What are we doing with that which our Lord has entrusted to us to use for His glory? “Do business till I come,” He has told us (Lk. 19:13). The proverbs of wise King Solomon give us practical pointers on how to use what He has given us for maximum benefit and gain while we await His return. Let us look at one of these.

Many Israelites were farmers. They grew barley and wheat on their allotments to feed their livestock and their families. As a man walked back and forth through his prepared field, carrying a bag of grain from the previous year’s harvest, he would fling out handful after handful, scattering it evenly over the ground. The grain would germinate, grow, and ripen, in time producing a harvest thirty, sixty or one hundred times what he had sown.

The question the farmer had to consider was how much of last year’s grain he should sow, and how much he should keep back for food or for sale until the next harvest. Our verse tells us that the grain he would scatter in his field as seed would produce far more. If he cautiously would keep back more for himself than he really needed, he would lose much potential gain at harvest time. What he had scattered, he had not thrown away! He had sown it in faith, trusting God for His rich blessing—for sunshine and rain and everything else needed for a bountiful harvest.

This is a vital principle in life! In 2 Corinthians 9:6, it is applied to our giving to the Lord: “He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.” Let us be encouraged: what we give to the Lord is not wasted. He will supply our needs, multiply the seed we sow, and increase the fruits of our righteousness to His glory.