2 Kings 4:1 Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha, saying, Thy servant my husband is dead; and thou knowest that thy servant did fear the LORD: and the creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen.

The relationship between the master and the bondservant or slave was much different than the images we may have of slaves in the United States years ago.  The following record tells how Israelites were to be treated that were sold into slavery because they could not pay off their debts.  In the case above, they were having to pay off their father’s debt. They were in our terms, bankrupt. God’s law allowed them to be sold into slavery to pay off the debt.  Better than debtor’s prison! Situations are much different than the times we live in.  In the following record, which is part of the law, they should have learned not to go into debt!

Deuteronomy 15:12-18  And if thy brother, an Hebrew man, or an Hebrew woman, be sold unto thee, and serve thee six years; then in the seventh year thou shalt let him go free from thee. And when thou sendest him out free from thee, thou shalt not let him go away empty: Thou shalt furnish him liberally out of thy flock, and out of thy floor, and out of thy winepress: of that wherewith the LORD thy God hath blessed thee thou shalt give unto him. And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt, and the LORD thy God redeemed thee: therefore I command thee this thing to day. And it shall be, if he say unto thee, I will not go away from thee; because he loveth thee and thine house, because he is well with thee; Then thou shalt take an aul, and thrust it through his ear unto the door, and he shall be thy servant for ever. And also unto thy maidservant thou shalt do likewise. It shall not seem hard unto thee, when thou sendest him away free from thee; for he hath been worth a double hired servant to thee, in serving thee six years: and the LORD thy God shall bless thee in all that thou doest.

In some cases, the servant’s life was so much better as a slave/servant/bondman than the life he had before that he wanted to stay working for his master. At times, these people were relatives and became the main steward or manager of the master’s affairs.

To get an idea of what the servant’s duties could entail, we can read about Joseph. He was sold into slavery by his brothers not because of debt but envy. Who needs enemies when you have such a loving family?

 Genesis 39:1-6 And Joseph was brought down to Egypt; and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him of the hands of the Ishmeelites, which had brought him down thither. And the LORD was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man; and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian. And his master saw that the LORD was with him, and that the LORD made all that he did to prosper in his hand. And Joseph found grace in his sight, and he served him: and he made him overseer over his house, and all that he had he put into his hand. And it came to pass from the time that he had made him overseer in his house, and over all that he had, that the LORD blessed the Egyptian’s house for Joseph’s sake; and the blessing of the LORD was upon all that he had in the house, and in the field. And he left all that he had in Joseph’s hand; and he knew not ought he had, save the bread which he did eat. And Joseph was a goodly person, and well favoured.

These servants, stewards, or slaves were well-trained. In today’s time, we might call them a manager. They were to always keep their eye on the master when he was around. Remember the record in the gospels where Jesus says you cannot serve two masters. You cannot keep your eye on two masters at the same time. We either serve God or the systems of the world. We cannot serve both.

Psalm 123:2 Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, As the eyes of a female servant to the hand of her mistress, So our eyes look to the LORD our God, Until He is gracious to us. New American Standard Bible
Proverbs 6:13 He winketh with his eyes, he speaketh with his feet, he teacheth with his fingers;

Although this verse is in a negative context, the servants were trained to keep their eyes on their masters so intently that all the master had to do was give a signal, and the servant would respond. This is similar to how we as God’s children are to keep our eyes on our Father. The first step of keeping our eyes on our Father is to believe and walk on His Word.

Another example of stewards in the Bible is in Luke 16.

Luke 16:1 And he said also unto his disciples, There was a certain rich man, which had a steward; and the same was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods.

The emphasis in all these records is their service to their master. In some cases, they ran the business affairs of the master as in the case of Joseph. Part of their job would be to see that the household ran smoothly and to see to it that the master prospered in his business affairs. Their service was to their master.

Now the master was obligated to take care of his servant. The care of the servant was all part of the culture in the lands and times of the Bible. God did not record much about the care of the servant because the Bible is an Eastern book, and Eastern people were familiar with these customs. He provided them with a home, income, a donkey to ride, medical care and school for their children. But the emphasis in the Bible is not on how well the master took care of the steward but, the emphasis is on the steward’s service to the master.

Some have said it is God’s obligation to make sure we prosper in our relationship with God as sons. This is interesting because that attitude slightly twists things so that we are absolved of responsibility when it comes to prosperity. Many people buy homes that are at the maximum that the bank will loan. If they lose their job and can’t find another, they are out on the street. The average car payment according to experts is $500-$600 per month and some people make two payments. In addition, their credit cards are charged to the max. Is it entirely God’s responsibility to make sure all the payments are made on time? Is this being a good steward of the funds God gives us by paying so much of our income as interest to the bankers? NOT! This is serving the systems of the world. This is how people get into financial trouble and go bankrupt.

Others have said you can tell how close to God a person walks or how great a servant they are by how God has prospered them. Really? That is how the Pharisees felt in the gospels. They were so concerned about their prosperity; they were willing to rob widows of their money. They thought by being very prosperous it showed God’s favor on their lives. Yet God said they were covetous, lovers of money, and lovers of the praise of men more than lovers of God. Think about the great apostle Paul. He obviously walked close to God, yet he said he had to work so he would not be chargeable to others.

In the Old Testament times, including the gospel era, the closest relationship a person could have with God was that of a servant. It was a similar relationship to that of a master and a slave. These servants were expected to work in service to God. This servant relationship with God would be for all people that wanted to serve God and would have included the prophets, the priests, the Levites, and many other believers. They worked in service to God in many different ways including with their finances.

Now with the slave sold because of their debts, the master would have had to take the time to train the new slave/servant on how to manage the master’s business. Remember, they were sold into slavery because they were bankrupt and were sold as slaves to work off their debt. The slave obviously had violated many financial principles that God put in His Word. These people were full of bad financial habits and wrong thinking. The master would have had to educate them on the fundamental principles of handling money in a godly manner and the fundamental principles of business so that there would be good profit at the end of the year when the books were opened. The servants could have been trained by the master in a face-to-face setting or by some of his already trained servants or perhaps by being with the master day after day. There would be a lot of changing of the mind and changing of the heart. Sometimes changing the mind is mentally painful.

It turns out then that being sold into servitude could be a great benefit to some in Israel. In this process, the new servant could learn how to manage money responsibly. They may have learned many things about running a profitable business.

This process can take quite a while, but the new servant had six to seven years in which to learn. He would have had to learn new thinking patterns about how money works. For instance what to do when emergencies arise. He would have had to learn not to borrow money, to tithe and give, to save some of the income, and he would have had to learn how to invest or trade so that his master’s money increased. He would have to learn how to reorganize his financial life. He may have had to learn how to interact with business clients better, and how to dress appropriately. Many of these things are spoken of in the book, Braker’s Rules for Contractors. These processes sound simple but are not part of most people’s everyday lives. They are of the most benefit if the servant humbles himself and becomes teachable.

It is one thing to sit through a weekend seminar and learn. It is something else to have a complete change of mind and heart, where you would never go back to how you conducted your life before. That takes time. That takes growing to where you can actually “see” the benefit. It takes being there with the teacher and seeing how these new processes work and their results.

During the seventh year of servitude, he could decide to stay as a servant if he felt his life was far better with this master than the life he had before, and the master agreed that the servant had learned enough to now be an asset to the master’s business.

It reminds me of one of the parables in the gospels where the goodman of the house left for a while and gave four of his servants certain amounts of money. It was a test time to see how far they had come. Three did very well; they showed themselves to have learned and were faithful with the master’s money. So, he gave them more responsibility according to their ability. One had not learned anything and was worthless. Arrogance, self-will, or pride are self-defeating when it comes to learning.

At the end of his servitude, the servant could go out free.  Remember, God has said: And when thou sendest him out free from thee, thou shalt not let him go away empty: Thou shalt furnish him liberally out of thy flock, and out of thy floor, and out of thy winepress: of that wherewith the LORD thy God hath blessed thee thou shalt give unto him.

This is interesting because according to Eastern culture the master was to give the servant enough to last a year or go back into business.

When God set Israel free of their servitude in Egypt, He gave them cities and towns and homes already built in the promised land. Crops were already planted and there were barns to put the crops in. God expected these masters to treat these servants the same way.

So servitude was not just about being a slave and paying off debts. But God set it up to be a great benefit to the bankrupt man where he could learn how to prosper and not get caught in the same trap again.

1. His debts were cleared up.
2. He had the opportunity to learn how to truly handle money and finances and how to run a business.
3. He now had it available to go back into business again.
4. Or he could continue to work with the master as a trusted servant, marked out with an awl by the elders at the gate.

This was actually a reproof and correction process for wrong thinking. As it says in Timothy, “all scripture is profitable for doctrine, reproof and correction which is instruction in right living.”

If he humbled himself and paid attention, he could learn and start a whole new prosperous life.

Now our relationship with God is not that of a servant.

Galatians 4:7 Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

We are sons and daughters of God, not servants like they were before the Day of Pentecost. We are heirs of God through the work of Jesus Christ. We have God’s gift of holy spirit born within us making us His children rather than servants.

When it comes to money and finances that God gives us to manage, because it all belongs to Him anyway, we cannot sit down face to face with our Father and be taught by Him. We receive our instruction from God’s Word. This would be far better than the Old Testament system. God’s wisdom is great and, when it comes to money, He is the best to learn from. We can also learn from others that have been down this road before. Some of the best authors on Christian prosperity learned after they went bankrupt.

Some of the instructions our Father has given us are:

1. Be a tither or giver
2. Also have some to give to those that are in need
3. Stay out of debt
4. Save some of all the money that comes in
5. Learn to invest that saved money and see it increase and grow as Joseph did.

Now our service is the same as in the old days. We still serve God in the family business, but our relationship is that of children not servants. Our relationship is far better than that of servants, and we should do far better than they did as servants. If we as sons and daughters are to be good stewards of His blessings, we need to learn how He expects us to handle His business and the funds He blesses us with.

Many of God’s children, because they have not been taught or have been taught wrongly, are not good managers of the funds He gives. I have known people, myself included, that have tithed all their lives and are still broke or that go bankrupt. The way out of the wrong thinking that leads to these situations is to start with the instructions our Father has left us in His Word.

The Bible says God makes the rain to fall and the sun to shine on the just and the unjust (agricultural examples). In other words, He provides for all, and all prosperity belongs to Him in the end. God left us with an instruction book, the Bible, on how to properly handle the funds He gives. Learning how to properly deal with money is partly how we participate in the family business of our Father. It is hard to concentrate on the things of God when we are buried in bills and bill collectors. God’s way is much better. His wisdom is the finest. As Jesus said, “my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” The systems of the world lead to despair.

As we show ourselves faithful in the little matters in life, including money, then as the masters in the Old Testament gave their trusted servants more responsibility, God can trust us with more understanding and the true riches of Luke 16.

The learning process can take time. This learning process is all part of learning about how to live The Prosperous Life.