Posted on 01/21/2022 10:32:10 PM PST by Pilgrim's Progress
“A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favour rather than silver and gold” (Proverbs 22:1 KJV).
If you have to cheat and become a thief, and a robber, and a mean man, and a miser man and a wicked man to get riches and you lose your reputation and your character to get it—you would be better off to keep your good name. You know what you can do with a good name? You can get a good job. If you have a good, honest name, and a name that is reputable and has character behind it, I guarantee you, there was a time in this country that you could borrow any amount of money on that name. Now I realize that our society has degraded to the point where bankers can’t trust folks with any name, because people don’t have character any more.
“A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of one's birth” (Ecclesiastes 7:1 KJV). That is looking at it from a purely pessimistic viewpoint. I’m sure after you have tried everything that Solomon had tried and found it to be what he found it to be, you’d probably figure it’s better to be dead than to be alive.
The only thing that keeps some folks alive is the hope that things will get better. The problem is that things won’t get better—they’ll only get worse—the older you get, you fall apart, the world falls apart, and folks around you fall apart. It just isn’t going to get any better, unless you are saved, and you are on your way to heaven. But Ecclesiastes is not written from any but an earthly view of everything under the sun, not above it.
“A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches,” and there are some good names . . .
“And moreover the king's servants came to bless our lord king David, saying, God make the name of Solomon better than thy name, and make his throne greater than thy throne. And the king bowed himself upon the bed” (1Ki 1:47 KJV).
God did that, if Solomon had done all that he should have done, his name would have been greater still.
“She hath done what she could: she is come aforehand to anoint my body to the burying. Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her” (Mar 14:8-9 KJV).
This is the woman that broke the alabaster box and poured the ointment of spikenard, anointing the Lord, He said she would never be forgotten—she had a good name.
Jesus is a good name, “And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21 KJV). We believe on His name, we are born again through His name, there is peace and power in His name. There is righteousness by His name, “. . . there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Act 4:12 KJV). Jesus had a great name, even though He didn’t have great riches.
In a material sense, Jesus had nothing while He was down here. He was born in a barn, had no pillow to lay his head, and he died with one coat. He was a poor man with a rich name!
“. . . and loving favour rather than silver and gold,” it’s better off to have people favour you and love you than to have all the money in the world. Money can’t buy love, it can pretty much only buy lust.
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