At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore (Ps. 16: 11)

I went by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding; And, lo, it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken down. Then I saw, and considered it well: I looked upon it, and received instruction. Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep: So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth; and thy want as an armed man.

Proverbs 20:1

In reading a proverb like this, the first striking thing about it is how obvious it all seems. There is a man who owns a piece of property, say, a field, or a vineyard, and this man is lazy and “void of understanding.”

Because he did not understand how the world works, because he was a sluggard, his agricultural endeavors were overgrown with thorns and nettles, and the stone wall around it was broken down. This is the part that was not obvious to him, to the owner, but which is obvious to us. If you don’t weed, you are going to have weeds. If you don’t repair the wall, the wall will be in a state of disrepair. 

But notice how the author of Proverbs talks about this. He “considered it well.” He mulled, he reflected, he pondered. When he considered it well, having looked, he received instruction. What seems intuitive and obvious to us now is actually a topic that will repay meditation. God has placed us in a world of cause and effect. God is not mocked—a man reaps what he sows. If he sows laziness, he reaps nettles. But there is something in the fallen nature of man that wants to grasp at the possible exceptions. A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and sometimes a man wins Powerball.

Yes, but not usually. The true results happen regularly enough to be called predictable. Poverty comes like “one who travels.” Several translations render this as “robber,” so perhaps we might combine the senses and say “highwayman.” The second expression brings the full sense. Poverty comes like a mugging. For however obvious it is, it takes wisdom to see it all clearly. 

And this brings the sense home. There is a character in a Hemingway story who says that bankruptcy came upon him slowly, and then suddenly. It is like that here. The consequences of laziness and ignorance are cumulative, and they accumulate slowly. It can be managed—for a time. But then the disaster comes. Poverty sticks the gun in your ribs and says, “Hand it over.” 

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At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore (Ps. 16: 11)

Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: And whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise (KJV).

Wine is a mocker, strong drink is a brawler, and whoever is led astray by it is not wise (NKJV).

Proverbs 20:1

For over a century, the evangelical church in North America was overwhelmingly dry—that is, they had adopted the temperance approach that had begun to gain traction in the 19th century. This movement culminated in Prohibition, a 13 year ban on alcohol in the United States (1920-1933). In truth Prohibition was a spectacular failure, but sometimes people mistakenly imagine that the problem it was seeking to address was therefore an imaginary problem. But that was not the case—drunkenness was a significant social problem prior to Prohibition. Perhaps we could think of those thirteen years as America’s time in rehab.  

Now “temperance” was actually a misnomer because the word should refer to moderate use of alcohol, not to an absolute requirement to abstain from it. The word temperance did not originally bring teetotalism to mind. But the period after Prohibition actually was pretty temperate.

Something similar happened with the gradual relaxation of attitudes toward alcohol among evangelicals. At first, alcohol is approached carefully, gingerly, like it might bite. This is all to the good because Scripture teaches us that alcohol does bite, like an adder (Prov. 23:32). 

But we live in a time when substance abuse of various kinds is increasingly common, whether pot, or opioids, or prescription pills, or alcohol. Christians there need to make sure they don’t let down their guard simply because the outside culture is giving way to dissipation. A good check on our spirits is to remember the words of this proverb—wine has an attitude problem; it mocks. Whiskey is violent; it is a brawler, and can beat you up. Both of them together are liars, telling you that you are far more temperate than you actually are.

When people ask for my advice on this, I have a pretty simple rule of thumb—only one.  

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At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore (Ps. 16: 11)

Delight is not seemly for a fool; Much less for a servant to have rule over princes (KJV).

Luxury is not fitting for a fool, much less for a servant to rule over princes (NKJV).

Proverbs 19:10

We are accustomed to the word egalitarian because of our debates about headship and submission within marriage, and because of the broader question of sex roles within the church. And almost all conservative Christians know and understand that the Scriptures are not egalitarian when it comes to marriage—the husband is the head of the wife (Eph. 5:22-24). And they also understand that a woman is not permitted to teach or exercise authority over men in the church (1 Tim. 2:12-15). 

But what many do not understand is that the Bible is not egalitarian anywhere, and this proverb provides us with a good illustration of that.

All societies have various social strata—in our setting, we have the homeless, the urban poor, the blue collar workers, white collar workers, the independently wealthy, and then the billionaires. In some societies, these strata are assigned by tradition, and if that tradition is hard and inflexible you have a caste system. If it is more attractive to us, you have might have a scene out of Pride & Prejudice, where the nameless servants get all the work done, and are less obtrusive than your smart phone notifications are. In that kind of society, there is some mobility. In ours, there is quite a bit of traffic between the strata, but the principle is still one that applies.  

So luxury is not fitting for a fool. We all know what happens when a redneck wins the lottery. Pretty much everything that will happen could be filed under the heading of “not fitting.” And a hired hand should not be given authority over someone who is a genuine aristocrat (as opposed to a faux-aristocrat).

This is not because wealth is bad, and it is not because authority is bad. Rather, the point is that both wealth and authority are things that require years of training to handle properly. If you come into wealth suddenly, then bad things happen. If you come into authority suddenly, then bad things happen.  

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At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore (Ps. 16: 11)

There are many devices in a man’s heart; Nevertheless the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand.

Proverbs 19:21

We have a proverb in English that states much the same truth. Man proposes, God disposes.

A man’s head can be crammed full of ideas, and he thinks that he can go first here, and then over there. When he is done, he will do thus and such, and make a pile of money.

“Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that. But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil” (James 4:13–16).

Men can think up many plans, but only the Lord’s will is going to be accomplished at the end of the day. That being the case, the point should be surrendered in principle before the first step is taken.

Note that we are not surrendering the point in principle if we say something like, “I have prayed about it, and it is the Lord’s will that . . .” This is compounding the sin of arrogance, not actually hedging against it. James tells us that we must leave the outcome entirely in the hands of God. If He determines that the thing will be done, then it will in fact be done. If not, then not.

At this point, some become fatalistic. They shrug and say, “What’s the use then?” Whatever is going to happen is going to happen. But this is too simplistic as well. If we read through the book of Proverbs carefully, we see that we are commanded in multiple places to pay attention to cause and effect. If we pay attention to this pattern of cause and effect, then we will see trouble coming and avoid it—we will learn that industry leads to wealth, we will not marry a quarrelsome woman, and so on. If we put this together, we will see that our planning is essential, and that it is equally important that we not trust in our planning. 

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