“A man is praised for his insight, but a twisted mind is despised. Better to be disregarded, yet have a servant, than to act important but have no food. The righteous cares about his animal’s health, but even the merciful acts of the wicked are cruel. The one who works his land will have plenty of food, but whoever chases fantasies lacks sense. The wicked desire what evil people have caught, but the root of the righteous is productive. By rebellious speech an evil person is trapped, but a righteous person escapes from trouble. A person will be satisfied with good by the fruit of his mouth, and the work of a person’s hands will reward him.” (Proverbs‬ ‭12‬:‭8‬-‭14‬ ‭CSB‬‬ – Read the chapter)

The American Dream takes a few different forms, but most of them envision someone working hard and achieving wealth and success by that hard work. There are also versions that celebrate a person’s doing this all on their own with a pioneering spirit. This is the whole pulling-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps thing. As followers of Jesus, while we cannot get on board with the idea that we don’t need a community to be successful, the idea that we should work hard and experience some version of success by our hard work is something behind which we can throw our full support. The proverbs point to that more than once, including here in this next batch. Let’s take a look.

I have known and been around people whose wisdom was widely recognized as profound. A gentleman in my church comes to mind quickly. He doesn’t speak much, but when he does, people listen. They listen because his insights are typically right on the money. He doesn’t seek attention – in fact he does his best to avoid it as much as he can. He doesn’t ever seem to come into any situation with any kind of an agenda, let alone a personal agenda. He desires to see the wisest outcome of the situation, whatever that happens to be. All of this and a strong, good reputation developed over a lifetime of doing the same thing with steady consistency has earned him regular praise from those around him. He’d rather not receive that, but it comes all the same. Solomon was right that “a man is praised for his insight.”

The next part of that is interesting to me, especially given the state of our culture. “But a twisted mind is despised.” Some people just think differently. I’ve had good friends like this. They were into stuff that was countercultural. They are naturally drawn to darker forms of entertainment. Our culture celebrates this kind of thing nowadays, and especially at this time of year. It hardly seems like folks with twisted minds are despised. Yet they are still boundaries. There are things that nonetheless lie outside of the norm. And a society’s appetite for that kind of stuff only goes so far. Public favor can turn remarkably quickly when the darkness of a twisted mind gets revealed. It will always be better to strive to be seen as a person of insight rather than one known for a twisted mind.

“Better to be disregarded, yet have a servant, than to act important but have no food.” This is one of those proverbs that describes the world as it is rather than as it necessarily should be. Given the choice between being rich and being poor, it is better to be rich even if nobody likes you. At least, that’s what Solomon seems to be saying here. What adds to the interest here is that over in Proverbs 15:16 he says, “Better a little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure with turmoil.” Isn’t that saying just the opposite of v. 9 here? It looks like it at first glance, but I don’t think that’s actually the case.

In Proverbs 15:16, the contrast is between being poor and content versus wealthy and miserable. Here in v. 9 the person with a servant and thus some measure of wealth isn’t miserable, he just isn’t widely known or respected. There are plenty of rich people who are celebrities precisely because they are rich. There’s at least a little something in all of us that would love to be widely known for something. But if you have worked hard, done very well for yourself, and no one knows or cares who you are, you can still contentedly enjoy the fruits of your labor. You don’t have to put on a show to impress anybody. You can be the same person when you walk out your door in the morning as you are when you come back in that evening. But if you are merely put on a show of importance with no actual substance behind it, when the curtain falls, all you have is emptiness and misery. The applause of others won’t put food in your belly, and it won’t sustain your soul’s need for substance for long.

“The righteous cares about his animal’s health, but even the merciful acts of the wicked are cruel.” Right out of the gate here, let’s establish that Solomon is not giving legitimacy to the trend today of treating pets like people; of confusing having a “fur baby” and having an actual baby in terms of their importance and significance. Taking good care of our animals is a good thing, but elevating their value beyond where it should be is not wise. If you have to think very long or hard about deciding between rescuing a beloved family pet that is drowning and rescuing a person who is a total stranger to you, you have some serious thinking to do about bringing the way you value things and people more in line with how God does.

That said, what Solomon is actually saying here is that someone who is righteous cares about things that most would consider to be insignificant or unimportant. In Solomon’s day people did not think about animals as pets the way we do today. They were just animals. They were tools. If one died, you could always get another one. You didn’t have to actually care about them, you just used them until they were used up, and then you moved on to the next one. A person who is right with God and others, though, cares about things he doesn’t have to care about and which most people around him wouldn’t care about. He does what is right by the world because it’s right.

But for the person who is wicked, who has rejected the path of God in favor of the path of selfishness, even when he does something to help someone else (which doesn’t happen all that often), there are always strings attached. He has an agenda other than helping. The helping is simply a stepping stone to getting what he actually wants. Solomon’s counsel would have been to watch out for people like that. Think twice before accepting “mercy” from them. There will be a cost to it at the end that you probably won’t want to pay. If you are going to help someone else and show them kindness, just show them kindness. Don’t ever help with an agenda.

“The one who works his land will have plenty of food, but whoever chases fantasies lacks sense.” Hard work pays off. At least, it typically does in a culture like ours. There are countries and cultures where the deck is stacked against personal success. Socialist cultures are more like this. Socialism doesn’t tend to create any wealth, and people are discouraged from creating wealth for themselves because they known the government is just going to come and take it, claiming it for themselves on behalf of “the people.” Why bother in a culture like that? But in a capitalistic system that actively rewards hard work with the opportunity to experience meaningful success, people are far more likely to pursue making an impact on the world around them. They will work hard so they can taste the sweet fruits of their successful labors. There are no guarantees there, and there’s a much greater margin for failure, but on the whole, hard work pays off in the end.

But when you pursue nonsense, you shouldn’t expect to get rewarded for it. Now, let’s distinguish here between nonsense and working hard in pursuit of a real goal that most people doubt you can achieve. If you have a passion for something that is going to make a genuine difference in the world around you, then if you are willing to do the hard to see it brought into reality, go for it. But if you are always living in pursuit of idle fantasies that will result in your getting rich quick without having to work very hard, you’ll find that you have nothing in the end. The difference between the two here is this willingness to work hard to achieve what you are seeking. That’s the key.

“The wicked desire what evil people have caught, but the root of the righteous is productive.” It is not good to want what people who are evil have achieved for themselves. Let’s pour a bit of concrete on that. Sam Bankman-Fried seemed to have it all, but all of it was a fraud. He actively cheated people thinking they were investing in a good thing, and stole their money for himself. He’s now serving a 25-year prison sentence. The lesson to be learned from Bankman-Fried is not that getting super wealthy by coming up with a scheme to cheat unsuspecting people out of their hard-earned money is a good thing. It’s that pursuing wealth by illegitimate and wicked means will always eventually get you in trouble…and also that you will lose that wealth. It is better to work hard and produce something that is genuinely good for the world around you. That path may not lead to quick or easy wealth, but you’ll leave the world a better place than you found it. That’s a good reflection of the righteousness of God.

“By rebellious speech an evil person is trapped, but a righteous person escapes from trouble.” One of the better pieces of advice I’ve heard over the years is that if you find yourself in a hole, you should probably stop digging. I’ve dug plenty of holes with my words. Sometimes I’m smart enough to realize where I’ve put myself and start trying to work my way out. When your tongue is not fully submitted to Christ, you will find yourself trapped by your words more often than you won’t. When you are willing to listen to that little voice inside that tells you to keep quiet before the words have a chance to come out, you’ll save yourself from a lot of trouble. And when your words give life more than they take it, you’ll be able to get out of trouble you might have otherwise been facing.

“A person will be satisfied with good by the fruit of his mouth, and the work of a person’s hands will reward him.” When you work hard and speak wisely, good things are likely to come to you. There’s nothing new agey to that sentiment either. We’re not talking about “manifesting” good things into the universe in the hope that they will somehow come back to you. That’s silliness. We’re talking here about using words that glorify God and build up those around you and working hard with the gifts God has given you to His glory and the good of the world around you. If you will commit to that path, while your life may not be free from all troubles (nothing in the Scriptures ever guarantees such a thing), you will be more likely to experience good things than not. The payoff may not come right away, but it will come. Commit to that path and enjoy what comes your way.