Proverbs - Are We 'Tilling' the Land We Have?

Proverbs 13:23

Much food is in the tillage of the poor:

 but there is that is destroyed for want of judgment.

The Lord has set up a law concerning diligence and provision.  As a result, the opposite holds true as well – laziness creates lack. 

Here we learn that even if we are poor according to the standards we understand, if we ‘till’ or ‘work diligently’ we will have plenty of food.  This word ‘tillage’ means to plow or work the land.  It is a word associated with freshly plowed land.  A poor farmer who doesn’t have much but is careful to faithfully tend to what he DOES have is promised food.  A freshly plowed land implies it was not done a long time ago and has been left to harden with the weather conditions but tended to DAILY to prepare the ground and keep it ready for the seed.

We are often tempted with looking at what we don’t have.  A poor farmer could spend his days looking in barns where lack of grain exists or…he could go out in the field and prepare the land with a patience that knows he is dependent upon God and responsible to plow that will eventually produce the grain, the barns can receive. 

         

Brothers and sisters, we must stop looking BEYOND the fields the Lord has given us; the catalogs, the advertisements, friends and family, and take care of what He has already GIVEN us.  We must be people who have a sense of judgment concerning what is worth our time and investment and what may, in fact, be wasted concerns resulting in land that is drying in the summer sun and barns that remain empty due to our own laziness and wandering hearts. 

If we lack judgment we will be destroyed, but if we take what the Lord has given us and diligently tend to it, we will not lack what we need.  Take inventory of the ‘fields’ the Lord has given you.  Your car, clothing, home, body etc..  Are you tending to these things?  Are they clean and maintained?  Are things in order?  Are they ‘freshly plowed’ or neglected while you spend your time in discontentment and covetousness? Ask the Lord for judgment and discretion.  Ask Him to help you know what fields He has given you and how you might be faithful in plowing them.  He promises to bless your labor.