Context No. 2524 of 4322 · Proverbs

Proverbs 22:1-16: in context

1A good name is more desirable than great riches, and loving favor is better than silver and gold. 2The rich and the poor have this in common: The LORD is the maker of them all. 3A prudent man sees danger and hides himself; but the simple pass on, and suffer for it. 4The result of humility and the fear of the LORD is wealth, honor, and life. 5Thorns and snares are in the path of the wicked; whoever guards his soul stays far from them. 6Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it. 7The rich rule over the poor. The borrower is servant to the lender. 8He who sows wickedness reaps trouble, and the rod of his fury will be destroyed. 9He who has a generous eye will be blessed, for he shares his food with the poor. 10Drive out the mocker, and strife will go out; yes, quarrels and insults will stop. 11He who loves purity of heart and speaks gracefully is the king’s friend. 12The LORD’s eyes watch over knowledge, but he frustrates the words of the unfaithful. 13The sluggard says, “There is a lion outside! I will be killed in the streets!” 14The mouth of an adulteress is a deep pit. He who is under the LORD’s wrath will fall into it. 15Folly is bound up in the heart of a child; the rod of discipline drives it far from him. 16Whoever oppresses the poor for his own increase and whoever gives to the rich, both come to poverty.

Proverbs 22 opens with the value of a good name over riches and then sets down a leveling truth: the rich and the poor have this in common, that the LORD is the maker of them all. Around it run related sayings, that a generous eye is blessed for sharing food with the poor, and that whoever oppresses the poor to enrich himself comes in the end to poverty.

The line about the common Maker quietly dismantles a lot of pride and a lot of contempt. Before God, the rich man and the poor man stand as two people made by the same hand, equally his creatures, equally accountable to him. Wealth does not raise one above the other in the Maker's eyes, and poverty does not lower him. It is easy to let money and status set my regard for people, to defer to the rich and overlook the poor. This proverb refuses that ranking. The one truth that matters most about both is the same: God made them.

Do I let wealth and status set my regard for people, or do I see the rich and the poor as sharing one Maker, who made them both?

Sources

Proverbs 22:2: The rich and the poor have this in common: The LORD is the maker of them all.
Proverbs 22:9: He who has a generous eye will be blessed, for he shares his food with the poor.
Proverbs 22:16: Whoever oppresses the poor for his own increase and whoever gives to the rich, both come to poverty.