Proverbs 21:20 ¶ There is treasure to be desired and oil in
the dwelling of the wise; but a foolish man spendeth it up.
Here’s another Proverb that on the
surface is talking about frugal spending and thrifty living. Over and over
again, God tells the Hebrews to live in a way that preserves their wealth and
to use what they have, little or great, wisely; that in a wise man’s house
there is treasure and oil, the kind for lamps and for cooking. A foolish man,
though, is wasteful and will have nothing of what he needs.
The follower of Christ should store up treasure
in Heaven, his forever dwelling place.
Matthew 6:19 ¶ Lay not up for yourselves
treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break
through and steal: 20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where
neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor
steal: 21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
It’s not important what you make here on this
earth in the way of money, possessions, or land but what you lay up as treasure
in heaven. We are told to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17). We look
up to God with our prayers, showing our complete dependence on Him. Our prayers
precede us to heaven.
Psalm 5:3 My voice shalt thou hear in the
morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will
look up.
Our treasure is in heaven. It’s there we look
forward to and await with expectation.
2 Corinthians 5:6 Therefore we are always
confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from
the Lord: 7 (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) 8 We are confident, I say,
and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.
As you get older, more and more people you love
have gone on before you; parents, children, and friends. You begin to lose your
feeling of longing for this life and begin the process of longing to go on
yourself. If we are truly saved and really believe what we say we believe then
the process of dying becomes a journey we know we must begin in order to get to
where we want to be. The world loses its sparkle and its glitter. You see a
pretty sunrise and imagine how much more spectacular it will be when creation
is restored to what God wants it to be, without the taint of sin.
You love someone here and you wonder just how
much more complete and perfect that love will be in heaven when you and they
are like Christ. Every good and proper feeling, every good thing, every joy
will be magnified an unspeakable number of times when we are in His presence
and we are like Him for ever and ever.
2 Corinthians 12:2 I knew a man in Christ above fourteen
years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I
cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven. 3 And I
knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God
knoweth;) 4 How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable
words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.
There are no words to describe it on earth.
Isaiah 64:4 For since the beginning of the
world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen,
O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him.
1 Corinthians 2:9 But as it is written, Eye
hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the
things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
The wise person, the person who has received
Christ as his or her Saviour, who trusts in Christ’s righteousness and not
their own to get to Heaven and eternal life, who believes who Christ said He
was, and believes in His resurrection has great treasure in his dwelling place.
There is grace that has been bestowed on man at the Cross where God loved all
mankind.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he
gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish,
but have everlasting life.
1Timothy 2:4 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge
of the truth.
But, the fool wastes it. He either
doesn’t believe in God…
Psalm 14:1 and 53:1 both say, “The fool hath
said in his heart, There is no God...”
Or, the fool says that, if there is a God, that
he is pretty much an okay guy or girl so he’s sure, if there’s a heaven, he’ll
be there. After all, he’s a good spiritual person and maybe even an adherent of
Christianity, Islam, Hinduism or some other faith. He does what he’s told,
never misses church, temple, or mosque and repeats the prayers he’s given. So,
he or she is trusting in their own righteousness to get to heaven and not
God’s.
Philippians 3:9 And be found in him, not
having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through
the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:
The fool has only one thing to look forward to,
destruction, long, painful, and unending.
2Thessalonians 1:8 In flaming fire taking
vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord
Jesus Christ:
But, Christ is our treasure.
2 Corinthians 4:6 For God, who commanded the
light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of
the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 7 But we have
this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of
God, and not of us.
Oil is a type of the Holy Spirit, which we have
living inside each of us when we received Christ. As David was anointed by
Samuel with oil and the Holy Spirit came upon him so we are anointed by the
Holy Spirit itself as it comes to dwell inside of us.
1Samuel 16:13 Then Samuel took the horn of
oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brethren: and the Spirit of the LORD
came upon David from that day forward. So Samuel rose up, and went to Ramah.
Ephesians 1:13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth,
the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were
sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
In the dwelling of the wise, the bodies and
minds of Christians, is a treasure; the Lord Jesus Christ, whom we have by
virtue of His Spirit living in us, as oil is a type of. But the foolish, at the
end of their lives, will have nothing but an eternity of agony to look forward
to. Our treasure, also, is in heaven, which we hungrily await and look forward
to, and which we have as our destination if we trust in Christ and His
righteousness and not our own to get there.
Contrast that to what a fool has waiting for him
and, at least for the fool, it is a sad Proverb, indeed. Can they not
understand why we keep pleading with them to turn to Christ?
We have a treasure also in our dwelling place,
the words of God in His Book. God, who has seen every moment of existence from
the beginning and lives in eternity (Isaiah 57:15) could have left us a Bible
we’d never be able to read but instead He left us one around 1200 pages or so.
Don’t you think every word is important? It’s settled in heaven (Psalm 119:89).
It was given by inspiration (contrast 2 Timothy 3:16 with Job 32:8). It has
been preserved for us (Psalm 12:6-8). God has placed it even higher than His
name to which every knee shall bow and every tongue confess (Psalm 138:2;
Isaiah 45:23; Romans 14:11). It’s generally not rocket science to those who believe
and who know how to rightfully divide it which isn’t a big secret (2 Timothy
2:15). God uses it to sanctify the wise Christian (John 17:17).
A wise man has this treasure in his dwelling
also and the oil of the Holy Spirit to guide him (John 14:26) and a Pastor to
teach him (1 Timothy 3:2). What does a fool have? Dr. Phil? Oprah Winfrey?
Anthony Robbins? Some right wing or left wing political pundit?
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