What’s on the list?

“Buy the truth and sell it not” Proverbs 23:23

Sell – Solomon knew something about investing.  We can only imagine the wealth, power and fame that he possessed.  Will anyone remember Bill Gates or Donald Trump in 3000 years? Doubtful.  But Solomon’s investment strategy had nothing to do with the tangible.  He didn’t create a hedge fund.  He could care less about derivatives.  He had no use for margin calls.  Solomon knew that real investing was all about acquiring the truth and keeping it no matter what!

“Sell it not”.  Strong words.  No matter what is offered in exchange for the truth, never let it go.  Here the Hebrew makar is combined with a prefix (al) to form the negative command “do not sell”.  This is no polite suggestion.  Exchanging the truth for anything else is sure disaster.

God presented Solomon with an exchange.  Solomon could choose a divinely endorsed investment strategy.  Solomon put his eggs in the intangible eternal basket.  The other forms of accumulation did not distract him. He recognized that the only thing that really mattered could not be reduced to folded time and effort.

Pilate pushed us to reconsider this Proverb when he raised the next inevitable question.  “What is truth?”  He made a sale that day that all human history remembers in disgrace.  You and I have probably echoed Pilate’s inquiry more than once.  God presents us with the eternal truth, offering it freely, and we respond, “What good is it if I can’t weigh it on the balance scales?”  We are Pilate pragmatists.  We have forgotten Solomon’s glory was not in his empire but in his heart.  Today we merchandize truth as though the intangible can be reduced to the tangible.  But truth is a one-way transaction.  It can be acquired but it can never be sold.  Once we attempt to market it for tangible exchange, it evaporates.

Today is an excellent day to take some things off the investment list.  Today is the perfect day to answer Pilate’s question for yourself and put on the list only those things that reflect the truth.  Seems to me that Jesus made a few remarks about that list.  Do you remember?