The Easy Button
He who tills his land will have plenty of food, but he who follows empty pursuits will have poverty in plenty. Proverbs 28:19
Will Have Poverty in Plenty – In a recent survey of young adults between 17 and 25, the top priority for life by a wide margin was “become rich.” Second on the list was “become famous.” Perhaps the goal is worthwhile. There are no Biblical prohibitions against becoming wealthy. There are only plenty of warnings. The pursuit of wealth for the sake of becoming rich is a very dangerous path. It leads away from humility, gratitude, contentment and dependence. It fosters self-sufficiency and arrogance. It’s not the money that’s the problem. It’s what the money does to your mind and heart.
One of the biggest warnings about the pursuit of wealth comes in this verse. God wants His children to be satisfied – with Him. He wants His children to understand that there is a divinely ordained method for success. It’s called “hard work.” In fact, since the fall of Adam, this life has been accompanied by frustratingly hard work. If you want beautiful flowers, you will have to routinely pull weeds. God rewards those who labor diligently. They will have what they need, in part because they have accepted the reality of a fallen world and the necessity of hard work.
Unfortunately, most people still believe the lie of the serpent. They think that there is an easier way, a way that avoids all the effort necessary to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. They think that life comes with an Easy Button, and so they spend their time looking for the quick solution. They don’t realize that the end result of the fast fix is the Hebrew word yisbarish (poverty in abundance). Why does the Easy Button attitude toward life end exactly in the place these people sought to avoid? Because behind this proverb is the consistent theme that those who attempt to circumvent the Creator’s design will become victims of their own devices. You can’t work at cross-purposes to the order of the universe for long. The universe is not as flexible as you think.
This is not quite the end of the story. Our word (yisbarish) comes from a root word rws that indicates a certain type of poverty. Hebrew has four words for “poor” and this one means destitute, not oppressed, not in need of life’s basics and not part of the lower class. The result of attempting to bypass God’s order is self-inflicted destitution. It might take awhile, but it is inevitable. You are not in control of the universe. The Easy Button is a lie.
Everyone who has ever entertained the thought of a short-cut to success has been tempted by the Easy Button. Even Jesus met this challenge. The devil suggested that there was a shorter road to victory, an easier path than the cross. “Just bow down and worship me,” he said, “and I will give you everything any man could want.” God’s way is the long road, the hard path. God’s way demands sacrifice. Throw out the Easy Button. It’s too good to be true.
