Proverbs 10:2-3, God’s Ledger

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April 18, Proverbs 10:2-3

Ps. 49:6-8; 1 Tim. 6:9-10; 17-19 “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Mt. 6:21).

God’s Ledger

Here treasures of wickedness (v.2), and the substance of the wicked (v.3) set over against righteousness and the righteous; one is blasted, the other blessed!

1. Wicked Wealth: This is wealth or substance gotten by unjust methods or used for immoral purposes. It may mean any wealth, however gotten, that is not under the stewardship of God. Wicked wealth is worthless, and the substance of the wicked brings ruin. Viewed from the standpoint of this life only, appearances seem to be against this. Who does not want to be rich? Many proverbs recognise that wealth has definite merit and poverty decided handicap. The excesses that led “Saint” Francis to choose poverty as his Bride finds sanction neither in the Wisdom of Proverbs, nor in the teaching of the New Testament. The difference, as one writer put it, is between cash and character.

a. The Reality: In God’s Ledger the treasures of wickedness profit nothing. Since riches profit nothing (Pr. 11:4; 23:5), how much less do treasures of wickedness? Only recall Achan and Jericho (Josh. 7), or King Ahab who brought God’s curse upon himself and his house, over Naboth’s vineyard (1 Kg. 21:4f), or the fool who became rich, but lost his own soul. Judas received the thirty pieces of silver but they were like hot coals in his hands, and having cast them down, he plunged to eternal death. It is only when the rich are sick or dying that they actually face the reality of the impotence of wealth.

b. The Liability: In God’s Ledger, wealth is not what we have, but what we are. Sadly, many who have found gold have lost God! Even the pagan Epicurus said, “Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.”

Dug from the mountain-side, washed in the glen,
Servant am I or the master of men;
Steal me, I curse you; earn me, I bless you;
Grasp me and hoard me – a fiend shall possess you;
Live for me, die for me, covet me, take me –
Angel or devil, I am what you make me.

A millionaire who had been born poor, but whose money was now an idol, was showing his property to a Quaker. This genial friend praised what he was shown. “The almighty dollar has done it all,” said the millionaire. “What cannot money do?” The Quaker looked sad and said, “Thy question reminds me of the people in the desert. They bowed down to the golden calf and said it was that which brought them out of Egypt. As it turned out it hindered them and kept them out of the Promised Land. It would be an awful thing if thy gold kept thee out of heaven. You ask, ‘What cannot money do? It cannot deliver thy soul’”.

Thought: “Wealth ruins more souls than poverty” (J.C. Ryle). 

Prayer: Lord, when I leave this earth, that I might go to my riches in heaven.