Proverbs 24:27 Priorities: Work then Build

Proverbs 24:27  “Prepare your work outside And make it ready for yourself in the field; Afterwards, then, build your house.” (NASB)

It’s been a busy week.  I’ve been off to a week of conferences and meetings.  I actually lugged two computers through airports to have the ability to do work unique to each machine and found the time commitment of the meetings themselves made the gesture mute.  So, the devotion took the back burner I’m afraid.  This morning though I’m up early and thinking about the busy-ness of business and thought I’d search Scripture on the issue of work.  Where else I reasoned than Proverbs to look?  So there I came to rest on something I had not expected but something rich none-the-less.

A proverb about work.

Solomon, the writer of Proverbs writes this little one liner putting work in perspective.  I believe and I confirmed it with two commentaries (Brown and Henry) that it is referring to the order of things or the priorities in life.  If you take a look around – priorities are way out of whack so perhaps getting things right might be in order. 

So what priorities are in need of keeping straight?  Simply put the priority of need vs. want.  In Solomon’s words he says, “Prepare your work outside And make it ready for yourself in the field”.  That is the first priority.  He is saying do your work of providing for your basic needs.  In that time they lived most often in tents, “In the field”.  So, the focus Solomon suggests is doing your work and provide for yourself as you live in the field in your tents. 

What comes next?  Priority two or the lower priority comes next.  That is to, “Afterwards, then, build your house”.  So, he’s saying that it is all well and good to aspire to the nice house but it is not a necessity.  You are fine living in the tent in the field until you are able to build the house.  In other words, the building of the house was the lower priority; not the necessity.

So what!  How does this apply to us?

I’d say this has incredible application to us and the society we live in.  We in fact tend to live the opposite of this Proverb.  We go out and get then wonder how if ever we will pay for things including houses.  Just look at the mess we’re in right now with both buyers and lenders doing deals on houses they could not afford.  The honorable of them are hopelessly upside down in their mortgages while the less honorable have walked away sometimes at the bank’s suggestion.  Frankly, it is because they did not follow this simple Proverb.  Work for it first, and then buy.

So am I saying not to take out a mortgage to purchase a home?  No, that’s not at all what I’m saying.  Certainly though to make a purchase with a balloon payment you have no means to pay simply hoping that the market will continue to increase so the home value will outpace the looming debt so you can sell or re-fi is just plain FOOLISH.  Yes, I know I’ve offended someone but it is the truth.  It is foolish and the Proverb tells us so.

But is this principle limited to work and housing?  No!  The application should go much deeper into our thinking and our behavior.  We should work first and buy second.  Many Americans have more than ten credit cards in their wallets and many are at their limits because they simply will not wait. 

Notice the Proverb does not condemn the building of the house; it simply puts it in order.  There is a time to build the house.  That is the message for us and frankly for the crowd that wants others to provide for their “Needs” which are really wants rather than working themselves.  Having the nicer things of life should come after they are earned.  There is nothing wrong with building the house but do the work first. AMEN!

James 4:13-15 Business Anyone?

(James 4:13-15)  "Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.'  Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.  Instead, you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.'"

I’ve been silent on the BLOG for way too long now and for several reasons.  I have been busy, I had some health concerns and frankly I got out of the habit.  I named the BLOG “Periodic” as a hedge for the day when this might happen and sure enough it did.  Enough with the excuses….  

Since I’ve last written lots has happened.  One of the most significant is that I’ve changed jobs.  Not companies, jobs.  The opportunity for a new role and some responsibilities that I’ve been hoping for presented themselves and I went for it.  This I shared with you some time ago.  The aftermath has been a whirlwind and reminded me of the verse presented here today from James.  The essence is that you can make all the plans you like but the master planner is still the Lord.

James writes to those who say they are going to go engage in business somewhere and have a plan to make money.  This sounds very entrepreneurial and we as Americans can identify with what James is writing; we do this all the time.  We do it as business men, as business owners and even as volunteers working projects for “non-profits”.  We are all very familiar with making a plan to engage in an enterprise to, “Make a profit”.

James critique is not really against this aspect of the behavior.  What he’s chiding is the expectation and perhaps even the perspective.  He says, “You do not know what your life will be like tomorrow”.  That’s true isn’t it?  Do you know what is going to happen next despite your best planning?  No!  A customer of mine just lost his battle with cancer after making big plans for expansion of his farm management enterprise.  He was sick with the disease as he expanded the operation, unsure of the outcome.  But he knew he was sick and he knew there was a possibility the efforts of expansion and re-organization would not be something he would see to fruition.

How many of us have that perspective?  Not many I’m afraid.  Too many of us go about the business of business as that was the end of it, the purpose and meaning of it all.  Well, for the business perhaps that is true but for the person it is a lie from Satan himself.  While there is nothing wrong with going out and setting up a business and making a profit there is a right way to do it.  The first step in the right way is to understand, “You do not know what your life will be like tomorrow.  You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away”.  The right perspective understands that God alone is sovereign, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that”.  AMEN!