Text: “Precious treasure and oil are in the dwelling of a wise person, but a foolish man consumes them.” – Proverbs 21:20.
Comment: The aforementioned text talks about what happens when resources are well managed and when such fall into the hands of vain persons. When you go to the house of a good manager of resources, you will find treasures and foodstuffs conserved therein, but in the house of a waster, you will find nothing. King Solomon advised us to go to the ant to learn how to store foods for hard times. (Proverbs 6:6) The Preacher also said that “strong men retain riches”. – Proverbs 11:16.
This same economic principle of saving for the rainy days was earlier recommended to Pharaoh by Joseph. He advised that they should stock up on food during the years of plenty in preparation for the bad times. That strategy probably saved the Egyptian empire at that time from total collapse.
Joseph told his brethren that the famine was at the time of their visit, in its second year, and that there were still five more years to go. “And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.” – Genesis 45:6-8.