Daily Devotionals
Daily Devotional: Proverbs 23:1-5
Prov 23:1-5
1 When you sit down to eat with a ruler, observe carefully what is before you, 2 and put a knife to your throat if you are given to appetite. 3 Do not desire his delicacies, for they are deceptive food. 4 Do not toil to acquire wealth; be discerning enough to desist. 5 When your eyes light on it, it is gone, for suddenly it sprouts wings, flying like an eagle toward heaven.
1 Tim 6:9-10
But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.
The Bible does not condemn being rich. In fact, some of the best examples of men and women of faith were very wealthy people. Job was the wealthiest man in the east but demonstrated faith beyond what most of us can comprehend. Abraham is said to be the Father of the faithful, yet he had so many animals that he and his nephew, Lot, had to go their separate ways to find pasture and water. We could go on with others such as David and Solomon whom God blessed greatly.
But that is the key to a seeming contradiction. None of these sought riches for the sake of being rich. They did not put their trust in their riches. They all sought to be faithful to God and God blessed them abundantly. The warnings about seeking to be rich is because earthly riches are fleeting. They can vanish much quicker than we can accumulate them. Job lost most of his wealth but kept his faith in God. Jesus told his disciples that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into heaven. Love of money is idolatry.
To be sure, there are a lot of people in the Bible who were faithful but who were very poor in a material sense. Most of the apostles of Jesus were poor people. In that day and that culture, there was no such thing as “middle class” people. One was either wealthy or poor. As the son of a carpenter with a house full of children, Jesus would have been from a poor family. He even said at one point that he was homeless and didn’t even have a place to lay his head at night.
O Lord God thank your for all you have given to me. Keep me from ever putting my trust in material things which can vanish so quickly but let me use what you have put into my trust to honor you by using it for good. Lord, I ask you to be with our nation as we face upcoming elections. Give us leaders who will respect you and your word. Give us a greater peace and less turmoil, strife and hatred. I ask for your people to be examples of your love and peace from above and not be the ones who gender strife and bitterness. I humbly pray in the name of Jesus.
Robert
