Hebrew Teaching on Diligence and Follies

Money— sweeter than honey but oh so destructive. It facilitates a man’s life, while a lack of it imprisons him in the streets of penury. It raises his social status, while an absence of it leaves him unnoticed. It gives him an aura of superiority and importance among others, while a deficiency of it makes him worthless in society’s eyes. Considering these two roads, most do not take more than a second to decide to chase riches.

Proverbs 8:10-11 to me is basically saying that knowledge is more powerful than money or wealth and nothing that you may want compares to that wisdom.

Proverbs 14:8 The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way: but the folly of fools is deceit.

Wealth is something that not all people have, but most typically want more of it. There are many people on Earth that wish they had more wealth, and there are even a select few that have too much. “The Gospel of Wealth” by Andrew Carnegie is all about what should be done when there is too much wealth held by an individual. Carnegie begins his essay by describing how the disparity of wealth has changed over the years. He also describes how wealth has simply grown in general over time.

A proverb (Hebrew marshal) is a short poetic sentence conveying wisdom in a concise and memorable form. (p.259) Solomon the writer of proverbs, was told by God” he could ask for anything he wanted and God would give it to him. Solomon asked for wisdom to lead the people, so they would know the difference between right and wrong.”(1Kings 3:5-9 paraphrased) According to Hindson and Yates “Hebrew wisdom literature taught people not only how to make good choice s in life but how to make godly choices.” (p.259) Proverbs shows many parallels and contrasts, usually in a two sentence form. In this essay we will look at the teachings of Hebrew wisdom on diligence and laziness, and how it corresponds with the contrast between wisdom and folly.

in wisdom, an ant probably is no less wise than even a human being. So

-There is some magic in wealth, which can thus make persons pay their court to it (pursue it), when it does not even benefit them. How strange it is, that a fool or knave, with riches, should be treated with more respect by the world, than a good man, or a wise man in poverty! {Ann

In today’s society, there is a clear boundary between being wealthy and living in poverty. It is believed that in the world today, around 1% of people own more wealth than the bottom 98% of people living. Although living with money may bring you happiness from materialistic items, when people start to become money minded and greedy, they fail to appreciate how valuable the money they have is. Living in poverty has very negative effect on one’s ability to survive, their loss of spirit and overall happiness. In the readings by Malcolm X in The Autobiography of Malcolm X and in Tillie Alson’s I Stand Here Ironing, both explore the parallels of poverty and how poverty means more than just being monetarily poor.

“To be a poor man is hard, but to be a poor race in land of dollars is the very bottom of hardships.” -W.E.B. Du Bois (pg. 166).

There is a great deal of Hebrew wisdom in the Bible in regards to the subjects of diligence and laziness. Throughout the book of Proverbs the words of lazy and diligence can be found in many different forms. Sluggish, sluggard, and idle describe laziness. The word diligence can also be considered as, thorough, attentive, and persistence. Each of these words, found in the Bible, can reference diligence, and laziness within Hebrew Wisdom in many cases.

“God never intended for one group of people to live in superfluous inordinate wealth, while others live in abject deadening poverty. God intends for all of his children to have the basic necessities of life, and he has left in this universe “enough and to spare” for that purpose. So I call upon you to bridge the gulf between abject poverty and superfluous wealth,” is an influential quote from Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. talking about how some people are just spoiled with a surplus of money without even trying, and then you also see the people who are homeless on the streets just trying to live day by day with barely

Poverty isn’t the problem of a single individual but it is the problem of whole society and even the nation. Not only the poor but also the society, community and nation all suffer from poverty in socially and economically. It is said that poverty is not an individual crime but a social crime and all rich and poor are responsible for it. The author explained that god didn’t created poverty but it was created by human beings to rule over other

Unfortunately, this fact is so true of our society today, but Yancey goes on to show how Jesus makes an extra effort to reach out to he poor. He gives a list, which he got from another writer, on the advantages of being poor. This list really made an impact on me. It showed me how I need to be more open to what God has to say, and not so involved with the materialistic and secular views of today. I need to focus on what God has planned for me, and not make my focus to be what other people think of me. “Strength, good looks, connections, and the competitive instinct may bring a person success in a society like ours, but those very qualities may block entrance to the kingdom of heaven” (Yancey 114).

​Consequently, a man who is “poor” in material possessions many times is “rich” in character, which is spiritually defined as the nine fruits of the spirit: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control.  Having friends and family members who grew up poor and who worked hard to survive to obtain material possessions, their character was strengthened or made “rich” as a result of it. They had to do the jobs that many rich people would never do, such as being a maid, construction worker, janitor and many more domestic type jobs. Although they differ in terms of definition, being “rich” and being “poor” in character can be one of the same as “poor” in spirit or humble.  For example, my great grandmother was an Indian who was very poor, but you never would have known it because she was humble, kind, loving and a peaceful woman who always shared everything she had.

Thousands of individuals are living in poverty. Why is it that this worldwide dilemma is still rising in rapid numbers till this day? Is it because of a lack of authoritative power, or a lack of one’s self control to do good? Despite the unknown cause, it has managed to drastically affect the lives of many. Poverty is like a curse, one that is wrongfully placed, difficult to get out of, and resistant to many forms of help.