This is another in a continuing series on occupations and what the Scripture says about those trades and vocations that I started back in 2021. When I say trades I mean employment, work or a person's productive role in society as a whole. They may be things done or performed in exchange for payment of some form or monetary compensation...or not.
The buyer or purchaser….every middle-sized to large company
has at least one nowadays. They purchase everything from pencils to million
dollar components for jet fighters. In the realm of business today a buyer is
an integral and well-paid person. They must have an innate feeling about the
selling value of certain goods, and know where and how to buy to the best
advantage of tradesman and customer alike. They need to understand that timing
of arrival of goods is critical to a company’s ability to manufacture and sell
goods. An old proverb once said, “Buyers needs a hundred eyes; sellers none.” In
other words a purchaser / buyer needs to be wary and realize there is a
responsibility to examine goods on offer. It’s up to the buyer to establish the
nature and value of a purchase before completing the transaction. The buyer
needs to assure they get the best deal possible but not be taken by the seller
either.
Proverbs 20:14: “Bad, bad,” says the buyer, but when he goes
away, then he boasts
Solomon notes an aspect of the real world here without
actually endorsing it. What's depicted here is a common strategy used in
business negotiations since ancient times. It is to downplay the value of
something one wishes to buy. The opposite is also the case, as a seller may
over-promise or exaggerate a product or service. In one sense, Solomon's
comment is a reminder of this aspect of business. When a potential customer criticizes
some product or service, it's naïve to assume those words are free from all
bias or motive. It's called haggling and its to achieve the lowest price possible. The
other side is also shown in Solomon’s follow up comment. The buyer will brag
later about what a great deal they got. Its up to the seller to "talk
up" something so a buyer spends more on it than they need to while
simultaneously the buyers trying to "talk down" the value.
An examination of the verses in which “buying” and “selling”
are mentioned reveals the range of commodities dealt with in both material and
spiritual. A glance at commerce in the Bible shows that among the many products
of Israel, both saleable and export¬able, were oil, wine, wheat, barley, oak
timber, honey, fruits and spices, balsam, sand, wool and leather (Gen¬esis
43:11; II Samuel 1:24; II Chron-icles 2:10; Ezekiel 23; 26:2; 27:6, 17, etc.).
Other countries, like Ophir and Tarshish, traded in silver and gold. Yam came
from Egypt. There is a list of some 118 articles coming from foreign coun¬tries
into Israel are mentioned in Scripture. By the time of Solomon there had been a
tremendous in¬crease of imports and exports, buying and selling and a buyer had
become a recognized pro¬fession as it is today.
There are at least two or three references to buying and
selling used spiritually in the Bible. First of all, to buy means to obtain
something from God by waiting upon Him in His appointed way — “Buy and eat”
(Isaiah 55:1), which implies, “You have no money, come therefore and buy on My
terms — though salvation is infinitely valuable, I will charge you nothing for
it. When Solomon exhorts us to “Buy truth, and do not sell it, Get wisdom,
instruction, and understanding.” (Proverbs 23:23), he seems to say, “Spare no
cost for truth’s sake, neither depart from it for any gain; be a merchant in
buying it; but never be tempted to surrender it.
Of course one of the most interesting transactions of the
Bible is the price paid for each and every one of our salvations through
Christ’s work on the Cross. Christ paid for our salvation through his death and
Resurrection from the tomb on the third day. Prior to that death and
resurrection he had told His disciples that, if they asked, Jesus would send a
helper.
John 14:15-17 If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.
And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate to be with you
forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot receive Him, because it neither
sees Him nor knows Him. But you do know Him, for He abides with you and will be
in you.
The word advocate here in Greek is παράκλητος/parakletos.
The Parakletos is referring to the Holy Spirit who Christ would send after his
later departure in his Ascension to the Father in Heaven. The thing that should
be noted in terms of buying is the fact Jesus did so at the cost of His life
but also that when he left he was also leaving behind something in a
business-like transaction. In Greek a parakletos was a person who pleads
another's cause before a judge, a pleader, counsel for defense, legal
assistant; an advocate. In Hellenized philosophy it is universally, one who
pleads another's cause with one...an intercessor. The evidence that Christ would
still be working on and through them would be this Intercessor. In effect, the
Holy Spirit was to take the place of Christ with the apostles to lead them (and
us) to a deeper knowledge of truth and to give the divine strength
needed to enable them to undergo trials and persecutions on behalf of the
divine kingdom.
In Ephesians 1, Paul further explains that not only is the
Spirit a Intercessor before the Father and helper in the world, he also acts to
fulfill a financial transaction related to the original purchase
of our salvation through Christ on the cross.
Ephesians 1:13-14 In him [Christ] you also, when you heard
the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were
sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance
until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
Our inheritance or salvation is guaranteed. The word guaranteed here in Greek is ἀρραβoν/arrabon. What was an arrabon in Greek? It was a binding legal or financial pledge. Financially understood it would be referred to today as a down-payment on a purchased item or something already reserved as being bought and paid for. The Holy Spirit is/was sent to us is a down payment on our salvation. This purchased item is of infinte value to the reciever. The seal on the deal mentioned is σφραγίζω/sphragizo and is the modern-day equivilent of signing on the dotted line of a binding contract. It is called assurance. So in reality, we already know what's behind Door #3. It has already been promised to us in writing...in the Bible.
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