An Inspirational Message for the Month of April 2024 – Down to Earth Wisdom from the Book of Proverbs – Money Matters – By Charles Schokman
If ‘money talks’, as the saying goes, the most common word in its vocabulary seems to be, “Goodbye”! No wonder Solomon wrote, “Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle” (Prov 23.5). A recent Gallup statistic puts the median annual household income worldwide (including extremes of wealth and poverty) at US$9,733. Australians overall are doing well with a mean income of $79,800, according to Forbes Advisor – though others give slightly different figures.
King Solomon, the main author, and compiler of the book of Proverbs was one of the richest men of his day, obscenely so! 1 Kings 10:14 informs us “The weight of the gold that Solomon received yearly was 666 talents…” 666 talents is 23 metric tons which is 50,705 oz which at current prices comes to an annual income of US$92,800,000 ($1 billion, 400 million in Australian dollars). No doubt this exaggerates the value in Solomon’s day, but today it would put him today into the top ten highest earners in the world, (but not give him the top slot, which is a whopping 18.8 million a year). In his wisdom Solomon was smart enough to write in Ecclesiastes 5:10: “Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income.”
There is a very good reason he will never be satisfied with his income, and it is this: “A man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” (Luke 12:15). To define a person by their money is to devalue them. Twice the New Testament warns, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil” (1 Tim 6:10), and “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have…” (Heb 13:5). For one thing, a love of money is built around a superficial value that money equals ‘success’ and contentedness. Secondly, a love of money is founded on an illusion that goes something like this: The more money I have, the more content I will be. The reality is, the more I have, the more I can lose, the more I can lose the more I have to look after, the more I have to look after, the more worried I become about losing it. So, the very thing we think will bring contentment, brings anxiety. That’s why “whoever loves wealth is never satisfied”. Their value system is fundamentally flawed and corrupted. Money may be a good servant, but it is a bad master. Now what does the book of Proverbs tell us about money?
THE REALITIES OF MONEY
We can’t get by without money! We need homes to live in, food to eat, clothes to wear, vehicles to get around in, and the money to pay for it all. Money is shrouded in both virtue and vice in Scripture. Solomon pleads for the supremacy of wisdom as being ‘more profitable than silver’ and as an investment, it “yields better returns than Gold” (Prov 3.14), yet he also says the bi-products of wisdom are, “Long life is in her right hand, and in her left hand are riches and honor”. This does not mean the foolish die young and poor, but that wisdom detached from a preoccupation with wealth will lead to a satisfying life with contentedness, but as a byproduct may lead to “riches and honor”. But they are a fruit, not the goal.
Solomon gives an illustration of money needing to be earned, “Go to the ant you sluggard, consider its ways and be wise…. It stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest.” (Prov 6.6-8) Storing today for tomorrow, in the summer for the cold of winter, is being responsible. Solomon’s best advice on accumulating money is surely: “Dishonest money dwindles away. But he who gathers money little by little makes it grow.” (Prov 13.11) If ‘little by little’ seems too little, then we might have a problem! Be warned: “An inheritance quickly gained at the beginning will not be blessed at the end.” (Prov 20.21). This is surely why gambling is a dangerous pastime, or worse, an addiction. The lottery has been called a tax on the poor and the foolish, who want a quick fix to poverty and an unearned surge in their wealth, go for it. Winston Churchill said, “Parents should not leave their children money, but horses”, meaning horses as the means to make money. If the father of the prodigal son had given him land, oxen, tools, and a few workers the story may have been a very different one. His immediate, unearned inheritance entitled him and corrupted him. So, a warning from Solomon, “Better a little with righteousness than much gain with injustice” (Proverbs 16.8). Ironically, “A stingy man is eager to get rich.” (Prov 28.22) It’s the stinginess of his heart that creates the appetite for more and more! Money is necessary but keep it all in balance: “Do not wear yourself out to get rich. Have the wisdom to show restraint” (Prov 23.4).
Wealth and possessions have a transient value. Job wrote, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart”. Money loses its currency with our final breath. This was vividly illustrated to me many years ago when one of the world’s richest men of his day, Aristotle Onassis, died. On the morning he died, I read a newspaper article on Onassis with a box insert entitled, ‘How Much Is He Worth?’ They tried to estimate his vast assets. After he died later that day, I picked up a late edition of the same newspaper, which had the same box insert but with one word changed: “How Much Was He Worth?” It had moved from ‘is’ to ‘was’. All his assets became past tense with his last breath. Interestingly, Onassis left the same amount I will leave when I die – everything! “Riches do not last forever” (Prov 27.24). Hence “Do not boast about tomorrow for you do not know what a day may bring forth.” (Prov 27.1)
THE RISKS WITH MONEY
Tim Keller in his book ‘Counterfeit Gods’ speaks of ‘greed’ as a ‘spiritual addiction’. He says, “money can become so much more than the means of exchange, it can become a powerful life-altering, culture-shaping god that eventually breaks the hearts of its worshippers”. He cites leading bankers in the USA and UK who committed suicide during the recession a few years ago. Take away their money, and life was bereft of meaning. He says of counterfeit gods that ‘we get to the stage where we are driven to break the rules we once honored and to harm others and even ourselves to get it.’
Turn money from being a servant to being a master and we set on a course which may seem to offer much but will eventually let us down. “Whoever trusts in riches will fall.” (Prov 11.28) Material riches are intrinsically neutral but potentially dangerous. How do we know when they become dangerous? Jesus gives a clue in the Sermon on the Mount: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth,… But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven … (Matt 6:19-20). If his hearers were wondering where in those two options their ‘treasure’ lay, he gave them a test: “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” To identify where our heart is is to identify what our treasure is. David warned, “…though your riches increase, do not set your heart on them.” (Psalm 62:10) To keep our heart healthily detached from riches is to plot a safe course. Hence Proverbs tells us to: “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life”. (Prov 4:23).
Wealth can be a means of exploiting the poor. “He who oppresses the poor to increase his wealth and he who gives gifts to the rich – both come to poverty.” (Prov 22:16) Wealth is about having choice, and the ability to choose, gives the ability to abuse. Therefore, “Do not exploit the poor because they are poor” (Prov 22.22), but in contrast: “A generous man will himself be blessed, for he shares his food with the poor” (Prov 22.9) and “He who gives to the poor will lack nothing, but he who closes his eyes receives many curses. (Prov 28.27) This is not threatening, but a statement of moral law that “A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed” (Prov 11:25)
THE RESPONSIBILITIES WITH MONEY
As a terrible master, but liberating servant, Solomon talks about the right use of money to enjoy and maximise its benefits. “Honour the Lord with your wealth…then your barns will be filled to overflowing.” (Prov 3.9) Generosity provides sufficiency and giving away ensures we will always have enough! It may seem a paradox but is a true principle: “One man gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty. A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed.” (Prov 11:24-25) No one comes to poverty because they give away too much, for “A generous man will himself be blessed, for he shares his food with the poor.” (Prov 22.9)
Living within our means and spending wisely will leave us content. I used to say regularly to my three children as they were growing up, that the difference between content and misery is two cents! Earn a dollar and spend 99 cents and you will be content; earn a dollar and spend 101 cents and you will be miserable. I got the idea from Charles Dicken’s Mr. Macawber in David Copperfield, and the principle stands us in good stead. It is the basic law of economics. Debt is expensive, disheartening and brings misery.
Solomon had a wise motto we can well take on board, “…give me neither poverty nor riches but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, `Who is the Lord?’ Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.” (Prov 30.7-9) Not too much, not too little, just ‘my daily bread’. Does that ring a bell? It was the prayer of the Lord Jesus, ‘give us this day our daily bread’. That is safe, and it is enough!
Courtesy of Charles Price
Zig Zaglar, one of the most successful salesmen turned a motivation speaker had rightly put across his thoughts about money, “Money will buy you a bed, but not a good night’s sleep; a house but not a home; a companion but not a friend.”
