Dave's Diary

Daily Readings: Psalm 63 and Proverbs 24:13-34

“Do your planning and prepare your fields
    before building your house.” – v.27

“I walked by the field of a lazy person,
    the vineyard of one with no common sense.
I saw that it was overgrown with nettles.
    It was covered with weeds,
    and its walls were broken down.” – v30-31

Translating v.27 from the agricultural language and imagery of 900BC we might say, “Give careful forethought, preparation and hard work to establishing a reliable income stream before you spend money you don’t have on what feels like a necessity but is essentially a luxury.”

The subsistence farmer of 3000 years ago was quite accustomed to living in a tent when necessary. In this proverb he is pictured as having moved into a new area – perhaps because of drought in his previous home town. The advice of the wise father is that he should accept the relative hardships of temporarily living in a tent in order to first properly prepare his field, put up protection around it, and plant his crops. Then, while the crops are growing and his food for the winter is more secure, he can pay attention to the relative luxury of building his stone and sun-baked brick home for the winter. It does not help to be safer and warmer in winter if you are dying of starvation under your roof.

This proverb is advice to plan, prepare and work hard now in order to ensure a better future for oneself and one’s family. By contrast, in v.30-31, are those who neither build for the future nor care for what they have now. They are living off someone else’s hard work of yesteryear, and allowing the assets developed back then to go to ruin by their laziness and self-indulgence. This is a sure path to ruin, and wisdom will avoid it at all costs.

God of Wisdom, grant me the grace to plan, prepare and work hard now to create a better tomorrow for myself and those who depend on me. Amen.