A Trained Professional VIII: Let’s Make A Deal

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.