Withholding Bread: The Curse of Selfish Commerce

He that withholdeth corn, the people shall curse him (Proverbs 11:26). In Solomon's day, famines were frequent and trade communications uncertain between nations. Merchants would hoard grain to artificially raise prices, enriching themselves while the hungry suffered. Yet Scripture addresses this greed with remarkable restraint. As Mr. Arnot observed, no arbitrary regulation dictates when or at what price the grain merchant must sell. Instead, Elohim entrusts the weak's protection to "great self-acting providential arrangements." The double fact stands distinct: he who hoards corn to enrich himself is loathed, while he who sells freely is loved. No law is enacted, no temporal penalty threatened—only the inevitable curse of human contempt.

But this principle extends beyond material bread. If withholding perishable grain brings curse, what weight of condemnation falls upon those who withhold the bread of eternal life? Ministers may lock the Word of God behind unknown language or incomprehensible jargon—theological terms, philosophical definitions, scientific language that the young ploughman or praying shopkeeper cannot grasp. Simplicity remains the authorized style of true gospel ministry. Worse still, some keep back the vital truths of revelation, emphasizing secondary matters. Morality feeds no hungry soul. Dissuasives from vice alone provide no heavenly bread. The great doctrines of grace must be proclaimed—the Word as the sword of the Spirit, preached plainly as it is in Jesus, that souls might be nourished unto eternal life.