Proverbs 10:22
The blessing from the Lord makes a person rich,
and he adds no sorrow to it.
When God blesses us, we don’t have to earn it. The sorrow being talked about in this passage is more inline with toil and labor, and the sorrow or pain that might come with it. It’s the same word that is used in Genesis talking about toiling with the land as well as pain in childbirth.
Which adds a tremendous amount of depth to this proverb. Think of Adam and Eve for just minute. They had the kind of blessed life and blessing from the Lord that none of us will ever be able to comprehend. We have no idea what life is like without sin and the consequences of sin. We can know in part, through the blood of Jesus. But, we will not know in whole until we all get to heaven. That’ll definitely be a day of rejoicing, whether you like that hymn or not!
The blessing they experienced had no pain or sorrow, and they were definitely wealthy. They had everything they needed without any guilt to go along with it. They were RICH! Capital R, capital I, capital C, capital H.
But then, everything changed. They ate the fruit, the broke the one rule they were given, and all of a sudden – Pain and sorrow.
The great news is, the Lord can still bless us in such a way that we don’t need to feel pain and sorrow to be able to acquire it. God can still bless us in ways that we can’t understand, and ways that don’t require our pain and suffering. Absolutely he can.
However, given what we’re talking about, and what we talked about yesterday, I imagine that there is work we can do that doesn’t bring pain and suffering, but does bring the blessing of the Lord. And I think that’s the pursuit of the Proverbious life. If you think about it, seeking wisdom and being a righteous person are things that don’t necessarily cost us much. We just need to spend time learning God’s word and God’s ways. The more we learn of them, the more we can be righteous.
I think, that when we are striving to lead this kind of life – the proverbious life – God will bless us. If nothing else, he will bless us with wisdom and the ability not to bring pain and sorrow into our life because of our bad decisions. But, I think God wants to bless us in other ways too. I don’t have a hard time believing that God wants his followers to be rich in possessions. But I do think he wants us to be wise first. I think he wants us to be spiritually prepared for the wealth. Because ultimately, he wants the kind of people who aren’t going to use the wealth to cushion their lives or to advance their agenda. He wants to endow those who will use his gifts to advance his Kingdom.
