Setting Your Eyes Upon that Which is Not - Proverbs 23:5

In the book of Proverbs Solomon said, “Labor not to be rich: cease from your own wisdom”, and in chapter twenty-three and verse five of Proverbs Solomon asked, “will you set your eyes upon that which is not?” where we read,

Will you set your eyes upon that which is not?

For riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven.

The verse begins, “Will you set your eyes upon that which is not?” Solomon began with the words, “Will you set your eyes” or “shall you, readers and listeners to Solomon's words, fix, set and establish your, the readers and listeners of Solomon's words', physical eyes for seeing or mental and spiritual faculties” “upon that which is not” which means “on nought, nothing or what does not exist”? Solomon asked whether his readers and listeners would fasten their physical and mental “eyes” on nothingness and vanity. 

The verse goes on to say, “For riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven.”Solomon continued with the words, “for riches” or “because, since and on account that wealth and nobility” “certainly make themselves wings” which means “shall surely fashion, make and produce their own extremities, borders and corner skirts”; “they fly away” or “they, the riches, wealth and nobility, hover, brandish about to and fro and take flight” “as an eagle” which means “similar and in likeness to that of a large bird of prey known as the eagle” “toward heaven” or “to the visible heaven, abode of the stars, atmosphere or abode of God”. Solomon said wealth and nobility “fly away” similar to the way an “eagle” soars toward the sky. 

When we think through the words in this verse, we learn through Solomon how we are not to fix our physical, mental or spiritual eyes upon that which is nought and nothing because wealth and nobility fashion to their own selves “wings” that make them “fly away” like the flight of an “eagle”. In other words, riches on earth may come, but they may easily disappear. Worldly wealth is temporary. God wants us to be rich in His Kingdom that lasts forever, and when we surrender our lives to His Son Jesus who died on the cross for our sins, He will forgive our sins, grant us everlasting life and teach us to seek the “true riches” that are eternal while using the temporary “riches” of the world to gain them. (See Luke 16:11) 

Next time Solomon says, “eat you not the bread of him that has an evil eye”, so read ahead, and we shall join together then.

Until tomorrow…there is more…

See more devotionals on the website "thewordfortodaywithray.com" or look for the daily devotional book “Equipped for Battle – From Generation to Generation”, the marriage book “So, You Want to Be Married”, “One Year in the Sermon on the Mount” and the new poetry book "Random Mushrooms Volumes I and II" and the new novel "Elizabeth County" in all major bookstore sites, http://www.amazon.com ; http://www.barnesandnobles.com ; download to e-books, and find it locally at www.mrzlc.com/bookstore. All references are from "Strongs Concordance".