Proverbs 10:22

CRITICAL NOTES.—

Proverbs 10:22. Delitzsch and Zöckler read the second clause, “and labour addeth nothing thereto,” i.e., “God’s blessing is in itself all in all, and makes rich without any effort.” Stuart and Miller translate as the authorised version, and the former understands it to signify that “sorrow shall not necessarily increase by riches when it is Jehovah Himself who bestows them.”

MAIN HOMILETICS OF Proverbs 10:22

THE SOURCE OF TRUE RICHES

This proverb cannot be understood to assert that a man needs nothing but God’s blessing to make him a wealthy man in the ordinary sense of the word, because we know there are many cases in which men would never have been rich if they had not toiled hard to obtain riches. Industry has been joined to the blessing of the Lord, and so they have become rich. God’s favour does not generally make a man rich except he works; it is presumptuous sin to expect God to make us rich without honest toil. But the lesson to be learnt is evidently this—that diligence cannot command riches, that God must be taken into account in all our efforts to make money, that the “race is not” always “to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding” (Ecclesiastes 9:11), even when the runners and the warriors are men after God’s own heart. Placing the words beside our experience, we learn—

I. That when a good man gains riches through hard toil, it is by reason of the Divine blessing on his labour. There are among us many possessors of vast wealth who have risen early and sat up late, and eaten the bread of carefulness, but have acknowledged that, after all, it was the blessing of the Lord that had made them rich. They can point to others equally diligent, and, in some respects, superior to themselves, who have fallen in the race and have died comparatively poor. Such examples are admonitions not to trust to one’s own wisdom or effort to the exclusion of the will of God. Jacob worked hard for his riches for twenty years; “in the day the drought consumed him, and the frost by night—and the sleep departed from his eyes.” But he declares that his wealth was a gift from the God of his fathers—“I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth which thou hast showed unto thy servant, for with my staff I have passed over this Jordan, and now I am become two bands (Genesis 31:40; Genesis 32:10). A good man cannot use unlawful means of getting rich, therefore he may enjoy the amount of success which follows his efforts as a token of Divine favour.

II. That when men inherit, or become possessed of wealth for which they have not laboured, it is by the blessing of the Lord. The riches of Solomon were bestowed upon him without so much as the expression of a desire on his part, and were a token of the Divine approval. “Because.… thou hast asked for thyself understanding to discern judgment.… I have also given thee that which thou hast not asked, both riches and honour” (1 Kings 3:11). Looked upon as God’s gift, wealth will be rightly used, and will be the blessing that it was intended to be.

III. That there is a moral truth contained here which has nothing to do with material riches or poverty. Solomon has, over and over again, directed his hearers to riches which are far more precious than silver or gold (see chap. Proverbs 3:14; Proverbs 8:11; also Homiletics and Comments of those verses). The blessing of the Lord is itself wealth.

1. Because it enriches us with Divine knowledge (1 Corinthians 1:5). Solomon’s knowledge was a higher kind of wealth than all his gold and precious stones, how much more a knowledge of Him whom to know is “life eternal” (John 17:3).

2. Because by means of it men obtain a Divine character (2 Peter 1:2). This wealth men can claim as theirs in other worlds beside the one upon which they now live; this is their perpetual untransferable property.

IV. That when sorrow comes to men who have been enriched by God, it springs from some other source than the riches. The text does not apply in any sense to ill-gotten gain; that is dealt with elsewhere (chap. Proverbs 1:19; Proverbs 15:27). It refers only to that which a man may lawfully call his own.

1. But this may be the occasion of sorrow. Solomon’s great wealth was the occasion of sorrow, insomuch as he used it for sinful purposes, but this sorrow was added by himself and not by God. The misuse of riches, or of any other gift of God, will be followed by a penalty which will bring sorrow; but this is man’s work, and not God’s.

2. Or sorrow may spring from another, and an independent source. Sorrow in one form or another is the lot of fallen man. The incarnate Son of God was a “Man of sorrows.” God-given and sanctified sorrow is often a token of greater Divine favour than temporal prosperity (chap. Proverbs 3:12). But there is no necessary connection between wealth and sorrow.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS

Proverbs 10:22. The sluggard looks for prosperity without diligence; the practical atheist from diligence alone; the sound-hearted Christian from the blessing of God in the exercise of diligence. This wise combination keeps him in an active habit; humble, and dependent upon God (John 6:27). For, “except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it” (Psalms 127:1).… He addeth at least no sorrow but what turns to a blessing. Accumulation of riches may be the accumulation of sorrows. Lot’s covetous choice was fraught with bitterness.… Gehazi was laden with his bags, but the plague of leprosy was upon him.—Bridges.

There is no sorrow added to them which is not a blessing, and, being a blessing, it cannot well be said to be sorrow. Now thus the verse may be understood as well of temporal as of spiritual riches; for it is the blessing of God, with which sorrow cannot stand.… It is God’s blessing alone which, being true riches, doth truly make rich. Other things esteemed in the world may be added together in great heaps of plenty; but, having sorrow added with them, they cannot be that weal of man which truly makes wealth. It is the blessing of God which, taking away sorrow, giveth true riches unto man. And, therefore, when Job wisheth “that he were as in the mouths past”—the months of his plenty and prosperity—it is with this addition, “as in the days when God preserved me.” He desireth God’s blessing with the things of this world, or else he careth not for them. For that it is, as St. Gregory speaketh, which so bestoweth the help of earthly glory, as that thereby it exalteth much more in heavenly happiness.—Jermin.

Those three vultures shall be driven away that constantly feed on the wealthy worldling’s heart—care in getting, fear in keeping, grief in losing the things of this life. God giveth to His, wealth without woe, store without sore, gold without guilt, one little drop whereof troubleth the whole sea of outward comforts.—Trapp.

The truth here is twofold. The cord, as it lies, seems single, but when you begin to handle it, you find it divides easily into two. It means that God’s blessing gives material wealth, and also that they are rich who have that blessing, although they get nothing more.… It is a common practice to constitute firms for trade, and exhibit their titles to the public with a single name “and company.” … Reverently take the All-seeing into your commercial company and counsels. If you cast Him out, there is no saying, there is no imagining, whom you may take in.… One peculiar excellence of the riches made in a company from whose councils God is not excluded, is, that the wealth will not hurt its possessors, whether it abide with them or fly away. A human soul is so made that it cannot safely have riches next it. If they come into direct contact with it, they will clasp it too closely; if they remain, they wither the soul’s life away; if they are violently wrenched off, they tear the soul’s life asunder. Whether, therefore, you keep or lose them, if you clasp them to your soul with nothing spiritual between, they will become its destroyer.—Arnot.