Tim Maas Retired Quality Assurance Specialist with the U.S. Army

I would say that the verse is speaking of individuals' attitudes and practices toward their material resources (including money), and how those attitudes and practices can result in outcomes that are actually the opposite of what the individuals are striving toward.

Individuals who are generous in the distribution of their resources to others will (paradoxically) find those resources actually increasing, due both (I would say) to reciprocal actions by others toward them, as well as through blessings given by God in approval of their generosity.

By contrast, individuals who are stingy with their resources (in an attempt to retain them) will instead lose them through the negative effects of their actions.

To me, this verse is similar to Jesus' parable of the talents (or minas) in Luke 19:11-27 and Matthew 25:14-30, in which the servant who hoarded the resources that were entrusted to him by burying them (instead of increasing them through investing them), ended up losing even the small amount of resources that he had.

November 12 2019 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

John Kelvin

This verse from Proverbs was written so the agrarian people of the time could relate. Just as a farmer who scatters seed generously yields a great crop of grain, so too the stingy farmer who plants few seeds, yields a lesser crop. Looking deeper into the analogy it is important to note that the giving is transformative. The farmer who scatters the seed receives back more of something that has been transformed into a crop. 
In the Kingdom of God, he who scatters his wealth generously finds it transformed into the boundless riches of God's love spread among his people. Conversely, he who hoards his riches will be the poorer for never experiencing the riches of God's love.

April 24 2020 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report