Listen to the full conversation from Impact Radio hosting Jaco de Wet.
A father gave his nine-year-old son R 100 000 and told him to take care of it, manage it well, and be faithful with every single rand. The money still belonged to the father, and the son was simply its caretaker.
Jaco de Wet used this picture this week on Impact Radio’s Afternoon Drive show to explain what he means by “biblical financial stewardship.”
Who is Jaco de Wet?
Jaco founded Writing with Rands, a financial education company that teaches practical, God-honouring money skills to individuals, couples, churches, and organisations across South Africa. He is a Chartered Accountant, a Chartered Global Management Accountant, and a financial planner registered with the FSCA, and he currently serves as Chief Financial Officer of Omnea. He also wrote a book called The Second Best Guide to Financial Stewardship, a practical guide to God-honouring finances.
What the Hebrew text says
Jaco joined the show to elaborate on the theme of this year’s FLOW Conference, “All Work is Worth-ship,” and how our worship and our jobs are more related than most people realise. He led the audience to a key passage in Genesis.
Genesis 1:28 — God’s instruction to humanity to have dominion over the earth and to subdue it.
In Hebrew, Jaco explained, the word for subdue means to bring order out of chaos and to unlock the potential hidden inside creation. That means work itself existed before the fall of man, and every job carries the potential to become an act of worship. A teacher unlocking potential in a classroom is worshipping through her work, and so is anyone solving problems and building order within a business.
Money is a hammer, not a trophy
“Once we get paid for the value we create,” Jaco said, “the same rule applies to how we manage it.” This is where the illustration of the nine-year-old son comes back in. It is one thing to manage money well. It is another thing entirely to hold it loosely enough to give it away when asked.
Jaco compared money to a hammer, which is odd and useless to hoard but useful and even beautiful in the hands of a skilled user. He told us that money is just a tool and a great servant for a cause greater than ourselves.
Every story counts
Jaco also spoke directly to those who, like stay-at-home parents, hospital employees, and clerks, believe their jobs are meaningless. He gave the example of a single mother who makes very little money but uses it to pay for her child’s education, changing the child’s future. She is using her money to write a story that is just as meaningful as that of any large business owner and that the faithfulness of her actions is more important than the amount in her possession.
Join the conversation at FLOW Conference 2026
Jaco will go into further detail about these concepts at the FLOW Conference 2026, which will be held at Loft at Nine in Menlo Park, Pretoria, on October 10 and have the theme All Work is Worth-ship. The full-day programme runs from 8am in the morning until 5pm in the afternoon and includes lunch and refreshments.
Jaco will be joined by a speaker line-up that includes Patrick Kuwana, Elize-Marie Müller, Rick Moser, Retief Burger, Talitha de Klerk, and Tyrone Brand.
Tickets cost only R405 and are available here.
Get your ticket today and spend the 10th of October rethinking what your work, and your money, are really worth.
