2 Kings 12:9

Money-Boxes

Jehoiada the priest took a chest, and bored a hole in the lid of it. 2 Kings 12:9.

Did you know that a money-box was mentioned in the Bible? one with a hole in the lid too! You will find all about it in the twelfth chapter of the Second Book of Kings. If you look at the ninth verse you will see that “Jehoiada the priest took a chest, and bored a hole in the lid of it, and set it beside the altar, on the right side as one cometh into the house of the Lord: and the priests that kept the door put therein all the money that was brought into the house of the Lord.” The chest with the hole in the lid was a kind of collection plate. It stood in the Temple, and the people gave the priests their offerings to put into it. When it was full it was carried away to the palace of the king himself, and the high priest and the king's chancellor opened it there, and counted the offerings in the chest, and tied them up in bags. Then they used the money to pay for repairing and beautifying the Temple, which at that time was sadly in need of repair.

Now, our text makes us think of piggy-banks and savings accounts, and I want to talk to you about them for a little while this morning. If you come to think of it there are just three things you can do with your money.

1. The first thing is spend it. That is the shortest way to dispose of it. You keep it only long enough to see how much it is, and then you fly along to the nearest shop and buy something with it, and you don't have that money any more.

2. The second thing is save it. You put money into your savings bank. At first sight this does not seem at all a nice way to dispose of your money. In fact you grudge horribly hiding it away in a box, and you drop it very slowly into the hole, especially if the box is one that needs to be broken before you can get the money out again. Putting the money in there makes it feel so horribly safe. Yes, but then it is safe, and you look forward to the day when you will see it once more. And as the bank grows heavier you grow rather proud of it, and try to count up how much there is inside. It is quite easy to count the larger change, but when you come to the pennies you get really mixed and give it up.

At last the glorious day arrives when the box is to be opened. Father or mother does it for you; and as you watch the coins tumble in a heap on the table, and as you pile them up, each after its kind, till the coin pile threatens to topple over, you feel it has been worth denying yourself all those little things you might have bought, for now you will be able to buy something of real value.

If you haven't got a savings-bank already, start one as soon as you can. It is a grand habit to be able to deny yourself today for the sake of tomorrow. Of course I don't ask you to drop in all your money. I don't wish you to grow greedy of money or mean in spending it. That would be ten times worse than spending your money foolishly.

3. But there is a third thing you can do with your money, and it is better than spending it or saving it. You can put it in God's bank. What! Has God a savings-bank? Certainly He has. And every dollar you give away to others goes straight into it. By giving it away you are not losing it, you are just giving it to God to keep. That sounds wonderful, but it is true. It is a splendid thing to have a savings- bank on the dining-room mantelpiece, but it is far more splendid to have a savings-bank in heaven. The money that we give to others from love or pity, we do not see again on earth, but God treasures it; and one day, when we go to live with Him, He will tell us how much we have in His savings-bank. And won't we be ashamed, and try to hide our faces, if the sum He mentions is very, very small?

But we must not run away with the idea that God despises small sums. You see, He counts quite differently from us. Suppose you have only a dollar, and you are looking forward to spending it on something you specially want, and suppose you give it away instead of spending it on yourself you must not think that God will count that dollar a sum too small to notice. Not a bit of it! He will count it as much as if you had had ten dollars and had given every one of the ten away. You see you gave what you could your all.

But it is not only money that God wishes you to put in His bank. He wishes you to put in kind thoughts and loving deeds. All these count as coin in God's money-box. So if you come out of a sweetshop with a bag of sweets in your pocket and you see two little boys outside gluing their noses against the pane and choosing what they would buy if only they had a dollar, don't forget to give them a good half of your bag of sweets. That will be so much in God's bank.

Or if mother is looking tired out, and you have half an hour between lessons and bedtime, offer to run her errands or help her somehow. That will be dropping money in God's bank. You see there are hundreds of ways you can invest in it.

Let me tell you a story to finish. It is a really true story, and it happened not long ago.

On the outskirts of a certain great city there lived a little boy called Jimmie. His father was dead, but he had a mother and a small brother named Bobbie and a tiny baby sister. They were all very poor, so poor that Jimmie had often no shoes to cover his feet, and very little bread to fill his hungry mouth. Later things grew worse, for his mother became ill, and could not work any longer. Then, just when things were desperate, something happened. An angel came to the house. At least she looked like an angel to Jimmie. She wore a grey cloak with sleeves like floating wings, and she had a bonnet with a long grey veil, and beneath the bonnet was a face oh! so sweet. And she smiled at Jimmie and called him “old man.” She asked him if he knew the way to such-and-such a street in the city. Jimmie did. Then she told him that she had come to spend the afternoon with his mother, but that she wished to send a message to a certain house in that street. Would Jimmie take it? Of course Jimmie would. Then she took a look at Jimmie's bare red feet which he was rubbing one on the other to keep them warm, and she drew money out of her purse, and she said, “It's a long road, and you've no shoes, and there is snow on the ground; here's money for you. Take the car!”

Jimmie sped off like an arrow, and mounted the car steps, and paid his fare like a man; and wasn't he just proud! When he reached the street, he found the house and delivered the message, and then he started out for home. Now something was worrying Jimmie and it was that neither Bobbie nor Baby was sharing his treat. He wanted them to have a good time too. Just then he passed in front of one of those shops where cakes and biscuits and toys and sweets are gloriously mixed in the window. And suddenly Jimmie knew what he should do. Said he to himself, “I'll run all the way home, and may be it won't hurt too bad, and then Bobbie can have that whistle, and Baby will get that ball, and there'll be a little left over to buy a cake for each of them.” So he marched into the shop and bought the whistle, and the ball, and the two cakes. And the woman actually put the cakes in a bag, and he stowed away the toys in the only one of his pockets that hadn't holes. Then he ran all the road home, and whenever he stopped to take breath he had a peep into the bag and a peep into his pocket to be sure the things were still there. And when he got home, very hot and breathless, and showed the angel in the bonnet what he had done, and hoped she wouldn't be angry, she only smiled all the sweeter. As for Bobbie and Baby! You should have seen them! That's all!

Now Jimmie invested that day in God's bank. He invested not only money but a great deal of love. And that is what God wants even more than money.

Boys and girls, make up your mind today that, however small, however empty your savings-bank on earth may be, your savings-bank in heaven will, please God, be both large and full.