Proverbs 21:17, 20

"He who loves pleasure will become poor; whoever loves wine and oil will never be rich."

"In the house of the wise are stores of choice food and oil, but a foolish man devours all he has."

These two proverbs are posted together because they both address the same problem, which is, the inability to exercise self-denial or self-discipline. In the first we find the person who expends all his income on the satiating of his desires, especially for luxuries. These are not inherently evil. The problem is that this person LOVES them. He practices no moderation, so the constant gratifying of his addiction brings him to ultimate financial ruin. He never denies himself any pleasure, so he never creates a savings to provide for necessities later on in life.

In the second we find the same problem, except that we are shown the upside of moderation. Each person has a limited amount of resources, and those who are successful managers know how to budget those resources so as to provide for later needs. The foolish man has no foresight and so he exercises no self-restraint. A dollar in his pocket must be spent. He lives only for the moment and fails to provide for the future with his present surplus. What's interesting is that, because of the financial savings attained by the wise man's allocating of surplus, later money provides for certain luxuries and quality of product. He has stores of choice food and oil (an ancient luxury). God has no intention of limiting our enjoyment, rather, he wants us to learn the faithfulness and self-discipline that provide for enjoyment.