Monthly Archives: July 2017

Review of Gary North’s Economic Commentary on Proverbs

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    Gary North’s book, God’s Success Manual: An Economic Commentary on Proverbs, was useful to me, because it provided me with a good refresher on ethics and it motivated me to work harder.  This book would be very interesting for someone who doesn’t believe the Bible has anything to say about economics.  This book also could persuade you that ethics do relate to economic success, which is a success indicator from God.  When I started reading this book, I thought there was a small connection between ethics and personal economic success.  After reading Dr. North’s commentary, I believe there is a strong correlation between ethics and economic success, not just for individuals, but for entire nations.  The most useful thing I have implemented from this book is the principle that a person should work at least half a day.  This commentary on proverbs provides good guidelines for time and work management, which nearly everyone could use to increase their personal success.
    Dr. North accurately summarized the most significant points from Proverbs here, “Things that matter most are righteous judgment, covenantal faithfulness, avoiding the harlot, honest dealing, and the commandments of God. Above all, the commandments of God.”  The book isn’t broken down into sections based on the topics covered, but the order of the chapters was based on the numerical order of the Proverbs that Dr. North broke down.  In the beginning of the book, Gary North said that righteous judgment means increasing our wisdom in order to walk down righteous paths.  Towards the end of the book Dr. North breaks down verses that highlight how covenant keepers will succeed in history, because they will leave inheritances for their heirs and the wealth of covenant breakers will be transferred to the covenant keepers.  There are multiple sections in the commentary that explain the importance of avoiding sin and sinful people.  This commentary explains that a middle class lifestyle is best, because you are generally tempted to sin the least in this lifestyle.  The book also makes it clear that businessmen who deal honestly with consumers will succeed over time.  In this commentary Dr. North makes it very clear that it is infinitely better to be wise and follow the commandments, than to be rich and a fool.  Dr. North also makes it clear that slothfulness is a sin, and the book of Proverbs does a good job providing guidelines for working hard, and diligently.
    Dr. North’s breakdown of righteous judgment and wisdom is important for the book’s theme, because righteous judgment helps you keep God’s commandments and exert proper dominion over your resources.  This commentary’s theme is that success means following God’s commandments and using your resources to expand God’s kingdom and influence in history.  On the other hand, the theme of the book is that fools fail by using their resources to entertain themselves or by wasting all of their resources.  Gary North’s conclusions about righteous judgment in Proverbs were important for the topic, because thinking about things righteously isn’t enough, you have to be able to enact your thoughts without falling into sin.  Dr. North’s comments on how covenant keepers’ influence will expand in history are important to the theme, because covenant keepers build up wealth for their covenant keeping heirs, which increases God’s influence across societies over time.  North also said that covenant breakers lose influence over time, because they waste their resources from a biblical perspective.  These comments relate directly to the theme because covenant keepers’ success compounds over time.  Dr. North’s comments on the expanding influence of covenant keepers were important to the topic, because it provides an optimistic view of the future of Christians in history.  Avoiding the harlot, or sin, is important to the theme of the commentary, because the more you sin the more you misrepresent God and Jesus.  You want people to recognize you and your works as Christian, so you shouldn’t sin.  Dr. North’s comments of avoiding sin are important and unique for the topic, because he said that living a middle class lifestyle a good way to avoid temptations.  If you are rich then you will be tempted with sins like prostitution and overconfidence in your wealth and security.  Gary North’s comments on honest dealing relate to the theme, because you have to be an honest person if you are going to expand your Christian influence.  Gary North’s comments are important for the topic, because he explains that people who are truly future oriented won’t risk losing a repeat customer to cheat him for a few bucks in the present.  Gary North’s thoughts on following God’s commandments relate to the theme, because you exert dominion and achieve success as you follow God’s commandments.  Gary North’s comments on following the commandments are important and unique to the topic, because Dr. North says that slothfulness is a sin, and the Proverbs recommend that you work at least half a day.  Dr. North says that sleeping in, partying, getting drunk, and overeating all are detrimental to your goals, if they cause you to work less than you normally would.
    I enjoyed reading this commentary on God’s success manual more than another one of Dr. North’s books, The Five Pillars of Biblical Success.  Although Dr. North’s opinions regarding success are nearly the same in both books, I thought his commentary on the book of Proverbs was superior, because he provides more examples of how you can achieve success and please God in the commentary, than he did in The Five Pillars of Biblical Success.  I also thought Dr. North’s language was more powerful in his commentary than his other book.  Dr. North provided better guidelines on how to manage your work schedule in his commentary as well.  I think Gary North does a good job proving his main point, which is that using God’s commandments to exercise dominion is success.  Gary North makes it clear that good time management and hard work please God and help extend the kingdom of God on earth.
    In conclusion, God’s Success Manual: An Economic Commentary on Proverbs was helpful to me because it showed that working hard in your occupation and calling is pleasing to God.  Now, I go to bed earlier, so that I can wake up earlier and get to work.  This book also gave me an ethical refresher, when it comes to partying and being lazy.  This commentary cleared up some of my questions as to how biblical ethics relate to a capitalist economic society.  If you are a Christian who doesn’t believe the Bible promotes capitalism, then you need to read this commentary.  If you want an ethical refresher and some guidelines as to how you can implement wisdom from the book of Proverbs, then I would also recommend you read this book.