Those who work their land will have abundant food, but those who chase fantasies have no sense.
Proverbs 12:11
One might take this verse to mean ‘those who work at their job will have abundant food’ — but I believe there is a subtle difference here.
In Bible times, land was an asset that could be put to work for the benefit of the land-owner. Common examples included vineyards, or fields in which crops could be planted and harvested year on year.
When you work a job, you are working someone else’s land.
For instance, when we head into the office each day we are like the laborers mentioned in many Old and New Testament passages. These people earned their day’s wage by working in the fields and barns of their employers — in other words, by working someone else’s land.
There is nothing wrong with this; most hard-working folk do this every day. However, we need to understand the difference if we truly want to reap the promise in this verse. We need to work our land!
Those Who Work Their Land Will Have Abundant Food
In the modern context, land can include any number of different asset classes. The most common include equities like stocks and real-estate. But there are loads of other types of investment available to us today
So what should we do if we don’t have ‘land’ of our own? We should figure out how to use our wages as the means to an end. We need to set aside a portion of our income so that we can buy ‘land’ (i.e. income-producing assets) of our own. The promise in God’s word is that those who work their land will will have abundant food.
This is a sure-fire way to change our financial circumstances over time. And it is right there in the Bible! Building up an asset base and putting it to work takes discipline, effort and time. There are no shortcuts.
When we choose to believe otherwise, we are invariably chasing fantasies. And, as the proverb says, those who chase fantasies have no sense.