The wealth of the rich is their fortified city,
but poverty is the ruin of the poor.
The wages of the righteous is life,
but the earnings of the wicked are sin and death.
Summary: Quicksand is a real thing, and a metaphor for ground that is soft and deep. Today’s proverbs look simple on the surface, but they are very deep.
In old films and television shows, a thing called “quicksand” is sometimes used to add a bit of drama. (In the movie “Princess Bride” this was used in the Fire Swamp and called “sinking sand.”) Quicksand was always a spot of ground that looked like a normal spot of ground, but when you stepped on it, a person would disappear out of sight.
My wife and I had a real-life encounter with something similar down at the coast years ago. The coastal town we like to visit had been growing and there was lots of new construction. We were walking across a new parking lot and came to an unfinished landscaping strip with curbs on both sides. I stepped across from curb to curb, but my wife stepped daintily on the dirt in the middle.
To the shock and surprise of both of us, she almost dropped out of sight.
The “dirt” was a silty clay mixed with sand and was freshly excavated, along with being very wet. It had no strength to it at all and she dropped to her waist in mud, quite literally, in the blink of an eye. Unlike in the movies, no vines were dangling nearby to cling to, so we were grateful that the mud was only three feet deep.
Today’s passage is a bit like quicksand. It looks solid at first glance, but when you put your intellectual weight on it, you might sink into the quicksand of uncertainty. What is Solomon actually talking about?
There are three states of financial status listed here; being rich, being poor, and being in poverty. Being poor and being in poverty are not the same thing. Poor is having enough to live on, but not having everything you want. Poverty is not having enough to live on.
So what does it mean to have a “fortified city?” A fort-ified city is defensible. It is a kind of fancy fort dressed up with the luxury and trappings of wealth. It offers protection and safety. People with wealth have fewer worldly worries than people who are poor. The poor live without the protection wealth offers.
Poverty is something that even the poor want to avoid. Poverty is not having food to eat or water to drink. Poverty is the doorstep of (physical) death. You might say that poverty is another kind of quicksand. Once you step into it, it is very difficult to get out.
In the next verse (verse 16), Solomon compares righteousness and wickedness. I think he couples these two verses for a reason. Righteousness leads to life and does not cost any money. Spiritual poverty is wickedness that leads to spiritual death (eternal separation from God).
The wealth of the rich is their fortified city, but the currency of heaven has nothing to do with money. Rich or poor, we all need to avoid spiritual poverty. Through the free gift of salvation through God’s Son, Jesus Christ, we can all have the security of God’s protection and the assurance of God’s forgiveness for our sins (Revelation 22: 12-17).
Application: Whatever your position in the world is, seek righteousness in God’s eyes.
Food for Thought: Do Christians have to worry about the “wages of righteousness?” Why or why not?
Christians get Jesus’ righteousness and Jesus takes our wickedness… Actually He already took all the wickedness that we give Him, past present and future, and took the punishment for it, death. And we clothe ourselves in His righteousness as one would wear something that belongs to their covenant partner to signify unity.
We are called to more than signify unity, but to actually live in oneness with our Savior. But regardless of our successfulness at living righteously, we still receive the wages of righteousness because Jesus earned it. Covenant is key to this, it’s the relationship that makes God’s plan of grace work.
Romans 13:10-14, 1 Corinthians 15:51-57, Ephesians 4:20-25, Colossians 3:9-11
A –
Beautifully said!
Thank you!
Beware of the Evil one! Evil one puts spiritual ‘quicksand’ in our lives! Be prayerful and watchful!🙏
Good advice, Jim.
Thanks!
Good devotion and great analysis by “A.”
To me more important than the wages of righteousness is remaining poor in spirit. God blesses those who are poor in spirit who realize their need for Him. In Matthew 5: 3, Jesus said,“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
To be poor in spirit is to understand our need for our Lord and Savior and so to remain in a humble state before Him.
I need that and I think we all do.
Amen, Rich.
That is a BIG part of what ‘A’ referred to as a covenant relationship. Being in relationship with the Creator of all things is a humbling experience.
04-2502022, Proverbs 10:15-16, Do Christians have to worry about the “wages of righteousness?” Why or why not?
NO, Because our righteousness is the righteousness of Jesus Christ!
There is only one correct way for a Christian to be righteous. We must live every moment of our lives as God has instructed us in His Word. The Bible, uses “righteousness” to mean, doing what is right before God. However, even when we do OUR best, we fall short of God’s perfect righteousness, and this will cause us to feel unworthy before Him, ” which in our own power we are.”
2 Timothy 2:22, 2 Timothy 3:16, Titus 3:5
Knowing our inability to ever meet His standard for righteousness, God provided the way Himself as He provided an advocate, Jesus Christ the propitiation for our sins. ( propitiation means to appease one’s wrath, “to make peace.”) Jesus makes peace with God for the sins of the whole world, and became our advocate or “defender”. God gave His Son as the atonement for our sins because He loves us.
1 John 2:1-2.
The second way “righteousness” is used in the New Testament is to describe the position Christians have before God, in our faith in Jesus Christ. This righteousness is a spiritual reality and is completely separate from the works WE do. The saving righteousness before God in every believer is Jesus Christ in us, by faith. Our righteous works are the result of our living in humility before God and allowing His Son Jesus Christ to be seen in our lives as He ministers to all around us. He is our Righteousness.
Romans 3:22, 1 Corinthians 1:30, 2 Corinthians 5:21
Ron,
Thank you for the excellent reminder that the ultimate righteousness needed to please God has only ever been earned by one person, Jesus Christ. (Others, like Abraham, were considered righteous for other reasons.)
Jesus embraces us and graces us with his righteousness before God. An amazing story…