Today's Verse:
The blessing of the Lord makes a person rich, and he adds no sorrow with it. Proverbs 10:22 NLT
This may come as a shock to you all, but I do not know everything. While you have become used to basking in the radiance of my rapier wit and towering intellect here on G.I. Josephus, today will be somewhat of a disappointment.
As I read today's verse I was intrigued by it. The first part of the verse seems pretty self-evident; God's blessings make us rich in a way worldly wealth never will. The second part however is a little bit trickier. Is Solomon telling us that if there is sorrow attached to something that it isn't from God? That doesn't seem right, maybe the message got garbled in the translation (I never liked the NLT anyway).
The Hebrew word translated sorrow here is `etseb עצב:
1) pain, hurt, toil, sorrow, labour, hardship
a) pain
b) hurt, offense
c) toil, hardship
2) vessel, creation, object
While this could possibly convey that the blessings of the Lord come with no labour or toil, that somehow doesn't fit right either. Sure the Lord can bless freely and laboring will not earn you "Lord Loot" (which would be redeemable for cool stuff on a sort of sliding points scale if it existed) but sometimes through laboring you can be blessed. If that isn't it, and blessings from the Lord are sometimes accompanied by sorrow or found in the midst of sorrow, then what is Solomon trying to say?
I read several commentaries on the matter, and still haven't come up with anything conclusive. As near as I can tell, Solomon is saying; the Lord will bless those whom he will bless regardless of circumstance, and those blessings will come irrespective of the toil of those being blessed.
Anyone else have any thoughts on the matter? Post them here and let me know what you think. And look for "Lord Loot" to make an appearance in a future post, its just too good an idea to pass up.
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2 comments:
Lord Loot! I seriously LOLed at that one. Awesome.
Here's my perspective on today's verse, as seen through the lens of my own experience with sorrows and God's blessings: (deep breath; I'm not sure this is right) I think you're right to say that when sad things come, the inherent sorrow of them does not mean they aren't from the Lord. Rather, what this verse illustrates is that even in the midst of that sorrow there is joy and comfort in the Lord's presence and in His continual gentle teaching of my spirit. Even in our (Jeff's and my) most deeply sorrowful times God was there providing peace, comfort, joy, growth and the simple balm of His presence. Does that make sense? There is no added sorrow, only more and more of God's presence as sorrow drives me ever closer to Him. When my temporary sorrow disappears (as it always does) I am left with what truly endures: God's love for me and our relationship. The ultimate blessing of the Lord is Himself.
What do you think?
xo
Lin
The TNIV has it like this; The blessing of the Lord brings wealth, without painful toil for it. Or this from the MESSAGE; God's blessing makes the life rich; nothing we can do can improve on God.
Seeing as Proverbs to be the imparting of wisdom onto someone who is younger there are a plethora of verses ranging on all different scales of mental wonderment. i.e. dogs and vomit. Yet there is also the reality that it may very well be that the person who wrote Ecclesiastes is the same person who wrote Proverbs. For some reason I find Ecclesiastes 6 relating to this verse. But then again in chapter 7 we find that sorrow is good for the heart and pleasure an empty vessel. What to do in such meaningless existence?
Know that more often we are Jonah's and that we need to accept the rain that falls on us and hopefully not produce thorns. More often than not everything within me says that sorrow is not a blessing until I find myself moving towards the sorrowful.
cheers
Evan
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