“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11)
Growing Dominion, Part 68
“A gracious woman retaineth honour: and strong men retain riches” (Prov. 11:16).
One of the strengths of Hebraic parallelism is that it enables us to compare things that we would not ordinarily think to compare. In a kind of verbal algebra, we learn that this x is to that y, what this w is to that z. In this case, we learn a little bit about men and women both, and men learn something about themselves and business. In the same way that a gracious woman retains honor, so a strong man retains wealth. We learn that wealth (as it is being considered here) is not really a function of luck, or of chance, or inheritance. A man retains wealth on the basis of his strength.
Not only so, but he retains it in a comparable way to how a gracious woman retains honor. Well, how is that? In their respective realms, when a woman commands respect, she does it by means of graciousness. When she is gracious, respect comes to her naturally, and she retains that honor naturally. A gracious woman is not one who has to scramble or hustle to get honor. She retains it in a way that seems as though she has always had it. In a similar way, a strong man is strong enough not to have to “demand” respect-the respect just comes. And in the world of business, it comes in the coin of the realm, which in this case is wealth. Do you see a man who excels in his work? He will stand before kings. But strength here has to be understood as quiet competence and confidence-no “little man syndrome,” where respect is demanded in a shrill, and if the customers don’t seek out his business, then they must be at fault for “disrespecting” him. Bluster is not strength, and it retains nothing.