everything else, knowing that the capacity to tend it is itself a trust with an expiration date. In other words, fields change, Rick, and seasons change. Sometimes drought comes. Sometimes there's abundance of rain.

You know, sometimes there's floods. I mean, it changes. You've got to hold loosely. Hold loosely. I still remember, Rick, I was maybe about 10 or 11 years old. And my grant, of course, I grew up in Missouri in our largely agricultural community, farming community. And I still remember one spring, we were having some massive floods.

I mean, it was massive. We lived near the Missouri River bottoms. And we were having massive floods. I mean, there's water up in streets in my small town. And I asked my grandfather, oh, man, this is going to be horrible for the father. He said, no, Ray. No, not at all. This is good.

I said, good, a flood's good? He said, oh, yes, we're going to have one of the best years we've had this year. I said, well, that doesn't make any sense, Granddad. How is that possibly? He said, but the floods bring new nutrients to the soil out here where we farm. We're going to have one of the best years we've ever had. And he was right, we did. And so the whole idea there, Rick, even when there's what appears to be tragedy or

catastrophe. Not everything's good about it, of course, but he understood he had seen it before. My granddad, we've had floods before, and we still farmed, and we're still harvested. And he still faithfully farmed his plod of ground out there in the Missouri River bottoms, and they had a great harvest that year. And so understanding that, that even the tragedies and the catastrophes of life, what appeared to us to be that, sometimes provide the doorway to blessings that we'll receive a harvest for much later on. It's all in our perspective on it. You know, if you saw a flood, it's I'm giving up farming.

Well, there would have been no harvest, right? So there are principles here to really, really understand. Right. So your grandfather was farming according to the cycles. Yes, absolutely. And he knew that there were flood cycles. Yes. And so the floods didn't devastate it.

He wasn't terrified by it. He knew the cycles. And he knew that as a farmer, it actually would be beneficial to it. So he was farming with the cycles. Let's take a look at the Septuagint translation compared to the King James. Verse 26. King James, the lambs are for thy clothing and the goats are the price of the field. Greek Septuagent, that death.

thou mayest have wool of sheep for clothing, pay attention to the land, that thou mayest have lands. Once again, the Septuagint reframes the King James description into instruction. It reverses the direction of the casual chain. In a very interesting way, the King James moves outward from the flock. the lambs produce clothing and the goats produce the field the Septuagint moves inward toward the flock pay attention to the land

and if you pay attention to the lamb you'll have lambs land will produce more lambs where the King James shows the flock generating the field the Septuagent shows the land generating the flock

But to me, it's all one cycle. It's flowing in the natural rhythm that God created in creation. Amen. Both directions. Both directions are agriculturally accurate. And when you look at them together, they describe a cycle rather than linear of progression. The land feeds the flop. A flock generates surplus.

The surplus purchases more land, and the additional land feeds a larger flock. And so the cycle goes around and around and the farmer gets bigger. Neither element is the starting point. The system sustains itself through mutual dependence and neglect of either component eventually causes both to collapse. It's a circle. Where is the beginning in a circle? What's the beginning in the end of a circle?

You can't point to it. And this is what I see here, dog. This natural rhythm is a circle. Yeah. And so the subtoagents are repeated imperative here. Pay attention to the land. Reinforces the emphasis established in the rendering of verse 25. The ground itself requires as a steward their active attention, not merely the animals that graze on it, but caring for the field itself.

So twice and two verses, the situagint directs the readers cared toward the land specifically. So this double emphasis serves as a genuine corrective for any steward inclined to attend only to what's visible out there, what everybody can see, what's mobile, what's immediately productive. The land does not bleat when it's neglected like a lamb does. The land does not pick up or wander off like a lamb does. The land does not visibly diminish in a season like a lamb does. And precisely for those reasons, it's the element most easily allowed to decline while attention goes to the more demanding animals. So the Septuagint, Rick, is insisting that the quiet patient foundation requires the same deliberate care as that noisy, obvious asset, Rick.

Well, let's say. We got one more verse. Verse 27. And thou shalt have goat's milk enough for thy food and for the food of thy household and for the maintenance for thy nigh. maidens. Oh, is there a revelation in this one too? There's some social justice in this one. There's some economic reforms in this proverb. I got the revelation of a doc when I was studying sufficiency of goat's milk for your bread, for the bread of your whole household, and for the life of your servants. The Hebrew. word here in King James, right? The King James, translating it, you know, as meaning sufficient. The Hebrew word is day, just spelled D.E. It means enough. Sufficiency, adequacy. This does not describe luxury, super wealth, extravagance, abundance, okay? It's a description of enough.

And enough is, we should be satisfied with enough. If God adds abundance to it, that is his divine gift to us. But he will provide us with enough. You can count on him for enough. The verse traces that sufficiency through three concentric circles. And the progression is the heart of this lesson in the closing of chapter 27. The first circle is the owner himself. You will have enough for thy food.

You, the steward, who tended to the flocks, you will eat from it. Again, you don't have to be a farmer for this to apply to you. If you are a faithful steward doing what God has called you to do and you're tending to that work, God will see to it that you have enough for yourself. 1 Corinthians chapter 9 verse 7. Paul asked the question, who feedeth a flock and eateth not of the milk of the flock? Paul will say, who can you name who feeds a flock and doesn't drink the milk of the flock? that he takes care of.

The laborer's own provision from his labor is legitimate and it is expected. The workman is worthy of his heart. Do not muzzle the oxen. These are all biblical principles that the one

who is laboring has a right to eat from the produce that his labor produces. I'm hesitant. But this is a reason. This is a biblical reason that those of you who come to morning nana daily for spiritual food have an obligation to pay for the meal because the laborers doc and me we have the biblical right to expect that we are

fed ourselves for doing this work and we have others on our team that need to be fed and we'll get to that here in just a moment. So the first circle is the owner himself, enough for thy food. The second is for the household, for the food of thy household. This extends past the owner to everyone belonging to his household. Spouse, children, extended family, parents, anybody under this owner's umbrella. That faithful stewardship provides not merely for the steward, but for all who depend on him or her. And then we have the third circle. And this is remarkable. And for the maintenance for thy maidens. And we don't have maidens in the modern world. But we do have employees. We have staff members. In those ancient times, the maidens, they were servant girls.

They were the lowest-ranked workers in the economy. They had no ownership stake in the family farm because they weren't in the family. They were working for the family. They had no inheritance rights to inherit the field, the farm, the livestock. They had no claim on income. any of it beyond their physical labor. They were the employees. They didn't call them employees back then.

They call them servants, maidens, servants. Thank God, our society has progressed. The Hebrew word for portion is ha'ee. And it means life. What Solomon is saying here is that you're your servant. are entitled to life, not your scraps, not your leftovers, not a reduced ration appropriate to their station, but they are entitled to life. Now, Doc, I could preach this at a labor union meeting.

I could probably get cheers from socialists for what I'm saying, and I'm not a socialist, but there is a principle of justice. And this provision that reaches the lowest ranked person in the household is given the same weight as the provision that reaches the owner. In God's economy, both deserve life. Charles Bridges is an Anglican bishop. He observed that the, wait to hear this. Oh, man. This is a keeper.

Anglican Charles Bridges observed that the true measure of a household stewardship is not what reaches the master's table, but what reaches the servants table. And that the... Bridges said that the closing of this chapter functions as an examination of every steward who reads it. So, as a business owner, the true measure of your business is not how much money you pocket. But does everybody in your organization have enough for life? Not abundance, not wealth, not luxury, but do they have enough for life? Are you paying your employees enough that they can comfortably pay their bills and live? That's the issue.

and sadly there are business owners and there are corporations that deliberately structure their pay system to squeeze, to squeeze their workers so that there's more profit going to the guys at the top and going to the shareholders. You have CEOs getting $10, $20, $30, $50 million a year, salary and bonuses. And you've got people down to the bottom that can't pay people, the light bill. There's something wrong in that system. And God says it's wrong. Solomon says it's wrong.

And I'm not preaching socialism. I'm preaching biblical justice. You know, Rick, one of the, one of the biggest cultural adjustments I had here in the Philippines when I first lived here, I accepted and actually I understand it completely now, is in a lot of the middle class and also upper middle-class homes here. Housekeepers, maids, live with the family. They have their own room. It's their own private room, you know, and everything. And generally what they do is because a lot of Philippines is poverty, okay?

That's just the reality of the situation, right? But in Metro areas like Manila, Cebu, and others, you have a lot of middle-class families and a lot of you have wealthy families too. But the vast majority of people, you know, if they have the equivalent of $5 a day, they're grateful, right? But that being said, you would have maids or housekeepers that would actually stay with the family during the week, like Tuesday through Saturday,

and then they would return back to their home in the province on Sundays so they could be at church with their family. families Sundays and Mondays, and then Monday night they returned back to the city to stay with the family, to do the cooking, the cleaning, the laundry, and do all that. When I first lived here, I was like, oh, my gosh, that's the equivalent of slavery. That's, you know, it took a big amount of adjustment for me, but it's not that at all here. Now, they may treat people bad in other countries, like in the Middle East and stuff like that, I can observe here in the Philippines,

it's very rare to mistreat your live-in housekeepers and stuff like that. It's very rare. They eat at the table with the family. They eat the same food. They don't have a different meal or anything like that. In many ways, a lot of these housekeepers and maids help raise the children. They're there for five, ten, ten, 15 years. They are members of the family. So for me, this particular passage has special meaning

because you understand that in your abundance, you can be a blessing to others. Okay. And you don't have to treat help like help. You can treat those that provide for you, provide for care of your children and daily household tasks, treat them with respect, treat them like an extension of family, as long as they are faithful and trustworthy and everything. So for me, this reinforces that idea, Rick, of being able to be a blessing to others. In the Western world, we have a difficult time wrapping our heads around that.

But in the Eastern mindset, that's not the case at all. You know, Charles Spurgeon observed that, the governing word of verse 27 is enough rather than abundance, enough to care for your family, enough to provide for your means. And that scripture's vision of provision is consistently sufficiency shared rather than surplus hoarder, a household in which every person has what they need being a truer picture of God's blessing than any accumulated fortune. And so the theological significance of verse 27 to rest on that biblical view of the household as an economy of shared provision rather than of individual accumulation. And that vision that runs from the

mosaic law through the practice of the early church. So if we look back under the mosaic law, the mosaic legislation consistently protected really the vulnerable within and around the household economy. Give me an example. Deuteronomy 24, 14, 15 forbids oppressing a hired servant, whether an Israelite or a stranger. So obviously strangers lived among them, right? And commands payment of wages the same day. In other words, a workman is worthy of his hire each day. Don't shortchange those that help you.

Witticus 19 versus 9 and 10 requires leaving the corners of fields and the gleanings of the harvest for the poor and the stranger. In other words, understand that you could be a blessing with the excess. You don't have to count every grain in your field. The provision for maid servants here, guess what we're trying to say in verse 27, is that same principle operating within the household rather than out on the edges. Okay? First Timothy 5.8 states the New Testament version of this with unusual, He says, if any provide not for his own, and especially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith and is worse than an infidel.

Worse than an infidel, Rick. The obligation to provide for those under one's rough, and not just talking about your family, but those under your rug, those that help you, those that help take care of your family, is treated not as generous extra credit, but as a mark of genuine faith. A Colossians 4-1 addresses the same domain from the master's side. Masters give unto your servants that which is just an equal. Listen to that, people. Give unto your servants that which is just an equal, knowing that you also have a master in heaven.

And the reason is explicitly theological. Earthly masters owe justice to their servants. because they themselves stand under a master who will hold them account them. And the closing vision of Proverbs 27, therefore, anticipates the New Testament's picture of the church is a body in which there was not any among that lacked. Okay. You can read that in Acts 434. Sufficiently that reaches every member, including those with the least claim,

is the pattern that God's people are called to embody in every economy that govern, household, congregation, or business. So Christian believer, you need to be faithful to those who provide services to you in whatever capacity they are. And so the measure of faithful stewardship is not what accumulates at the top,

but what reaches the bottom. You can call it trickle-down economics if you wanted, too. I wouldn't, but, you know, the principal's there. The steward whose diligence has produced a flock, let's say, or a field and a full table, he's completed his work only. Now listen to this. He's completed his work only when the least ranked person in that his household has life, has sufficiency, has dignity and genuine provision from when God entrusted to his care. I'm recalling the story of the jailer that brought Paul and Silas

home to his family and the jailer got saved and his whole household that's where the blessing of God should be for the whole household everybody that's connected to your life whether by blood or by agreement by contract whatever it might be

but that you the blessings you receive should go to everybody that you touch, especially those in your circle and especially those who serve you. I think the church, at large, the worldwide church, we should be the loudest, the strongest voice and proponent for justice. Absolutely. Our God is a God of justice. And yet our economic system is not just. I'm a free enterpriser. I believe in free enterprise. I'm not a capitalist and I'm not a communist. I believe in free enterprise. Free enterprise and capitalism are two different things. Free enterprise has been taken over by capitalism, but I'm not a communist either. I'm not a socialist.

You know, the Bible says if a man doesn't work, he doesn't eat. It doesn't say the government is entitled to take the productivity of another person and give it to someone who doesn't produce. Yet, the Bible also says that if you are a steward, if you are blessed, and you have people working beneath you, you are obligated to pay them wages that give them life. What does that mean? Well, if we were paying, if all the companies were paying their servants, and I say servants, but if all the companies were paying their employees, life-sustaining wages and salaries,

then you wouldn't hear about people working two or three jobs in order to feed their family. Right. What's going on here? Why did moms have to work multiple jobs? and their children are separated from their mothers because mom has to work multiple jobs in order to keep the lights on in the house.

And yet you find out if you do your research, the employer, the guy at the top, the men and women at the top, are living in luxury. It's not right. And this is what Solomon is saying here. And this is coming from the mouth of the richest man who ever lived.

You know, Doc, if you worked for Solomon, you had a good life. I guarantee you he had a rule in his palace that every one of his servants were well paid. There were no poor, broke, struggling people working for King Solomon because he wasn't a hypocrite. Okay, let's wrap this up. We'll take a look at the Septuagin translation of verse 27.

The King James says, and thou shalt have goat's milk enough for thy food, and for the food of thy household, and for the maintenance of thy maidens. The Greek Septuagint puts it this way. My son, thou hast from me words very useful for thy life and for the life of thy servants. The Septuagint rendering of this verse departs almost entirely from the King James.

It replaces the inventory of goat's milk in the household provision with a father's closing address to his son, a summary statement about the value of the instruction just given. So rather than treating this as a loss, the Septuagin offers a valuable perspective on the chapter's conclusion. It frames the entire poem that's in Chapter 27,

as teaching deliberately handed from father to son useful for the son's own light and for the lives of those who depend upon the son the phrase and for the life of my servants that's the point of contact between the two traditions the king james ends with life for the maid servants

supplied through milk The Septuagin ends with life for the servants supplied through wisdom. Both traditions, King James and Septuagin, close the chapter with the least ranked members of the household, receiving life from what the master possesses. That's the key point. The steward provides for those under his care through material sufficiency. In the King James, it's milk.

And through transmitted wisdom, that's in the Septuagint. So the master who feeds his household but teaches them nothing has given them provisions that end when he does. But the master who teaches without providing has given instruction to his students who are too hungry to use it. So once again, they go together. Baptist John Gill, the preacher back in the 1700s, early 1700s,

he noted the remarkable convergence between the King James and the Septuagin. It's ending in Chapter 27. That the King James supplies life to the servants through milk. The Septuagint provides life through wisdom. And that both traditions close the chapter with as I just said a moment ago, with the least ranked members of a household receiving life from the abundance that the master possesses.

Doc, do you see anything in your final remarks on chapter 27? Other than, you know, let's recall that insight in verse 24 for riches or not forever, and that the crown endured every generation. So it connects with our lesson from yesterday, a man no matter how strong he was in his younger days cannot transmit his strength and power from generation of generation. What he can transmit is what the Septuagin's verse 27 describes.

Words, words, very useful for thy life, the wisdom that outlasts both the flock and the shepherd. And so in the Septuagin here, we see the gathering of the entire chapter into a single frame you have a father having taught his son about boasting, about praise, about friendship, about rebuke, about contentment and appetite, diligence, stewardship. And he hands the whole body of instruction over with a final observation. I'm just picturing this, Rick. These words, my son, are useful for your life and for the lives of everyone who will ever depend on you.

It's a good closing for chapter 27. Amen. Tomorrow we begin chapter 28. So we only have 28, 29, 30, 31, four chapters remaining. This has been, I don't know how for you. I hope you're not saying. I wish they'd move on to something else. I have thoroughly enjoyed teaching Proverbs.

I'm glad we taught this today, Rick, because this, how many times have we read? read this passage and missed everything that was in it. I mean, today was a gold mine. It really was. It was for me. I hope it's been for you also. Thank you for watching.

And thank you for supporting us with your prayers and your gifts. And we will be back here tomorrow with Chapter 28. God bless you. Thank you for watching Morning Manor. We hope your soul has been nourished today. We welcome and appreciate your prayers. and financial support for our international Bible teaching ministry. Visit manor nation.com and kindly send a gift of appreciation and encouragement

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