Proverbs 17:8
A gift is as a precious stone in the eyes of him that hath it: whithersoever it turneth, it prospereth.
This proverb expresses a fact of experience. The Hebrew word translated as ‘gift’ is the same as in Proverbs 17:23 and refers to ‘bribe’. Thus we are taught that possessing the price of a bribe is like possessing precious stones. We can use it our advantage to earn grace, favor, and even to pervert judgment.
In a certain sense, whether it be our body, our money or our strength, we all use what we have as a bribe. It is not necessarily a bad thing. Solomon says in another place, ‘A man’s gift makes room for him’. By this Solomon teaches that a gifted person with a gift belonging to either the physical, the spiritual or even the emotional realm, will more likely find employment or a place to live, because of the value of his gift. It’s a fact of life, but the whole difference between the ‘gift’ and the ‘bribe’ is in the way it is used. Is it used to take or to give?
God is His own ‘Gift’. The abilities God has given us belong to Him in the first place. We may have worked hard for it but they still belong to Him because He created them as well the ability for our body to exercise them. It is like a company giving you a laptop. The purpose of the laptop is for you to use for the company. If you use it to trade stocks on-line, shop or email, you are guilty of theft. The same goes for doing personal business on company paid time, cause the pay is the ‘gift’. The minute we use our God-given gift that He gave us for His returns for our own gain or self-promotion, we are guilty of theft.
The most beautiful gift we have been given is life. The problem is that it does not belong to us; it has been ransomed with a heavy price. The devil used God’s own rules and put a bribe on our head. He doesn’t care for our lives; he only cares for the bribe because Satan (cursed be his name) is a mercenary. Like Abraham with Eliezer of Damascus, Yeshua bought our lives from the slave-trader and set us free. Because of His Gift, our lives now belong to Him. Yeshua wills not that service to Him be forced, but it goes without saying that our lives belong to whoever saves it from death. Yeshua wills that our service to Him be solely motivated by gratitude. We breathe and able to operate by the sole miracle of His Spirit. Our redeemed lives belong to Him: let us not be guilty of theft by stealing ‘company time’.
A gift is as a precious stone in the eyes of him that hath it: whithersoever it turneth, it prospereth.
This proverb expresses a fact of experience. The Hebrew word translated as ‘gift’ is the same as in Proverbs 17:23 and refers to ‘bribe’. Thus we are taught that possessing the price of a bribe is like possessing precious stones. We can use it our advantage to earn grace, favor, and even to pervert judgment.
In a certain sense, whether it be our body, our money or our strength, we all use what we have as a bribe. It is not necessarily a bad thing. Solomon says in another place, ‘A man’s gift makes room for him’. By this Solomon teaches that a gifted person with a gift belonging to either the physical, the spiritual or even the emotional realm, will more likely find employment or a place to live, because of the value of his gift. It’s a fact of life, but the whole difference between the ‘gift’ and the ‘bribe’ is in the way it is used. Is it used to take or to give?
God is His own ‘Gift’. The abilities God has given us belong to Him in the first place. We may have worked hard for it but they still belong to Him because He created them as well the ability for our body to exercise them. It is like a company giving you a laptop. The purpose of the laptop is for you to use for the company. If you use it to trade stocks on-line, shop or email, you are guilty of theft. The same goes for doing personal business on company paid time, cause the pay is the ‘gift’. The minute we use our God-given gift that He gave us for His returns for our own gain or self-promotion, we are guilty of theft.
The most beautiful gift we have been given is life. The problem is that it does not belong to us; it has been ransomed with a heavy price. The devil used God’s own rules and put a bribe on our head. He doesn’t care for our lives; he only cares for the bribe because Satan (cursed be his name) is a mercenary. Like Abraham with Eliezer of Damascus, Yeshua bought our lives from the slave-trader and set us free. Because of His Gift, our lives now belong to Him. Yeshua wills not that service to Him be forced, but it goes without saying that our lives belong to whoever saves it from death. Yeshua wills that our service to Him be solely motivated by gratitude. We breathe and able to operate by the sole miracle of His Spirit. Our redeemed lives belong to Him: let us not be guilty of theft by stealing ‘company time’.
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