财富与贫穷 Proverbs on Wealth & Poverty

Title: Wealth and Poverty
Date: 4 September 2022
Preacher: Rev Enoch Keong

I recently read an online article entitled, “How much money do people want to achieve their ideal life?” [1] The article presents findings from a research, conducted in 33 countries with about 8000 participants. The participants were asked to imagine a hypothetical lottery and to select an amount for the prize, which, should they win it, would enable them to live their ideal life. The prize for the participant to select starts from USD10,000, with USD100 billion as the highest amount. Participants were also told that the chance of winning this hypothetical lottery will be the same for whichever amount they select. All they had to do was to just imagine.

And here are some of the findings:
1.only 8% to 39% of participant in each of the 33 countries chose the top prize of USD100 billion.
2.There’s a general trend showing younger participants selecting the higher amounts, and
3. there were more from countries experiencing greater inequality that selected USD100 billion as the prize.

With these and other findings, the researcher concluded that not many people are asking for the moon but are instead working on living “...fulfilling lives without exhausting our planet’s resources.”

The conclusion sounds encouraging.

At the same time, there’s this paragraph that caught my attention, and I quote, “Our recently published research found instead that only a minority of people actually have unlimited wants[referring to the top prize of US100 billion], and that most would be happy with a limited, if still significant, sum of money.”

Do we agree with the researcher on this? I do. I find the description representative enough of people not only from the 33 countries but across the globe. I also agree in the sense that to work for a significant sum is a good and responsible thing to do. Some are even working on what is called a FIRE plan these days, are we one of them?

It’s a good and responsible thing to work for a significant sum. Yet at the same time, it should not be a goal standing alone by itself, without Christian values and aims to balance things up. John Stott has this to say about what the West has become in the pursuit of wealth, “Our drive to possess and consume, as well as our tendency to believe that worth can be measured by wealth, are hallmarks of a society that has lost its way.” [2]

For this morning, what I won’t be able to do, is to tell us how to make that significant sum. And neither do I know financial management.

In this world of ours, where there is wealth and there is poverty. What I can do is to lead us to meditate on the Christian values and aims related to wealth and poverty. My hope, is that we will be equally, if not more committed, to these Christian values and aims, as we work diligently for the significant sum.

Perhaps, our role is to support our children and grandchildren working for their significant sum. Then let us be the ones to encourage them to hold fast to these Christian values and aims.

Where do we start? Again, Agur’s prayer, like we did 2 weeks ago. “7Two things I ask of you; deny them not to me before I die: 8Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, 9lest I be full and deny you and say, “Who is the LORD?” or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.” (Pb 30:7-9)

This is the only prayer in the book of Proverbs. Agur supplicates for only 2 out of the many things in life. Why? Because Agur the sage lives life with one clear objective, to be someone devoted to the God who is devoted to his people. Why did he not pray to God to help him handle busyness or manage stress like we do so very often? Because he knows that tongue and money are the chief distractors in meeting his objective.

You see, if we are too busy, we can reschedule, we can ask for a later dateline, we can lose some sleep (I know these days it’s losing a lot of sleep), we can ask for help, we can convince ourselves to accept something passable instead of outstanding. Many things we can do to handle busyness, and still stick to the objective of devoting to God.

When we are stressed, we can watch a show, we can talk to someone, we can shop and travel in revenge, we can go exercise, sweat it out, get tired and KO, and start afresh the next morning. Many things we can do to manage stress, and still stick to the objective of devoting to God.

But when it comes to the tongue, James calls it a restless evil, a thing full of deadly poison. And he says that we lose control of it easily. This uncontrollable side of the tongue can make us look more like wizards who curse rather than Christians who praise and bless. (Jas 3:18-19). When we use the tongue to curse others, we lose the form and character of a Christian, we offend the creator, and our devotion to God is derailed.

How about money? Allow me to quote from the abstract of another online article, “Money has been said to change people's motivation (mainly for the better) and their behavior toward others (mainly for the worse). The results of nine experiments suggest that money brings about a self-sufficient orientation in which people prefer to be free of dependency and dependents. Reminders of money, relative to nonmoney reminders, led to reduced requests for help and reduced helpfulness toward others.” 【3】 “The Psychological Consequences of Money” is the title of this article, Agur the sage probably did not know psychology, but he is spot on, money changes people’s motivation, to be free of dependency, to say in a haughty manner “Who is the LORD?”

Agur went on to admit that if he goes hungry, he will get angry and he will blame God for it.

I think Agur’s prayer contains 2 pieces of wisdom for us to glean from. First, we need to know that Agur’s relationship with God is a real one. What we mean is that God is not part of his life, but God is his life and source of life and living. If he eats well, that’s because God cares for him, if he goes hungry, that’s because God is not caring for him. That’s reality for Agur. The first piece of wisdom here is this, correct placement of trust and dependency, on the source of life and living.

Second, Agur knows what drive motivation in the human heart, as much, or if not, more than, the worship of God: money. So he shout out to God, “God, give me enough”. That is because, should God gives too much or gives nothing, either situation will motivate him to focus on money. But when it is enough, life will not be about focusing on what money can do or to worry for the lack of it. He can then channel his energy and focus on being steadfast. He will remain on track, not derailed from his devotion to God. So, the second piece of wisdom is steadfastness through moderation. Stteadfastness through moderation, ahh…big words, not friendly. Just remember one word then, the word ‘Enough’, “God give me enough.”

If we accept the starting point that Agur suggests. What’s next? When surveying the book of Proverbs, one particular quality a person should possess has an extra-long list of entries for the topic wealth and poverty. Make a guess, which quality? Shrewdness? Thick skin (to always ask for discounts)? Answer: righteousness.

Let’s read 2 proverbs on righteousness and wealth. “Treasures gained by wickedness do not profit, but righteousness delivers from death(10:2). “Riches do not profit in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death((11:4). Righteousness is at the end of the day more valuable than wealth, stress these proverbs. Whether what these proverbs stress on means much to us, depends on one key factor: do we share Agur’s view on reality? That God is the source of life and living.

If so, I see 2 things happening. First, God will take the first place, and wealth will be placed at a lower position of importance in our lives. Hold on a bit in case we want to affirm what I have just said. I have a question for us and myself, is wealth correctly ranked in our lives? The ranking will be quite different with or without righteousness as a consideration factor. Agree? Now, suspend that thought in our minds for a moment.

The second thing I see happening is expressed in this proverb, “A righteous man knows the rights of the poor; a wicked man does not understand such knowledge.” (29:7) Righteousness is also about how we treat others. In this case, wealth will be ranked correctly when we take into consideration at one at the same time God, oneself, others and righteousness, while not discounting life circumstance and responsibilities. Friends, is righteousness a major consideration factor when we last tell ourselves how important money is to us? Or we can perhaps use the schema on the screen to help us do some fine tuning?

How might things playout with trust rightfully placed and righteousness helping to assess the importance of wealth correctly? We will quickly talk about 3 aspects in the remaining minutes.

Firstly, Proverbs is adamantly against being a guarantor for others (11:5; 17:18) Instead, Proverbs encourage giving to others who are in need; to practice generosity. And here’s one reason for me to affirm working diligently on the significant sum, to have to be able to give.

Proverbs 19:17 says, “Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will repay him for his deed.” Proverbs 28:27, “Whoever gives to the poor will not want, but he who hides his eyes will get many a curse.”

I like how one commentator expands on Proverb 19:17, that the poor are God’s wards, and to help the poor is helping God. I must say struggled with putting this up, because much as I like what the commentator is saying, it just doesn’t sound appealing or inviting enough. But then I think to myself, if the righteousness we are talking about is not a theoretical but an active righteousness, then what would still be needed to get us moving? To be of one heart with God and to join God in caring is already, fulfilling righteousness.

Next, it can’t be that we give and end up feeling discontented, right? Hence, as we would have expected, Proverbs also promotes the practice of contentment or simplicity. Proverb 16:8 says, “Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues with injustice.”

The formulae for practicing simplicity can really be quite simple: to concentrates on what we need and measures the need by what we use. Amazon, Lazada, shoppee and their competitors won’t like what we are saying here, and for us who are used to buying through clicking, there would be some getting used to should we choose simplicity.

I think I do have something more appealing than the commentary I put up earlier to talk about generosity as I encourage us to choose simplicity. Simplicity is the secret of inward peace.

A couple of years back, a friend of mine sought help from a few his friend, including me, because of credit card debt. He had used multiple cards to make purchases and had choked up a large sum that he was unable to pay. What makes things worse was that he couldn’t let his family know about the matter. Can you imagine the agony that he was going through? The pressure of the debt plus the need to act calm and keep the matter wrapped?

Simplicity is the secret of inward peace.

Lastly, let’s talk about wealth and work, something that we are into all the time and in different forms. Proverbs is very affirmative about working hard and making the significant sum(10:4; 21:5). What the book deems bad is to be lazy or hasty in accumulating wealth.

Proverbs encourage refraining from being hasty in a more positive way in another place. Proverb 24:3-4 says, “By wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established; by knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches.” A house is built and filled with riches though wisdom, good ethic, planning, work and time, not haste says this proverb.

I am taking an extra minute to talk about not being hasty because it is a current thing. I get calls, you get calls giving suggestions on how to gain wealth in a short time with little effort. The amount lost to the various scam in Singapore is running in the millions. I recently had to console a youth who lost the 1st pay cheque to a scam that involves purchasing of movie tickets. Proverbs make it clear and let us be careful, the attraction of making quick bucks comes only to poverty.

And on working hard and making the significant sum, there are 2 verses that might be extra appropriate for Singaporeans. “Do not toil to acquire wealth; be discerning enough to desist. When your eyes light on it, it is gone, for suddenly it sprouts wings, flying like an eagle toward heaven.” (23:4-5} In a word, work hard, yet with moderation. I know, we don’t have a choice more often than not, for it’s our bosses and clients and not us who has the say. But allow me to end this morning’s sharing with a question, might our ‘no choice’ at times be at odd with the first item in the list? “God, give me enough.”

[1]https://theconversation.com/how-much-money-do-people-want-to-achieve-their-ideal-life-our-research-gave-a-surprising-result-186250
[2]John Stott, Issues Facing Christians Today, 4th ed., Zondervan, Grand Rapid, 2006. p.295
[3]Vohs, K. D., Mead, N. L., & Goode, M. R. (2006). The psychological consequences of money. science, 314(5802), 1154-1156.

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