When could our income become a problem?
Text: Proverbs 10:16
Hosts:
J. Kent Edwards
Vicki Hitzges
Nathan Norman
Narrator: Brian French
The CrossTalk Podcast is a production of CrossTalk Global, equipping biblical communicators, so every culture hears God’s voice. To find out more, or to support the work of this ministry please visit www.crosstalkglobal.org
Produced by Nathan James Norman/Untold Podcast Production
© 2026 CrossTalk Global
Brian: Imagine that you are a sailor sleeping below deck on an ancient sailing ship. It's the middle of the night when you realize your ship has been caught in a storm, and the captain is calling the crew to come up to the deck to help save the ship. But when you arrive up top, you see only a few men on deck and a number of your comrades standing on the edge, staring into the distance. And you see a growing number jumping overboard to their almost certain deaths. Then you hear a song. A song that is at once familiar and unusual. It has a soothing effect on you, and you are captivated by the melody. And you begin to forget your surroundings. You no longer hear the screams of your crew from the waves that bombard your ship. You are no longer in a storm. You stare into the distance and see the outline of a beautiful woman lying on a bed of rocks. It appears she is gesturing for you to join her. But as you look down, you see the lifeless bodies of your crew being carried away by the waves. Unable to stop yourself, you begin to climb overboard, knowing that if you jump, it would mean certain death. If only you could warn the rest of the crew about the song. If only you could stop them from sharing your fate. But at this point, you are nothing more than a passenger in your own body. As you plunge into the cold, dark abyss, you finally realize that the siren song is the last you will ever hear. This is an ancient Greek story told by Homer in the Odyssey. While we may never sail the seas, there is a siren song that we all hear. A song that is beautiful and tempting. A song that is as powerful as it is dangerous. And those who respond to it are leaping to their doom. Would you like to know the lyrics of the siren song playing for us today? A song that so many have succumbed to. Then join Kent Edwards, Nathan Norman, and Vicki Hitkiss as they discover the answer in Proverbs, chapter 10, verse 16. Welcome to CrossTalk, a Christian podcast whose goal is for us to encourage each other to not only increase our knowledge of the Bible, but to take the next step beyond information into transformation. Our goal is to bring the Bible to life, into all our lives. I'm Brian French. Today, Dr. Kent Edwards, Vicki Hitskiss, and Nathan Norman continue their discussion in the Book of Proverbs. If you have a Bible handy, turn to Proverbs, chapter 10, verse 16, as we join their discussion.
Kent: Boy, Homer can tell a great story, can't he?
Vicki: Well, that seems ridiculous to me.
Kent: Why does it seem ridiculous?
Vicki: Oh, that is such a man story.
Kent: Okay, so. Okay, it's rooted in the culture of the day.
Vicki: It's rooted in a man, women enticing him over, and he jumps to his death.
Kent: But it's one of the most popular stories in history. I mean, it continues to live on today, unlike so many other stories that are told. Why do you think that is?
Vicki: Brian says it still resonates today and it's still relevant. How so?
Nathan: As one of those men that you just chastised.
Vicki: Yes.
Nathan: For our maleness.
Kent: Yeah.
Nathan: I could see that. The draw of. For men, anyways, the draw for women can be huge. Especially, you see, with teenagers. I mean, how many stupid things have teenagers done for the love, or not even the love, the attention of a woman. But even more so than that, getting out of the gender stereotypes or gender roles, there are things that entice all of us. Right. And my levers are going to be different than your levers. But there are things that, you know, Vicki, we were talking off earlier, you know, like, some people, like, if they came up to me, like, hey, Nathan, you want to shoot up on heroin? I'd be like, no, I don't find that appealing at all. But I have other sins that would appeal to me. There are other things that. That I would more likely succumb to. And I think that's unique to all of us, where there are things that entice us so much that we're not thinking when we're committing those sins.
Kent: Yeah. I mean, there is a sexual element of the temptation in Homer's story, but the point of his story is the song that they are singing. It is the song that entrances them. It is the singing that bids them to come to the edge of the ship and jump to their doom. There's something about the song that these temptress women are singing that draws them to their death. I think that's one of the reasons it has enduring relevance, why we continue to still read it, and it still has impact, because there are songs, there are messages that are sung today that are proclaimed today that entice us into making bad decisions. I think that's why Solomon in Proverbs 10:16, warns us about a siren song that was present in his day and is present in ours.
Nathan: Okay.
Vicki: In Proverbs 10:16, it says, the wages of the righteous bring them to life, but the income of the wicked brings them punishment.
Kent: Hmm. So what is the topic that Solomon is addressing here? What is he speaking about?
Vicki: He's talking about how people earn their living, that there's the right way to do it, and there's A wrong way to do it.
Kent: He's talking about money. You're right. He's talking about wages. The wages of the righteous bring them life. It's interesting to me. The word wages in the first part of that proverb is contrasted with the word income in the second half. He begins by saying the wages of the righteous bring them life. That word wages literally refers to the wages of a hired man. You see that in Leviticus 19:13 and other places. But these are wages paid to hard working people. Think of a day laborer, of a hired hand on a farm or a construction worker when it talks about the wages of the righteous bring life. He's talking about labor intensive, hot, tiring work where your body aches at the end of the day for reasonable but not extravagant pay. Yet he says those modest wages bring what?
Vicki: He says it brings life.
Kent: That's interesting. Nathan, when the Bible talks about life, what is he referring to? Not just breathing, but what is it?
Nathan: Oh, it's the whole thing. It's physiological life for sure. You know, breathing and eating and moving around. But it's talking about your mind being alive with the things of God. It's talking about your spirit, your soul being connected to God. So we as Christians, we talk about eternal life, which is something that we have right now and in the future. Right? So when it's talking about life, it's the whole person, mind, body and soul.
Kent: The wages of the righteous bring them life.
Vicki: There's a satisfaction to hard work.
Nathan: There is if you get the job done. If not, then it's very frustrating. Let me tell you.
Vicki: That is true.
Kent: Solomon says the hard working, righteous men and women who live moral God pleasing lives, even though it's tough, they experience life at its best. Isn't that interesting? You don't hear people say that today, but Solomon, that's not the dream.
Nathan: That's not the dream.
Kent: That's not the dream. But Solomon says that's just reality. The wisest man who ever lived outside of Christ says, yeah, the wages of the righteous bring them life. But in contrast, the income of the wicked brings them punishment. The income of the wicked brings them punishment. It's interesting to me as I dove into this to discover that that word income is actually an agricultural term. It speaks of the produce of the ground or harvest. And in the Bible it is God that brings the harvest, isn't that right?
Vicki: Yes.
Kent: In fact, he promises Israel that they will have a harvest. He guarantees it. In fact, two times a year Israel celebrated God's provision, the feast of first Fruits. In May and June and the end of the year harvest in October. But what harvest will God deliver to the wicked? The harvest of the wicked is what?
Vicki: Well, in the scripture it says punishment and death.
Kent: Yeah. Why? Why does the income of the wicked result in punishment and death?
Vicki: Well, he's a righteous God. And if you have ill gotten gains, your income comes from wicked actions rather than hard work.
Kent: Right. So because these people, because the wicked didn't earn their money from honest hard work, but in wicked ways, by cheating, lying, stealing. Their harvest will be death. Their harvest will be destruction. Do you know anyone who has accumulated wealth immorally?
Nathan: Yeah, I knew somebody who worked for one of these payday loan places. You familiar with them? They're basically predatory lending. They're highly regulated because they're considered predatory lending, but grossly immoral. Even though they're technically legal. You have a need and say you need $200 now, $300 now, they will give you the money, but they have compounded interest so that all of a sudden you're paying $400 the next week, $800. And it just grows and grows and grows to the point where you can never pay them back. And so I knew this person, she's a Christian who worked at, at one of these payday loan places. Yeah. So it's legal, but the law is the bottom of morality. It's not moral. That kind of predatory loaning is not moral. It's not good. You know that you're enslaving people.
Kent: Yeah. I see advertisements of people doing similar things. They'll say, no credit, no problem, we'll sell you this car. They do that because they know that if you have absolutely no credit, you're not going to be able to pay the debt on this car. So they will repossess it, take the money you've given and sell it to someone else and do the same thing. And they'll sell that car dozens and dozens of times to people who they know can't ever pay. So they will continue to rob, if you will, the poorest of the poor. But I know people who also have decided to steal money from their employers to send in padded expense accounts to skim off the top of money that comes in and just not put it in the cash register. There are many, many ways that we are tempted to gain money immorally. Why?
Vicki: It's easy.
Kent: Yeah.
Vicki: That in the original examples we were talking about like digging a hole or plowing a field or. That's hard work.
Kent: It is.
Vicki: If you just skim money off the top and hope nobody's going to notice. That's easy.
Kent: Yeah.
Nathan: In the case that I was sharing, I did not bring it up, but the husband had commented. He said, yeah, we know that this is predatory and that this isn't a job that helps people, but there's nothing else available that she could get paid this much to do.
Kent: Yeah, right.
Nathan: At the end of the day, it was money. Right. There's no other job available where she would be able to make this much money.
Kent: Sure. It's a shortcut to success. Right. We all want to take shortcuts. I heard recently of a marathon runner who had great time. I mean, he really ran that race fast and he won the prize until they realized that he hadn't run the full race. He found a way to take a shortcut. He took the easy way to win the prize, but didn't actually win the race. That's what people are doing with money. I think that we do it and we're all tempted to do this. Let's be honest. We're not just talking about other people. Each of us who are recording and listening have been tempted to take shortcuts because money is powerful. Money has the power to do good. If you have money, you can gain an education, you can build a business, you can get the medical attention you and your family need, or feed the homeless, or help crosstalk transform lives by equipping biblical communicators.
Vicki: There you go.
Kent: That's a great thing. Great investment you can make. So money is powerful to do good, but money can also destroy you. Examples abound. We hear of government officials around the world being fired or jailed for taking kickbacks or bribes. We hear of ordinary citizens going to jail for siphoning millions of dollars from charitable donations or investment funds. And how many careers and reputations have been destroyed because people skimmed cash from registers, submitted falsified invoices, lied on their taxes, or submitted inflated expense reports. Why? Why do people make these choices? Why are we tempted to make money immorally? Because it's easy, I think. Money is magnetic. It pulls at our hearts and lures us into sin. The siren song of easy money is powerful. Why work so hard when you can get so much more by selling drugs, joining onlyfans, lying to a client, or falsifying financial documents. But why is Solomon warning us not to do that? Remind us of his warning.
Vicki: Well, Solomon said, the income of the wicked brings punishment.
Kent: Yeah.
Nathan: It's only short term gains. Explain that in the long term. Well, I actually had a young adult come up to me last night, fairly new believers. And he said, why does it seem like the people who are doing bad are doing well in life and the people who are doing what they're supposed to are struggling?
Kent: Why do the wicked prosper?
Nathan: Right. And my answer was, there's a lot of complexity to it, but simply, it comes down to short term versus long term. Right. Do you want short term gains? Then do what's wrong. Because you will find happiness in the short term. But it will be brief because eventually the consequences, they will catch up with you. Long term, you're going to have. There's suffering in this life. And if you want to find success or wealth, and I don't necessarily mean money when I say wealth, in the long term, it's going to be harder. You're going to have to do the right thing. You're going to have to stand up for what's right. You're going to have to have character and integrity. But the long term term benefits are better. And then he went to tell me a story. He's like, okay, yeah, that makes sense. It reminds me of this kid I grew up with. He bullied everybody and just, he was really vicious about it all. And now he's dead. I didn't get the full story, but I don't know if he bullied the wrong person at some point, but it was a very graphic image of, yeah, you could do the wrong thing and you can have short term benefits to it. And there are, there are short term benefits to sin. You will prosper, but only for a short time because as Solomon said, the income of the wicked brings them punishment. God sees.
Kent: You're right. Short term gains. That reminds me of the name Bernie Madoff.
Vicki: Are you familiar with that name? Yes. Ponzi scheme in New York.
Kent: Yeah. He was successful in the short term, wasn't he?
Vicki: Millions of dollars. Yes.
Kent: Right? Yeah. In fact, he defrauded his investors of nearly $65 billion over several decades. That is serious coin. He lived a life full of luxury. He denied himself nothing. But in 2009, what happened?
Vicki: I remember he pleaded guilty. I don't know the details. Do you know the details?
Kent: Yeah. He pleaded guilty to 11 federal felonies and received a sentence of 150 years in federal prison. He didn't have to serve it all just in case he died in prison after only 12 years. But here's an example of someone who tried to make money the easy way and paid a price in life. But what about those who lie, cheat and steal and never get caught? I Mean, I think, for example, of Putin, Vladimir Putin in Russia, who, through extortion and theft of state funds, is now estimated to be worth how many billion?
Nathan: I'm reading here? 200 billion. Billion. Which is something I'm learning right this second. That's incredible, Isn't that.
Kent: I mean, how many billion do you need? I guess 200.
Vicki: Well, I know he has an extensive network of yachts and jets and houses mansions. Yeah. That's awful lot for a man to have.
Kent: So here's a guy who seems to have profited and not held accountable. Bernie Madoff had to pay for his sins. But what happens to Vladimir Putin? What if he never has to give up his money or pay the price for his sins?
Vicki: Well, he'll die. And I'll tell you what. You know, I used to. My grandmother used to always tell me, vicki, life is short. Life is short. And she was old and I was young, and I think, yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever.
Kent: Yeah, for you. Now.
Vicki: Yeah, now I look back on my life and I think, I. Life is short. And he'll die. And then right away, he's going to pay a price for that. And I will also tell you this. I can't imagine. He's not paying a price now. He cannot wait. Well, I don't mean to, but I do mean this. He can't be a happy person. He just can't. I know. I know. I used to work for a very wealthy woman. She wasn't worth 200 billion, but she was worth a lot of money. A lot of money. Millions. And she was beautiful, and she had this and she had that. And then the gal I shared an office with had none of that. But the very wealthy woman was unkind, and she was demanding, and she was this and that. And I would think all the time, I would rather be the woman I shared the office with who had, you know, meager because she was happy and she was kind and she was giving, than to be this woman I'm telling you about, because she wasn't. And I look at. I look at Putin, and, you know, I've never met him. But if you rape and you pillage and you demand and you kill and you. You're not happy. I'm sorry, you're not happy, and then you're going to die someday, and you really won't be happy. Who wants that?
Kent: Yeah. That sin warps your soul.
Vicki: It warps your soul.
Nathan: And there is judgment in the life to come. No one escapes justice.
Vicki: No one will.
Kent: No one does. Horrible. We read about that in Revelation. 20, don't we?
Nathan: Yeah. It says, then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence.
Kent: And.
Nathan: And there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne. And books were opened. The dead were judged according to what they had done, as recorded in the books. Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.
Kent: So there is no into the lake of fire.
Vicki: Imagine that.
Kent: And imagine that for eternity. This is not a quick death. This is endless death, endless suffering for all of eternity. Money is powerful. It can bring us life. Endless life, fruitful life, or total destruction. Nathan. Vicki, we've talked before about proverbs and that. They're the big idea of a story that someone has lived or many people have lived. If you had this proverb and you wanted to communicate it to someone, how would you do that? Could we have some hints for our listeners.
Nathan: For an audience of maybe teenagers and above? I would say you have to think about credit versus savings. And you can, you can play now with the credit card, but you're going to pay later. There will be financial consequences. Or you can pay now, save up, and then play later. That seems to be how God has ordered the universe. At least this side of eternity is. Yeah. If we try and use sin as a shortcut towards happiness, sin is a shortcut towards financial gain. Doing questionably moral things. They might be legal or they might be illegal, but doing questionably moral things to get ahead. Yeah, you're going to play, you're going to have fun, it's going to be enjoyable. But in the long term, there are consequences. If not in this life, but usually for most of us in this life, then in life to come, it's the difference between saving versus having a credit card.
Kent: So you'll tell a story like you just mentioned, so people see this principle unfold in real life, and then you'll end at the end of the message, probably by just reading this proverb. Reading the proverb and explaining it to them. So they see that the story you told is rooted in the truth of Scripture. I think that could be helpful. That's good and necessary because money is powerful, as we've said, it can be used for good and we should use it to expand God's kingdom. But it's a power that can also harm us. The fact is you cannot serve both God and money. Jesus was clear about that. And you know, you've drifted away from God when you're willing to sin in order to get it. May we never forget Solomon's wise the wages of the righteous bring them life, but the income of the wicked brings them punishment.
Brian: A siren song echoes in our ears, tempting us to cut corners and bend our morals for quick money. We stand on the deck of our life's ship like sailors in Homer's Odyssey. How can we resist the lure to dive into the deadly sea of ill gotten gains? Odysseus saved his crew by having them plug their ears with wax. We must do the same. We need to tune out our culture's song that the one who dies with the most toys wins and that our worth is measured by our net worth. Paul was right when he warned Timothy that the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people eager for money have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. It can be tempting to do something we know is wrong to make money. We can rationalize that everyone else is doing it or no one will know. Or even I'll tithe the money that I make. So what's the real harm? The harm is that God knows financial shortcuts are the path to God's wrath. That's not a path on which we want to travel. I trust that today's discussion of God's Word has been helpful and served as an encouragement to not just be hearers of the Word, but doers together. Let's bring God's Word to life to our lives. This week, the CrossTalk Podcast is a production of Cross Talk Global equipping Biblical communicators to so every culture hears God's voice. To find out more about this educational nonprofit organization, please visit www.crosstalkglobal.org. crosstalk held trainings this quarter in Cuba, Kenya and Kansas. Help us train the next generation of biblical communicators. All you have to do is click Donate in the show notes and make a donation of any size. You can also support this show by rating it on Apple Podcast, Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you find it. Be sure to listen next Friday as we continue to learn from God's wisdom in the Book of Proverbs. You won't want to miss it.
Nathan: You are no longer in a storm. You stare into the distance and see the outline of a beautiful woman. See, this isn't going to apply to half our audience who are women.
Vicki: Keep going. It's bizarre.
Nathan: Beautiful person lying on a bed of rocks. It appears. Oh, see this? I can't put person.
Vicki: Keep going. Keep going.
Nathan: It appears she's gesturing for you to join her. But as you look down, you see the lifeless bodies of your crew being carried away by the waves. Unable to stop yourself, you begin to climb overboard, knowing that if you jump, it would mean certain death. If only you could warn the rest of the crew about the song. If only you could stop them from sharing your fate. But at this point, you are nothing more than a passenger in your own body. As you plunge into the cold, dark abyss, you finally realize that the siren song is the last you will ever hear.
Vicki: Oh, I was gonna say this sounds like the Odyssey. Okay. Okay, go ahead.
Nathan: So we need to start. Imagine you're a man and that you're a sailor. A male sailor. This is an Ancient.
Vicki: We'll make kids read it.
Nathan: Hold on one second. Is somebody clicking something? Like a pen or.
Kent: Yeah, me. Thank you all. Sorry.
Nathan: Stop it.
Kent: Stop it.
Nathan: Okay, go ahead.
Kent: Okay.
Vicki: Did I screw this up when I was talking about men?
Nathan: No.
Vicki: In the beginning?
Nathan: Not at all.
Vicki: You don't think so?
Nathan: I think if we ever did, like, a bonus show that, like, you know, if we ever wanted to set, up, like, a Patreon account where patrons get a behind. Like, they have to pay something to get access to it, so they get the show, which is free to everybody. But there was, like a. There was, like, bonus content, right?
Vicki: Oh, people will pay huge for that.
Nathan: I think that should. I think that section would be a weekly Vicki Objects. And that's the name of the show. Vicki Objects. And Vicki will find whatever she wants to object about the thing and push back hard because your objections are really helpful and useful and help us think through a lot of this stuff.