Proverbs 22:2 - Meaning and Application

Note, first, that God’s providence has arranged life so that some people are rich and others poor, and these classes live side by side in society. The Lord made both, both in giving them life and in assigning their place in life. The greatest person in the world must admit that God is his Maker, and he owes God the same obedience as the lowest person does. In the same way, the poorest person has the honor of being made by God’s hands just as truly as the greatest.

God makes some people rich so they can be generous to the poor, and He makes others poor so they can serve the rich. They need each other (1 Corinthians 12:21). He makes some poor to train their patience, contentment, and trust in Him, and He makes others rich to train their gratitude and generosity. The poor will always be with us, and the rich will too.

Second, even though there is often a great difference between rich and poor in many ways, they still meet on common ground in most things, especially before the Lord, who made them all and does not favor the rich over the poor (Job 34:19). Rich and poor meet together at God’s judgment bar, where all are guilty before Him, shut up under sin, and formed in iniquity, the rich no less than the poor. They also meet at the throne of God’s grace, where the poor are just as welcome as the rich.

There is the same Christ, the same Scripture, the same Spirit, and the same covenant of promises for both. There is the same heaven for poor believers as for rich believers. Lazarus is in Abraham’s bosom. And there is the same hell for rich sinners as for poor sinners. All stand on the same level before God, just as they do in the grave. The small and the great are there.