What about the sowing of seed? According to chapter nine, our giving equals not only our gathering, as in chapter eight, but also equals sowing. Our giving is both a gathering and a sowing. The gathering of manna is miraculous. We have emphasized that the manna gathered by the children of Israel was balanced in a miraculous way so that no one had any lack and no one had anything over. Now from chapter nine we must see that our giving is also likened to sowing.
According to 9:6, he who sows sparingly shall also reap sparingly, and he who sows with blessings shall also reap with blessings. In verse 6 we have the thought of sowing for the benefit of others. But what farmer, when he sows seed in his field, has the thought of sowing for others? Surely, most farmers have the concept of sowing for themselves. This kind of sowing, however, is not with blessings. To sow with blessings is to give to others. This is to sow with blessings to others. When we give of our money, we are sowing, and this sowing is not for ourselves, but is for others. If we sow with blessings to others, we shall reap with blessings from God.
As children of God, we all must learn to give. To give is to gather. How much manna we can gather depends on how much we give. In Luke 6:38 the Lord Jesus says, “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.” This verse indicates that if we want to receive, to gather, we first need to give. Our giving is our gathering, our receiving. We all need to gather manna every day. Because our gathering is our giving, we all need to give in order to gather. We gather little because we give little. May we all be impressed that our giving is our gathering.
In the matter of giving and gathering, divine miracles are involved. We should not believe in a superstitious way that the more we give, the more we shall receive. If this is the way we understand this matter, our motive in giving will be to gain riches for ourselves. The point here is related to God’s balancing hand. He would distribute the supply so that we would be neither poor nor rich. He certainly does practice a divine and heavenly balancing. He knows how to balance the wealth among His people.
For more than fifty years, I have been living by faith in the Lord. Often I have been very poor. Nevertheless, I can testify that even though I have been in extreme poverty, I never had any lack. I gathered little, but I had no lack. At other times I had an abundant supply, even large sums of money. However, I must testify that I did not have any excess. Therefore, I can testify from my experience that whenever I have gathered much, I have had no excess and that whenever I have gathered little, I have had no lack. Who balances the supply in this way? It is done by God with His heavenly balance.
If we try to gather more than what is needed, we shall eventually see the excess money fly away. If you keep too much in excess, your money will seem to sprout wings and fly away from you. The reason this happens is that God in the heavens balances the social wealth of His children.
We have seen that giving is both a matter of gathering and of sowing. Sowing brings in reaping. It is a natural law that first we sow and then we have a harvest. When we sow, we should sow generously, not sparingly. If we sow sparingly, we shall reap sparingly. But if we sow generously, we shall also reap generously. In our sowing, we are the ones who are generous and liberal. But when we reap, we find that God is the One who is generous.
Why did Paul add chapter nine? He added this chapter in order to provide us a further illustration of giving. We have pointed out that in 2 Corinthians 9 Paul uses sowing to illustrate giving. Therefore, from chapters eight and nine we see that giving is gathering and also sowing. These two concepts deep within Paul governed his writing of these two chapters.
Paul was not a superficial writer. On the contrary, he was deep, and his thoughts were profound. In his reading of the Old Testament he realized that Exodus 16 speaks of God’s people gathering what they need for their daily supply. According to Paul’s concept, we today are in the wilderness. Daily we work; however, actually we are gathering manna. But our gathering must turn to giving. If we do not give, we shall not continue to gather. We work to earn money, but this earning of money must become our giving. Then whatever we give will become our gathering, as pictured by the gathering of manna by the children of Israel in the wilderness. Now we can see that Paul likens our giving to this gathering of manna. This thought is deep, profound.