Proverbs 13:23
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Much food is in the tillage of the poor: but there is that is destroyed for want of judgment.
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Hard work brings results, but it can easily be lost by foolish decisions. The poor often labor hard at farming, with much increase from their Creator. Their focused labor on their small plot of land bears good reward for their table. But others with greater advantage sometimes squander great gain by following harebrained schemes that take it away.
Tillage is the tilling and cultivating of ground for raising crops. Farming was the first profession in the world, and it is a good work. Depending directly on God's blessing, seeds are placed in the ground for His increase. And He does give increase!
The average return for wheat is 200! One wheat seed planted results in 200 new ones! One bushel planted results in 200 new bushels! The average return for field corn is 800! The average return for rice is 2000! There is much food in the tillage of the poor!
Want of judgment is the lack of good sense. It is foolish vulnerability to ideas that will not work. It is listening to vain persons and their schemes. It is a lack of discretion and prudent management. It is hasty decisions, poor choices, lack of foresight, and risky presumption. It believes everything it hears. It is frustration with the old way of doing things and impatience to experiment with something new.
Our proverb deals with poor farmers. They have much food, for they labor at a godly trade day after day, year after year. But there are other men who may not even have enough to eat. What happened? They gave away their increase by foolish decisions! The lesson here is the value of hard work and the importance of wise financial management.
Hard work is an easy lesson. Diligent labor at a needed service will bring results, especially in a necessity like farming. It may be a boring job when compared to others, but it works, and it has worked for 6000 years, since Cain and Abel ran the first farm. There are many proverbs for hard work and its reward (6:6-11; 10:4-5,26; 12:24; 13:4; 14:4; 15:19; 18:9; 19:15,24; 20:4; 20:13; 21:25; 22:13,29; 24:30-34; 26:13-16; 27:18).
Judgment is discretion, prudence, wisdom, understanding, and skepticism. And a man must have much of it to avoid the vain ideas that will steal his productive labor and leave him financially poor. Only strong men, those with good judgment, retain riches. Solomon also gave many proverbs to warn against foolish financial management (11:16; 12:11; 13:11; 13:16; 14:15,23; 18:9; 21:17,20; 23:21; 27:23-27; 28:19). See the comments on 1:32; 11:16; 12:11; 13:11, and 13:16. You will not be disappointed.
Many men want to be rich, so they are vulnerable to get-rich-quick programs. When someone offers them "financial independence" and their own "business," they plunk down the payment and sign up. When you check with them ten years later, they have done this several times, without any profit, and the loss of much time from tillage!
Many men like to read success magazines looking for a "better way to make a living." Anything is better than a boring job like farming! Of course, the magazine producers are already in their better job. They chose to make their living by preying off suckers who will read their inventory of vain ideas every month.
When the state approves a lottery, guess who is first in line every week? The man who is tired of farming! He dreams of how he will spend his millions. He is eager to take the "much food" from his tillage and give it to the state in a no-win proposition designed only for suckers. The rich get richer, and the poor get poorer!
When hunting or fishing season interferes with harvest, guess which one is chosen by the sluggard? Recreation, of course! After all, he needs to enjoy himself! All work and no play make Jack a dull boy! They cannot think ahead and plan recreation after harvest; they want the pleasure right now! There goes some more food from their tillage!
When foolish men have a bumper crop, they borrow against next year's presumed bumper crop and build bigger barns and buy more acres. They envision owning the whole county! With weather just a little less favorable, they lose their whole farm, for they cannot afford the debt service. They overbuilt due to lack of judgment and discretion.
Other men have a bumper crop and immediately increase their spending on entertainment and other luxuries. When yields for the next two years are less than normal, they are severely pinched, for they spent the excess, instead of putting it in the bank at interest.
Other men are slothful in harvest and do not get the whole crop in the barn. They are procrastinators and wasters. Or they over borrow for things they do not need and saddle their estate with crushing debt. They invest in fly by night schemes that devour their precious capital. Or they become surety for others and must pay off their obligations.
Even though God gave agriculture wisdom right after Eden (Gen 1:29; Is 28:23-29), and men have perfected it for the last 6000 years, the foolish still listen eagerly to any "new idea." It does not matter to them that 99% of all new ideas are really old ideas that failed. They are not content with returns of 200%, 800%, and 2000%! Neither can they accept that only those gifted by God are truly creative and inventive. They resent hearing that they should continue to apply diligent and persistent labor to the tried and true methods.
Dear reader, there is no free lunch! To even listen to people hinting at free lunches, or cheap lunches, is foolishly dangerous. Their vain words will cause you discontentment, which will blind your business sense. You are showing a want of judgment, and following their speculative or fraudulent ideas of financial success will soon steal the much food from your tillage. Run from them, and till another acre instead!
Skepticism is wisdom, pure and simple. Only the simple believe everything they hear (14:15). Only the simple look optimistically at the future (22:3; 27:12). Optimism is not a virtue when applied to business; pessimism is much safer and financially prudent.
Christian reader, how much food is in the tillage of your pastor? Does he give much bread and meat for your soul? How much have you lost by want of judgment in reviewing and applying it? Have you squandered much of it by letting it slip away?
Has the good Lord blessed you with grace any less than the farmer with his very high returns? Or has He blessed you much more? What have you done with His grace? It is your duty to exercise diligence and judgment in putting His grace into fruitful use and increasing your spiritual estate with fruit, 30-fold, 60-fold, or 100-fold. Lord, help us.
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