Well, one of the themes that is surely all throughout the Proverbs is the theme of the rich and the poor. The Proverbs says a lot about the life of the rich and the plight of the poor. It says a lot about the temptations of people who are rich. We sometimes think that there are all kinds of temptations in the life of a poor person, maybe to doubt God to get what they need in immoral ways.
But the Proverbs really talks about the temptations of the rich. And it has a lot to say about the hardship of the poor. But as the Proverbs wants to do, it approaches the subject of rich and poor in a radically different way. It doesn't deny the reality of poverty; it doesn't deny the seductiveness of riches. But what the Proverbs does is confront us with a different kind of riches; that the truly rich life is not found in your wealth, it's not found in what you can buy, it's not found in whom you can buy, it's not found in the pile of stuff that you've accumulated.
It's found in honoring the Lord with whatever you have; and in that way, a poor person can be rich because there are riches that can never be earned in that way and can never be robbed or faded away. The Proverbs talks about honoring the Lord with your wealth; and if you do that, your barns will be full. That's a metaphor that God blesses people who have a higher agenda for their wealth than just their own pleasure. Proverbs 19:1 says, "Poverty with integrity is better." Isn't that interesting that you can be poor, poor poor. That means you're poor in physical terms, but you are also poor in spiritual terms. Or, you can be poor and rich; you're poor in physical terms; but you're rich in heart because you've been blessed with the riches of integrity.
There are two kinds of game changing passages in Proverbs about this topic. This is Proverbs 28:6, "Better is a poor man who walks in...integrity than a rich man who is crooked in his ways." It would better to be poor and live a righteous life than have all the riches you can imagine. Now how countercultural is that? But that's exactly what the Proverbs says. Or, Proverbs 30:8 and 9, "Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, 'Who is the LORD?' or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of (the LORD)."
Here is the writer of Proverbs saying, "Lord, help me to avoid the two temptations: the temptation of wealth that I would use it in the wrong way, the temptation of poverty that I would feel it's right for me to break your law to get what I need. Just give me enough for today so that I can live a righteous life with integrity." That's real riches.
How radical it is to think that a poor man is richer than a rich man when that poor man lives a righteous life before his Maker. That's the riches you ought to quest for, not the big car, not the big house, not a bunch of money in your wallet, but rich in a life that honors God!
