We shouldn’t be this kind of person.
[Proverbs 28:15-20]
The news I saw last week was that the president of this country affirmed that football players didn’t pay respect to the American flag and made an undesirable comment about them, so not only many football athletes, but also their team owners protested in public. In the midst of seeing it, I sympathized a bit with what one famous football player interviewed. What the player said was that the president's remarks were “divisive”, that is, to cause division. I agree with him. I don't really understand how the president of the country made the speech with a cuss word in public gatherings with so many people and media reporters with the divisive remark, rather than uniting the citizens.
Personally, I think leaders are very important. I think the husband/father who is the leader of a family is very important. The pastor who is the leader of a church is very important. And the president who is the leader of a country is very important. Especially, I think it is very important that the leader is a wise leader. I think it would be a great blessing if the wise leader who fears God leads that family, church, and country. In the past, we have meditated in five ways under the title of “A wise king” based on Proverbs 20:26-30. As a review, I would like to meditate again briefly and pray for the wise president, the wise pastor, and the wise family head: (1) The wise king discerns and separates the good from the wicked and punishes the wicked (v. 26). (2) The wise king conscientiously rules the kingdom before God (v. 27). (3) The wise king protects himself with love and faithfulness (v. 28). (4) The wise king has strength and wisdom (v. 29). (5) The wise king disciplines (v. 30).
I would like to receive a lesson from Proverbs 28:15-20 as we meditate on five things we should not become under the heading “We shouldn’t be this kind of person.”
First, we shouldn’t be fools who love greed.
Look at Proverbs 28:15-16: “Like a roaring lion and a rushing bear Is a wicked ruler over a poor people. A leader who is a great oppressor lacks understanding, But he who hates unjust gain will prolong his days.” Looking at this word, the Bible speaks of “a wicked man ruling over” (v. 15) and ‘an ignorance ruler” (a foolish ruler). The Bible tells us that this leader is “Like a roaring lion or a charging bear” by violating and oppressing the poor and helpless people (v. 15). Imagine “a roaring lion and a charging bear.” Why does the lion roar? The reason is because the lion is hungry and look for something to eat (Park). What if we meet the hungry bear or the lion when we go camping in the mountains? How terrifying is this situation? In Proverbs 17:12, the Bible says, “Better to meet a bear robbed of her cubs than a fool in his folly.” What will happen to us when we meet a female bear whose cub was taken away? The Bible Hosea 13:8 says, “Like a bear robbed of her cubs, I will attack them and rip them open. Like a lion I will devour them; a wild animal will tear them apart.” What a terrifying word of God? How terrifying is this saying that God will meet the Israelites like a bear robbed of her cubs, attacking them and rip them open and devour them? However, the Bible tells us not that it is better to meet the bear robbed of her cubs than the fool in his folly. How is that? How is the fool more dangerous than the female bear whose cubs have been robbed? The reason is because when the fool is angry, he is more irrational than the bear robbed of her cubs (MacArthur). If the foolish leader who is irrational is the president of our country, what will happen to our country? If the pastor of our church is such a foolish leader, what about the church and the family if the husband/father who is the head of our house is the foolish leader of the house? Can you imagine?
In Proverbs 28:16, the Bible contrasts with “A leader who is a great oppressor”, that is, “a foolish leader” and “he who hates unjust gain.” The Korea Modern man's Bible translates “he who hates unjust gain” as ‘an upright ruler’. This contrast between the two kinds of leaders implies that the ignorant and foolish ruler who loves greed, unlike the upright ruler who hates greed. In other words, the upright ruler hates greed, but an ignorant and foolish ruler loves greed. What if our country's leaders were foolish people who love greed? Wouldn't the greedy leaders love money? Then what will happen? Look at 1 Timothy 6:10 – “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” Leaders who love money and greed are bound to wander from the faith and eventually suffer a lot and hurt their hearts. However, the problem doesn’t end there. But the citizens of the country they rule, the members of the church, and the family members suffer a lot and hurt because of such leaders. How much will such leaders tyranny and oppress the citizens and exploit them (Ezek. 45:9)? How many citizens will suffer if the leaders of our country love greed, love money, love power, and do great violence (28:16) and oppress the poor people (v. 15)? For example, King Ahab coveted Naboth's vineyard and killed the innocent citizen (1 Kgs. 21:1-16), and King Saul tried to kill David several times for long-term rule (1 Sam. 18:6-19:1) (Park). How much are the citizens of that country still suffering from the greed-loving world leaders? They oppress and rule their citizens violently amid their long-term domination and material greed, how much suffering are the citizens of that country? Will they have any hope?
If the leaders of our church were shepherds who filled their stomach with greed like the Israeli shepherds in the days of the prophet Isaiah, what about the members of the church? Look at Isaiah 56:11 – “They are dogs with mighty appetites; they never have enough. They are shepherds who lack understanding; they all turn to their own way, each seeks his own gain.” Why were the Israeli shepherds unable to bark like dumb dogs? The reason is because “They are dogs with mighty appetites; they never have enough” (v. 11). “They are shepherds who lack understanding; they all turn to their own way, each seeks his own gain. ‘Come,’ each one cries, ‘let me get wine! Let us drink our fill of beer! And tomorrow will be like today, or even far better’” (vv.11b-12). In other words, the Israeli shepherds were shepherds who filled their stomachs with greed. They were pursuing pleasure by drinking wine and beer, living today and tomorrow. They were blind and lack knowledge. They didn’t warn the Israelites with right words like the mute dogs. And they didn’t obey God's word and worshiped vain things like dreams (v. 10). They love to sleep (v. 10) and were greedy (v. 11). Still, there was no awakening and they lived selfish life (v. 11). Looking back on their own circumstances, they were drunk and enjoyed pleasure (vv. 11-12). They ignored God and assured themselves of the future (v. 12) (Park). The Israeli shepherds lacked understanding. If the pastors and elders of the church are greedy people who only fill their stomachs, like the Israeli shepherds who lack understanding, what will happen to the members of the church? These greedy leaders don’t last long. Rather, if we look at the second half of Proverbs 28:16, the reign of upright leaders who hate greed will last long (Park).
Who are the leaders we yearn for and pray for? We never want our country's leaders to be covetous people. The leaders of our country whom we long for and pray for are leaders who hate greed and are honest and upright people (Prov. 28:16). I remember the commanders of thousands, commanders of centuries, commanders of fifties, and commanders of tens because God could not carry heavy burdens alone on Moses, who was leading the Israelites at the time of the Exodus. In Exodus 18:21, God told Moses to “select capable men from all the people--men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain--and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens.” Here, we see what is important to a leader is “men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain.” I hope and pray that the leaders of our country to become this kind of people. May they become wise leaders who fear God, truth people who hate lies, and upright people who hate unrighteous gain. Therefore, I hope and pray that our country, our church, and our homes will be established firmly (Prov. 29:4) and that we can all rejoice (v. 2).
Second, we are not to be spillers of human blood (murderers).
Sometimes, when I look at the news, I see the news that the killer who killed someone a long time ago is caught years later. When I see such news, I think that a killer is caught in the end. I'm not sure, but maybe it's often caught as a result of a DNA test. If we look at the news, there are times when murderers who are caught living as fugitives for many years now go to jail and pay for their sins. On one side, we may think, why not quickly surrender to pay the price for sins and start anew again. But if we think on the other side, we think that our instinct is not to surrender after committing a sin and to run away rather than paying the price for our sins. However, no matter how much they run away, I think that the murderers will have their own pain until the moment they are caught. And I think that pain is the feeling of guilt in the heart because of the murder he committed. Of course, I don’t think all murderers will suffer from the guilt of the heart. Some of them may have a hardened heart and a paralyzed conscience, so that even after committing a murder crime, they will not suffer from guilt.
Look at Proverbs 28:17 – “A man who is laden with the guilt of human blood Will be a fugitive until death; let no one support him.” The meaning of this word means that even if the killer who killed a person is struck by the blood of another person and runs away from that conscience, he must eventually fall into a trap. In other words, the killer is eventually caught. The lesson the Bible gives us here is that we will finally receive God's retribution for all sins as well as murder (Park). A good example is King Ahab. If we look at 2 Kings 10:10, the Bible says, “Know then, that not a word the LORD has spoken against the house of Ahab will fail. The LORD has done what he promised through his servant Elijah.” This is the word of curse that God made on the house of Ahab through the prophet Elijah. The reason why God cursed the house of Ahab king of Israel was because Ahab's house did evil in God's sight (8:27). The evil that Ahab's house did was to abandon the Lord’s command and had follow the Baals (1 Kgs. 18:18). In particular, King Ahab, who was urged on by his wife Queen Jezebel, sold himself to do evil in the eyes of the Lord. “He behaved in the vilest manner by going after idols, like the Amorites the LORD drove out before Israel” (21:25-26). Therefore, the children of Israel also abandoned the Lord's covenant, destroyed the Lord's altar, and killed the Lord's prophets with the sword (19:10, 14). After all, Ahab caused Israel to sin (21:22). And he provoked God to anger (v. 22). So God said to Ahab through Elijah, “This is what the LORD says: In the place where dogs licked up Naboth's blood, dogs will lick up your blood--yes, yours!” (v. 19) Also, through Elijah, God prophesied about Jezebel and those who belonged to Ahab: “… Dogs will devour Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel.' "Dogs will eat those belonging to Ahab who die in the city, and the birds of the air will feed on those who die in the country” (vv. 23-24; Ref. 2 Kgs. 9:10). What was the result? As God prophesied against Ahab, Ahab was wounded by a random bow in the war against Aram, and was propped up in his chariot facing the Arameans and the blood from his wound ran onto the floor of the chariot. And that evening he died (1 Kgs. 22:34-35). Then, the chariot was washed in a Samaritan pool where the prostitutes bathed, and the dogs licked up Ahab's blood, as the word of the Lord had declared (v. 38). God's retribution for Jezebel, the wife of King Ahab, was also fulfilled as God promised through the prophet Elijah. God raised up Jehu and judged King Ahab and all his family. After Jehu killed Jezebel, King Ahab's wife (2 Kgs. 9:33), he commanded, “Take care of that cursed woman," he said, "and bury her” (v. 34). “But when they went out to bury her, they found nothing except her skull, her feet and her hands” (v. 35). This was the fulfillment of the prophetic word spoke through His servant Elijah the Tishibite that “On the plot of ground at Jezreel dogs will devour Jezebel's flesh” (v. 36). In the end, God avenged the blood of His servants the prophets to Jezebel (v. 7).
The Bible clearly says that “God will give to each person according to what he has done” (Rom. 2:6). The Bible says that God will repay those who persevere in doing good and seeking glory, honor, and immortality, with eternal life (v. 7). “But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger” (v. 8). Briefly summarized, God says that those who do evil will have tribulation and suffering (v. 9), and those who do good will have glory, honor, and peace (v. 10). In this way, God is a God who pays back. But I don't understand that there is a difference between God paying back the arrogant and the slave to greed Babylon in the days of the prophet Jeremiah (Jere. 56:7, 13) and the Israelites who rebelled against God, and the earth was filled with sin. The difference is that when God paid back Babylon, as the prophet Jeremiah prophesized, Babylon disappeared in history, and God didn’t forsake the Israelites who deserved to be destroyed. What was the reason? Why was Israel not forsaken by God and wasn’t destroyed? The reason is because God loved the Israelites and chose them. In other words, they were not forsaken by God because they were God's chosen covenant people. In other words, they were not forsaken by God because they were God's chosen covenant people. Although the Israelites were unfaithful as covenant people, God didn’t forsake them, even though they deserved to be forsaken because God had been faithful to them and He couldn’t deny Himself. In the days of the prophet Ezekiel, the peculiarity of God in retributing the Israelites (Ezek. 14:3, 4, 7) who had set up idols in their hearts and put wicked stumbling blocks before their faces was that God promised to recapture the hearts of the Israelites (v. 5) by repaying them (v. 4). In other words, God promised to recapture the hearts of the betrayed Israelites (v. 5), and in fulfilling that promise, He said that He would pay back for their sins. Isn't it amazing that as God repays His chosen covenant people for their sins, the purpose is not to destroy them, but on the contrary, to recapture their hearts and rebuild them? How can we not grateful to covenant God, who not only repays back the sinful covenant people and reveals His righteousness, but recaptures them and established them again to show God's mercy, love, and grace. Of course, this doesn’t mean that we aren’t without responsibility. Just as the Israelites whose responsibility was to repent their sins to God in the midst of God’s work of recapturing and rebuilding their hearts by receiving God’s pay back, our responsibility is to repent our sins.
How many sinful things do we see and hear in the world we live in now. In particular, how much the citizens of the country are suffering because of the wicked leader and of the foolish rulers in government? (Prov. 28:15-16) We even watched videos of publicly murdering their own citizens of their country. How can the president use chemical weapons on his own citizens, even killing children? The murderers who shed blood like this are now running into their traps (v. 17). God will surely punish them. What about Christians who believe in Jesus? Of course, there are probably not so many killers who actually shed human blood. That means there are people who actually believe in Jesus and some commit the murder of killing others. But I think the word that applies to all of us is 1 John 3:15 – “Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, ….” Are there times when we commit murder by hating our brothers and sisters in Christ? We must keep in mind that there is God's retribution for these murders. God made us confess and repent of our sins, eventually turning us from sin and rebuilding us into God's children who obey God's word by not pouring out His wrath on us fully and making us to go through the pain of retribution for a while. Therefore, God builds us up as those who love others with His love instead of murderer who hates brothers and sisters in Christ. I hope and pray that all of us who love our neighbors.
Third, we are not to be the ones who are crooked (people who live falsely).
Have you ever thought of yourself as “a double-faced” person? Looking at the Naver Dictionary, “a double-faced” is defined as a metaphorical word for a case where the outside and the inside are different. What if the outside and inside are different? When we look at ourselves, haven't we ever seen the outside and inside are different? People who were different on the outside and inside appear in the Bible. They are the Pharisees. They fasted outwardly (Mt. 9:14, Mk. 2:18) and offered “God a tenth of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs” (Lk. 11:42; Mt. 23:23). And they didn’t eat with the “sinners” and tax collectors (Mk. 2:16). They “stood up and prayed about himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men--robbers, evildoers, adulterers--or even like this tax collector” (Lk. 18:11). Inside they loved money (16:14), and within them were full of greed, wickedness, self-indulgence, and all uncleanness (11:39; Mt. 23:25, 27). Like this, the Pharisees were double-faced people. In addition to these, if we look at John chapter 12, there is Judas Iscariot among Jesus' disciples who was double-faced man. “Six days before the Passover,” a woman named Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus' feet and wiped his feet with her hair (Jn. 12:1-3). At that time, Judas Iscariot saw this and said, “Why wasn't this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year's wages” (v. 5). If we had been there at the time, we would hear this and may think that Judas Iscariot really cared for the poor. However, the Bible says Judas Iscariot “did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it” (v. 6). He was a thief on the inside, even though he may seem like a man thinking of the poor outside. In short, Judas Iscariot was the double-faced man. I remember the book ‘77 Reasons Why I Don’t Want to Go to Church’ written by Manjae Lee. In that book, there are 77 reasons for not wanting to go to church. Two of them are ‘I haven't seen real believers in church’ and ‘I hate to see a lot of double-faced people in the church’ (Internet). Why did the church come to this point? One day, I searched and read this writing that I wrote on April 11, 2015 again: ‘Now the church seems to be producing double-faced people rather than producing disciples of Jesus.’ Of course, this is my personal opinion. The reason I think this is because I think that we Christians, starting with myself, are becoming more and more prominent the difference between the outside and the inside to the extent that the people around us know. In other words, the reason is because people are increasingly unable to find truthfulness in us. That’s because the church focuses on deeds rather than on human character. For example, the church seems to be emphasizing not to devote to nurturing true Christians, but to become a serving Christian even though they are little different on the outside and the inside. As a result, even though we may be good at serving, actually we are hindering God’s glory because the nature of becoming like Jesus doesn't support us.
Look at Proverbs 28:18 – “He who walks blamelessly will be delivered, But he who is crooked will fall all at once.” The modern Korean Bible translates: ‘He who lives blamelessly will be saved, but he who lives falsely will suddenly perish.’ Now the Proverbs writer is contrasting “He who walks blamelessly” (the one who lives truthfully) and “he who is crooked” (the one who lives falsely). If we translated this in the original Hebrew, it goes like this: ‘He who works purely will be saved, but he who deceives twice will fall at once’ (Park). Who is the one who deceive twice? A good example is “he who is crooked though he be rich,” which we already meditated on in the second half of Proverbs 28:6. In Hebrew, it is translated “a rich man who deceives in two ways” (Park). Who is the rich man who deceives in two ways? He only pretends to walk on a good way while walking in an evil way (Park). One of the evil ways of the rich who walks in two ways is to oppress the poor (v. 3). For a more specific example, James 2:6 says: “But you have insulted the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court?” The rich man who walks in two ways not only despises them in oppressing the poor, but also torments them, and causes harm by even taking them to court. Can’t you imagine? On the outside, the rich man seems to do good deeds in front of people. But on the inside when nobody sees him, he oppresses the poor (skillfully). The rich, who deceive in two ways, accumulate wealth through their inconsistent actions in front of people and behind people. And they seem to be collecting wealth very well. So the poor righteous, who are suffering, can think that “Surely in vain have I kept my heart pure; in vain have I washed my hands in innocence” (Ps. 73:13) since the double-faced wicked rich people are “always carefree, they increases in wealth” (v. 12). However, we must not forget that the rich people, who deceive in two ways, are also accumulating their own wickedness while accumulating so much wealth. And, as Proverbs 28:18 says such wicked rich people will “suddenly” fall. There will be a time when they will surely fall (Park).
The Bible Proverbs 28:6 says, “Better a poor man whose walk is blameless than a rich man whose ways are perverse.” The lesson that this word teach us is that it is more important to act truthfully or to act falsely while hypocritically deceiving the people's eyes than to be rich or poor. The Bible says that those who walk falsely the perverse ways will suddenly fall, but those who walk is blameless, truthful and faithful, will be kept safe (v. 18). Therefore, we must be truthful and faithful. Therefore, I hope and pray that we will be delivered (saved) by God.
Fourth, we are not to be the ones who chase fantasies (people who spend time in vain).
What would our hearts be when we, almost at the end of our lives, look back on our lives and think, 'Ah, I've lived in vain'? In particular, when we look back on our lives and realize that we have lived a very extreme individualistic life as we work hard for ourselves with greed, what would our hearts be when the result is 'I have done vain and useless labor’ and ‘I lived in vain’? Look at Ecclesiastes 4:8 – “There was a man all alone; he had neither son nor brother. There was no end to his toil, yet his eyes were not content with his wealth. ‘For whom am I toiling,’ he asked, ‘and why am I depriving myself of enjoyment?’ This too is meaningless-- a miserable business!” Why do we live in this earth and pursue vain things and live in vain? I looked for the cause in Romans 1:21 – “For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.” Even if we know God, we will neither glorify God nor give thanks to Him (1:21) unless we renew our minds and be transformed (12:2). Also, our thinking will become futile (1:21). In other words, our thoughts are bound to become worthless and useless. In these vain thoughts, we have no choice but to do things that are worthless and in vain.
Look at Proverbs 28:19 – “He who works his land will have abundant food, but the one who chases fantasies will have his fill of poverty.” Here, we can see that the Proverbs writer contrasts “He who works his land” with “the one who chases fantasies”. Here, the Hebrew meaning of the word “the one who chases fantasies” is ‘the one who follow vain things’ (Park). That is, he who follows vain things spends time in vain and eventually becomes poor (v. 19). A good biblical example is the prodigal son in the parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15. The prodigal son received his share of the estate from his father, got together all he had, set off for a distant country. And there squandered his wealth in wild living (vv. 12-13). After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine occurs in that whole country, and the prodigal son was finally in need (v. 14). In a word, the prodigal son spent his time in vain following the vain things, and he eventually became poor.
The world we live in is a vain world. I have already meditated on four reasons why this world is in vain based on Ecclesiastes 1:1-11:
(1) The reason why this world is vain is because it is useless. In other words, this world is vain because there is no gain.
Look at Ecclesiastes 1:3 - “What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun?” This means that all the labor we do away from God under the sun is of no benefit or remnant. The Bible Ecclesiastes 5:15-16 says that all the hard work you do in this world apart from God is like trying to catch the wind. How can we catch the wind? This is a futile labor of no benefit to us. So King Solomon said, "The work of life that has left God is nothing after his death" (1: 3) (Park). Therefore, the Bible says that the world is vanity and vanity.
(2) The reason why this world is vain is because life ultimately returns to dust.
Look at Ecclesiastes 1:5-6 - “The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises. The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course.” This means that the people in this world are energetic when they are young but eventually they return to the dust without much activity (Park). No matter how young we were when we were hot-blooded and strong (Ps. 39: 5) we must realize that eventually we came from dust and we go back to dust. We must remember that “All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field” (1 Pet. 1:24). We must realize that eventually the grass will wither and the flowers will fall (v. 24). We must remember that “Man is a mere phantom as he goes to and fro: He bustles about, but only in vain; he heaps up wealth, not knowing who will get it” (Ps. 39:6). Our life is like a wind. As the wind blows to the south and turns to the north, round and round it goes, ever returning on its course (v. 6), our life was made with dust so it will eventually return to dust. Therefore, the Teacher is saying that the world is vanity and vanity.
(3) The reason why this world is vain is because there is no satisfaction with human greed.
Look at Ecclesiastes 1:8 - “All things are wearisome, more than one can say. The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing.” “The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing” means that the desire of man cannot be satisfied even as “All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full” (v. 7) (Park). Indeed, the "the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes, and the boasting of what he has and does" of people seem to have no end (1 Jn. 2:16). I think our greed is endless. That’s why King Solomon said “his eyes were not content with his wealth” (Eccl. 4:8). And yet, we seek this thing in this futile world to satisfy its endless greed. But in the end, we are not satisfied. What King Solomon did was he denied himself nothing his eyes desired and he refused his heart no pleasure (2:10). Although King Solomon enjoyed whatever he saw and wanted and that was the reward for all his labor (2:10) this was his confession: “Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun” (v. 11).
(4) The reason why this world is vain is because people of the future will not remember people of this age.
Look at Ecclesiastes 1:11 - “There is no remembrance of men of old, and even those who are yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow.” King Solomon said, “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which one can say, "Look! This is something new"? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time” (vv. 9-10). The meaning of this word is that 'there is no new thing in this world, and people are not satisfied because they are only repeating old things' (Park Yun-sun). So King Solomon said, ‘This world is vanity because the people of the future will not remember the people of this age’ (v. 11) (Park Yun-sun). No matter how much wealth, authority, and power you have, what is left of it when you die? Will you not be forgotten after many years pass by after you die? One generation goes and one generation comes (v. 3). And because the past generation has been forgotten, this world is vanity and vanity.
So how should we live? Looking at the first half of Proverbs 28:19, the Bible says, “He who works his land will have abundant food ….” What does it mean? At that time, cultivating land was a common industry of that era (Park), and the Bible says that if we work hard, we have a lot to eat. Therefore, we must work hard in each of our workplaces. Then there will be abundance or plenty in our house (27:27). And we must keep in mind that God makes all grace abound to us, ‘so that in all things at all times, having all that we need, we will abound in every good work’ (2 Cor. 9:8). I hope and pray that we can be this kind of people.
Fifth and last, we are not to be the ones who eager to get rich (the ones who rush to become rich).
Is it a sin to try to get rich? Shouldn't we want to get rich? The Bible Proverbs 23:4 says this: “Do not wear yourself out to get rich; have the wisdom to show restraint.” Looking at this word, it is inevitable to think that we should not eager to get rich. Why does the Bible tell us not to be eager to get rich? What could be the reason? Look at 1 Timothy 6:9-10: “People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” The reason why we should not strive to be rich is because we fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. Therefore, according to Proverbs 23:4, we must not wear ourselves out to get rich and should have wisdom to show restraint. What is the wisdom that we should show restraint? It is to collect wealth in a false way of man without following the word of God (Park). More specifically, what is the wisdom that shows restraint? We can think in two ways: (1) The wisdom that shows restraint is thinking. We must spread our wings of thought and think wisely rather than freely thinking about the other person. We should not listen to the other person's words unconditionally and believe them all. Instead, we should listen carefully with discernment so that we can grasp the motives of the other person's heart. (2) The wisdom that shows restraint is self-controlling. We must exercise self-control. We should not set our hearts on riches that is increasing (Ps. 62:10). I think that self-control of the heart is to resist the temptation of greed of any kind and to have contentment. If we don’t control our hearts in this way, we will fall into the temptation of covetousness and become slaves to covetousness.
Look at Proverbs 28:20 – “A faithful man will be richly blessed, but one eager to get rich will not go unpunished.” Here, we see that the Proverbs writer is contrasting between “A faithful man” and “one eager to get rich”. With this contrast in mind, when we think of a person who is eager to get rich, we can guess that such a person is not faithful. Think about it. How can the person who is eager to get rich quickly do his work faithfully? He who is eager to get rich isn’t faithful, but rather walks in a perverse way (v. 18). In other words, such a person lives falsely. That’s why the Bible says, “Better a poor man whose walk is blameless than a rich man whose ways are perverse” (v. 6). Also, he who is eager to get rich is impatient. Being impatient, he plans this or that in order to make profits by trying his own business to become rich. But he doesn’t realize what will happen tomorrow (Jam. 4:13-14). He doesn’t know that his life is “a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes” (v. 14). But “a quick-tempered man displays folly” (Prov. 14:29). And the Bible says, “But everyone who is hasty comes surely to poverty” (21:5). The Bible says that he who is eager to get rich lives falsely and show his folly will not go unpunished (28:2).
We must strive to be truthful and faithful people rather than eager to get rich. We shouldn’t be rich who walk in two ways. In other words, we shouldn't be rich people who outwardly pretend to walk the good way in front of people, but actually walk in the evil way. As we seek God, we must understand the word of God with His wisdom, “Better a poor man whose walk is blameless than a rich man whose ways are perverse” (v. 6). This is what Proverbs 19:22 says, “What is desirable in a man is his kindness, And it is better to be a poor man than a liar.” We should be faithful people (28:20). And we should walk blamelessly (v. 18). Then we will be richly blessed (v. 20).
We shouldn’t be this kind of person. We shouldn’t be “a wicked ruler” (v. 15) or “a leader who is a great oppressor” (v. 16). We shouldn’t be “A man who is laden with the guilt of human blood” (murderer) (v. 17). We shouldn’t be the ones who walk the perverse ways (live falsely) (v. 18). We shouldn’t be ‘the ones who chase fantasies’ (people who spend time in vain) (v. 19). We shouldn’t be ‘the ones who are eager to get rich’ (the ones who rush to become rich) (v. 20). Rather, we should be this king of people. We should be those who hate greed. Then we will live long. Also, we should be the ones who act faithfully (truthfully). Then we will be saved (delivered). We should be hard workers. Then we will have a lot to eat. We should be loyal (faithful) people. Then we will be blessed abundantly.