“In the house of the wise are stores of

          choice food and oil, but a foolish man

     devours all he has.”

 

Initially, we began to explain what ‘choice food and oil’ was in this coin proverb.  For our kids, we simply called it ‘the good stuff’.  Once again, the two sides of this proverb spoke about the same thing:  time.  Those who live at Wisdom’s house concern themselves with tomorrow, while those who live at Folly’s house only think of today.  If one eats all he has what will he eat tomorrow?  This made sense to them as one of my kids, when he was younger, brought a piece of pizza to bed.  When I asked him why he did that and not just eat the piece before bedtime, he simply said, “When I wake up, I’m hungry.”

 

We then asked, “Where’s Jesus?”  Our kids answered, “At Wisdom’s house!”  Yes, but when we looked at Matthew 6:25-34, we saw something that the proverb failed to mention, “do not worry”.  The proverb pointed out that it’s better to store than to devour, and while that is true, Jesus told us to look at the birds.  “They do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.” 6:26.  We stayed there for a bit.  We thought about how eventually even Wisdom’s house will run out of food.  It was just a matter of time.  Instead of worrying about it, which doesn’t even add an hour, v.27, Jesus helped us to consider how much more valuable are we to His Father than the birds.

 

Now, Jesus didn’t advocate Folly’s house and devour everything, ‘for tomorrow we die’, type of thinking.  He took the worry out of tomorrow by looking to the Father.  For if/when it is time, He will guide us as He did Joseph, in Genesis 41.  Our trust in Him is what guides us as ‘new creations’, Philippians 4:6-7, for only He is the Keeper of tomorrow and knows what it holds.