Proverbs on Wealth 
Part 1: Getting It 

Baxter T. Exum (#1741)
Four Lakes Church of Christ
Madison, Wisconsin
June 16, 2024

Good morning and welcome to the Four Lakes congregation! If you are visiting this morning or joining us online or on the phone, we are especially glad to have you with us, and we’d like to ask that you fill out a visitor card – online if you can, or if you are here in person, you can use one of the cards from the pew in front of you and give that to me on your way out this morning. We would love to hear from you, and we invite you to pass along any questions or prayer concerns.

And speaking of prayer concerns, I’d appreciate it if you guys would be praying for our summer session at Beaver Creek Bible Camp this week. After directing for more than 20 years, I am returning again this year to my dream job as “fire chief,” getting the campfires started twice a day. And due to some requests for “more hiking,” I’ll be leading some more hikes this year, taking half the campers on two different hikes, for a total of four afternoons of hiking on my part. And on Friday, they’ve asked for a class for the older campers on how to start a fire. We’ll be doing a lot of singing and study this week, and I am looking forward to it. And this year, Brendan is heading up to camp for the very first time, so it should be a great year, and we would appreciate it if you could be praying for us.

We come together each Lord’s Day to remind each other that God loves us and sent his only Son to give his life for us on the cross. He was buried, but then he was raised up on the first day of the week. This is the good news, and we obey this good news through faith, repentance, and baptism (an immersion in water for the forgiveness of sins). And this morning we are sharing some good news from the Lord’s church down in Selma, Alabama. They posted a few days ago, and they say, “Praise the Lord. Welcome our new brother Jamarius Johnson to the church of Christ through baptism!” And then they quote Galatians  3:26-27, where Paul says, “For you are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.  For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” We are thankful for the good news, and we share this example as part of our invitation to you: If you would like to do what Jamarius has done, or if you would like to learn more, let us know. We invite you to get in touch using the contact information on the wall up here, or if you are joining us on the phone, you can send a text or give me a call at 608-224-0274.

This morning, we are headed back to the book of Proverbs! As you might know, we are on the 30 year plan through the book of Proverbs. We’ve made our way through the first nine chapters (where we had some sense of context), and over the past year or so we have been looking (very sporadically) at the rest of the book, and we have been arranging our studies by topic. You might remember that I have printed out every verse in Proverbs 10-31, I have cut them in strips, and I’ve been working on dividing these by topic. Well, up to this point we have studied 322 out of the 915 proverbs, or right at 35%. Today we start a series-within-a-series by pulling out everything King Solomon says about WEALTH. So, I have scoured the book for any references to wealth or money or riches or treasure, and there have been so many that I’ve been arranging these by sub-topic.

Just to give you some idea of where we’re headed, I’m passing along a very rough outline of our schedule this summer. We’ll start today with Solomon’s advice on GETTING wealth. Next week we’ll take a look at how to LOSE your wealth (and some of the pitfalls of being wealthy). Then we have a song service (on the fifth Sunday). We come back in July to study the idea of CONTENTMENT (or enjoying our wealth). Then we look at the value of GIVING our wealth to others. I’ll need to take a time out to head to Hawaii for my mother-in-laws’ memorial service. And if the Lord wills, we’ll close this series with some bonus verses on LAZINESS on the first Sunday in August. So, this is where we are heading, and we may make some adjustments along the way, but this is the big picture.

Today, though, we start with 22 Proverbs that in some way touch on the idea of GETTING WEALTH. And we really need to start with the reminder that King Solomon was extremely wealthy. This goes back to when Solomon first took over as king after the death of his father, King David. In 1 Kings 3 God appears to Solomon in a dream and basically says, “Ask what you wish me to give you?” And Solomon, being a young man with no real experience asks God for wisdom so that he would lead God’s people appropriately. And in response, since Solomon didn’t ask for wealth, or power, or a long life, or the lives of his enemies, God basically gives Solomon everything, and Solomon ends up being one of the wealthiest men to ever live. Solomon’s wealth, then, is a gift from God, and along with wealth, God also blesses him with wisdom, and we have that wisdom in Proverbs.

Even before we get to the proverbs, I think most of us understand that there are some widely varying opinions out there in the religious world concerning the accumulation of wealth. On one hand, we have some who suggest that God wants us to be rich. Name it and claim it! If you pray to God, if you ask for wealth, and if you send in your miracle seed of faith gift to the preacher on television, God will bless you financially. But on the other extreme, we also have this idea that wealth is pretty much evil, and we have some who will misquote Paul by suggesting that “money is the root of all evil.” And so we have the idea that God’s people need to practically take a vow of poverty. So, there is some confusion out there, and I’m hoping that Solomon can clear that up for us over the next several weeks.

Well, before we even get to King Solomon’s advice on OBTAINING WEALTH, I do want us to just briefly look at three proverbs where he gives a few WARNINGS in this regard (to give some balance here). So, by way of introduction, the first of these three warnings can be found in Proverbs 10:2, where King Solomon warns his sons that “Ill-gotten gains do not profit, but righteousness delivers from death.” So, right away I hope we realize that not all wealth is good. In fact, “Ill-gotten gains do not profit.” If I lie, or cheat, or steal to obtain my wealth, there is no real benefit to that. In fact, we have a contrast here between righteousness and death. There are ways we can obtain wealth that will lead to death. We think of Achan in the book of Judges who took what he was not supposed to take from the rubble of Jericho, and he paid for that with his life. We think of Judas who betrayed the Son of God for thirty pieces of silver and paid for that with his life as well. The same can be said for Ananias and Sapphira and many others.  As Jesus said in today’s scripture reading (from Matthew 16:26), “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” The answer is: Nothing! No earthly treasure is worth trading in exchange for our soul.

We have another warning in Proverbs 15:27, where Solomon says that, “He who profits illicitly troubles his own house, but he who hates bribes will live.” So again, to “profit illicitly” is to “trouble your house.” Here, we are reminded that if we lie, cheat, or steal to obtain wealth, if we go looking for bribes, Solomon says that we invite trouble into our lives. And again, it’s not worth it.

And then we have a similar warning in Proverbs 28:6, where Solomon says, “Better is the poor who walks in his integrity than he who is crooked though he be rich.” He is not saying that it is better to be poor than to be rich, but he is warning, once again, about the danger of getting wealth by giving up your integrity. If you have to trade your integrity for wealth, it is better to be poor.

So, these are some warnings concerning gaining wealth. But, back to the positive part of this. What does God have to say through King Solomon concerning getting wealth? I’ve divided the rest of these into nine categories. And there is some overlap, these are not firm divisions that stand on their own, but these are nine general attitudes or behaviors that lead to the accumulation of wealth. And these come in no particular order.

    1. So, let’s start with a number of passages where King Solomon describes WORK or LABOR as leading to wealth.

And the first of these is Proverbs 12:11, where Solomon says that, “He who tills his land will have plenty of bread, but he who pursues worthless things lacks sense.” And with this first one, let’s give the reminder that this is a PROVERB. In other words, this is not an iron-clad guarantee, but this is a statement that is generally true. And I give the reminder, because we can obviously find some exceptions to this rule. We might have a drought, or a flood, or a plague of locusts, or whatever, but generally speaking, when someone tills his land, this person will eventually end up having plenty of bread. Hard work, then, leads to wealth (as a general rule).

And work is hard (or at least it can be). Especially farming. Some of you remember that we had a member years ago who had a successful career in the tech field and suddenly decided that he wanted to be a dairy farmer. So, he moved up here from Tennessee and the UW had a one-year program at that time, “How to Be a Dairy Farmer.” So, he and his family were with us for a year as he worked his way through that program, and then they moved up near Sheboygan to work on a dairy farm for a while. We visited him up there, and I was reminded that farming is hard work: Up at crazy o’clock in the morning, and doing all kinds of stuff. My conclusion after a day or two on the farm was that farmers do a whole lot of everything, and they are not fully qualified for any of it. They are veterinarians, but they aren’t. They are lumberjacks, but they aren’t. They are electricians, but they aren’t. They are plumbers, but they aren’t. And on and on and on. Farming is hard work, it’s dangerous, it’s tiring, but it leads to bread.

And with this, let’s remember that work was not part of the curse back in Genesis. Adam was actually given responsibility for taking care of the garden before the first sin. When sin entered the world, of course, work got a lot more difficult with the addition of weeds. So now, when we grow stuff, we have to deal with weeds. I’ve done some weeding this week, and I can assure you: It is not pleasant! But we till the ground, and weed, and water, and work for a reason: Work leads to “plenty of bread.”

On the other hand, Solomon also says that “he who pursues worthless things lacks sense.” And this is simply a reminder that in this life we face distractions. On one hand, we have work (that leads to bread), and on the other hand we have everything that may distract us from work (social media, sports, video games, and so on). We check the statistics, and we find that the average person spends HOURS on social media every day. As a Chief Inspector for elections held in the City of Madison, sometimes this is a real challenge. We had one election worker who was on her phone all day long. I had to constantly encourage her to pay attention to the work, but to minimize the damage to the public, I assigned her to be a greeter. But even there, she was annoyed whenever a voter would come in and ask a question, because it interrupted her phone time, and finally I had to ask the City Clerk not to send her to my polling location anymore. Not everybody is that bad, but it is a constant struggle to find balance, isn’t it? But the reminder here is that work leads to bread, while the one who pursues worthless things lacks sense.

A related proverb comes two verses later, where King Solomon says (in verse 14) that, “A man will be satisfied with good by the fruit of his words, and the deeds of a man’s hands will return to him.”  This is one of those that could easily fit in two categories (with a reminder that what we say can be very important), but I’ve included it here, because of that last phrase: What we do with our hands has a way of coming back to us (and I would take this in a positive way). The work of our hands can be rewarding. Whether we are building a house, or mowing a yard, or baking bread, there is a “return” for what we do with our hands.

The next proverb in this category comes to us in the next chapter, in Proverbs 13:8, where King Solomon says that, “The ransom of a man’s life is his wealth, but the poor hears no rebuke.” Some have taken this to be a negative reference, and it’s possible, but I would lean toward the “ransom” here being the idea of an exchange. We think of a “ransom” as being a payment made in exchange for someone’s life. And in a way, that’s what work is. We trade our life for wealth. We give up hours to make a living. And it’s not all bad.

The next one comes a few verses later, as King Solomon says (in verse 11), “Wealth obtained by fraud dwindles, but the one who gathers by labor increases it.” We could have easily put this at the beginning with those warnings or disclaimers: If we obtain wealth by fraud, it has a way of dwindling. It’s not permanent. And I’m guessing that King Solomon had seen this personally. He dealt with many suppliers in building the temple. He had seen some things. He had seen the get rich quick schemes. He had seen other wealthy men come and go, losing their fraudulent wealth rather quickly. “Easy come, easy go,” we might say. On the other hand, he also observed that those who worked for their wealth had a way of appreciating it and building it over time. Or, as we might also say, “Slow and steady wins the race.” Hard work over time has a way of building wealth.

This next one (in Proverbs 14:4) is deep and rather interesting as King Solomon observes that, “Where no oxen are, the manger is clean, but much revenue comes by the strength of the ox.” What a neat picture! An ancient farmer might farm with nothing but a stick or a hoe, and he would just barely grow enough for himself and his family. However, if he could scrimp and save for an ox, he’d be able to plow so much more, and then he could use the ox to grind the wheat and to transport that grain to market, and so on. Unfortunately, having an ox required some upkeep. You had to feed the ox, you had to build a shelter for an ox, and then that ox would make a mess that you’d have to clean up. When we went to see the guy who learned to be a dairy farmer here in Madison, I remember showing up at one of his farms, and he was in a Bobcat basically doing donuts in a barn full of cow manure. He was clearing the barn, scraping it clean, pushing it all aside. Animals are messy! So, you can choose: You can have a clean manger (or crib, as some translations have it) with no ox, or you can have an ox (multiplying your productivity and wealth many times over), and you can have a messy barn. An ox was the ancient equivalent of having a tractor. Tractors take maintenance, but that maintenance (that extra work) allows you to make a living. Here in the city, I might compare it to having a snowblower. Yes, I have to change the oil and fix some stuff here and there, but I can do more with it than without it. The same goes for cutting a tree down with an axe as opposed to a chainsaw, or accounting with an abacus as opposed to Excel, or unloading a truck by hand as opposed to using a forklift, and so on. Work can be messy and complicated, but it leads to “much revenue.”

The last proverb in this section comes later in the chapter, where (in Proverbs 14:23) King Solomon says that, “In all labor there is profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty.” So again, generally speaking, labor leads to profit, but just talking about work won’t quite get it done! We think of the parable Jesus told in Matthew 21:28-30 where one son said he would do the work but didn’t and the other son said he wouldn’t do the work but did. It’s the son who did the work who did his father’s will. Actions speak louder than words, and talking when we should be working is simply wasting valuable time.

As we come to the end of this first and largest category, let’s take this as a reminder to work hard and to be thankful for the work we do. Get to work early, stay late, work hard, go above and beyond, and as Paul reminds us (in Colossians 3), we are to do our work heartily, not as for man, but as if we are working for the Lord himself.

    2. As we continue, the rest of these will go much faster. Hard work may be the foundation of getting wealth, but Solomon also writes about the importance of WISDOM.

In Proverbs 14:24, King Solomon says that, “The crown of the wise is their riches, but the folly of fools is foolishness.” Wisdom gets results! If I go into business, I would much rather be wise than foolish! Wisdom allows us to perhaps work smarter, not harder. Or perhaps wisdom will keep us from taking unnecessary risks, keeping us from losing out to scams or bad investments. The wise will perhaps learn from the mistakes of others in the past. Generally speaking, wisdom has a way of bringing progress, and success, and wealth.

    3. This next one is closely related as we come to the importance of KNOWLEDGE – knowledge based on careful observation.

In Proverbs 27:23-27, King Solomon says to his sons,

Know well the condition of your flocks,
And pay attention to your herds; for riches are not forever,
Nor does a crown endure to all generations.
When the grass disappears, the new growth is seen,
And the herbs of the mountains are gathered in,
The lambs will be for your clothing,
And the goats will bring the price of a field,
And there will be goats’ milk enough for your food,
For the food of your household,
And sustenance for your maidens.

It’s interesting that as Solomon gives advice to his sons (the future kings), he tells them to pay careful attention to something as basic as the “flocks” and “herds.” But the context comes in the form of a reminder that “riches are not forever” and that a “crown [does not] endure to all generations.” In other words, wealth is not forever, but to keep it, you must pay attention to these things. Drought or disease can be catastrophic, so pay attention, because wealth all gets back to the basics; so, take care of your stuff! Be aware. Observe.

Now, obviously, we may say, “I don’t have goats, so this doesn’t apply to me,” but the principle remains, that maintaining wealth requires us to pay attention. Making that transition from working to retirement takes some knowledge and awareness to navigate, because wealth has a way of leaving us. God has blessed us, but we have to pay attention.

    4. This is somewhat tied to the next one, where we find that wealth sometimes comes as the result of PLANNING.

And we see this in Proverbs 21:5, where King Solomon says that, “The plans of the diligent lead surely to advantage, but everyone who is hasty comes surely to poverty.” So, we have the idea of planning. Obviously, this overlaps with knowledge and wisdom, but notice the contrast here: On one hand, we have somebody who plans diligently, and on the other hand, we have somebody who is “hasty,” somebody who moves quickly without thinking. This leads to “poverty,” Solomon says. So, there is a value to planning and then making progress as we diligently move through the plan. We must “Look before we leap,” as we might say today. Planning leads to wealth.

    5. This next one is one of those that might have easily fit in a completely different topic altogether, but we come to the idea of TRUSTING IN THE LORD.

In Proverbs 28:25, King Solomon says that, “An arrogant man stirs up strife, but he who trusts in the Lord will prosper.” So, on one hand, we have arrogance leading to conflict, but on the other hand, we have somebody who trusts in the Lord, and that trust leads to prosperity. By the way, I laughed out loud when I looked up the Hebrew word translated as “prosper” in this verse. And some translations may actually translate it this way, but the word goes back to a word meaning “fat.” Trusting the Lord makes you fat! That’s my problem! I’ve finally figured it out! But the word can be translated as “anointed,” or “to become greasy,” or “to be made fat.” And it’s the idea of smearing grease or oil on something. In Bible times, that was a sign of blessing, it was a sign of being taken care of.

I think of one of my early holsters for a firearm. It was leather, made by a company in Ohio, and I actually did the research and then went there in person to pick it up. But it was a leather holster, and it had to be rubbed with a kind of beeswax on a regular basis. Almost like a baseball glove or a pair of nice boots, you had to rub this stuff into it to keep it supple and smooth, to keep it from drying out. And again, in ancient times, rubbing something with fat was a sign of prosperity. And this is one of those situations where we have to choose between translating the word or translating the thought. Literally, trusting God makes you fat, but that MEANS that trusting in God leads to prosperity.

    6. The next two are somewhat related and fall under the category of RIGHTEOUSNESS.

Righteousness leads to prosperity. In Proverbs 13:21, King Solomon says that, “Adversity pursues sinners, but the righteous will be rewarded with prosperity.” So, on one hand, adversity has a way of chasing down sinners. And I think most of us know people who are constantly having some terrible thing happen to them, one thing after another. Solomon is noticing here that some of those situations really seem to be self-inflicted. Not always, of course, this is a proverb. But often, sinful behavior has a way of leading to adversity. We think of Lot who lived in Sodom and perhaps allowed himself to be a little too influenced by the locals. He ended up losing everything, including his wife, and ended up living in a cave committing incest with his daughters. That’s “adversity.” Or we think of those in Corinth who abused the Lord’s Supper and ended up weak, or sick, and even dying because of it. So also, we speed and we get a ticket. That affects our prosperity, doesn’t it? Or we drink and drive and do damage, or hurt ourselves, or somebody else, or maybe worse. That affects our prosperity, doesn’t it? King Solomon is speaking to his sons here, and he wants them to know: If you sin, adversity will chase you down. Solomon, then, is begging his sons to pay attention. This is something that Solomon has perhaps either seen or learned from personal experience, and he wants to save his sons from heartache. But on the other hand, the righteous are rewarded with prosperity. As King David had said earlier, when the Lord is my shepherd, God’s “goodness and lovingkindness will follow me (or chase me down) all the days of my life.”

A second very closely related statement comes to us in Proverbs 15:6, where King Solomon says that, “Great wealth is in the house of the righteous, but trouble is in the income of the wicked.” Back in Bible times, a guy like Haman had it all – wealth and a royal position – but his greed and hatred caused him great trouble. Righteousness, though, has a way of leading to “great wealth.”

    7. This next one is a bit different than the others, but I think it fits here, because Solomon observes that SKILL has a way of leading to wealth.

And wealth isn’t specifically mentioned here (in Proverbs 22:29), but it seems to be implied, as King Solomon makes an observation, “Do you see a man skilled in his work? He will stand before kings; he will not stand before obscure men.” The word for “skilled” here includes the idea of being quick or talented, good at what you do. I think of watching an athlete who makes something look so easy, but if I were to try the same thing, I would look like I was having a seizure. What we don’t see is all of the years of practice – blood, sweat, and tears. But some people are simply good at what they do (either through natural talent, or years of practice, and often both). They are “skilled.” The word is used of Ezra the scribe in Ezra 7:6. When someone is good at what they do, they have a way of getting promoted. You can start at the bottom, and if you are quick to learn and good at what you do, you can often get promoted; sometimes quickly. We think of Joseph – imprisoned, promoted in the prison; serving in Potiphar’s household, and eventually promoted to second in command only to Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Or we think of Nehemiah and Daniel serving kings. They were good at what they did, and God was with them. Solomon, then, is telling his sons: When you see a man who is skilled at what he does, pay attention! Regardless of what he does, that man will stand before kings. The sacrifice is worth it in the end.

    8. Our next proverb brings the reminder that sometimes wealth comes as the result of PREPARATION.

In Proverbs 24:27, King Solomon gives some advice as he says, “Prepare your work outside and make it ready for yourself in the field; afterwards, then, build your house.” In other words, first things first! There is an order to obtaining wealth. You don’t start with buying a house and then go out and get a job. No, you get a job and then go out and find a house. Often, though, we get things out of order. And one of the challenges is that kids graduate from high school or college, they see what their parents have in their 40’s or 50’s or 60’s, and they want what their parents have right now; so, they get in over their heads in debt trying to have immediately what their parents took 30 or 40 years to accumulate, not realizing that their parents started out scrimping and saving and living in a dumpy apartment. Or, in Solomon’s farming analogy: Get your work done in the field before worrying about a place to live. You can’t build a house without the income from the harvest. Get a job before buying the $50,000 truck. Work first, spend later. In obtaining wealth, there is a proper order, and Solomon describes it as preparation, “Prepare your work,” he says, and “afterwards, then, build your house.”

    9. This brings us to our last proverb today, where we come to Solomon’s observation that sometimes God just BLESSES people.

In Proverbs 10:22 he says that, “It is the blessing of the Lord that makes rich, and He adds no sorrow to it.” Sometimes, riches come with sorrow, but not so with riches that come as a result of God’s blessing. When God causes someone to be rich, and when we recognize that wealth comes from God, and when we share those blessings with others, God also gives contentment, and happiness, and peace.

Conclusion:

So, this morning we’ve summarized what King Solomon has to say about obtaining wealth. I’ll put the overview up here for at least a few seconds if you’d like to take a pic or a screenshot, but we’ve seen some wide-ranging advice from a father to his sons, coming the wealthiest person to ever live. I’m imagining two reactions to what we’ve learned. First, it’s possible we might be thinking to ourselves, “I’ve done pretty well with these things.” And that’s great, but the danger here is that we have the attitude of the Pharisee in Luke 18, “God, I thank you that I am not like other people,” and that we hold ourselves up a bit, and we get disconnected from those who may be having trouble financially, and then we don’t see their needs, or maybe we think, “Well, they didn’t follow this advice and they deserve what they get.” That’s not good. We will deal with that soon.

But the other danger is that we’ve really blown it financially, and we get discouraged. And that’s not the point of this either. What we have here is inspired advice from a father to his sons, and we would be wise to take it. If we’ve been unwise with our finances in the past, now is a really good time to get back on track.

I am thankful for your kind attention this morning, and I hope we can come back together next week to note some of the pitfalls of wealth, including some really stupid ways of losing money.

As we close our study this morning, let’s go to God in prayer:

Our Father in Heaven,

You are the God of all riches and honor, and we worship you this morning, coming to you as your children and asking for your help. We pray that you will help us to be thoughtful and wise with our finances, knowing that every good and perfect gift has come down to us from your hand. Thank you for blessing us with skills and the ability to earn a living. We are thankful that you have given us the ability to accumulate wealth, and we ask for your help as we manage what you have given. Encourage us where we have done well, and convict us where we need to improve. 

We come to you this morning in Jesus’ name. AMEN.

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