Covenant Theological Seminary presents Psalms and Wisdom Books with Dr. V. Phillips Long. Lesson 19. But let's begin this session by expressing to the Lord our sense of dependence on him. Let's pray together. Father, we are both excited and also intimidated by what it is you call us to do. And that is to open your word and to seek to understand it. Father, we recognize how far short we fall of real understanding in so many ways of this wonderful word that you have given us. And often we've squandered opportunities to improve our understanding. Often we've slept through sermons or drifted off into our own daydreams when we had opportunity to grow in understanding. And yet, Lord, we thank You that You accept us even in our weakness. And in fact, you have said that your strength is made perfect in our weakness. So we come before you tonight as weak vessels begging you to show your strength in us. Lord, teach us from your word. We thank You that it is not a pamphlet. We thank You that it is not just a few lines that we could master in a day. We thank You that it is an immeasurable word that displays your majesty and something of your immensity such that we could not master this word, could not learn it fully in our lifetime. But we thank You that You give us that opportunity to study. Okay, well, we are still in the Book of Proverbs and will be this evening. It may spill a little bit over into next time, but I will write an assignment on the board which will include reading Derek Kiddner's chapters on the Book of Job and getting you started reading the Book of Job. So that at least will be part of your assignment for next week. If you have a Bible, you'll want to open it to the Book of Proverbs. You should have handouts from last time. If you don't, I will encourage you to look on with someone else at the moment and try to get those handouts from someone else if possible. I was madly searching to see where my extras were and did not manage to locate them. So if you can take care of that affair yourself, that would be most helpful. All those handouts, what we have under the section entitled Structure and Content is a subdivision of the Book according to the titles that the Book itself displays. And so we began looking last time at that section that begins the Proverbs of Solomon, Son of David, King of Israel, a section that runs really for the first nine chapters of the Book. So that title as we come in at last time may refer to the entire book in large measure. In other words, Solomon is the primary author of the Book of Proverbs. Or it may also be referring to the first nine chapters. That's a question that we can't easily settle. We also looked last time at the first seven verses dealing with the title, the purpose, and the first principle of wisdom. Not only the Book of Proverbs, but Wisdom in general, and not only Wisdom in general, but also in the Psalms, and really biblical religion itself would adhere to this particular first principle. And that is the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, the very first step. And no matter how clever you may be, if you lose sight of that first principle, you are off on the wrong foot. You have taken the wrong step in the wrong direction, and your cleverness will lead you ever farther from God, rather than closer to God. So the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. That is what undergirds all of what we consider in this very practical book of practical advice. Then we began talking about different themes in the first nine chapters. And these are themes that work themselves out throughout the rest of the book. So the first nine with their paragraph length treatments of themes are very good chapters for kind of getting an orientation to a particular theme. And then you want to augment that by searching out what is said about that theme later in the book. We ended last time I think talking about psychosomatic illnesses and such using a more modern psychological term. What I'd like us to do now is look at another major theme that appears in these first nine chapters, if I can find what I'm looking for here, and I will in a minute. I'd like us to look at the issue of wealth, and we're going to touch on a number of other themes and then we're going to march right on through this content, looking at specific verses, trying to mine them for what they can teach us. Just obviously given the number, there are 900 and how many 900 and 15 verses, 915 verses, so just short of a thousand verses in the book of Proverbs. We will not talk about every verse. I'm sure that comes as something of relief to all of us, but we do want to talk about as many of them as we can, and at least get a sampling of them. So if you have your syllabus, I would pull out that page that I had appended to it entitled Proverbs on Personal Property. The issue of wealth comes up already in chapter 3 verses 9 and 10. These would have been good verses to include as memory work as well, though I had to limit myself for your sake and mine. By the way, I've never memorized all these, I'm trying to memorize them along with you, so it's not like I've done these all before, I just can't learn. Okay, Proverbs 3 verses 9 and 10, tell us this. Honor the Lord with your wealth with the first fruits of all your crops, then your barns will be filled to overflowing and your vats will brim over with new wine. Now, we're going to pause later to talk about the nature of a proverb, because even hearing that may make you wonder, well wait a minute, I know of an individual who honored the Lord with his or her wealth, and with the first fruits of all his crops, and he went bankrupt, so did God's word fail. So we're going to wrestle with that question of how do we understand a proverb, is it a generality, is it more than that? But we're going to defer that for a little while, so if you're vexed by that question, rest assured we'll get to that eventually. Right now I'd like us to look at this whole issue of wealth and personal property, it's something of concern to us, living in the west, where, however we may measure ourselves, we are relatively in world terms wealthy. If you've traveled at all to third world countries, you know that by comparison we are wealthy, now that doesn't mean we are lacking in financial concerns, because of the way we try to live in the west, we sometimes are more consumed with financial anxiety than individuals in the third world who simply don't vest as much interest in what they own, so that's a problem that we've inflicted on ourselves perhaps. So what is the book of Proverbs just working thematically, tell us about wealth, well first of all, you can see the way I have subdivided it, tried to divide these gleenings thematically, and this is what I want you to do with your gleenings, this kind of thing, with your gleenings by next week, and become with sufficient photocopies to pass them out to your fellows in your gender neutrally speaking in your group, your friends in your group. Well first of all, wealth properly earned can be the Lord's blessing, there is nothing wrong with wealth, God gives us all things richly to enjoy. Wealth can be the Lord's blessing, look at Proverbs 3, 16. Long life is in her right hand, that's wisdom, wisdom is personified often as lady wisdom. Remember this book of Proverbs is addressing chiefly, the setting is a father addressing his son, my son listened to my instruction. And so conversely then daughters are also addressed, but specifically it's a book that's addressing sons, so when wisdom is personified, wisdom is personified as a woman inviting the young man to embrace wisdom. So blessed as a man who finds wisdom verse 13, then verse 16, long life is in her right hand, in her left hand are riches and honor. Or look at, I'm going to skip a few of these, look at chapter 10 verse 22. Now see we've moved out of the first nine chapters, we're jumping into the salamonic collection, what is sometimes called the central collection, that deals more with just individual sayings, juxtaposed. Look at 10, 22. The blessing of the Lord brings wealth and he adds no trouble to it. The blessing of the Lord brings wealth and he adds no trouble to it. Wealth can be a blessing, and it's a blessing that is trouble free, all of us probably know people who have immense wealth and great troubles. But if that wealth is a result of the blessing of the Lord, then he adds no trouble to it. Anyone looking at another translation, Proverbs 10, 22, says something a little different in the second line, yes Beth. And he adds no sorrow with it. That's a little different, but essentially saying the same thing. Anyone have anything radically different? There's another possibility for this one, the New American Bible, not the New American Standard Bible, but the New American Bible reads this way, the blessings of the Lord brings wealth and no effort can substitute for it. That's a different thought, but also a good thought, and I think probably the NIV and the New King James have it about right. But this is a possibility from the Hebrew, and it's maybe worth thinking about it. I don't think we do it ourselves any harm to realize that God's blessing brings a kind of wealth that no amount of effort can substitute for. So as believers we have a right sense of our wealth. As we look around and are tempted to envy the greater monetary wealth of our fellow citizens sometimes to realize that we are the ones with the real treasure is encouraging to us. Look at 13, chapter 13, verses 21 and 22. Misfortune pursues the sinner, but prosperity is the reward of the righteous. A good man leaves an inheritance for his children's children, but a sinner's wealth is stored up for the righteous. Again, God's wealth can be a result of God's blessing. Again, this raises the question that we'll need to consider what kind of a promise prediction is this because there have been good individuals who have not left an inheritance for their children's children. So is this generally true, most of the time true, and sometimes false, or how do we look at that? Come to that eventually. So wealth can be the Lord's blessing, but second point, wealth does not prove the Lord's blessing. And that is often a big mistake that we make. Something about the Protestant work ethic. Because God blesses diligent effort, if I am wealthy, God must be pleased with me. Look at Proverbs 11, verse 16. A kindhearted woman gains respect, but ruthless men gain only wealth. You see, I'm inferring the principle here from that, but it does show that second line does demonstrate that a wealthy man could well be a ruthless, not a righteous man. And so he has gotten his wealth ruthlessly, not through his righteousness, not as a result of the Lord's blessing, but by his own covetous means. So it's not a proof, having money does not prove in any way that God has blessed, though it can be a blessing. Third point, wealth results from honest, hard work in a proverbial sense. I know that there are many people who have worked diligently and hard for a long time and have not turned a handy profit and have not really gotten wealthy. There are other circumstances that have to be considered. Look at 10-4. Lazy hands make of man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth. Diligence is, in a proverbial sense, a means to gaining wealth. 13-11. Disannist money dwindles away, but he who gathers money little by little makes it grow. The contrast between money dishonestly gained, which will just dwindle away, and that which is gained by integrity. He who gathers money little by little makes it grow, the converse, the opposite of dishonesty, honest integrity. 22-16. He who oppresses the poor to increase his wealth and he who gives gifts to the rich both come to poverty. This is recognizing that there is a right way to gain wealth and that there are also wrong ways to gain wealth. What are the two wrong ways here? Oppressing the poor, exploitation taking advantage of those who are in a disadvantaged position and you're in a position to take advantage of them. And we see that in our society immediately around us all the time. We see it globally often when we see what, and I'm not inditing any particular multinational corporations, but we do see multinational corporations exploiting individuals getting their cheap labor and leaving them little behind when they leave. That's one way, that's one wrong way to gain wealth, another bribery. Okay, trying to curry favor with the wealthy and the influential by giving them gifts. Moving along, 23-4. This is an important one to read, I think, to balance what we said earlier about diligence and about industry. We also need to read 23-4. Do not wear yourself out to get rich. Have the wisdom to show restraint. How many times have you walked into a business office downtown and seen that placard on the wall? But you might have happier employees if the employer relies that and realize that his people are his best resource and if they wear themselves out, they're not showing wisdom and they'll actually do better in the end if he has happy people. By the way, I met a guy who works for you and he's very happy about it, that's good. Yeah, I met him just last night. One more, 28-20. Chapter 28, verse 20. A faithful man will be richly blessed but one eager to get rich will not go unpunished. Doesn't mean he won't get rich but his riches themselves may be something of a punishment. When we get to the book of Ecclesiastes, we'll see how that is, how a person's very wealth can be his oppressor. He talks about him lying awake at night, trying to figure out how he can hang on to what he's got. I've seen that in my own extended family, I have lawyer relatives who've done a little better financially than I have. At one point, I remember one of these lawyer relatives being very concerned as to how he was going to manage to hang on to what he had achieved. And I just was sort of thanking my lucky stars to use a very non-presbyterian term. I was sort of thanking the Lord, let's put that right. I was thanking the Lord that he had not given me so much to be worried about. Someone could sue me for all his worth and we could get that over with in a couple of seconds. Anyway, we should seek faithfulness, not greed. We should show moderation, show restraint. Now, wealth brings responsibilities, and this is what we often forget. Those of us sitting in the relatively wealthy West, we sometimes forget that wealth does bring responsibilities along with it. Generosity and fairness in the use of wealth are requirements, they are required of us. Look at chapter 14, verse 31, and if this is not sobering, nothing is. He who oppresses the poor shows contempt for their maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God. I think that's a lesson that we all need to learn. I know when I was in Cambridge, for some reason certain cities attract a lot of transients and a lot of kind of street people and such. And there are a lot of beggars, frankly, in Cambridge. It's very easy to go along and someone asks you for money and to say, well, you've not been diligent, you should be better. I actually know nothing about the person. I don't know what kind of adverse circumstances he or she has encountered, and yet I just assume. Well, you shouldn't be where you are. And then furthermore, I assume you're going to use it for some illicit purpose. You know, they're always asking for food and I always assume drugs or whatever. But in the end, not that I can say that I always do this, but in the end I decided it would be better to err on the side of helping an unworthy person than to withhold help from a worthy person who happened to be under at that time. And so I kind of decided, well, Lord, I may actually be buying drugs now and again for people. And if I have a sense that that's what I'm doing, then I try to investigate or do something. And if there's another option, if you can say, you need food, hey, come with me, we'll go down to the diner. I think there's responsible ways for doing that. But if you really don't have a choice, I think it's better not to simply assume the worst because we could be guilty of oppressing the poor and showing contempt for their maker, saying you're kind of an unworthy person. Again, I think we just need to ask the Lord to guide us in those things. Generosity and fairness is required of us for those of us who have things. Chapter 22, verses 22 and 23, do not exploit the poor because they are poor and do not crush the needy in court for the Lord will take up their case and will plunder those who plunder them. If the mere rightness and the requirement of generosity is not enough, here's a little threat. The Lord will take up their case and will plunder those who plunder them. If we need that, we have it. Well, it does bring responsibilities. Generosity also has a blessing. It generates returns. And this is something that, again, you don't want to do it for this reason. This shouldn't be the motivation, but this is the way life works, the way God's universe works. And it's encouraging to hear this so that we can be open-handed with our wealth. Chapter 22, verse 9. A generous man will himself be blessed, and he who shares his food with the poor. A generous man will himself be blessed. We all have probably heard it is more blessed to give than to receive. Well, this is saying those who give will in fact also receive. They will be blessed by God. 28, 27. He who gives to the poor will lack nothing, but he who closes his eyes to them receives many curses. Again, that's one that sort of rings in my mind when I'm approached by a beggar. He who gives to the poor will lack nothing, but he who closes his eyes to them receives many curses. Sometimes those curses are real founded, but sometimes they're not. Sometimes we're just too busy, too unconcerned. Don't want to mess with it. 25, 21. I'm not going to look at all of these by the way in case you're thinking, gee, this could take all night. 25, 21. If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat. If he is thirsty, give him water to drink. In doing this, you will heat burning coals on his head and the Lord will reward you. That's a curious one, isn't it? What does that mean? Who's heard theories or has theories on that? Yes, what do you think that means? Okay, he'll become ashamed. How do you get that? He'll become ashamed. If you kind of hit your enemy, he'll become ashamed. Where do you get that notion? Uh-huh. You had a wise parent who trained you in that way. Okay, good. Yeah, Theresa. Okay. All right. So by retreating them kindly, they understand that they don't deserve your kindness. And so in a sense, they may lead them to repentance, it may cause them pain. It's interesting. This is an interesting verse because it sounds in one way like the way you can hurt them the worst, the way you can inflict the greatest pain is, you know, to harbor the grievance. In other words, you didn't return to them in kind the cruelty they expressed toward you. And thus, you have a grievance against them and you are heaping delightedly burning coals on their head. Well, there are two possibilities. One is that you are rather than, rather than you're exacting your pound of flesh, you are simply responding, you know, returning good for evil and leaving them in the hands of God. And that can be kind of threatening. Or there's another, there's another theory that if you have an NIV study Bible, it actually says it in the note there. It says, alternatively, the expression may reflect an Egyptian expiation ritual in which a guilty person as a sign of his repentance carried a basin of glowing coals on his head. Now, going back to this notion of by returning good for evil, you may lead them to repentance, you may challenge them, may wake them up to their own sin, and they may then be like these going through the expiation ritual of heaping the glowing coals on their head. It may be a symbol for repentance. If your enemy is hungry, if your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat. Now, how much more someone who's not your enemy, but maybe someone you just don't know well? Yeah, well, we will move on. Let's see. I do want to look at 25-14, one more in that section. Like clouds and wind without rain is a man who boasts of gifts he does not give. This is a warning against false generosity or claims of false generosity to which we are all sometimes subject. So, just to kind of summarize so far, wealthed, properly earned can be the Lord's blessing, doesn't necessarily prove it, but it also brings responsibilities, the responsibility being to hold what God gives us with an open hand, realizing that God will reward that. God is the source of all the good that we receive. So it is absurd for us to clutch and hang on to what we think is ours rather than freely sharing of it with God's other creatures. Because God owns the cattle on a thousand hills, we needn't worry that we will run out if we let some of ours be distributed to others. Yeah, Todd. Right. Very important comment, which I'll have to condense for the video audience here, but Todd's comment is really the thing that strikes him is that we should be concerned for the poor and forgiving to the poor, not simply when they enter our world, when we are accosted by them, when the beggar comes up to us, or when we walk by someone, they say, give me something, but rather we should be concerned to be more proactive in actually reaching out to the poor. And that's true, and that's something, that stings a little bit, I think, when we hear that, because a lot of times we're not. Moving on, I want to try to finish this before we take a break, and I think we can do this. Wealth poses dangers. Wealth poses dangers. Sometimes people talk about, I've heard people say, in the Old Testament wealth was a blessing, in the New Testament wealth is viewed as a curse. I don't think that Old Testament New Testament dichotomy is quite accurate, but it's quite clear that wealth poses dangers, and they're severe warnings in the New Testament. It is easier for Camel to go through the eye of a needle vent for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven, Jesus said. He warns of the dangers of wealth. That doesn't mean it's a curse, it just poses dangers. And the Old Testament knows that as well. Looking at various problems with it, I'm just going to summarize some of these. It can bring threats, it can bring false friends. Have you ever thought about what it would be to be extremely wealthy, and what a curse that would be in some ways, because you would never know whether your friends were your friends, or leeches, people hanging on to you because of what they could suck from you, or being famous. I think sometimes the reason the British royalty are so miserable, it seems, is that they probably don't have a clue if anyone really cares a twit about them to use a nice Britishism. Because they're famous, they're royalty, people are always bowing and scraping to them, but what is genuine in that? Well wealth can bring false friends, it can also bring threats. It can bring false confidence. It's easy to feel secure, but we need to realize that no bank account, no matter how large, can actually secure our existence. I remember the parable of rich man who built larger barns and died that night, not terribly secure, and it can divert our attention from God. Look at chapter 30, verse 8. This, chapter 30, beginning in verse 7, this is one of the first little set of verses that my wife and I prayed together as we were, before we even married, as we were engaged, and she's cursed me ever since for leading her into this. But we did it anyway, actually she made more jokingly does that, but it just, it struck me at the time that this is the way I wanted to live and we ought to live. And it reads this way, two things I ask of you, O Lord, do not refuse me before I die, keep falsehood and lies far from me, give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, who is the Lord? Or I may become poor and steel and so dishonor the name of my God. And that was sort of a prayer of, Lord, keep me barely in the black. Don't let me get so far in the black that I think I have a lot of wiggle room and don't need to trust you anymore. And don't let me get so far in the red that I, that my trust in you fails and I feel like I need to steal to pull myself out, but just keep me barely in the black. And it's been amazing over 25 years, almost 25 years of marriage, how well he's managed to do that. And she says, you know, couldn't we just rise a little higher in the black? And it's, you know, the line is not perfectly steady. And our faith is constantly tested and you who are students and particularly if you're a full-time student, you know what that is to really walk by faith. But that's a blessing because you learn something about the Lord in seeing him provide. I mean, we could not engineer our finances so as to stay right on the bubble as well as the Lord has done. You know, he keeps us just above the line, I just above the line most of the time. Now I'm not saying that we have not had had wonderful material blessings, but they haven't been, they've never resided much in our bank account. You know, God took us to, God took us as missionaries to Germany. So whereas a lot of people work for years and scrimp and save so that they and their family can do Europe, we live there for four years. You know, we didn't engineer to that. We couldn't have paid for it, but we were missionaries in Europe. So we did Europe for four years. You know, we saw Switch and all that. So God, God does reward you and your life is rich and good and wonderful even praying this prayer. So he certainly not undersold us, but this is a good one I think to pray because it does make us trust God. It encourages us to trust God. And having too much can divert our attention from God, wealth can pose dangers. It can also pose the dangers because it can be very deceptive point B. It seems to offer security, but it doesn't really. And ultimately it's worthless. I mean they talk about you can't take it with you and you really can't take it with you. Now you can, the interesting twist to that is you can store up for yourselves treasures in heaven. Now how do you do that? That's by using what God gives you in this life as he directs you so that you are building the kingdom. And there you are storing up for yourselves treasures. And I don't think you're going to go up there and you're going to have a lock box necessarily. You know, here's your key. Look at all that's in your life. But it is saying, you know, what you do with your wealth makes sense. And it is of eternal significance. It's not that it's insignificant. It's just don't hoard it thinking that you're going to pack a bag, put it into your bed and take it with you. Now it's not to be trusted. Look at 1128, chapter 11, verse 28, whoever trusts in his riches will fall. But the righteous will thrive like a green leaf. Again, you know, we could reflect on that. And that's interesting imagery. Poetry is often interesting imagery. Whoever trusts in his riches will fall. I don't know if it's talking about a falling leaf. But it does use that leaf metaphor of the righteous. The righteous will thrive like a green leaf. Why did it choose that metaphor? Why that particular image of the righteous? Who has a speculation, Sandra? Okay, we think of Jesus as, you know, what is it, John 15, talking about, I am the vine, you are the branches. Right, and we need to clean to him. I think it is interesting that the righteous, the metaphor chosen is a leaf because a leaf is not a very strong thing. It could be ripped off the branch. And yet it's as strong as the sap flowing through it. And it does, it's the health of the vine. It's the health of the trunk that keeps that leaf green. And so there is that organic connection of the righteous to some life-giving source. And that's the Lord. Well, it can be very deceptive. It's not to be trusted. It is, after all, only temporary. And then finally, wealth is not to be our first priority. And I say that not only to, you know, those in training here at the seminary who are planning to go into full-time Christian service or whatever, every Christian is in full-time Christian service. Now it may not be how you draw your paycheck, but for every Christian wealth is not to be your first priority. Now you want to be faithful. You want to be a faithful servant of God in the workplace so that you're a good witness. But we easily slip over into a misconception. I was at a men's retreat last spring where one of the men said, well, aren't we called to be the best in our profession? Because Christians shouldn't we be the best? And as we thought about it, the answer was, no, not necessarily. We're called to be as faithful as we possibly can. But that may not make us the best. There may be some other guy who has sacrificed everything, you know, his family, his time with his children, his avocations, all the things that make life worth living. He's thrown it all aside to devote himself solely to rising to the top in this particular profession. He is the best. You're not, but you're being more faithful. So we're not called to be the best. We're called simply to be faithful. There are many things that are more important than money. And it's not to be our first priority. Now, look at 1914. I'm sorry, 1914. I just got to get a plug in here. Houses and wealth are inherited from parents, but a prudent wife is from the Lord. There's something that's a whole lot better than wealth. A prudent wife. And I'm thankful for my wife who actually prayed that prayer with me and has regretted it ever since. But at least you prayed that prayer and we stuck together with it. Many things are more important than money. Point B, well should not, well should be a byproduct of higher ambitions. If it's the Lord's will that we have wealth, it should be a byproduct of right ambitions, higher ambitions. Look at 22, chapter 22, verse 4. Humility and the fear of the Lord bring wealth and honor and life. Again, that raises the question of how do we take that? Is that a prediction? Because not everyone who is humble and fears the Lord is wealthy by no stretch of the imagination or all wealthy in a monetary sense. So how do we understand that? Well, we need to come to that in a little bit. But humility and the fear of the Lord are higher ambitions and God honors those. And then finally, our worth is not measured by our wealth. Maybe I'm stretching a little bit here. Chapter 22, verse 2. Rich and poor have this in common. The Lord is the maker of them all. I'm kind of, this is a little reader response because I often think about, I remember coming back from in our missionary days when we would come back from overseas. And I would think about my earlier impressions of missionaries when they'd come and visit our church. And I would think missionaries are kind of dense. They don't know the fashions and so forth. And so on. And it was real tempting to come back because we're observant. We had been missionaries before years and we'd come back and say, I'm not wearing the latest fashions here. I don't have exactly the same, the right kind of shoes on it. They're probably noticing about me. And they're probably thinking about me as a missionary. What I used to think about other missionaries. And it was very tempting to say, I could have that. You know, here's the lawyer, you know, one of my lawyer relatives. And he earned a lot more money. I did a three year masters degree too. I don't really call it a doctor of jurisprudence or whatever they call it. But it's the same amount of study. And I guarantee if you go to seminary full time, you'll find out it's just about as hard. In fact, people who've come from law school have occasionally said to me, maybe to me, particularly law school was never like this. I think they smiled afterwards. But at any rate, it was tempting for me to begin to measure myself and become frustrated because I thought they don't view me as worthy. They don't view me as they're equal because I don't have what they have. And I had to remind myself that we are not measured by what we have. The person's life does not consist in the things that he or she owns. And nor should we measure ourselves by it. Nor should we measure others because rich and poor have this in common. The Lord is the maker of them all. We shouldn't give undue honor to the one and not to the other. Remember what the writer of the book of James? By the way, a wonderful New Testament wisdom book has to say about that in James 1, 9, and 10. He calls upon the poor to rejoice in their high position and the rich to rejoice in their low position. That's a study in itself trying to figure out exactly what that means. But the Lord is the maker of them both. We shouldn't measure ourselves by it well. This is just an overview or rather rapid overview of what this one book has to say. And there are other things that could be brought in I'm sure has to say about wealth and our attitudes to it. We're not going to do this with every topic we come to but I wanted to do it once just to show how you can do a thematic study. There are other ways of digging into this material that we're going to experience also tonight. But this is just one example of how to go about it. And see how much we can learn from it as we struggle with it and we just gave things a quick look tonight. But if we had more time to really meditate we would learn even more. That helps to form the way we think. See the reason you want to study the wisdom books is so that you become wise. You begin to think in the ways that these instructions want you to think. It's not just that you conform to a rule but it actually becomes the way you see things because you've learned it and then you've seen it in operation and you realize that it's true and it becomes who you are. Well, we need to take a break and so could we come back when the big hand reaches will take a 12 minute break come back when the big hand reaches the four.