Consumer Credit
Sheol and Abaddon are never satisfied, nor are the eyes of man ever satisfied. Proverbs 27:20
Never Satisfied – Walk any mall in America. Take a stroll along any high-traffic retail street around the world. Drink in the available goods with your eyes. Don’t you really want them? What you are feeling is the universal appeal of ego enhancements. If I could just have that one more thing, then I would be better. The Bible tells us that such motivation is powerfully seductive. It also tells us that there is no end of this ploy. There will always be a need for just a little more.
This proverb puts our consumer mentality in proper perspective with the use of two terrifying word – Sheol and Abaddon. The desire for more is no trivial matter. It is as serious as the gaping mouth of the underworld and the place of the dead. The grave will take us all – and discount all that we possess. No accumulation of goods can forestall its appetite. So, this proverb uses the Hebrew words lo tisbana (not satisfied) to put us on notice.
Does this mean we are to adopt the life of St. Francis, to become impoverished and live like the poor? Actually, it probably wouldn’t be a bad idea. We are satiated with possessions. We think in terms of ownership. We reject the life of self-determined poverty. We want – and so we shall have. What we discover is something we should have learned the easy way, by reading the Book. But we don’t read. Instead, we buy – and the craving continues. Death will resolve the issue and balance the accounts, but, of course, by that time it is too late.
The Bible simply says that we can be satisfied, but not with the hellish fervor of possessions. Psalm 22:26 gives us the needed correction. Of course, it applies only to “the afflicted.” That is a slap in the face of our credit cards. The afflicted will be satisfied by God Himself. All the rest of us, the ones who are desperately trying to accumulate ego enhancers, will know only the yawning chasm of discontent on our way to the grave.
If you have never learned to be afflicted and content, then your life isn’t worth much. You’re just riding on the crest of the credit wave. The ride won’t last. You’ll drown in debt. The one who dies with the most toys doesn’t win. He goes to hell.
“I can’t get no satisfaction,” is surely the universal cry of those who are pursuing the world’s dream. It’s a nightmare in disguise. Wake up. There is no satisfaction possible on that path. That path depends on dissatisfaction. If you want to know peace and contentment, you must get off the consumer train. Did St. Francis die an unsatisfied man? I doubt it. Will you? Well, that’s another question.
