May 16th Devotional
“He that is greedy of gain troubleth his own house; but he that hateth gifts shall live.”—15:27.
Interpretation.—The avaricious man is a troubler of his own family in many ways. Contrasted with him is the man who hates avarice and all ill-gotten gain—as, for example, the receipt of bribes so common in the East, or usurious transactions, to which the Jews as a nation have always been addicted. The first of these two characters, it is implied, will not be happy or prosperous in the true sense of the word; the second shall live to good purpose, enjoy life, and achieve prosperity.
Illustrations.—Lot, yielding, perhaps, to his wife’s influence, brought great trouble and disgrace upon his family by settling down, for the sake of gain, in a vile neighborhood. Laban, by his sordid dealings, saddened the hearts and lost the services of those who might have been a comfort and a help to him in his declining years. Achan, whose greed of forbidden treasure drew down God’s wrath upon the tribes, is reproached by Joshua as having troubled them. Gehazi involved his posterity in evil by giving way to covetousness. But Abraham had strength of principle to reject the gifts of the King of Sodom, and St. Peter those of Simon Magus. And Samuel contrasts most favorably with Eli’s two sons ravening for their fees in flesh (1 Sam. 12:3, 4; 2:15, 16).
Application.—How base a passion is the love of money, even judged of only by what we see! Well has it been called “the root of all evil” (1 Tim. 6:10), for all manner of evils may, and as a matter of fact do, arise out of it. Domestic troubles are specially glanced at here as among its progeny, and their name is “Legion.” If the passion be to hoard, the man becomes “a miser,” an epithet which proclaims both his own condition and that of his household as miserable. For, in order to save money, he will reduce the comfort and happiness of all under his power to a minimum, giving full scope to his own exacting, irritable, hard temper. But if to lavish money be his aim in raking it together, then what temptation is there to hazardous speculations, risking all to make more, and indeed, to iniquitous methods of various kinds, which not seldom terminate in disgrace! The anxiety and distress these cause to wife and family cannot be described. Too often present ruin or a harvest of future difficulties are their sad outcome. Be it mine, as an heir of glory, to guard against those two extremes by “using this world as not abusing it.” The family is God’s handiwork, which He will not suffer to be troubled with impunity. The gain of which this is the price is unjust, and all such gain is loss.
Pearson, C. R. (1880). Counsels of the Wise King; or, Proverbs of Solomon Applied to Daily Life (Vol. 1, p. 137). W. Skeffington & Son. (Public Domain)