Download PDF - Adventist Review
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Righteousness<br />
When God says righteousness, He means business. Which<br />
means that He’s serious about it, and that He’s talking to Wall Street. Righteousness is not more<br />
natural to God than is business. The two do not pertain to distinct and incompatible worlds<br />
where Chicago’s commodities trading contrasts with Solomon’s Temple, or New York’s<br />
stockbroking opposes Moses’ wilderness tabernacle. In reality, unscrupulous business dealing<br />
is only one more variety of human, filthy-ragged righteousness, regardless to how many bucks it<br />
seems to make. The book of Proverbs may not be seen as Christianity’s exhaustive statement on<br />
a theology of righteousness. But it does provide strong evidence that for God righteousness is<br />
demonstrated in exemplary business conduct.<br />
Business and righteousness have a common origin. Their single source is the One whose successful<br />
start-up, named Universe, operates exclusively on His personal investments, while allowing<br />
Apple and Exxon to play bit parts in His Earth subsidiary. Agriculture and economics are for<br />
Him the very stuff of righteousness. In Proverbs, cash flow, cultivation, and going to work early<br />
are all inextricably linked together as proofs of righteousness.<br />
More than any other Old Testament text, Proverbs focuses on the righteous person. By way of<br />
illustration, the Hebrew term tsaddiq, which labels him, occurs more times (67) in the 915 verses<br />
of Proverbs than it does in Psalms (52 times in 2,461 verses). These numbers demonstrate the<br />
intensity of focus on righteousness in a book that gives attention to such matters as respect for<br />
property and boundary markers (Prov. 22:28; 23:10), and the value of precious metals in relation<br />
to heavenly wisdom (Prov. 3:13-18; 8:10). Ultimately, the wages of unscrupulous scheming is<br />
punishment. In Proverbs God talks righteousness by talking business.<br />
When God says righteousness, He means business. n<br />
Lael<br />
Caesar