There’s wisdom in the adage, “Do your giving while you’re living; then you’re knowing where it’s going.”
The old preachers had a saying: God is neither enriched by withholding nor impoverished by giving. This is certainly true with the infinitude of heaven’s resources, but it can also practically be true in our lives. Solomon noted, “There is one who scatters, yet increases” (Prov 11:24). He certainly didn’t seem to suffer financially as a result of his lavish generosity to the queen of Sheba! The final chapter in his biography in 2 Chronicles graciously leaves out his unwise choices and moral failures. Instead we read, “King Solomon surpassed all the kings of the earth in riches and wisdom” (9:22). Wealth flowed into his kingdom from around the world, and wisdom flowed out. This section (vv 13-28) is the inventory of the world’s richest man. The gold he acquired yearly “was six hundred and sixty-six talents of gold” (v 13). We can’t help but notice the coincidence. This 666 is later referred to as “the number of a man” (Rev 13:18), associated with the leader of the world’s last superpower and his triumvirate of evil. As six is just short of seven, the number of God’s perfection, in a humbling way it marks the limits of human wisdom and power. Both Solomon and the Beast claim to sit on the throne of the Lord, one placed there by God and the other by Satan. But in the end, we do well to follow the warning of the Lord Himself: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, nor the strong man in his strength, nor the wealthy man in his riches. But let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows Me” ( Jer 9:23-24, BSB). Solomon’s wealth and power have evaporated, but we can yet benefit from his understanding and knowledge of God as recorded by his pen in the books of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and his Song of Songs.