The Golden egg is quite breakable if you don’t know how to handle it.

Probing Proverbs 8: 10-11 Choose my instruction rather than silver, and knowledge rather than pure gold. For wisdom is far more valuable than rubies. Nothing you desire can compare with it.

This is quite a provocative statement when you think about it. I realize that most of us, if we read this in front of others, outwardly we would agree and say “Amen!” That's because it seems like the right thing to say and if I may, the “Christian” thing to say. But how many of us in our heart do not view advice concerning knowledge as more valuable than wealth? In fact, the very last claim is the most provocative. “Nothing you desire can compare with it”. Nothing… NOTHING? That really covers a lot doesn't it? Think of all the things, righteous and sinful that you might desire. I know my list would be quite long, yet I am being challenged to consider that nothing on that list can compare to the instruction that Wisdom would give. As I stated, I know it sounds good to agree with this, but it's more important…No, it's essential that before we agree with it, we truly believe it. So let's consider how this claim might be true. The Scripture makes it clear that wealth and material things are not evil in and of themselves. 

These things become a problem when they possess the portion of our heart and our mind that are reserved only for God. Obviously, when a person decides that they want to worship money and things, there really isn't much anyone can do. Their willful decision has set their path. However, many people do not intentionally set out to love money or things. So what happens, what brings a person that thought one way, prior to wealth or materialism, to move in a direction that would cause the very things that they thought would bring them pleasure, comfort or even peace, to now being the very things that are destroying their soul? We've all heard how a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. That is true. 

It is also true that having a lot of wealth and material property without possessing the understanding of what it is for, how it can be used, what it will bring and what it cannot supply is just as dangerous. Go to any website and do a history check on the winners of the lotto. The vast majority you will find lost their enjoyment of life, their family, their peace of mind and in the end even the wealth that had dropped into their lap. Look at families where the children have inherited incredible wealth, once again the vast majority end up much worse than they were before all this desired wealth was bestowed on them. This is why Wisdom can make this claim. If you have all the wealth but do not know its advantages or its dangers, the chances are you will fall prey to the traps that come with all the beautiful dressing. 

On the other hand, if you have the knowledge of the benefits and pitfalls of wealth and material things, whether you're a billionaire or a person that makes just enough to make it through the month, when you add Wisdom to that knowledge then the little you have or the much, will be used by you for its maximum benefit and you will navigate away from the dangers. To have Wisdom sets you up to handle whatever riches may come your way. To have riches without Wisdom... well, history has shown that most times in that situation, it will be the riches that have you!