Giving Up, Getting Back

Cast your bread on the surface of the waters, for you will find it after many days.  Ecclesiastes 11:1 NASB

Cast –  When was the last time you threw away something important?  Hopefully, you can’t think of such a foolish act.  No one throws away what is valuable.  If that’s the case, then why does Qohelet seem to advocate such stupidity?  The answer is found in an examination of the Hebrew verb shalah which the NASB translates “cast.”  Its primary meaning is “to send forth, to send away.”  While it could be translated “cast,” doing so makes the action seem as if it is simply throwing something away rather than deliberately sending it forth.

Now that we realize Qohelet is advocating a deliberate and purposeful act, we can understand that idiom “send forth your bread.”  Qohelet is exhorting us to perform charitable acts without expectation of return.  There are many parallels to his appeal in other ancient Near-Eastern literature.  For example, the Egyptian instruction of Ancksheshonq reads, “Sow a good deed and throw it in the water; when it dries up you will find it.”  The idea behind this idiom is the paradoxical nature of blessing someone else.  Performing an act of charity means that I do not expect to be compensated.  I give because it is the right thing to do, not because I think I will be rewarded for my giving.  But Qohelet and Ancksheshonq observe that when I give without expectation I can expect to be blessed later in some unexpected way.  Rabbi Ben Sira says, “Lose your money for the sake of a brother or friend, and don’t let it rust under a stone.”  Acts of righteousness find ways of coming back to you.  We have a popular colloquialism that captures this idea:  “what goes around comes around.”

In the Hebrew idiom, “bread” means the sustaining elements of life.  This is not charity from abundance.  If I give from my resources in ways that have no real impact on my lifestyle, I have not experienced an act of charity.  I have done something good, no doubt, but biblical charity is exemplified in the widow’s two copper coins.  To send forth my bread is to give when it hurts (just a bit).  That act of kindness results in a return even when we didn’t give in order to get.  That act of kindness exemplifies the charity God demonstrated in sending forth His Son.  It hurt, but it had untold blessings.

Qohelet’s one sentence proverb also reminds us that the prosperity gospel view of giving is a sham.  If I give in order to get, I have done nothing worthy of blessing.  All I have done is make an investment.  I would be better off to put that kind of giving in the bank and hope for reward.  Blessing comes from sacrifice.  It was true for our Savior.  It is no less true for us.

Topical Index:  cast, shalah, send forth, bread, blessing, charity, Ecclesiastes 11:1