God Doesn’t Guarantee Wealth – Proverbs 15:16-17

“We didn’t know we were poor.”  You’ve heard people say this and what normally follows it is something like, “We had so much love as a family,” or “Everyone else around us was poor, too, so we didn’t notice.”  It is not a denial that they were poor, but a denial that lack of money was the most important reality.

Better is a little with the fear of the LORD than great treasure and trouble with it.

Better is a dinner of herbs where love is than a fattened ox and hatred with it. (Proverbs 15:16–17, ESV)

It is assumed by each of these proverbs that treasure and plenty of food are good things.  It is also understood that treasure and plenty of food is no insulation from trouble and family strife.  It is assumed that poverty and lack of food is bad.  It is also understood that knowing Yahweh and having a loving family can make any situation better.

So if you don’t have wealth but you do have Yahweh and love, there is no need to envy those who have wealth when they also have trouble and conflict.  Not that it is okay to envy those with wealth, period.  Nor is it okay to envy those who have knowledge of Yahweh and a loving family.  Envy is only another way of saying that you don’t trust Yahweh and are ungrateful for what He has given you.

Strive, if you will, for the whole kit and caboodle:  knowing Yahweh, a loving family and plenty of money.  But don’t see money in itself as the answer to life.  It ain’t.

A wise person should have money in their head, but not in their heart. –Jonathan Swift
Money often costs too much. –Ralph Waldo Emerson
An investment in knowledge pays the best interest. –Benjamin Franklin
A nickel ain’t worth a dime anymore. –Yogi Berra