Classic KJV - Proverbs 28:19

Repeated for Emphasis

This text echoes the related question: How can you be busy yet end up poor? Both Proverbs stress the importance of hard work, but this one stresses the danger of distractions, while the earlier Proverbs 12:11 examines the personal character flaw, our vulnerability to distractions. In contrast to both, the message of Proverbs 27:18 is to serve others faithfully. See Why serve others patiently?

Translation

The word “plenty” is repeated in the Hebrew. I like the ESV translation, “Whoever works his land will have plenty of bread, but he who follows worthless pursuits will have plenty of poverty.”

The word “persons” in the King James Version does not appear in the Hebrew or most English translations, and its use here may not help our understanding. Land is a tool for production, and in the same way, empty pursuits are tools for distractions, but not necessarily persons. The KJV translation seems misleading, since emptiness is found in things as well as persons—especially in our internet age. Our best opportunities lie right in front of our eyes, but they seem UN-interesting.

It Starts with Tilling

Soil preparation is not as exciting as planting, and certainly not as satisfying as harvesting, but preparing the land crucial to farming. As someone is tilling land, the crop is nowhere in sight. It takes faith to till land. Hard soil or clay can be like rock, needing a plough to break it before planting. The whole point of tilling is to create a seed bed where the crop can flourish into a bountiful harvest. Tilling is vital to the whole process. When the seed bed is deep and soft, the roots are easily established, growing deeply into the ground water. When the crop is sown, a little earth is harrowed on top to cover the seeds from birds and other predators.

Handling Boredom

Some set mini-goals like, “I’ll do ten more reps before I take a break.” Others say, “I’ll work at it for fifteen minutes more, before I move on.” Still others dream of the prize for finishing a task, or think of a loved one for whom they labour. Overcoming monotony is a matter of choice, and the techniques vary from person to person. If resources permit, a worker might be hired for repetitive tasks. Certainly there is more to successful farming than just tilling the land, but the proverb implies, all else being equal, it is necessary for a good crop. A farmer can’t control the weather, but, to a large degree, he can control the condition of his land.

No Land to Farm?

For a non-farmer “land” might be an auto repair shop, a bakery, or any asset. My university professor (L.S. Rosen, York University, Toronto) defined an asset as “something with the potential to generate income.”

Much, if not most of the world’s population has no farm land of their own, but this proverb applies to any earning potential: clients to assist, supervisors to serve, sales territory to manage, or simply customers to satisfy. We must identify our core enterprise, and our assets must be harnessed to generate growth.

Lotteries and Ponzi Schemes

No one in their right mind deliberately pursues something they know to be of no real value. No one would buy a lottery ticket that they knew was a losing number. Ponzi schemes work because people are blinded by fat and easy profits, so they don’t care how those profits are generated. They exercise no due diligence in inspecting the economic engine behind the investment. The largest Ponzi scheme—so far, totalling over $50 billion—was orchestrated by Berni Madoff, convicted and imprisoned in 2009.

As the saying goes, “If it’s too good to be true, it probably isn’t.” We are either deceived or delude ourselves into seeing value where there’s none. Naïve greed invites disaster. Probing and exercising a healthy skepticism, is vital. We need to get documentation and counsel before investing time and money in a good-looking business opportunity. Even when legitimate, some have only marginal value.

Diversification or “Diworsification”

While I was working for Shell Canada, an oil and gas and petrochemical company, a period of economic slowdown came, forcing Shell to sell off its non-core assets, acquired during the previous boom. These included Alphatext, a word-processing company, Woodex, a manufacturer of wood pellets for wood-burning stoves, and Enviroglass, a producer of fiberglass underground fuel tanks. All these ancillary businesses were deemed too unprofitable warrant Shell’s distraction from its core enterprise. Likewise, drifting from our own proven “cash cow” in pursuit of a “good idea” is very easy, but that may become a very expensive distraction.

In contrast, diversification is a wise investment strategy. To quote from the legendary Sir John Templeton, “The only investors who shouldn't diversify are those who are right 100 percent of the time.” This same principle is in the Bible, “Divide your portion to seven or even to eight, for you do not know what misfortune may occur on the earth,” (NASB, Ecclesiastes 11:2 ESV). In January, 2020, no investment advisor could have foreseen the global impact of the Coronavirus.

Dreams Fuelled by Available Resources

Sometimes, just sometimes, something seemingly impossible requires just a little extra effort. Take the example of the Wright brothers, inventing their flying machine. Their contemporaries “knew” that it was impossible for people to fly in heavier-than-air machines. Meanwhile, Orville and Wilbur Wright used the proceeds from their bicycle shop—like the farmer who tills his land—to fund their “flyer” experiments at Kitty Hawk. They received no government grants or handouts. They did not forsake their primary source of income in a reckless pursuit of a dream.

We can learn from their example. If we truly believe our dream has potential, even while others scoff, we should not abandon it. But we shouldn’t abandon guaranteed sources of income either. We must beware the “sunk-cost fallacy”—the prejudice, when we’ve already invested so much in a project, that we can’t abandon it without “losing” what’s already spent. So note: the brothers didn’t do it alone; they had each other to vet ideas and encourage each other in times of failure. A colleague can help us decide if it’s time to pull the plug on a failing project, so we avoid the constant temptation to self-delusion.

Our Maker, Saviour, and Friend

Jesus warned His disciples, “No one, after putting his hand to the plough and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God,” (Luke 9:62). Building the Kingdom of God, like farming, demands maximum effort.

Discipleship to the Lord Jesus Christ is not an easygoing, part-time affair. It is a battle, and there are many enemies. If we believe there are distractions in the natural realm, we can be certain there are decoys and diversions in the spiritual realm. The three classic enemies of the Christian, namely “lust of the flesh” (vicious appetites), “lust of the eyes” (luxuries), and “pride of life” (demonic ambition) all try to distract us from keeping our eyes on Jesus (1 John 2:15-17).

Effort directed toward worshipping and thanking Jesus Christ is always rewarded.