Opus 2015-172: Monday Pulpit: Sources of Poverty, part 8 of ?, Leisure

I know I already wrote about pleasure and sloth.  Perhaps leisure is a combination of the two.  Consider,

(Proverbs 28:19 NAS77)  He who tills his land will have plenty of food, But he who follows empty pursuits will have poverty in plenty.

The emphasis here is on spending a lot of time on things that are empty of value.  Computer games come to mind.  Watching football comes to mind.  Even reading, which is getting close to home, could be a problem.  Certainly blogging fits the bill.

Notice the contrast in the verse.  The farmer works and produces.  The other guy would probably consider himself busy also but all he reaps is poverty.  It is possible in our modern age that this refers to a nation wide upsurge in poverty.  Think of how an industrial enterprise like a steel mill takes raw materials and turns them into a product that is useful and generates a corresponding profit providing jobs for many.  Compare that with currency manipulators and day traders that gamble on the whims of the market.  If they sell in time they get a lot of money but they add no product that increases the wealth of the culture.  In a sense their pursuits are empty.  Unlike manufacturing and real business, they add no value and their gain is someone else’s loss.

So fight poverty, get a real job.

To be continued...