25th July Fascinating fact: the section of Proverbs from 10:1 to 22:16 is actually titled: The Proverbs of Solomon. In Hebrew, each letter of the alphabet is assigned a number also; SOLOMON adds up to 375, and there are exactly that number of verses in this section of the book! Clearly something bigger is at work here! The middle verse of the section is 16:4 The Lord works out everything to its proper end - even the wicked for a day of disaster - which rather captures the theme of justice that Proverbs promotes. And no, I havent been working over time counting verses; my trusty NIV Study Bible Commentary does what it does best - leaving me to do what I do best: save time! (Todays reading: Proverbs 10, 11, 12.) Why DOES a wise son bring joy to his father, but a foolish son bring grief to his mother - other than in the world of Hebrew poetry, that is? (10:1) Perhaps fathers are more prone to claim the credit for success and to pass the buck for failure; perhaps I am being too harsh on my species, though. Ill-gotten treasures have no lasting value, but righteousness delivers from death. 10:2 is a recurrent message of Proverbs, with its weight on long-term benefits and short-term integrity. The other major message is that of hard work: Lazy hands make for poverty, but diligent hands bring wealth. He who gathers crops in summer is a prudent son, but he who sleeps during harvest is a disgraceful son. (10:4-5) In a lot of senses in life, you reap what you sow; this applies to a material harvest and also a spiritual harvest: what churches are prepared to put IN (in terms of hard work) is generally reflected in their end-of-season crop. Two differing comments on wealth: The wealth of the rich is their fortified city, but poverty is the ruin of the poor. (10:15) This is a general observation that the rich can use their wealth to protect their wealth, whilst the poverty that the poor have is costly to break out of, and therefore protects their poverty! To those that have, more shall be given is another way of putting it. The other comment on wealth is: The blessing of the Lord brings wealth, without painful toil for it. (10:22) Wealth is NOT wrong, but can be a sign of blessing; God often rewards those who are generous, with great wealth, if they demonstrate that they are reliable channels of his blessing towards others. For such people, their acquisition of money can appear effortless, but perhaps their efforts are shown in other areas of life! What the wicked dread will overtake them; what the righteous desire will be granted. When the storm has swept by, the wicked are gone, but the righteous stand firm forever. The righteous will never be uprooted, but the wicked will not remain in the land. (10:24,25,30) In our sunday school theology the righteous are those who fly off to somewhere rather dull with clouds and harps, but the true position at the end of the age will be that the righteous, the meek, will inherit the Earth, as part of the Kingdom of God. Very down-to-earth is the fact that The Lord detests dishonest scales, but accurate weights find favour with him. (11:1) For that matter, he wants you to pay exactly the amount of tax that you should, and to shun the so-called grey economy that rather celebrates soft evasion! Both God and Caesar are being robbed by some Christians who should jolly well know better! If that is you, then youd better repent whilst you have time. The City is a term that appears frequently in Proverbs, since it appears much in Gods mind too. When the righteous prosper, the city rejoices; when the wicked perish, there are shouts of joy. Through the blessing of the upright a city is exalted, but by the mouth of the wicked it is destroyed. (11:10-11) It both responds and reacts to the behaviour of the righteous - sharing many of their values - and is also an indirect beneficiary of the righteous behaving righteously. Are we aware of the widespread knock-on effects of our faithful lives towards The Lord; there are far more witnesses to our behaviour than we could ever imagine. In our hands is the destiny of the city and the nation! Our tongue usually gives us away: Whoever derides their neighbour has no sense, but the one who has understanding holds their tongue. A gossip betrays a confidence, but a trustworthy person keeps a secret. From heart to tongue is the shortest journey on the planet. Sometimes the wisest thing is to just keep quiet! A funny verse: Like a gold ring in a pig’s snout is a beautiful woman who shows no discretion. The gold is the outward beauty; the snout is the inner ugliness. The two are incompatible and laughable. More about money: One person gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty. A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed. People curse the one who hoards grain, but they pray God’s blessing on the one who is willing to sell. Those who trust in their riches will fall, but the righteous will thrive like a green leaf. (11:24-26,28) If you avoid trusting in riches but trust in God, then he will trust you with riches. If you avoid trusting in God and put your faith in riches, then you will miss out on both. This does not necessarily mean that the poor are faithless, but it is likely that the faithless will be poor! Make sure you marry well: A wife of noble character is her husband’s crown, but a disgraceful wife is like decay in his bones. (12:4) Notice that it is her CHARACTER that matters most, rather than her looks. The righteous care for the needs of their animals, but the kindest acts of the wicked are cruel. (12:10) This is about as explicit a command you will find on so-called animal rights. But it is valid and proportionate. Those who work their land will have abundant food, but those who chase fantasies have no sense. It is a sad thing, but many Christian believer live in a fantasy world about their faith and are not prepared to do much to see the Kingdom brought into being. Hard work is not the means to our salvation (well, not OUR hard work, anyway!), but it does mark out those who have been well and truly infected by the Spirit of God. Fools show their annoyance at once, but the prudent overlook an insult. (12:16) This piece of advice is surely self-explanatory. In fact, so much of Proverbs is; it is the parts of Scripture that we DO understand that seem to cause us most of the problems! Andy Acreman
Posted on: Fri, 25 Jul 2014 07:00:00 +0000
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