Today, I am reading and commenting on Proverbs 18-21.

Today’s passage is again  collection of short proverbs which do not have a theme.  However, several of them touch of the idea that those who stir up controversy and conflict are foolish.  Related to these are proverbs which recommend choosing our words carefully and being wary about spending time with people who feel the need to fill silence with words.  In many ways, I suspect that the latter proverbs are intended as much to suggest that we should be careful not to say too much as they are to tell us to avoid the company of people who talk too much.  Mixed in with those are proverbs which tell us that we should wait until we have all of the facts to judge a situation.  These include warnings that people will explain things in ways that make themselves look better, but also that they have a tendency to see things in a way which justifies them getting what they want out of the situation.  So that even if they intend to accurately relay the facts, they may not see the importance of something, and thus not mention it, because it would go against their own interest in the situation.  The final point made here that I want to pull out for a closer look is the idea that the key to success is hard work and laziness leads to poverty.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.