Proverbs 28:19 commentary; following vain persons and poverty

19 ¶ He that tilleth his land shall have plenty of bread: but he that followeth after vain persons shall have poverty enough.

This really has some bearing on young people. It is absolutely essential that you pick your friends well and not follow after people who “ain’t ‘bout nothin’”, as we used to say in Georgia. Get down to the work of life early and you’ll have plenty of what you need to survive. But, follow these worthless people to the sports bars every night and to riotous, pointless entertainment every weekend and you’ll one day find yourself worrying about where your next meal is coming from.

The Bible is filled with warnings about following after such people. Vain and vanity are meaningless and empty.

Isaiah 40:17 All nations before him are as nothing; and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity.

Psalms 26:4 I have not sat with vain persons, neither will I go in with dissemblers.

(Dissemblers are deceitful people who believe one thing in their hearts which they intend to do but say another with their lips as in a false promise. See Jeremiah 42:20,21. The boy who tells a girl he loves her just to get her to sin with him is a dissembler, among other things.)

Proverbs 12:11 He that tilleth his land shall be satisfied with bread: but he that followeth vain persons is void of understanding.

One of the surest ways to end your life in abject poverty is to hang out with the other losers down at the Arooga’s or some such similar place several nights of the week. Get your education and training; work hard to provide for your family and for your old age, give bountifully to the Lord’s work with due diligence and discretion, and find your entertainment and your enlightenment in God’s word and in your relationships. Spending countless hours following vain persons on the television or the computer is just as bad. Make your life mean something in eternity, and don’t waste your time on the meaningless and pointless frivolity and vanity of a world that just wants to anesthetize your mind so you can be controlled more easily.

Psalms 62:9 Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie: to be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter than vanity.