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

He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand: But the hand of the diligent maketh rich.

Proverbs 10:4

This is a proverb that is proverbially true, and everybody knows it, and yet we live in a time where we somehow want to invert the meaning of the proverb, where we want to make the exception the rule. But laziness still leads to poverty, and diligence leads to wealth. A little sleep, a little slumber, and poverty is waiting for you just around the corner like an armed thug (Prov. 6:10). And I saw a poster once in a (very) industrious tire center which read, “Everything comes to him who hustles while he waits.”

We live in an envious age, which wants to assume that wealth is a zero sum game, meaning that there is a certain amount of available goods, like a pie on the table, and if the rich guy gets a big piece of pie, then that is the reason why the poor guy has such a thin piece. And, because there are thieves in the world, that sometimes happens. Sometimes someone makes off with your piece of pie (James 5:1-6). But there are many other times when the truth of this proverb is on display, front and center. The poverty of many has more to do with their own behavior than it has to do with a systemic anything. The same goes for the diligent.

A slack hand is not your friend, and an industrious hand is.

As noted earlier, this proverb is proverbially true, not universally true. In other words, sometimes a lazy man wins the lottery, thus learning all the wrong life lessons. Sometimes an industrious man is plagued with a series of mishaps. But, as a general rule, money follows the one who works for it. 

Because it is not universally true, there are exceptions. Because there are exceptions, those egalitarians who do not want to live in biblical wisdom seize on the exceptions and try to make them the rule. They find one man who is poor because of the injustice of his employer, and then they use that fact to erase the wisdom of Scripture, and what pretty much everybody’s grandma knows about that boy.   

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

The poor useth intreaties; But the rich answereth roughly (KJV).
The poor man uses entreaties, But the rich answers roughly (NKJV).

Proverbs 18:23

The poor man is in the natural position of a supplicant, and the rich man is in the natural position of one who bestows. Not surprisingly, these two places give rise to two very different temptations.

The poor man is in a place where he must ask for things. This by itself is not dishonorable, but the entreaties must be watched carefully so that they do not turn into a wheedling, or complaining, or flattering kind of speech. The asking must also not be considered as a substitute for actual willingness to work (2 Thess. 3:10).

The rich man’s temptation is to be brusque and no-nonsense. “No, of course not. I don’t have time for this. We are burning daylight. Just get a job, man.” 

Too often the poor expect the whole world to extend sympathy. Too often the rich refuse to extend any kind of reasonable sympathy at all. 

The poor man’s temptation is to look to the rich man for his deliverance. The rich man’s temptation is to the look to the rich man for his deliverance. In both cases, they are looking at the wrong source. And what this means is that the poor man is looking to some fallible “god” who is himself tempted to be ill-tempered, short, harsh, brusque, sharp, blunt, gruff, and tart. Who wants to offer up requests to a god like that?

The rich man is in a position to remember the poor, which he ought to do. He should do this so that God will remember him. 

“Blessed is he that considereth the poor: The Lord will deliver him in time of trouble” (Psalm 41:1)  

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

Speak not in the ears of a fool: For he will despise the wisdom of thy words.

Proverbs 23:9

There are times, Scripture teaches us, when we should save our breath for cooling our porridge. There are occasions when it would be more fitting to save our breath for walking uphill. There are circumstances when we should save our breath for some future occasion, when we are no longer talking with a fool.

One of the common mistakes that reasonable people make is the error of attributing intelligence to anyone we may happen to meet. This is appropriate as a matter of good manners, but we should also be aware of the fact that it might not be the case, and when we get feedback indicating that it is not the case, we must be prepared to cut our losses and go.

The fact that a reasonable explanation would satisfy you does not mean that it will satisfy someone who has no intention of listening. 

Now remember that in Scripture a fool is not someone with an IQ deficiency, but rather someone who is morally bent. Folly is rebellious at the core. A very simple man can be pious and devout, and a very intelligent man can be a fool. What this proverb is telling us is that conversation won’t fix a fool. Argument won’t fix him. Wisdom cascades off his back and does not go down into the inward parts. 

This is a variation on what Jesus taught, when He said not to cast your pearls before swine. Wisdom is not appreciated by the fool. He does not want it. So once it becomes apparent that he has no interest, stop trying to capture his interest with words. Words won’t fix this problem. Until the Spirit of God has addressed the heart of the problem, which is the heart, it is not possible for the Word to get through. But when that happens, then real communication becomes possible. 

Or as the sage once put it, never try to teach a pig to whistle. It is a waste of your time, and it annoys the pig.

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

Rob not the poor, because he is poor: Neither oppress the afflicted in the gate: For the Lord will plead their cause, and spoil the soul of those that spoiled them.

Proverbs 22:23–24

For those graspers who are cruel and greedy, the poor are certainly a tempting target. They obviously do not have deep pockets, and so those who would milk them have to make it up in volume. This is why the mistreatment of the poor is so often systemic. Wealth is skimmed off the poor as a class. An enterprising thief cannot seize on just one poor man, empty his pockets, and make off with anything much, and so he deals with the poor in the aggregate.  

This is why a proverb like this one is necessary. Precisely because the poor do not have a lot of resources, they do not have a lot of resources to defend themselves against entities, companies, institutions that have teams of lawyers. If you doubt what I say, drive through a poor neighborhood, and count the payday loan establishments. I wonder what the interest rates are? 

“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows’ houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation” (Matthew 23:14).

Of course, it is just as sinful to steal from a rich man, but at least the rich man has a sporting chance. He has enough wealth to provide a jackpot for the person who succeeds in robbing him, but he also has enough wealth to pay for safes and locks and fences and offshore accounts and lawyers of his own. It is at least something of a fair fight. 

But when the poor are pillaged, it is often the case that they don’t even know that it is occurring. And when they discover that it is happening, they do not know how to identify whoever is responsible. Things can get so inverted that they turn to the thieves to provide them with the much needed protection, which is why their congressman keeps getting reelected.   

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

Make no friendship with an angry man; And with a furious man thou shalt not go: Lest thou learn his ways, And get a snare to thy soul.

Proverbs 22:24–25

In this proverb, we learn two important things at the same time. The first is that anger is a big deal. Having a bad temper is not a bagatelle, not a trifle. The second thing we learn is that we have authority over the friendships we make. Let’s consider these things in turn. 

First, anger is like a fire in the attic. You don’t want that in your house at all, not even a little bit. “An angry man stirreth up strife, and a furious man aboundeth in transgression” (Proverbs 29:22). A lot of damage follows in the train of anger. And because the ancient proverb is true—that anger is a brief madness—the damage that is done is often senseless, demented, and irrational. Anger destroys, and it frequently destroys things that it had no intention of destroying. 

If a man is given to anger, it does no good for him to say, after the fact, that the results were not what he wanted. This is like setting that fire in the attic and saying afterwards that you never intended for the whole house to burn.

But notice that the injunction given in this proverb is that we are to avoid friendships with men who have this problem. Christians are supposed to love everyone, including their enemies, but we are not supposed to be friends with everyone. Scripture forbids being friends with certain kinds of people. Bad companions corrupt good morals (1 Cor. 15:33).

We should be friendly toward all. So when you happen to sit next to an angry man on a plane, sure, go ahead. Have a friendly demeanor. But you are not supposed to settle into a friendship with such a man, and why? The “evangelism” will go the wrong way. You stand a better chance of becoming like him than he stands of becoming like you.

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