The Fat Soul and the Lean Soul Text: Proverbs 28:25
Introduction: Two Ways to Live
The book of Proverbs is intensely practical, but it is not a collection of disconnected self-help maxims. It is a book about worldview. Every proverb is a diagnostic tool, designed to reveal the foundational condition of a man's heart. And in our text today, the Holy Spirit sets before us two men, who represent two antithetical ways of navigating God's world. There is the arrogant man, and there is the man who trusts. One is a fountain of strife, and the other is a wellspring of life. One man's soul is puffed up, and the other's is made fat.
This is not a contrast between two personality types, the aggressive and the passive. This is a contrast between two religions. The arrogant man is the high priest of his own cult. He trusts in himself, which is the definition of a fool (Prov. 28:26). His desires are the engine of his life, and because his desires are infinite and the world is finite, he is in a constant state of war with God and with his neighbor. He stirs up strife because his soul is a cauldron of unmet demands. He is a walking civil war, and so he exports that war wherever he goes.
The man who trusts in Yahweh has a different religion. His center of gravity is outside of himself. He has bent the knee. He has acknowledged that God is God and he is not. This simple, foundational act of submission changes everything. It is the key that unlocks the storehouses of divine blessing. He is not lean, anxious, and striving, but is instead "enriched," or as the old King James says, "made fat." This is a picture of deep satisfaction, of covenantal flourishing. This proverb, then, is a spiritual stethoscope. Put it to your chest. Do you hear the frantic, grasping palpitations of arrogance, or the steady, restful heartbeat of trust?
The Text
An arrogant man stirs up strife, But he who trusts in Yahweh will be enriched.
(Proverbs 28:25 LSB)
The Engine of Conflict (v. 25a)
We begin with the first man, the man with the proud heart.
"An arrogant man stirs up strife..." (Proverbs 28:25a)
The Hebrew for "arrogant man" is literally "he who is wide of soul" or "puffed up in soul." It is a picture of someone who has an inflated sense of self. He takes up more space than he is allotted. This is the essence of pride. It is a refusal to accept one's place in the created order as a creature under authority. The proud man is a universe unto himself, with his own appetites and ambitions as the governing law.
Now, what is the inevitable byproduct of this condition? Strife. Contention. Quarreling. Why? Because the moment this puffed-up man bumps into another reality, another person with their own desires, or, most importantly, God's law, there is a collision. Strife is not an accident for the proud man; it is his native atmosphere. He manufactures it. He stirs it up, like a man stirring a pot. Think of a family argument, a church split, a political firestorm. Trace it back to its source, and you will not find a mere disagreement over policy. You will find a proud heart that refuses to yield, that must have its own way, that cannot bear to be corrected.
This arrogance is often translated as "greedy," and that is a helpful facet of the meaning. The proud man is a greedy man because his inflated self has an insatiable appetite. He wants more honor, more control, more money, more recognition. He sees the world as a zero-sum game. For him to win, someone else must lose. This is why James tells us exactly where our quarrels come from. "What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel" (James 4:1-2). The strife we see in the world is simply the external manifestation of the idolatrous passions at war within the hearts of arrogant men.
The arrogant man is a deeply insecure man. His constant striving and fighting is an attempt to prove to himself and to others that he matters. He is a black hole of need. But because he is functionally an atheist, trusting in his own resources, he can never be filled. He is a lean soul, and his leanness makes him angry.
The Fountain of Flourishing (v. 25b)
In stark contrast, we have the second man.
"But he who trusts in Yahweh will be enriched." (Proverbs 28:25b LSB)
The pivot point is trust. The arrogant man trusts in his own wide soul. The righteous man trusts in Yahweh, the covenant-keeping God. To trust in the Lord is to abandon self-reliance. It is to confess that you are not the captain of your soul, that your resources are insufficient, and that your wisdom is folly. It is the fundamental posture of creaturely humility.
And what is the result of this trust? He "will be enriched." The Hebrew word here means to be made fat. In an agrarian society, fatness was a sign of health, abundance, and blessing. A lean animal was a sick or starving animal. A fat one was flourishing. This is not primarily about financial prosperity, though it certainly does not exclude it. God's blessings are comprehensive. This is about a deep, soul-level prosperity. The man who trusts in God has a fat soul.
Why does trust lead to this enrichment? Because the man who trusts in God is connected to the source of all life and blessing. He is not a self-contained unit, trying to generate his own significance. He is a branch, drawing life from the vine (John 15). The arrogant man is a cut flower, looking impressive for a moment but fundamentally dead and withering. The trusting man is planted by streams of water, yielding his fruit in season (Psalm 1).
This enrichment also resolves the problem of strife. A man with a fat soul is not greedy. He is not grasping. He is content. Because he trusts God for his provision, his vindication, and his significance, he is free to be generous with others. He doesn't view his neighbor as a rival in a cosmic competition. He can rejoice when others are blessed. He can be corrected without his world falling apart. He can lose an argument. He can serve without needing the applause. His soul is fat with the grace of God, and this makes him a man of peace. He doesn't stir up strife; he absorbs it. He brings shalom, not contention.
The Great Exchange
This proverb presents us with a stark choice, but we must see it through the lens of the gospel. On our own, we are all the arrogant man. Our default setting is pride. We are born wide of soul, puffed up with a rebellious self-sufficiency that is the very essence of sin. And the fruit of this is strife with God and strife with man, leading to a soul that is spiritually lean, starved, and ultimately, damned.
But God, in His mercy, provides the solution. The ultimate fulfillment of this proverb is found in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the only one who ever trusted in Yahweh perfectly. He humbled Himself, not grasping, not stirring up strife, but entrusting His soul to His Father, even unto death on a cross.
And on that cross, a great exchange took place. He took our arrogant, strife-filled, lean-souled rebellion upon Himself. And He gives us His perfect, trust-filled, enriched righteousness. When we, by faith, abandon our trust in ourselves and place our trust in Him, we are united to Him. God looks at us and sees the perfect trust of His Son.
The Christian life, then, is the process of learning to live out this new reality. It is the daily mortification of the arrogant man within us and the daily vivification of the trusting man. When you feel the impulse to stir up strife, to insist on your own way, to harbor a greedy or envious thought, you must recognize it for what it is: the death throes of the old man. You must crucify it by confessing it as sin and turning in renewed trust to Christ.
And as you do, you will find your soul growing fat. Not with the bloat of pride, but with the healthy, solid substance of God's grace. You will be enriched with peace, with contentment, with joy, and with a love for others that flows from a heart that is already full. This is the path from strife to shalom, from leanness to life. Trust in the Lord, and be made fat.