The blessing of the Lord makes one rich,
And He adds no sorrow with it.
Proverbs 10:22 (NKJV).
God doesn't make you feel bad for being blessed, and being blessed, you will have material gain.
The root word in the original language is "ashar", which means "to be or become rich".
If you look at the other instances, the context is, even in the derivations, about wealth, though certainly some of the different tangible forms of it.
Why do I make such an emphasis?
First, because Jesus was an ascetic of sorts, and so were many of his disciples, and modern folks in thinking that they need to be more like Jesus, believe that they must also likewise be without any material attachment.
Second, add on top of this the secular systems of morality where reality is often treated as a zero-sum, where to win someone else always must lose, and so even if you believe you've gained by legitimate means, you're actually still guilty of taking from someone else even if you don't understand how.
In this light, modern Christians are prompted to be ashamed of God's blessings. Making good choices and reaping the rewards carries a connotation of conquest, not simply of achievement. The temptation is to believe that, not only should we not strive in this life, even if we are granted gain by God, it's our job and our duty to divest ourselves as soon as possible so that we can "be a blessing unto others".
Yet in this passage, when God blesses, God adds no sorrow. Think about that.
It should make sense. Why would God bless people and then send along sorrow?
Well, if God were capricious or vindictive like the gods of man's creation, then it would make sense because the love was not genuine or unconditional, but entirely conditional and subject to change.
Convincing people that God is no different than a god or gods is a surefire way to undermine any other claims that would follow, which makes sense given that this position is held by the portion of the world which is in rebellion with God. If there's only one genuine path to salvation, then it won't matter which alternative people actually end up on, so long as they do not take that one path.
Misery loves company, an so one should not just seek to denigrate God, but any benefit that a follower of God could obtain through their association with God. They have to poison the entire well and then seek to fill it with rocks and do anything they can to discourage genuine faith and the obedience which is a reflection of that faith.
We should not be sorrowful at the disparity of circumstances that exists between those God has blessed and those God has not blessed. We should not add in sorrow that God did not intend for us, that we think is justified by an incoherent secular morality.
God's blessings will make one rich, and God does not intend for sorrow to be your response to such blessings.
Showing posts with label Poor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Poor. Show all posts
31.5.18
Daily Bible Study - Proverbs 10:15
The rich man’s wealth is his strong city;
The destruction of the poor is their poverty.
Proverbs 10:15 (NKJV).
Sometimes the message is very simple, but what comes out of that simplicity can become rather complex. When you have resources, you have means by which you can protect yourself, you have means by which you can manifest your will in this world, and if you do not have resources or power, those that do can rule over you.
Think of the phrase "beggars can't be choosers." The nugget of truth here is that if you do not have, and you are asking from those who do, and especially if it is not deserved (like a wage), the person asking is in no position to deny that which they have been given.
In our modern world, however, this has been upended by the "victim identity". No longer is your moral value determined by the choices you make, but by the choices others have made which negatively affected you, and so now restitution must be made and there are none who have any moral authority to disagree.
Rooted in consequences, there is some element of this dynamic which holds true. If you've been wronged by someone else, then restitution does need to be made, and the Bible shows records of how that process worked for Israel on a variety of different topics. The terms and conditions were set beforehand so that a vindictive spirit would not prevail in the process of restitution, but note that even here within Proverbs we have seen that some sins bear a cost which cannot ever be repaid.
When the dynamic of being wronged and needing restitution goes beyond a circumstance and becomes your identity, however, you are perpetually wronged and perpetually justified in whatever you do in seeking restitution.
On modern secular morality, the "beggar is the chooser", and so everyone is in a rush to be recognized as the most impoverished, the most persecuted, the most victimized, so as to maximize their currency in the economy of victim-hood. The bigger the victim you are, the more you can demand, and the less anyone can say anything about it.
Instead of seeking to be the rich man, then, people seek to be the poor man so they can just take the rich man's riches for themselves, as that is indefinitely easier than having to earn and keep those riches by their own efforts.
All the sudden, you deserve anything and everything you can imagine, because if you've been infinitely wronged, you're entitled to an infinite amount of "right", of "justice", to compensate.
Solomon's wisdom is that resources are a form of protection, and in the modern economy, the "riches" are no longer monetary, but circumstantial. In the modern world, "victimization" is the stronghold of the "rich", and the "oppression" of the "poor" is their destruction. It almost makes sense, doesn't it?
Either way, keep in mind this dynamic the next time someone promotes asceticism, or discusses reconciliation for some fictional wrongdoing. What you are being asked to give up is power over your circumstances in order to gain power in some abstract dimension of moral economics.
It's always about power, who has it, and what they'll do with it, and at the most basic level, everyone wants to survive and thrive, so they're going to scheme and toil as best they can to achieve just that.
Everyone is doing it, there are no exceptions, and people who claim otherwise are prime examples of those whose strategy requires deceit and lies instead of a more direct confrontation.
The destruction of the poor is their poverty.
Proverbs 10:15 (NKJV).
Sometimes the message is very simple, but what comes out of that simplicity can become rather complex. When you have resources, you have means by which you can protect yourself, you have means by which you can manifest your will in this world, and if you do not have resources or power, those that do can rule over you.
Think of the phrase "beggars can't be choosers." The nugget of truth here is that if you do not have, and you are asking from those who do, and especially if it is not deserved (like a wage), the person asking is in no position to deny that which they have been given.
In our modern world, however, this has been upended by the "victim identity". No longer is your moral value determined by the choices you make, but by the choices others have made which negatively affected you, and so now restitution must be made and there are none who have any moral authority to disagree.
Rooted in consequences, there is some element of this dynamic which holds true. If you've been wronged by someone else, then restitution does need to be made, and the Bible shows records of how that process worked for Israel on a variety of different topics. The terms and conditions were set beforehand so that a vindictive spirit would not prevail in the process of restitution, but note that even here within Proverbs we have seen that some sins bear a cost which cannot ever be repaid.
When the dynamic of being wronged and needing restitution goes beyond a circumstance and becomes your identity, however, you are perpetually wronged and perpetually justified in whatever you do in seeking restitution.
On modern secular morality, the "beggar is the chooser", and so everyone is in a rush to be recognized as the most impoverished, the most persecuted, the most victimized, so as to maximize their currency in the economy of victim-hood. The bigger the victim you are, the more you can demand, and the less anyone can say anything about it.
Instead of seeking to be the rich man, then, people seek to be the poor man so they can just take the rich man's riches for themselves, as that is indefinitely easier than having to earn and keep those riches by their own efforts.
All the sudden, you deserve anything and everything you can imagine, because if you've been infinitely wronged, you're entitled to an infinite amount of "right", of "justice", to compensate.
Solomon's wisdom is that resources are a form of protection, and in the modern economy, the "riches" are no longer monetary, but circumstantial. In the modern world, "victimization" is the stronghold of the "rich", and the "oppression" of the "poor" is their destruction. It almost makes sense, doesn't it?
Either way, keep in mind this dynamic the next time someone promotes asceticism, or discusses reconciliation for some fictional wrongdoing. What you are being asked to give up is power over your circumstances in order to gain power in some abstract dimension of moral economics.
It's always about power, who has it, and what they'll do with it, and at the most basic level, everyone wants to survive and thrive, so they're going to scheme and toil as best they can to achieve just that.
Everyone is doing it, there are no exceptions, and people who claim otherwise are prime examples of those whose strategy requires deceit and lies instead of a more direct confrontation.
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