A Generation of Gamblers

I recently wrote a short message on gambling, simply asking us to read and reflect on Proverbs 1: 10 – 19.

I want today to get us understand what God is saying in those few verses.

I know many shut off when they saw words like blood and lying in wait; and that is where I want us to start.

What is profit, especially when we are talking about excessive profit? Is it not really taking advantage?

Someone is looking for a pen and you know the shop that sells it. You go to the shop, buy it, and then sell to your friend at double or thrice its price. Some will even tell the shop to tell customers that it is out of stock to enable this broker hit the jackpot as the only one selling that pen even if he is selling it from someone’s shop. And the shop will not have any problem since you are selling better than they were doing.

Lying in wait simply means watching for that opportunity to take advantage of someone, either because you have prior information or are connected to a source.

What is hoarding? Why does God hate it?

Is hoarding not similar to what gamblers are calling a sure bet? You know a shortage of something is looming and therefore hide it so that you will be the only one having it when the shortage hits. Then people will be pleading with you, not to reduce the price, but sell it at whatever price.

Look at us. Is this talking about people out there or does it not hit too close to home?

Why is making the kill the most attractive of offers anywhere? What are we killing and why?

What makes most of these offers gambles?

In the passage there is putting your lot with us and a common purse. It therefore means you must put your money with the ‘expert’ so that you will share spoils. It cannot be gambling if they are not baiting you to invest.

Second is that it is them who opened your eyes to invest. It was not as a result of your independent investigation and investment. It certainly was not a product of prayer or revelation.

Sadly, pastors are among the most powerful peddlers of these gambling rings. From pyramid schemes to today’s real estate gambles, you will find pastors, bishops and even churches at the forefront of the schemes. Some ‘christian’ media stations dedicate insane amounts of airtime to these schemes that you wonder whether Jesus changed His purpose for the world to acquiring that irresistible plot or joining that multilevel marketing scheme.

The winning trait in the gambling plot is someone who has all the moves. He just needs your little money to get you into the big league. And many times the pitch is so effective you may discover long after you have invested everything.

Remember the quails the other year in Kenya? How many burnt their fingers terribly? Yet to date I think quail farming is viable if one forgot about those insane profits that were meant to bait people to invest in a plain farming venture.

Let me illustrate using these plots they are selling, that even churches have opened schemes to become real estate ventures.

Who doesn’t know that land decreases in monetary value the farther you get from amenities and especially cities? Yet there are these irresistible offers of an eighth of an acre at unbeatable prices. And people pour their money there without enquiring whether they are buying that eight at the price of an acre. You see, many use city valuation to assess property values.

The other thing gambling denies is forethought. You buy those tiny plots so far from anywhere without asking what you will do with them apart from holding them to selling them later at a profane profit. Or do you ever think you have a chance of going to live hundreds of miles from anywhere you know? Or does building a rental premises in a place without people make you a successful landlord?

But we love to gamble. And it is because we love short cuts and crazy profits. That is why we fall for the conmen en masse. And we think it is a better bargain if more of us fall prey for those get rich quick schemes.

You are gambling if you are buying something you do not need just because someone tells you it will appreciate in price fivefold in a short time. You are gambling if you are joining something that promises to earn you money without having to do something. And you are a gambler if you have joined something that pays more for introducing people than selling products. I do not think you realize that you are a gambler if you cannot explain how you earn those crazy profits.

You are a gambler if you attend a church because the high and mighty attend it. You are a gambler if you support ministry because of how successful it looks. You are a gambler if you are always reading those numbers before you invest.

Where is the place of revelation? Where is the place of the Shepherd’s voice? Sadly, most under-shepherds are hirelings who have stretched their hands to alternative sources instead of being content with their primary boss. And they confuse the sheep under their watch because they try to satisfy both bosses, an impossibility according to Jesus.

What with the pastors who offer keys for marriage or business or visa and everything else in between. If you must have someone’s prayers with nothing of an effort on your side (except of course giving), you are gambling. If attending that service or conference is your key to your success, then it is a gamble you are taking. God has more for you beyond grabbing and reaching out to that expert. God grows you to give you and anything that seems to overthrow or trash that order is a gamble. Look at that irresistible offer in that lens you will realize that a lot of what we are pursuing is emptiness; vanity as Solomon said.

Do you really believe that God is the one who gives power to make wealth or must you grab and take advantage of whatever small opening you see irrespective of the collateral damage it may cause?

The gambling spirit has defiled almost every enterprise.

People bought land because they needed it. Even the futuristic looking bought it to have something for posterity. Now most people buy land speculatively. Brother is killing brother because one is refusing to sell family land and the millions must be got. Even pastoralists are killing for land because its price has skyrocketed and they realize they must expand their acreage. Sadly it is brother going for brother. Land has stopped being for farming or herding. It has become a source of unlimited wads of cash.

Sadly, they sell, enjoy pleasure and end up worse they were initially, a thing I have seen so many times.

And that is the end of any gambling. There is no fulfillment. You covet and covet and covet. You grab and grab and grab. But you end up with sand in your mouth.