Friday!

Proverbs!

The rich rule over the poor, 

and the borrower is slave to the lender.

Proverbs 22:7 NIV

This proverb I've heard used to make borrowing money some kind of evil, but God had already put some rules around that to forgive any debt after 7 years, so that puts the weight on the lender to be careful and to want the borrower to be able to pay back. It made borrowing and lending much more collaborative. If I don't pay my mortgage my bank takes everything.

In God's kingdom it's the lender who loses (but clearly not everything).

In our culture we personalise everything, but perhaps this is a commentary on the realities of the human heart reflected in the world:

The rich rule, have dominion over, the poor.

Power.

Rich countries.

Rich companies.

Rich people.

This is not the way it's supposed to be. 

And there's places where I have power, where I am rich, and how am I using that? 

Jesus literally had all the power in the world, yet came as a servant. He gave his money to Judas to look after, washed his team's feet, introduced an upsidedown kingdom.

A kingdom where there is no rich and poor, there is no us and them, there's just us.

And we all finish together. 

Let this proverb sit with us today as we consider where we have power, where we are the rich...

#proverbs

#wisdom

#somethingtochewon