31 Days With the Book of Proverbs: A Daily Bible Study – Day 24
“Buy truth, and do not sell it; buy wisdom, instruction, and understanding.”
Proverbs 23:23
I’ve been to Israel five times, often with the same guide and bus driver. I noticed that the guides almost always took us to the same shops, year after year. I know they received a percentage of the sales, but then, Americans are inveterate shoppers. “Shop til you drop” defines a lot of people. And so we accumulate, until we reach that point in life when suddenly we realize that we need to start downsizing, and we wonder why we ever bought that marvelous piece of bric-a-brac!
The Words of the Wise redirect our shopping. We are urged to invest not in stocks or gold or silver, but in truth, wisdom, instruction, and understanding. The market for these virtues will never collapse. Proverbs talks about a person whose life reflects in every aspect the virtues of holiness, of “Seeking first the kingdom of God and its righteousness.”
I remember as a child, in those pre-computer days, a distant relative showing my father a pile of dividend checks at least two inches thick. He had not cashed them for then he would have had to pay taxes. He had purchased a problem, and he had intensified it by not telling truth…not very wise, nor understanding. I don’t know what he ever did. But I’ve thought of him each year when I compile my taxes. There is no wiser investment than Christ and His forgiving love.
Drew Harvey
Brody Childs on Unsplash
