“Whoever works his land will have plenty of bread, but he who follows worthless pursuits will have plenty of poverty” (Proverbs 28:19).
Several years ago, I was doing some work for a man who owned a very large home. As I was cleaning up and putting my tools in my vehicle, I noticed the man standing outside, looking at this large home that he owned. It just so happened that in another part of the country, a natural disaster was destroying homes. As the man looked at this large home that he owned, he said to me, “Isn’t it crazy that all of this could be taken away or destroyed just like that?” And it struck me in that moment, that this man who had accumulated so much wealth, this man who owned this large home, was coming to the realization that all that he owned could give him no guarantee of lasting comfort or lasting security. All that he had worked for was proving to be empty when it came to lasting comfort or lasting security.
Work Is Good but Twisted by Sin
Now it’s important for us to know that work itself is a good thing. In Genesis 2:15, we read that God took man, whom He had created, and placed him in the garden to work it and keep it. God’s design for His created beings is for us to work. But God’s purpose is not for us to work so that we would accumulate earthly wealth for our own glory or for our own pleasure. God’s design is for us to work as a means of worshiping Him and enjoying Him as He sustains us and provides for us and blesses us through the work that He gives us to do.
However, when Adam and Eve sinned (Gen. 3:6), God cursed the land so that instead of being a beautiful blessing, work became a hard toil (Gen. 3:17-19). Man had to work by the sweat of his brow. And on top of that, man became inward-focused. Work after the fall remained as part of God’s design, but it was twisted. It became a means of man gaining glory for himself rather than a means of worshiping and enjoying God.
That’s the contrast that we see in Proverbs 28:19.
“Working Your Land” Versus “Following Worthless Pursuits”
The first half of Proverbs 28:19 says, “Whoever works his land will have plenty of bread.” What we see happening here is a man who has embraced God’s design to take part in honest labor right where God has placed him, trusting God to provide for him, to sustain him, and to bless him through the work that God has given him to do. Here’s a man who is trusting God and enjoying God as he works.
On the other hand, there is the man described in the second half of the verse: “He who follows worthless pursuits will have plenty of poverty.” This man has abandoned God’s design for work. He is no longer seeing work as a means of worshiping and enjoying God, but is instead using work as a means to accumulate things for himself. He has abandoned God’s design and is trying to twist God’s design of work to suit his own pleasures, his own worthless pursuits. And this is the man who will be filled with poverty. This is a picture of a man looking at his large home and coming to the realization that all of his work, all of his effort, all of his pursuits have been unable to provide him with any lasting comfort or security.
The truth is, we have all naturally abandoned God’s design for work. Rather than seeing work as an opportunity to worship and enjoy God as we go about our day, we take the idea of work and we twist it. Work becomes a means for us to accumulate earthly things for ourselves. All too often we find ourselves in that situation. And when we are using work as a means to accumulate something for ourselves that we think we need, it brings along the temptation to do this at the cost of others. When we view work as a means to gaining something that we think we need to experience some kind of comfort or some kind of security in this life, it becomes very easy then to do this at the cost of others, which is why God included “do not steal” in the Ten Commandments.
Set Free from “Worthless Pursuits”
Now we might hear the instruction “Do not steal” and immediately think, “Well, that doesn’t apply to me. I’m not stealing anything. I’m not robbing anyone.” This is where the Heidelberg Catechism and Westminster Shorter Catechism and Westminster Larger Catechism can become very helpful.
In question and answer form, these catechisms work to expand our understanding of what Scripture means when it says “do not steal,” so that we see that it’s more than simply going and blatantly taking something from someone else. There is so much more to this command. This command has to do with helping your neighbor out and not robbing your neighbor in all kinds of ways.
It’s important for us to use resources like the Westminster Larger and Shorter Catechism and the Heidelberg Catechism to expand our understanding of Scripture. The more that we know about God and what He has revealed to us in His Word, the more we will understand about who we are as God’s people and the freedom that He has given us.
Falling into the empty pursuit of chasing the accumulation of wealth is bondage! — constantly trying to use work as a means to gain things for ourselves, rather than seeing work as a means of worshiping God. Falling into the cycle of “worthless pursuits” is bondage. It’s actually part of the curse of the Fall! And it’s exactly what Christ died to set us free from.
The catechisms help us understand this. Christ died to save us from those empty and worthless pursuits. Christ died to save us from that bondage and curse. And Christ died to deliver us into the worship of God, where we can, once again, embrace work as it was designed to be: As a means of worshiping and enjoying God the way that He designed us to do.
The catechisms help us understand what it means “to work our land” in a way that worships God and embraces His design, while helping us steer clear of the bondage of stealing and trying to accumulate wealth at the cost of others.
About the Author
Andrew was born and grew up in central Illinois. After 12 years in the heating and cooling industry, God called Andrew and his family to seminary. In 2018, Andrew began an internship at Lexington Community Church in Lexington, Illinois. In 2019 he received his MDiv from Sangre de Cristo Seminary, and in 2020 was brought on as the Associate Pastor at LCC. He has been married to Carlee for 12 years and God has blessed them with five children.