THIRTY SAYINGS OF THE WISE
SAYING NUMBER SEVEN
“Do not
wear yourself out to get rich; do not trust your own cleverness. 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.” (Proverbs 23:4–5, NIV)
Both the transience of wealth and the foolhardiness of
making wealth your life goal is shown here to be inane. There is a brilliant, literary device in
these two verses. Think of a bird and
note that “a wordplay on the
Hebrew root for “fly” (‘wp) in the
first and last lines of verse 5 urges readers not to let their eyes fly to
riches, because as soon as the eyes land on them, they also will sprout wings
and fly.”[1]
Canadian business man and entrepreneur Kevin O’Leary is famously noted
for saying, “The only reason to do business is to make money; that's the
only reason for doing business.”[2]
“Hard work to provide the necessities of life is a virtue.
Exhausting yourself to chase riches is foolishness. When you harness all your
energies in the race for materialism, you sacrifice other, more important
goals.”[3]
But the Wiseman not only calls us to have worthy goals and
realistic expectations, but in the pursuit of wealth, one should not “trust in
your own cleverness”. One might well ask
then, when it comes to work and our labour, what should our goal be? The Bible is not silent on this. Note the following:
“and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet
life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we
told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that
you will not be dependent on anybody.” (1 Thessalonians 4:11–12, NIV)
“Anyone who has been stealing must steal no
longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they
may have something to share with those in need.” (Ephesians 4:28, NIV)
One might well suggest that rather than wealth being the
goal of choice, it is better to simply seek enough income to provide for your
family and have sufficient to help others in need. Paul seemed to indicate that in his letter to
Timothy recorded in 1 Timothy
6:8–10 (NIV),
8 But if we have food
and clothing, we will be content with that. 9 Those who want to get
rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires
that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of
money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have
wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
It is one thing to lose the riches that we set our ambition
on; it is another thing to lose one’s faith.
That should be warning enough for Christians to get their priorities
right.
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