“Dishonest scales are detestable to the Lord, but an accurate weight is his delight. When arrogance comes, disgrace follows, but with humility comes wisdom. The integrity of the upright guides them, but the perversity of the treacherous destroys them. Wealth is not profitable on a day of wrath, but righteousness rescues from death. The righteousness of the blameless clears his path, but the wicked person will fall because of his wickedness. The righteousness of the upright rescues them, but the treacherous are trapped by their own desires.” (Proverbs‬ ‭11‬:‭1‬-‭6‬ ‭CSB‬‬ – Read the chapter)

There have been a number of particularly devastating wildfires in the last couple of years. There are nearly always wildfires burning somewhere in the country, but several recent ones have torn through populated areas. When a fire like that burns through, while having a lot of money can make recovery easier on the backside, it doesn’t do a thing to prevent the fires from consuming everything in their path. There are many things money can cover, but not everything. Solomon talks about something from this latter category in this next batch of proverbs. Let’s take a look.

When we talk about God’s being just, we often think in big picture terms. There will be a day the future—far if He should tarry in His return, near if He does not—when He will judge the living and the dead. He will hold everyone accountable for what they have done. The righteous will be rewarded with life, and the wicked with punishment. But God’s concern for justice isn’t merely cosmic in scope. He cares about the little things too.

“Dishonest scales are detestable to the Lord, but an accurate weight is his delight.” God cares how you conduct your business. He cares about your being honest with other people in the context of the daily transactions you have. Those transactions could be financial, but they could also just be relational. Dishonesty in those transactions is not just a matter of telling the truth versus telling lies. It is a matter of justice. Your actions impact other people and how they are able to carry out their own business. When you tell lies, you are artificially and unjustly restricting what they are able to do. God isn’t willing to put up with that for long.

“When arrogance comes, disgrace follows, but with humility comes wisdom.” Have you ever gotten cocky? I think many of the most embarrassing moments of my life came in conjunction with my getting cocky and stepping out way beyond where I had any business stepping. When we start to think of ourselves as better than we are, we are sliding out on the end of a branch ready with a saw. And at the first opportunity we get, we start sawing away on the wrong side of the branch. We are just asking for a fall. And the more arrogant we are, the longer and harder that fall will be. Disgrace of some kind is sure to follow.

But when we are willing to take ourselves seriously (not dourly, but seriously), we are in a position to grow in wisdom. Why? Because humility is fundamentally about honesty. Humble people are honest about who God is and who they are in light of that. When we are honest about who God is, we are more willing to listen to Him and do life His way. That’s the path of wisdom. It is okay to be confident. When you have worked hard to grow in a skill, act with confidence in light of that skill. But confidence has to be paired with humility so that it doesn’t turn into arrogance.

“The integrity of the upright guides them, but the perversity of the treacherous destroys them.” When you are committed to living the right way, to making good and wise decisions, that is going to help you know where to go in any given situation. You simply do what the right thing is in that context. More than that, it will help serve as a sign pointer to the next place you need to go in life. You simply go in the direction that will most glorify God. But when you are only out for yourself, and are willing to trample those around you to get where you have decided you want to go, that string of bad, unwise, selfish decisions will eventually bring destruction to your life. What that destruction will look like is going to vary, but it will come as sure as the sun is going to rise.

“Wealth is not profitable on a day of wrath, but righteousness rescues from death.” You have undoubtedly heard the phrase, “You can’t take it with you.” That doesn’t mean people haven’t still tried. The Pharaohs of ancient Egypt are famous for filling their tombs with all kinds of opulent riches because of their belief that they would dwell in those tombs forever, and they wanted to make sure they were set for a luxurious afterlife when they did. Well, they are long gone except for their mummified remains, and their stuff is all still right where they left it.

When the end comes, all the wealth in the world won’t matter. It won’t matter if you have more money than Elon Musk or can’t even find two nickels to rub together in hopes of generating some warmth. We will all face the judgment of God for how we chose to live our lives. And, the amount of wealth you have is not in any way an indicator of how rightly or wrongly you will have done it. The only hope we have in that day is in righteousness. Those who are righteous before God will escape the death coming with His judgment and receive the life that is truly life. Of course, none are righteous before God on our own. Only when we place our faith in Christ so that we can be covered by His righteousness will we be able to stand before that judgment. So place your faith where it can actually do something for you.

“The righteousness of the blameless clears his path, but the wicked person will fall because of his wickedness. The righteousness of the upright rescues them, but the treacherous are trapped by their own desires.” When you live your life in pursuit of what is good and right, not just for yourself, but for those around you, when the obstacle that life naturally drops in our way from time to time appear, you will find that you have people who are willing to clear those obstacles for you. Your commitment to righteousness—to living with right relationships with people and with God—will have gained you the help you need to not have your forward progress thwarted by the things that are sitting in your way. You will be rescued from the potential trouble of those obstacles because of the help you have earned for yourself.

If, on the other hand, you have chosen to do things your own way, leaving a wake of damage and destruction and broken relationships in your wake, you will be stuck tripping over those same obstacles. You will fall because of your wickedness. Your desires for things that are not God-honoring, but are selfish and evil, will create more obstacles than you would otherwise encounter. What’s more, once you get in close enough to recognize one obstacle for what it is, your string of bad choices will have blocked your way back, so you will become trapped until you are willing to start walking a different path and repairing the brokenness you have unleashed.

Committing to doing the right thing does not come automatically. It is a decision we have to make once, and then make again and again and again until our relational and spiritual muscle memory is sufficiently trained that we can rely on it. And even then, we have to keep on training every day to keep those skills fresh. Michael Jordan was the greatest basketball player of all time. But if he and Lebron who is the second best, and who is still actively maintaining his skills played each other right now, I suspect Lebron would absolutely wipe the floor with him. Jordan was better in his prime, but I’ll bet that he’s played a lot more golf than basketball in the last few years.

Set yourself on the right path by your diligent pursuit of the spiritual disciplines, and keep putting them into practice each and every day. Your efforts will eventually pay off in ways and at times you can’t even imagine right now. You will one day be extraordinarily glad that you did.