Longing – Proverbs 13:12-25
Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but desire fulfilled is a tree of life …The teaching of the wise is a fountain of life, to turn aside from the snares of death. Good understanding produces favor … The righteous will be rewarded with prosperity … and the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous.
I proposed on Wednesday that Solomon’s wisdom was inferior to Jesus Christ – the wisdom of God. This comment may rankle those banking on this wealth transfer Solomon has declared. Some of God’s children are keen on the idea that the righteous will be rewarded with prosperity. This preaches well. However, I have noticed many of the rankled have an aversion to the full gospel presented in the New Testament. I’m not speaking of the full-gospel that involves Jesus taking up his cross; I’m speaking of the full gospel that requires us to take up ours. This, actual gospel doesn’t preach as well.
If our hearts are set on material wealth, we will naturally avoid the New Testament. In those pages, the Holy Spirit did not offer a single account of a saint deriving wealth as a byproduct of their righteousness. The wisdom of God is superior and in conflict with any quid pro quo, righteousness-for-riches schemes.
For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the cleverness of the clever I will set aside.” Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 1 Corinthians 1:18-20
Yet there are those still pining for that transfer of wealth from the wicked into their accounts. Many of them are stalwart and continue to confess the inevitability of this promise. On the other hand there are those who have grasped that Jesus himself is their windfall. They are made wealthy as their hearts become satisfied in Christ alone. Our hearts, made in God’s image, are designed such that only Jesus can satisfy their longing. With or without an investment portfolio, these saints accounts are overflowing with an other-worldly satisfaction which defies all earthly knowledge and wisdom.
Jesus is always inviting us to divest ourselves of our hope in this material world. He is saying material wealth is a grotesque and costly substitute to his Son, for whom our hearts were created. The New Testament points to Christ alone as our abundance. All other ground is sinking sand.
Father, show us where we have invested our hearts. Deliver us from the folly of materialism. Help us to hear your invitation to come away with you to that place where you can put our hearts right. Amen.