The Bible consistently promotes the virtue of hard work. The very first chapter of the Bible introduces us to a working God. Jesus announced that the Father was still working and took His cue from Him. For the most part of the book of Proverbs, we come across several admonitions promoting diligence. The diligent man is promised authority and abundance. The lazy man is advised to take a crash program on diligence in the “school of ants”. Diligence is often equated to wisdom, while lazy people are called fools. In the light of all these, how can we reconcile the seeming contradiction posed by our passage of Scripture for today? We are sternly warned, “Do not overwork to be rich”. To get a handle on this, we need to set the verse in context. Reading the following verse will bring out a clear meaning of what the text is saying. Here is verse 5: “Will you set your eyes on that which is not? For riches certainly make themselves wings; They fly away like an eagle toward heaven”.

The idea being conveyed here is that we should not be over consumed with making money to build our trust in it.

Building trust in it is like building castles in the air. God will rather have us trust Him; He is the only one that cannot change. The other reason why we are warned not to overwork to be rich is that it is not only the amount of work done that signifies how much we have. A scripture that says it well is Psalm 127:1-2 – “Unless the Lord builds the house, They labor in vain who build it; Unless the Lord guards the city, The watchman stays awake in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, To sit up late, To eat the bread of sorrows; For so He gives His beloved sleep”. Unless the grace of God is added to our hard work, it will be a harvest of frustration at the end of the day.