Never Undermine Your Capital

To Protect “the Seed” for Greater Wealth, Israel would have starved in the wilderness.

Photo by David von Diemar on Unsplash

The concept of Capital seems to be difficult for most people to comprehend today. There are many misconceptions floating around about what it is. Some of the economists that I trust most describe it as ‘leverageable value’; meaning value that is accessible to create more wealth. As always, the absolute truth of God’s word teaches us the principles of life, including the concept of Capital throughout the History of scripture.

In my prior article, When Prosperity Attracts Tyranny, we looked at God’s ‘exodus’ strategy to return Israel’s control over their own capital back to them so they could fully serve God and live prosperously. In this article, we will look deeper into Israel’s journey from Egypt to the promised land to isolate the important wealth principle of capital.

Provisions

Exodus 12:37 Now the sons of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, aside from children. 38 A mixed multitude also went up with them, along with flocks and herds, a very large number of livestock.

600,000 men + however many women & children = millions of people.

There were also many people from other nations that came out of slavery with the Israelites, along with “a very large number of livestock.”

Exodus 12:39 And they baked the dough which they had brought out of Egypt into cakes of unleavened bread. For it had no yeast, since they were driven out of Egypt and could not delay, nor had they prepared any provisions for themselves.

Wait a minute! They did not prepare provisions (Hebrew: ṣêḏâ = meat), but they had large herds of animals and unleavened bread; those seem like provisions to me.

Won’t they just eat what they have?

Exodus 12:42 It is a night to be observed for the Lord, for having brought them out of the land of Egypt; this night is for the Lord, to be observed by all the sons of Israel throughout their generations… 43 And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “This is the ordinance of the Passover… 46 It is to be eaten in a single house; you are not to bring any of the meat outside of the house, nor are you to break any bone of it. 47 All the congregation of Israel are to celebrate this… 50 Then all the sons of Israel did so; they did just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron.

God did command them to celebrate His deliverance from Egypt by sacrificing animals and feasting regularly while on their journey to the promised land.

Exodus 13:11 “Now when the Lord brings you to the land of the Canaanite, as He swore to you and to your fathers, and gives it to you, 12 you shall devote to the Lord every firstborn of a womb, and every firstborn offspring of an animal that you own; the males belong to the Lord.

God also commanded them to devote the firstborn animals as an offering once they reached the promised land.

Note: these instructions were given to Israel before the law was given to them at Mt. Sinai.

But what about the rest of the animals? What about the gold, silver, bronze, clothing, and all the other wealth they brought out of Egypt?

The Lord Provides Manna & Meat

Exodus 16:2 But the whole congregation of the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. 3 The sons of Israel said to them, “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat, when we ate bread until we were full; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this entire assembly with hunger!”

Why were they grumbling for food if they already had food?

Exodus 18:11 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 12 “I have heard the grumblings of the sons of Israel; speak to them, saying, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread; and you shall know that I am the Lord your God.’” 13 So it came about at evening that the quails came up and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. 14 When the layer of dew evaporated, behold, on the surface of the wilderness there was a fine flake-like thing, fine as the frost on the ground. 15 When the sons of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, “It is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat.”

God provided all their needs for food, water, and clothing (“did not wear out” Deuteronomy 8) during their 40 years in the wilderness.

Why would God provide bread, meat, and clothing for the people if they already had animals, bread, and clothing that they brought out of Egypt? What were they “saving” it for?

Were they supposed to trade for food with the surrounding nations? There is nothing in scripture that indicates this. In fact they were traveling through a desolate wilderness that scripture does not record much interaction with other nations (there were a few though).

Then what was all the gold, silver, bronze, clothing, animals, etc. for?

Offerings for the Sanctuary

Exodus 25:1 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Tell the sons of Israel to take a contribution for Me; from everyone whose heart moves him you shall take My contribution. 3 This is the contribution which you are to take from them: gold, silver, and bronze, 4 violet, purple, and scarlet material, fine linen, goat hair, 5 rams’ skins dyed red, fine leather, acacia wood, 6 oil for lighting, balsam oil for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense, 7 onyx stones and setting stones for the ephod and for the breastpiece. 8 Have them construct a sanctuary for Me, so that I may dwell among them. 9 According to all that I am going to show you as the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its furniture, so you shall construct it.

God gave very specific instructions and detailed plans to build a temporary temple for God to live within the Israelite camp. There was no ordinance, law, tax, etc. that forced the people to give. The people freely gave from their individual abilities to what they believed was a worthy cause, which was abundantly more than enough (Exodus 36:5–7).

God must have wanted Israel to give ALL of their wealth to building His tabernacle, right?

The Cost of the Tabernacle

Gold

Exodus 38:24 All the gold that was used for the work, in all the work of the sanctuary, which was the gold of the wave offering, was twenty-nine talents and 730 shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary.

• 29 talents = 31,929 oz. = 1995.5 lbs.
• 730 shekels = 267.91 oz. = 16.75 lbs.
• TOTAL: 2,012.25 lbs. of Gold (approx. 1 ton)

Silver

Exodus 38:25 And the silver of those of the congregation who were counted was a hundred talents and 1,775 shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary;

• 100 talents = 110,100 oz. = 6881.25 lbs.
• 1,775 shekels = 651.42 oz. = 40.71 lbs.
• TOTAL: 6,921.96 lbs. of Silver (approx. 3.5 tons)

Bronze

Exodus 38:29 And the bronze of the wave offering was seventy talents and 2,400 shekels.

• 70 talents = 77,070 oz. = 4,816.87 lbs.
• 2,400 shekels = 880.8 oz. = 55.05 lbs.
• TOTAL: 4,871.92 lbs. of Bronze (approx. 2.4 tons)

Animals

Exodus 40:29 And he set the altar of burnt offering in front of the doorway of the tabernacle of the tent of meeting, and offered on it the burnt offering and the meal offering, just as the Lord had commanded Moses.

During Israel’s time at Mount Sinai, while God was giving them His commands, they utilized the massive “plunder” from Egypt as offerings to build God’s tabernacle, and in celebrating His blessings.

Did they use up all of their wealth in their festivals of the Lord and in building the tabernacle?

Remember that God has been teaching them His laws of generosity, which instructed them to give much more than the 10% we talk about today, but they still only used a fraction of their wealth for the festivals and the tabernacle.

We know this because later Joshua gave the people instructions to leave their families & livestock behind while the men went to fight a battle (Joshua 1:13–15).

They also continued to celebrate the Lord’s provision after they were camped in the promised land from the wealth they acquired from Egypt, before they ate any of the food produced in the land.

Joshua 5:10 While the sons of Israel camped at Gilgal they celebrated the Passover on the evening of the fourteenth day of the month on the desert plains of Jericho. 11 Then on the day after the Passover, on that very day, they ate some of the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and roasted grain. 12 And the manna ceased on the day after they had eaten some of the produce of the land, so that the sons of Israel no longer had manna, but they ate some of the yield of the land of Canaan during that year.

When it came time for the people of Israel to divide the promised land between the tribes, they still had large herds of livestock, large amounts of gold, silver, bronze, and clothing that they used to help them settle in their new home.

Joshua 14:1 Now these are the territories which the sons of Israel inherited in the land of Canaan... 4 …they did not give a portion to the Levites in the land, except cities to live in, with their pasture lands for their livestock and for their property.

Conclusion

It seems that this ancient culture understood the importance of capital much better than we do today. There doesn’t seem to be any question what they would consume from their wealth, and what they would save to create more wealth in the future. The portion they chose to save was the ‘seed capital’ to help them establish their lives in their new land, and further create wealth for their future. God had instructed the people to honor God from the first fruits that they produced, next they prioritized their capital to save for future needs, then they consumed what they wanted beyond their giving and savings.

If we desire to serve God to our full capacity, we must have control over our own capital as well.

The problem in 21st Century America is that we are conditioned to hoard capital in places that limit our access and control, or borrow someone else’s capital for a price (interest), hindering our potential to live abundantly while others prosper at our expense.

Fortunately, there is a place everyone can accumulate and store their wealth that will automatically grow when not needed, but be completely available for any needs or opportunities they may have. Millions of people have participated in it for over 200 years to protect the people they care about and build wealth for the future. This “Warehouse of Wealth” is Whole Life Insurance from dividend-paying Mutual Life Insurance companies (owned by the policyholders), designed to accumulate high cash values that are accessible on a tax-free bases to finance the things of life. It is the ultimate capital building tool. Mutual Whole Life Insurance is the product used by individuals to implement the process of the Infinite Banking Concept.

The whole idea is to recapture interest that we are paying to banks and finance companies for the major items we need in life, such as vehicles, appliances, education, houses, equipment, investment opportunities, etc. There is no such thing as having too much money, but that money must reside somewhere that will contribute to the wellbeing of the owner. From this “warehouse” we can do anything that we can conceive. By financing the things of life through our own privatized “banking” system, we will be building an ever increasing pool of capital to:

1. Give More
2. Grow More
3. Live More
4. Owe Less

As God has instructed His people to do.