Year 2, Day 313: Proverbs 22

Reputation Is Worth More Than Riches

Proverbs 22 seems to begin with a nod pointing towards a different perspective.  We begin with a statement that seems unfathomable from the world’s perspective.  A good name is to be chosen rather than riches.  You might want to argue my claim that this is unfathomable.  You might want to think that just simply isn’t true.  You might think you can rattle of a whole list of names that would choose a good name over vast wealth.  So ask yourself one question.

A random person on the street is given a simple choice.   The choice is between:

• Living a normal life where the person is wise, respected, and just barely managing to get by; or,
• Winning the lottery and being guaranteed enough money per month to want for nothing for the rest of one’s  life.

What do you think the average person picks? Sure, I know there are going to be a few people out there who pick the wisdom and respect.  I’d like to hope that I’d be one of them!  But even in that scenario, can you convince me that even those people who do pick the good name over riches won’t give serious thought to the money?

Our human nature wants the money.  We want the ability to never feel unfulfilled desire.  We would love the opportunity to have the resources to get anything our heart desires.  And there we discover the foundation of my argument.  Humanity inherently desires the wrong things.  We can indeed know what it is like to have our desires fulfilled.  We just need to learn to desire the things that God gives to us rather than the things we wish to acquire for ourselves.

Would we really choose a good name over riches?  Do we really believe that we must be humble before our God to experience blessing?  Sure, we can get there.  But we can only get there with the Lord’s help and with genuine discipleship training.  On our own and left to our own devices, we want to fulfill the desires of our human heart.

It Starts As A Child

This leads us to the significance of verse 6.  Train up a child in the way that the child should go and the child will not depart from that path.  Okay, you and I both know that there will be side trips away from the path.  We all will occasionally make mistakes as we seek out our identity and our freedom.  But if we train a child in the ways of God when the child does stray and try to find themselves they will return to their internal compass that has been shared with them through the power of the Holy Spirit.  When we take the time to instill value into our children, we can have a community that sets its desires on God’s ways and not our own ways.

Seeing Through God’s Eyes

Verse 9 is an intriguing perspective for me today.  Whoever has a bountiful eye will be blessed.  I think this verse is deeper than I originally gave it credit.  The person who has a bountiful eye sees in the perspective of God.  The person with the bountiful eye sees the generosity of God.  The person with the bountiful eye doesn’t mind sharing because they see all the possibilities for God to return that blessing.  What is the old cliché?  You can’t out-give God.  I think the person who understands that you can’t out-give God is a person who lives with a bountiful eye.

Community

This chapter ends with a string of proverbs that has to do with community life. 

• We are not to move landmarks.  In other words, we’re not to try and expand our own territory by moving the markers that delineate the boundary of our property.  We’re not to try and cheat our neighbors.
• We are not to hang out with angry people because we’ll learn their ways.  When we hang out with people who continually express anger, we learn to see the world through angry eyes.  When we hang around with people who choose strife over love, we will find ourselves pursuing strife instead of love.
• We are not to give a pledge, because we cannot know the future.  What will happen to us if we cannot make good on our pledge?  We will lose not only the thing we were attempting to acquire but we’ll also lose what we do have.  I’m going to be brutally honest here.  This repeated theme in the Proverbs has really been a challenge to me.  I’m a new home-owner.  I can’t deny that I have made a pledge to the mortgage company.  What happens if I can’t live up to that pledge?  I’ll lose it all – the home I am attempting to acquire as well as the stuff I currently possess.  I can’t deny confessing that the American process of buying a home – or a car, or most expensive items – really does go against the repeated wisdom of the Proverbs.  This is one area where our culture makes it nearly impossible to adhere to God’s desire for community.

This is a challenging chapter on many accounts.  It has challenge for how we prioritize our life.  It has challenge for how we think.  It has challenge for how we relate to others.  It has challenge for how we perceive the culture around us.  This is not an easy chapter to hear without questioning aspects of our life and wondering if we really are abiding by God’s desire.

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