Scripture Daily

Context No. 2016 of 4322 · Sirach

Context · Reflection

Sirach 31:1-16: in context

1Wakefulness that comes from riches consumes the flesh, and anxiety about it takes away sleep. 2Wakeful anxiety will crave slumber. In a severe disease, sleep will be broken. 3A rich man toils in gathering money together. When he rests, he is filled with his good things. 4A poor man toils in lack of substance. When he rests, he becomes needy. 5He who loves gold won’t be justified. He who follows destruction will himself have his fill of it. 6Many have been given over to ruin for the sake of gold. Their destruction meets them face to face. 7It is a stumbling block to those who sacrifice to it. Every fool will be taken by it. 8Blessed is the rich person who is found blameless, and who doesn’t go after gold. 9Who is he, that we may call him blessed? For he has done wonderful things among his people. 10Who has been tried by it, and found perfect? Then let him boast. Who has had the power to transgress, and has not transgressed? And to do evil, and has not done it? 11His prosperity will be made sure. The congregation will proclaim his alms. 12Do you sit at a great table? Don’t be greedy there. Don’t say, “There is a lot of food on it!” 13Remember that a greedy eye is a wicked thing. What has been created more greedy than an eye? Therefore it sheds tears from every face. 14Don’t stretch your hand wherever it looks. Don’t thrust yourself with it into the dish. 15Consider your neighbor’s feelings by your own. Be discreet in every point. 16Eat like a human being those things which are set before you. Don’t eat greedily, lest you be hated.

Sirach reflects on the anxiety that riches bring. Wakefulness that comes from riches consumes the flesh, he says, and worry about them takes away sleep; wakeful anxiety drives away slumber. The rich man toils to gather his money, and even his rest is troubled. And he warns of the love of gold: he who loves gold will not be justified; many have been ruined for the sake of gold, and their destruction met them face to face. The love of money is a snare that robs peace and ends in ruin.

Sirach names something we often overlook: that the love of wealth does not bring the peace it promises but robs it. The rich man, in Sirach's picture, cannot even sleep; his riches bring anxiety, wakefulness, worry that consumes him. The very thing pursued for security and ease becomes a source of restless care, taking away sleep, troubling the heart. And beyond the anxiety lies a deeper danger: the love of gold ensnares, corrupts, and ruins those who give themselves to it. He who loves gold will not be justified, Sirach warns; many have been ruined for its sake. The love of money is a snare, promising peace and delivering anxiety, promising security and delivering ruin. This exposes the deception in the love of wealth. We imagine that more money will bring peace, security, rest; and Sirach, with Scripture, says the opposite: that the love of wealth brings anxiety, robs sleep, ensnares the heart, and leads not to peace but to ruin. Those who are determined to be rich, Paul says, fall into a snare and many harmful desires; the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. The abundance of the rich, says the Preacher, will not let him sleep. Far from the peace it promises, the love of money delivers restless care. This calls us to examine where we look for peace and security. If we look to wealth, to gathering and holding money, we will find not the peace we sought but the anxiety Sirach describes, the wakefulness, the snare, the restless care of a heart set on gold. True peace and security are not found in riches, which rob sleep and ensnare, but in God, in whom the heart finds rest that wealth cannot give. Sirach's blessing is on the one found blameless, who does not go after gold; and the freedom from the love of money is a freedom from its anxiety and its snare, a freedom to find peace where it truly lies, not in the wealth that robs sleep but in the God who gives rest to those who trust him rather than their gold.

Do I look to wealth for the peace and security it promises, gathering and holding money as though it would give me rest, or can I heed Sirach's warning that the love of gold robs sleep, ensnares the heart, and ends in ruin, and seek my peace and security not in riches that bring restless anxiety but in God, in whom alone the heart finds true rest?

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