Leviticus 19:1-18
God's Economics

The LORD spoke to Moses, saying:

     Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them: You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy. You shall each revere your mother and father, and you shall keep my sabbaths: I am the LORD your God. Do not turn to idols or make cast images for yourselves: I am the LORD your God.
     When you offer a sacrifice of well-being to the LORD, offer it in such a way that it is acceptable in your behalf. It shall be eaten on the same day you offer it, or on the next day; and anything left over until the third day shall be consumed in fire. If it is eaten at all on the third day, it is an abomination; it will not be acceptable. All who eat it shall be subject to punishment, because they have profaned what is holy to the LORD; and any such person shall be cut off from the people.
     When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest. You shall not strip your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the alien: I am the LORD your God.
     You shall not steal; you shall not deal falsely; and you shall not lie to one another. And you shall not swear falsely by my name, profaning the name of your God: I am the LORD.
     You shall not defraud your neighbor; you shall not steal; and you shall not keep for yourself the wages of a laborer until morning. You shall not revile the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind; you shall fear your God: I am the LORD.
     You shall not render an unjust judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great: with justice you shall judge your neighbor. You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not profit by the blood of your neighbor: I am the LORD.
     You shall not hate in your heart anyone of your kin; you shall reprove your neighbor, or you will incur guilt yourself. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.

New Revised Standard Version

I want very much to be a successful Christian business executive. I want that to mean that I am successful simultaneously in making good, sound business decisions and in following the Way that God instructs me to live.

However, I cannot.

For that matter, no one can firmly and completely adhere to the doctrines and teachings of a standard MBA program and also fully walk in the Way, and Jesus understood that conflict when He told us we could not serve both God and Money. We cannot reconcile the fundamental principles of counter-balancing greed in modern microeconomics -- and business -- with the principles that Jesus taught and the commandments that God gave through Moses.

Sorry!

In business, we're concerned about "margins", the never-big-enough difference between income and expenses. This challenge compels us to carefully manage our income by balancing how much we charge with how little people are willing to pay, so that we maximize our profits. We spend much more effort on our expenses, because there are more options available to us to improve our margins by limiting expenses. We reorganize and restructure, we recompete and renegotiate, and we reengineer our business processes, trying to increase flexibility and decrease costs in response to the market pressures. After every decision, every deal, every action, we assess what we did to see if we left any money "on the table". Next time, we'll do better, learn from that experience, and push that much harder to protect our margins and not leave money on the table.

This passage from Leviticus, which echoes the Ten Commandments, gives us a more God-like priority. Look at the command to resist maximizing margins, leaving some of the harvest for those less fortunate. Look at the command to pay your laborers quickly, rather than maximizing cash flow, even overnight. Look at the instruction to strive for justice, neither favoring the poor or the rich, but doing what is right no matter what. Why? Because God is God.

Yes, there are practical factors involved in these instructions. In an era without refrigeration, it was urgent that no one eat food two days after it had been cooked. The practice of gleaning provided basic sustenance for the poor in an era without welfare programs. But God gave us more than just rules for interactions in Hebrew society--God was setting our priorities. It all becomes clear with the last verse of the quoted passage, where we are commanded to love our neighbor as we do ourselves, because God is God and we are God's.

So, what do I do with this? I don't know, but I am learning every day.

I have a personal story that urges me to take these instructions seriously. Just a couple of years out of college, I was buying my first computer and an electronic piano keyboard so that I could more easily compose music. I couldn't afford what I needed, so I put an entry in the want ads to sell my trumpet, needing to get $325 to afford the keyboard. After several weeks, I had only one serious prospect, but they agreed over the phone to my price, so we met in a parking lot to complete the deal. When we met, they surprised me with news that they could only pay $250 for the trumpet. I objected and tried to negotiate around their limit, but they stood firm--$250 or forget it. Frustrated and defeated, I accepted their offer. As soon as I said that, they both excitedly yelled to each other, "Praise the Lord!" I left in stunned silence.

Did they honestly believe that God was only on their side, taking $75 that I thought they had promised to me, money that I believed I needed to do what God was calling me to do? Maybe they did, but instead it seemed to me they were demonstrating and practicing shrewd capitalist negotiating techniques to maximize their margins. I hope God blessed the use of that trumpet, just as God helped me find a less expensive discontinued floor model keyboard that fit my budget.

Leave some money on the table, leave some grapes on the vines and wheat sheaves in the field, so that others will praise God because they see God in you.