The Good Life of Little (Proverbs 15:16-17)

“Better is a little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble with it. Better is a dinner of herbs where love is than a fattened ox and hatred with it.” (Proverbs 15:16–17, ESV)

The proverb above is a different brand of message than we’re used to. So often we are bombarded with images of wealth and prosperity — “the good life.”

Well, Proverbs holds out a different kind of vision of the good life. We learn here, “better is a little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble with it. Better is a dinner of herbs where love is than a fattened ox and hatred with it.”

Many people are chasing that good life, the one with the treasure and the fattened ox, the one with the cash and the finest meals.

But the point that the proverb is making, the point that the king is trying to distribute to his son in the book of Proverbs is simple. You can have all those things, but if trouble and hatred come with those things, if that’s the price you’ve got to pay, and if your life is continually at unrest to get those things, it’s not worth it. It’d be better to find contentment, to have a dinner of herbs or little than to have wealth and opulence without the fear of the Lord.

So let’s remember that in these days. Sometimes the best decision for our budget is to be content with what Christ has given to us.