Proverbs 16:8 - What really matters in the end?

Proverbs 16:8
Better is a little with righteousness than great income with injustice.

Message: What really matters in the end?

Time: It seems that Proverbs was written and then compiled sometime between the tenth and sixth centuries B.C. Proverbs was probably written during the reign of Solomon, 971-931 B.C.

What the Lord is Saying:

Tabletalk comes up with the titles of each of my day's readings. I like to use the devotional as a guide. It's helpful for me to have some sort of guide. I need that structure. I often wonder what is the structure or guide that directs people in their lives. Definitely, there is more than just one focus people have in life. People have different goals of achievement. I sense that many people just want to accomplish something. People want to be relevant. There are servants in this world that when they give others happiness it gives themselves happiness.

In the Bible I do find this idea of righteousness voiced over and over. I looked at a word count and noticed that obviously God is the most common word in the Bible; Jesus, sin, and Christ follow. And then righteousness. It's almost like the biggest problem in life is sin and the answer is righteousness. This is probably why, when asked of a person, if there are going to end up in heaven after they die, the person will respond yes because "I have been a good person." The problem is not that they don't think they have made mistakes or sinned, but they view their lives on a different basis, the kind of person they believe they are -- and that person is one that is generally righteous.

Yet, it seems that more and more this is not people's number one goal. Rather, it appears that people this will result in life, but life's decisions are often shadowed instead by ambition, fame, and material possessions. I continue to be reminded of a message I heard a professor give this past summer about the culture or way of life during Bible times and how it remarked that people in those times had work on their mind most of the time because their goal was simple: survive. The biggest challenge often was giving God a day of rest and trusting that resting would not effect survival. Today, I am challenged to rest not because of survival but simply ambition or wanting a goal. To be honest, I think rest is interwoven in my daily life. I rest many times during each day.

I would hope that my life is lived with the goal of being righteous. This is one of the reasons I think it is important to read from God's word each day as it reminds me I'm a sinner and that righteousness is the goal. Yet, scripture also teaches that while we desire to be righteous, ultimately Jesus makes us righteous by removing sin from our lives. In God's eyes, I am as righteous as I will ever be. But, in my eyes, I still have a long way to go.

This Proverb today, from Proverbs 16:8 cries out that when thinking about what we have, our possessions, our wealth, what we often strive to have more of in our life, in the end we never want to think that our wealth will make us a righteous person for it is better to have very little in the way of possessions and be a righteous person than to have a lot of wealth and be a person of injustice. Injustice is not being fair.

What is more interesting to me is not that people do not want to be righteous for that remains as the ideal of what people are wanting to have as a part of their life. The problem really is that the most used word in the Bible is sin (behind God, Jesus, Christ) and this is what is eroding in society. Sin is being carved out of life or at least significantly diminished. And I fear that with sin gone people think ultimately their own righteousness will be good enough before God.

More scripture to ponder:
Proverbs 28:6 - A poor man walking in truth is better than a rich liar. -- Again, what is the first thing we are impressed with in life -- richness or wealth. The person with the shiny car, the nice house, is what is appealing to us. We think, "If I had that, then life would be good." Why is this? For one, we can't see truth easily. 

Matthew 5:29-30 - If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to go into hell. -- This is funny verse and is a play in words, but again, is given to remind us of what is most important in our lives. Scripture does this continually and so we continually have to pay attention. The issue here is something in you that causes you to stumble or be a person of injustice, not acting fair to the person God has called you to be. Because the problem with stumbling is you wind up in hell. 

Promise: Jesus is the answer to the problem of sin. Jesus makes us righteous.