A Hole Under His Nose

We now come to our third installment on wealth, as we continue to discuss Proverbs, money, and you. The first and second installments are here and here, and we are now on to the third, which is a consideration of some the sensual snares that get in the way of wealth creation. The reason we need to emphasize this is because the book of Proverbs does so, and in quite a few different ways.

We can be induced to throw our money away in any number of ways. And not surprisingly, the book of Proverbs helps us to consider some of the ways that we lose money through the sensual snares that await us. “He has a hole under his nose, and his money runs into it.”

When such sins are mentioned by preachers, it is usually to point out to the faithful that all such activities are bad. This is of course true, but we have a different focus today. Our interest now is to point out that they are expensive. Whenever someone gets genuinely converted, the cocaine bill goes way down. Not only are these sorts of sins expensive, but Scripture reminds us of this fact, intending for us to factor that in.

So what are we taught about the appetites generally?

Both the righteous and the wicked have a stomach and both have an appetite. But the righteous can eat and be satisfied, while the wicked are driven by an appetite that is out of control. And precisely because it is out of control, this means it always demands more. It doesn’t ever want to say when. In any of the areas we are going to be considering here, the issue is not the thing in itself—the sleep, or the sex, or the fine stores everywhere—but rather whether or not God’s law is being honored, and whether or not self-control is in evidence.

The first specific item on the list is going to be luxury.

Luxurious display is inappropriate for a fool—meaning, that is, that a fool shouldn’t have it. And if he does get it, he won’t have it for long. The fool thinks . . . “if only . . .” If only I could get that nice a car, if only I could get those expensive clothes, if only I could get that wonderful food.” But it is not fitting. It is like draping a chimp in a royal purple robe. And if you do that, adding a diadem won’t help. One of the reasons it is not fitting is that the fool has no understanding of how to sustain himself in such a lifestyle, and so he blows through it pretty quickly.

There is a true weirdness in the juxtaposition. If you have a thoroughbred fool, it is a real incongruity for him to have a fake Rolex watch on. But the weird part is that a genuine Rolex makes it worse. A plastic gold ring in a pig’s snout would be bad, but real gold makes it worse.

Someone might ask whether ostentatious display is okay if the person doing it is not a fool. It would be more to the point to say that such displays are a pretty good means of identifying who the fools are. Christians should comport themselves as sensible human beings even if they have enough money to act like they aren’t.

The next item on the list would be frivolity.

A number of issue are addressed in this passage—trying to get rich quickly, showing favoritism, miserliness—but the warning presented to us at the first is a warning against frivolity. The Hebrew can mean either frivolity and vanity, on the one hand, or frivolous and empty fellows on the other. In either case, the contrast is with one who tills his land, so the meaning is apparently referring to one who follows vain and pleasurable pursuits instead of working hard. What he follows after may have the appearance of work or not—but it still comes up empty.

Then there are the various forms of sensualism.

Gluttony in Scripture does not refer to someone having a second helping of the mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving. All through the Scriptures, the glutton is paired with the drunkard. So this refers to the sensualist—the drunkard of food. Scripturally speaking, the glutton is a “riotous eater.” For example . . .

The issue is not the pleasure, which is a gift from God, but rather the inordinate love of it. What the foolish man desires and loves (sensual experience), he winds up losing.

Treasure really is a good thing, and having oil on hand is a privilege that is enjoyed by the wise. But a foolish man blows right through it.

Another sensual experience is that of sleep. This is obviously connected to the sin of laziness, which we will need to consider separately later on. But the love of sleep has to be mentioned in this place as well.

We all need to sleep, which is more or less an assignment that God gives to everybody. When that time rolls around, it is time to sleep. If you are sixty-years-old, this means you have spent roughly twenty years of that time sound asleep. But even though that is the baseline, there really is an inordinate love of sleep that Scripture ties directly to poverty. There is something profoundly healthy about getting up early and hitting it. I was once working on some outdoor project with some other men, gathering quite early, and a farmer friend showed up. I said something about it, and his reply was, “People die in bed!”

This lazy man is not necessarily apathetic. He may desire things intensely. Unfortunately for him, one of the things he desires intensely is a little more time in the sack.

And of course, we mustn’t forget sex—that catnip of great men. Saul had slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands, but it was a little bit of sex that slew David.

When Solomon warns his son against the loose women, he connects this financial warning to it.

As Robert Palmer once sang, “she’s so fine, there’s no telling where the money went.”

The economic consequences of immorality are not tiny.

So wealth and affluence are gifts from a gracious God. One of the central things we should not do with it is rent a helicopter in order to spend an afternoon tossing bundles of cash out of that side door. Seek first the kingdom by faith, and righteousness will be imputed to you. This means that from the standpoint of that righteousness you will be enabled to enjoy what God gives. You will not be constantly frustrated. Luxury, if enjoyed at all, should be the caboose and not the locomotive. It comes after, if at all. Don’t chase frivolous dreams cooked up by frivolous men. Say that someone shows you a prospectus that promises an endless supply of energy by means of extracting sunbeams out of cucumbers. It doesn’t matter how glossy the prospectus is. Don’t invest in conceited fools. Don’t throw yourself into the pleasures of table and cup. You should enjoy your food and drink, but you should not drown in it. Sleep is a great giant, and the time to defeat it is in the early morning when it has you pinned to the mattress. And as for sex . . . find a good woman and marry her. You can generate every kind of genuine wealth there is with her.