She would actually drive me to the bank, and teach me how to fill out a deposit slip; then let me hand it to the teller with 10 cents in it – she taught me how to do this. From the time I was four, I have always saved 10% of my income.
I don’t want to get too god-area, but I just want to tell you the power of that. That even from 4-25, when I was 25 years old I crossed the $100,000 mark.
Now it’s in something I can’t touch until I’m 60, alright… You’d have to put up with me until I’m 60 to get it! To have $100,000 at 25 is a fair whack of a good start, isn’t it?
So to have wisdom: don’t borrow money; save.
Here’s another one under wisdom: don’t trust the government to do it for you.
Let me share this scripture with you, from someone we would consider a hero; but he made a mistake; he’s still considered a hero because all people do make mistakes. It’s Joseph – it’s in Genesis 41:33-36. Joseph is in prison, and he is able to interpret the dreams of Pharaoh.
Pharaoh has this dream, which tells him is that: there’s going to be 7 years plenty; followed by 7 years of famine. He asks Joseph: what do we do about this?
This is Joseph’s answer: “Let Pharaoh look for discerning and wise man, and put them in charge of the land of Egypt”. I love it!
Have you ever said something that has an underhand meaning, like Joseph said in front of the Pharaoh? He’s still an inmate, and Pharaoh says: what should I do about this Joseph? And Joseph’s like: if only there was a wise man you could trust to take care of this… I love it!
“Let Pharaoh appoint commissioners over the land, and take…” Everybody say “take”! “…Take a fifth of the harvest of Egypt, during the 7 years of abundance.”
So what did Joseph do? He instituted a 20% tax. So instead of making a rule/law that everyone has to save 20%, and store it up in their own barn; he says: no, let the government take it.
Presumably, if we take 20% over 7 years, we will have enough to provide for our people at the end. And that sounds good at first, but it never works!
Everything the government ever tries, fails, at least in America. Maybe in NZ government is better, but in America everything they have done fails. Amtrax broke, the post office broke, now they want to run healthcare – are you kidding me?
So it says: “they should collect all the food from these good years, and store the grain under the authority of Pharaoh”. In other words: the government will take care of it, to be kept in the cities for food.
“This food should be held in reserve, for the country, to be used during the 7 years of famine (now this all sounds like a good idea) that will come upon Egypt, so that the country may not be ruined by the famine”.
So Joseph says: the government’s going to take 20%, and save it for the people; so when the famine hits, we will be able to take care of them.
This whole story ensues, about his brothers and things; and finally the 7 years of famine comes around, Genesis 41v56-57.
“Now when the famine had spread over the whole country, Joseph opened the storehouses, and sold grain to the Egyptians”.
Sold? So he took it from them, and then he sold it back to them; what a great business plan! Um, I’m sure he had good intentions at first; but eventually what happened is really, really not good.
It says that he collected so much grain, that they quit measuring it, because it was pointless. 20% of everybody’s harvest, for seven years! They quit measuring it because it was pointless…
“…and he sold grain to the Egyptians, for the famine was severe throughout Egypt, and all the countries came to Egypt to buy grain from Joseph, because the famine was severe in the world.”
So not only did he sell them at a profit to other countries, he also sold it back at a profit to the people he took it from to begin with.
Genesis 47v13-21 tells you the end of the story. It says: “there was no food in the whole region, because the famine was severe. Both Egypt and Canaan wasted away because of the famine; and Joseph collected all the money that was too be found in all of Egypt and Canaan in payment for the grain they were buying”.