The Story:Solomon continues his attempt to focus his son’s outlook beyond the present, and to encourage him to think and prepare for the long haul in life. These two proverbs are perhaps best understood as counseling wisdom for the present, even if that means sacrifice. Rehoboam seems bent on a life of consumption and self-indulgence. But he can’t know the future, and so he should take the counsel of wisdom and lay a little up in various places for unforeseeable contingencies. Once again, by appealing to common sense, Solomon is looking for a thin entering wedge for wisdom to supplant folly in Rehoboam’s worldview.

The Structure:Americans have accumulated more debt than any people in history. We are not only squandering our present; we are squandering our future, and the future of our children as well. The wise person will not live beyond his means, or even up to his means; rather, he will spread his assets in various directions, forgoing consumption in the present in order to guard against times of want in the days to come. This is good advice spiritually as well. Christianity focuses on far horizons and calls its adherents to lay aside the pleasures of the moment, put to death the lusts of the flesh, and bring holiness to completion, across the board in life, in the fear of God (2 Cor. 7.1).

Meditate on 2 Peter 3.10-18. What is God calling you to give up in the present, and what is He calling you to take up for the future?

Each week’s studies in our Scriptorium column are available in a free PDF form, suitable for personal or group use. For this week’s study, “Think of the Days Ahead: Ecclesiastes 11,” simply click here.

T. M. Moore

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved