Proverbs 13:7-8 Blessings of the Less

4/28/10

Time Spent: 15 min

Main Idea: Sometimes having less can be beneficial than having more.

What I Learned about God: God's perfect plan makes even having less a blessing in one's life.

Summary: The verse reads;

" 7 a One pretends to be rich, yet has nothing;
b another pretends to be poor, yet has great wealth.
8 The ransom of a man's life is his wealth,
but a poor man c hears no threat."

This seems a very contrary idea to our western understanding of hoarding wealth; to have less is to have more. The way in which the Proverbs lays it out is stating that having less is not such a bad thing. Wealth is a lot more complicated than one thinks; that having more of it will not guarantee a better life. From this verse, it seems to be the opposite. The poor person contrasted in the verse is better off because of his modesty (v.7) and in having less enemies (v.8). The poor person is not a target for ransom nor does he have to pretend to be someone he's not. The advantages of being poor should be counted as wisdom for the reader of this Proverb.

Application: Do I really believe having less is more? Having less money, less grades, less privileges, less friends, less homework, etc. Well, aside from having less homework, which would be a God-send, it seems as though having "less of something" is counter-cultural to what we're taught throughout grade school. In a free-market society, the spoils of the economy are up for grabs and it's up to you to seize it before anyone else does. This has filtered into the way that I think about church, whether it be the size of the ministry or also comparing the relative fruitfulness of other ministries. I must remember the parable of the talents, where God had given the workers unequal talents yet lavished the same praise upon the ones that doubled his talents with "well done my good and faithful servant!" God is characteristically one who makes lemonade when life gives lemons; thus I must adopt a mindset in which I can be happy with less. To do this, I must control the envy I have against other church ministries or at school while also understanding that God is my full portion.