UNWORTHY WEALTH

Proverbs 1:32 (KJV)

For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.

I told you that I am attempting to read the book of Proverbs through each week as I do this series and the one Sunday night.

As I did that this week, I noticed that I missed a passage having to do with money. I want to go back to that today.

Is it telling that the book of Proverbs’ first mention of money, is negative?

There is such a thing as “the prosperity of fools.”

When I read this passage and saw it’s warning, my mind raced forward to, Proverbs 23:1-3 (KJV)

When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before thee:

And put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite.

Be not desirous of his dainties: for they are deceitful meat.

Daniel must have had this passage in mind when he refused to eat of the king’s meat and drink of his wine in Babylon.

Proverbs clearly warns, “the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.”

I have two different headings I want to pursue with this:

I. THE FOOL AND HIS PROSPERITY

The prosperity of the fool will destroy the fool.

There is something about:

·   money,

·   success,

·   status

That messes with the minds of those who have it.

Anita and I went to Virginia in the fall. It was a great trip, but I do have one regret – I wish I had known how close Richmond was to Jamestown – the first English settlement on the Continent.

We arrived in town on Monday afternoon and realized that we were close enough that, if we didn’t waste time, we could see Jamestown, Williamsburg and Yorktown all before dinner.

But not having researched it carefully we followed the signs to Jamestown and ended up at a visitors center and reconstruction and not the actual site.

I would have liked to see the actual site.

Jamestown was a fiasco, as I understand it, for a number of reasons.

The original settlers were, for the most part, seekers of wealth.[1]

There were, among those original people, a member of the clergy and some laborers, but it included a substantial group of people among the gentleman class. These were people of wealth, financing the venture in hopes of becoming even wealthier.

You know almost everyone died?

·   They were too far away from fresh water

·   They were eaten alive by mosquitoes and

·   They were unable to adequately prepare for winter

Part of the reason for this lack of preparation was because the gentleman among them refused to work.

They brought surfs to do their work for them.

Rather than lifting a finger to help

·   Plant and harvest food

·   Build good buildings and

·   Move the settlement inland

They starved and froze to death.

Their prosperity destroyed them.

Speaking of the fool and his prosperity:

A. They worship their wealth

Those gentlemen of Jamestown chose not to move their settlement inland because they had no real vision for a community.

They came for quick wealth.

They had heard how the Spaniards had found gold all over Central and South America and the first adventurers here just wanted the same thing.

If they got too far inland, it would be more difficult to depend on the constant supply of goods from British ships.

Turned out they couldn’t depend on them anyway – the storms were too bad in the winter for those ships to get to them in the Chesapeake Bay.

They put no value in stability, establishment or safety – only in prosperity. And it killed them.

B. They feel they have no need of God

It is the rare person who has wealth and a sense of the need of God.

I saw a picture of our President and Vice President huddled with a group of people in prayer the other day.

You would never have heard of Trump and prayer in the 1980’s when he was featured on the Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.

Fortunately, the immensity of the task that is before him has caused him to see a need of some power greater than his own.

It doesn’t happen to all of those with wealth.

C. They tend to think of themselves as better than a less wealthy, but Christian person

Because of this they will not often hear a Christian out.

A preacher once told me that, in order to reach the people in the cities of Texas, a pastor needed to drive an expensive car

·   A Corvette or

·   A Cadillac

The well to do down there just won’t listen to a person who isn’t successful enough to drive an expensive car.

The truth is, if you need those things to get their audience, what you win them to will not be the meek and humble Jesus Christ.

“the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.”

In the context of the Proverb I think it is appropriate to suggest also that there is a dangerous relationship with

II. THE SIMPLE AND THE PROSPERITY OF FOOLS

Remember again what we have in the book of Proverbs:

A father teaching his son to give

·   Subtlety to the simple and

·   Knowledge and discretion to the young man

His warning would sound something like this, “Son, people who have money and use it foolishly will be ruined by it.”

The reason he wants his son to know that is because, that fool can ruin others with him, if those others are not wise.

People who have less are almost invariably drawn to those who have more.

Trump had a now infamous program called Trump University

It was supposed to be him teaching people how to do real estate like him.

·   It had lots of people enroll into it because they all wanted to make money like him but then

·   It collapsed because just taking his classes doesn’t guarantee you can make money like him

It happens among preachers

·   Some pastor builds a great big church

·   Other pastors want to build a big church too

·   The big church pastor hosts a pastors’ school

·   Other pastors attend so they can do what the big church pastor did

Very often those very pastors stop being independent thinkers and students of the Bible and they just become students of and mimickers of the big church pastor.

It reminds me of a bug zapper.

You hang one of those bug zappers up and every bug for miles will come to the light.

·   They are drawn to it

·   They are blinded by it, so they can’t see the danger of it

Down on the ground is a pile of tiny bug ashes.

But all they can see is the beautiful light.

The book of Proverbs acts like a set of sunglasses to cut out the glare so a guy can see how dangerous the prosperity of the fool is.

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[1] I believe I got my information about Jamestown from a book called The Light and the Glory