Precious Mettle

The blessing of the LORD makes rich, and he adds no sorrow with it. -- Proverbs 10:22

We have talked about the fact that a person getting what he or she wants does not necessarily mean happiness.  I tend to believe that most of us do get what we want – that is, as wise men have said, we get what we are.  A lot of us find we are not at all happy with that.   Change who you are and you can change your circumstances.  You need not go far to find that is rarely works the other way.  A well-washed pig still returns to its wallow. 

Back when I worked for a financial services company, I was looking over the results of a report I had created for the accountants.  I noticed that we had a person on the charge-off list as a result of bankruptcy whose occupation was something like “lottery winner”.  I forget now exactly how it was worded, but that’s what it amounted to.  People who routinely play the lottery are more likely to win, I suppose, but those same people are generally individuals with poor financial management skills and an inadequate understanding of even basic household economics.  It’s kind of a shame “Home Ec” has been disparaged, mocked, and vilified over the years.  A lot of young women, and young men, for that matter, would benefit from grasping even the rudiments of managing home, family, and income.  Budgets, eating good food at home, self-discipline, a little of that and people would not need the feral government to pay their rent or hand them EBT cards – which is probably why it’s no longer a requirement in the government indoctrination center curriculum. 

This verse always reminds me of another, Ecclesiastes 1:18 -- For in much wisdom is much vexation, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.  I have probably said before, I copied this verse out of my King James Version Bible and pinned it to the wall of my bedroom when I was thirteen or fourteen.  I don’t know what I could have known back then that vexed me, but I understood somehow it was true.  Ignorance may not be bliss but it is something of an anesthetic.  I started to say that the exception is the knowledge of God, but that is the most painful of all, for it shows us our own sad condition.  The house doesn’t look too dirty until you turn on the light.  Though, as Jesus says, the sorrow caused by the knowledge of God is like the agony of child-birth that ends in joy. 

As we seek God, He reveals Himself to us and in us.  Here is genuine and eternal wealth, riches that are not deceptive or temporal, that will not perish in the using no matter how prodigal we may be in sharing them.  If your riches are gold and silver, you may find yourself thinking about thieves, seeing thieves and burglars everywhere, investing in vaults and strongboxes.  If your wealth is in houses, you might worry about fire and flood and earthquakes.  If it is land, you may fear drought and pestilence.  Even if you succeed in thwarting the thieves and threats, in the end you must pass from this world and leave it all behind.  But if God is your Source, not even death can separate you from your Treasure.

No sorrow.  Nothing to fear or dread, no matter what may come.  

And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the LORD your God. (Deuteronomy 28:2)

The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. (Psalms 23:1)

Oh, fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack!  The young lions suffer want and hunger; but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. (Psalms 34:9-10)

I have been young, and now am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging for bread. (Psalms 37:25) 

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.  (Matthew 6:33)