Give me neither poverty nor riches.
—Proverbs 30:8
Ernie was rich. “Wealth scares me,” he said.
He cited Luke 18:25, the Lord’s warning about it being hard for the rich to enter the kingdom of God; and Luke 16:19ff, the story of the rich man and Lazarus; and Luke 12:16ff, the parable of the rich fool. All of which disturbed him.
The Bible sketches portraits of both poor and rich—with good and bad apples in both barrels.
Both the longings of the poor and the luxuries of the rich can be treacherous trails: a seemingly unreachable-god for one, and a depended-upon god for the other.
Agur had an interesting take on it: “Give me neither poverty nor riches!” Flip over to Proverbs 30:8–9 and see why he said that.
Whether poor, rich, or in between, when thinking about money, be a little scared.
Do you have money
or does money have you?