Matins Devotion: June 16, 2025

Proverbs 16:1-24

Whenever the Powerball or other forms of the lottery swell to some gargantuan number, it’s a common thing to hear people talk about what they would do if they won the eight or nine hundred million. It’s also a bit of a strange thing to hear, since stories about people immediately destroying their lives after winning that kind of money are multitudinous. There are numerous tales of people immediately corrupting themselves with greed, their families falling apart, losing friendships left and right after people they love suddenly feel entitled to the money the owners just sort of stumbled upon. So in this sense, fantasizing about gaining a bunch of unearned money is like fantasizing about stepping on a rusty nail. It might not always infect you. But the odds aren’t good.

And so, let us hear the wisdom of the Proverbs, “better is a little with righteousness than great revenues with injustice.” It’s better to have a little money that you earned honestly than a fortune you didn’t, be that a fortune you gained through extortion or dishonesty, or a fortune that you won in a game that preys upon the greed of the poor and the addicted. It’s better to have less when all that you have was earned righteously than to have a fortune that is laced with the poison of sin.

Don’t hunger for unrighteous wealth in this life. If you want true treasure, look to the cross of Christ. Look to the salvation He won for you, the salvation that you never could have earned but that was placed into your hand as a free gift. Look to His blood, His dying breath, His glorious resurrection and victory over the grave. There, within His nail pierced hands, is the unfathomable wealth of His Father’s kingdom. And through the waters of your baptism, that treasure is all yours. Don’t hunger for the earthly treasures that will corrupt and infect you. Hunger for the heavenly treasure that will glorify you forever, the treasure that is already yours.