Today, I am reading and commenting on  Proverbs 29-31.

I titled my blog on this passage last year, “Mockers Encourage Fools To Riot.”  Today I am going to focus on a related theme in this passage.  Which is the connection between sinfulness and the downfall of a nation.  One could easily make the mistake of thinking the theme was that sinful rulers lead to the downfall of a nation from sayings such as there three:

“When the righteous thrive, the people rejoice;
    when the wicked rule, the people groan.”

By justice a king gives a country stability,
    but those who are greedy for bribes tear it down.

If a ruler listens to lies,
    all his officials become wicked.

But that would miss the point.  In the second one, the translator notes indicate that it might say “those who give bribes tear it down.”  I suspect that ambiguity is intentional because the more government officials seek bribes, the more people give them AND the more people offer bribes the more public officials seek them.  However, the following saying causes me to see the connection between the rejection of God’s moral law and the sinfulness of those in positions of government authority.

Where there is no revelation, people cast off restraint;
    but blessed is the one who heeds wisdom’s instruction.

We can easily read the part where it says “Where there is no revelation…” to refer to times when God is not causing new Scripture to be written, or perhaps not Scripture but Inspired Revelation just shy of Scripture.  But I think it means when Christians fail to stand up for God’s truth.  When the leaders of the Church fail to heed the first part of this next saying:

The righteous detest the dishonest;
    the wicked detest the upright.

When we try to disguise our disdain for dishonesty in the name of “tolerance” and “love”, we do great disservice to our neighbors.  All too often Christians fail to show hostility to dishonesty and wicked behavior in order to not be hated by the wicked.  That only works if we actually stop being righteous, for, as this saying tells us, the wicked detest the upright.  So, let us heed wisdom’s instruction and confront the wickedness we see around us.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Proverbs 25-28.

We continue today with more short sayings which sum up important points of wisdom.  So, I am going to comment on a few of those sayings which spoke to me about my life, while encouraging you to read the passage for ones which speak to where you are.  I will start with this one:

What you have seen with your eyes
   do not bring hastily to court,
for what will you do in the end
    if your neighbor puts you to shame?

In the past I always interpreted that as being about not being in a hurry to go to court about what you see, but I realized the saying has broader application than that.  If you think about it, the writer tells us not to jump to conclusions, wait until you have all the facts before you reach a conclusion about what happened.  All too often, people will condemn others based on the first facts which come out, only learning later that the actions they condemned were justified.  Or, worse yet, they will stop paying attention and never hear the facts which justified that person’s action.

I really struggled about this next one because I feel like everyone should know it, but I just could not move on without highlighting it:

If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat;
    if he is thirsty, give him water to drink.
 In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head,
    and the Lord will reward you.

This connects with what Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount, “do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you…” Which brings me to another phrase in today’s passage: “ an undeserved curse does not come to rest.”  Which really teaches two things. It teaches us not to be concerned by those who curse us for doing God’s will.  Their curses cannot harm us.  But it also tells us not to do things which would make us deserving of our enemies’ curses, which goes along with doing good to those who hate us.

I had more phrases which I pulled out of the passage that I intended to write about, but I am just going to tag them on the end here for you to make of them what you will (I am going to make a note about one of them).

“Like a muddied spring or a polluted well
    are the righteous who give way to the wicked.”

“fools repeat their folly. ”

remember the translators’ note from chapter one said the word translated as “fool” means someone who is morally deficient, and I believe the word translated “folly” would suggest morally repugnant behavior

Like a coating of silver dross on earthenware
    are smooth lips with an evil heart.

Do not boast about tomorrow,
    for you do not know what a day may bring.

A ruler who oppresses the poor
    is like a driving rain that leaves no crops.

OK, so here is a second note. To me this suggests that a ruler who oppresses the poor is like a farmer who eats his seed corn. A ruler who oppresses the poor is destroying his own future.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Proverbs 22-24.

Much like the past few days today’s passage consists of sayings which contain wise advice.  I want to focus on three of the themes contained in these sayings which I think have great relevance to what is happening in the world today.  The writer tells us, “Buy the truth and do not sell it.”  He adds that we should also work for wisdom, instruction, and insight.  In this day people talk about misinformation and disinformation, but how many of them have sought the wisdom and insight to know what is true versus what is misinformation or disinformation.  The writer tells us we should pay for the truth using whatever “coin” necessary.  That “coin” may be money, it may be goods, it may be effort to seek it out.  All too many of us today are satisfied with those who tell us what we want to hear, or believe without question those who lied to us previously. 

Which brings me to the second theme I want to touch on.  The writer warns us to be careful who we hang out with, because we have a tendency to act similarly to those who we spend a lot of time around.  In these sayings the writer warns against spending too much of our time with those who do wicked things or fail to control their temper.  I have learned from other passages, and personal experience, that this has a corollary.  In addition to avoiding spending too much time with those who practice undesirable behaviors we should spend time with those who practice behaviors we wish to emulate.  So, how does this relate to “buying the truth”?  We should spend our time with those who value the truth and seek it out, limiting the time we spend with those who quickly embrace stories which prop up what they wish to believe without spending any time to discover if those stories are true.

Then we have the third theme from today’s passage which I want to touch on.  The writer warns us against envying the wicked, against envying sinners.  The writer had mentioned this previously, which tells us how important he thought this is.  Sometimes we become envious of those who do wrong in order to get what they want and forget why it is wrong.  In the context of what else I am writing about today, perhaps they are people who misstate facts in order to win an argument and we envy the ease with which they convince people to their side.  We may be tempted to follow their example, but that brings us up against the second part of that phrase I quoted in the first paragraph about not selling the truth.  The truth is more valuable than anything anyone can offer us for accepting, or promoting, a lie.

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

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

Like yesterday, today’s passage contains many short sayings which sum up complex wisdom in short, pithy phrases.  Since these proverbs have many different themes I will focus on just a couple of things which feel the most important of these today.  The writer tells us about the importance of words, both those we choose to speak and those to which we choose to listen.  If we take more pleasure in listening until we understand than in telling others our opinions we both gain wisdom and demonstrate that we have it.  But when we listen we need to listen with discernment and be careful not to believe rumors of which appeal to our prurient interests, but otherwise have little value.  Even worse than listening to such rumors is succumbing to the temptation to spread them.  It feels good to be “in the know”, but the damage done is never worth it.

The writer also tells us how wealth brings friends.  He offers both a simple description of how things are and a warning, actually, two warnings.  First, he warns us that many of those we think of as friends will be nowhere to be found when we need them most.  Second, he warns us to not allow ourselves to only help those who can help us.  God rewards those who provide assistance to those who can never repay that aid.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Proverbs 14-17.

Today’s passage contains so many proverbs which sum up key points of wisdom in simple sayings that I never quite know how to write a blog on it.  I am going to try and find a few themes which I think are addressed from different viewpoints in several of these sayings, maybe I will even be able to connect these themes together.  First of these: the wise do constructive things which build up people, things, and organizations, making them better, while fools tear down people, things, and organizations.  Those who tear down often claim that the tearing down must be done in order to build back better, but a careful examination will usually reveal that they have no plans for what to do after they have destroyed whatever they claim to desire to improve.  One example of this comes from examining some companies which laid off employees in order to cut costs.  They cut staff to save money without ever truly understanding who their productive employees were.  I was reminded of that by this proverb: “Where there are no oxen, the manger is empty,
    but from the strength of an ox come abundant harvests.”                        The point of this being that the most efficient way to keep the manger clean is by getting rid of the oxen which soil it, but without the oxen you cannot harvest the crops which provide you with income.  Related to this we often find those seeking to destroy dishonest and deceitful, while those seeking to build honestly portray the risks they propose we take.  The former despise God, while the latter fear and honor Him.  Which brings me to the final point I want to cover from this passage: those who fear the Lord use restraint when speaking, while the destructive use words as one more tool to destroy and break down.  The wise wish to communicate clearly so they are careful to use words which mean what they wish to say, and which will not bring unnecessary hurt to the listener.  The foolish use words which cut  and can be easily misconstrued.  This truth is such that even the foolish appear wise when they keep their mouths closed.  In fact, if you fear that you are foolish a good way to gain wisdom is by listening to what others have to say while keeping your own thoughts to yourself.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Proverbs 5-8.

The proverb writer in today’s passage spends a lot of time warning against adultery.  He goes on to link committing adultery to a lack of discipline.  I also find it interesting that the phrasing suggests that the writer endorses monogamy: the writer tells us to be satisfied with the wife (singular) of our youth despite the fact that tradition attributes these proverbs to King Solomon.  After indicating that being adulterous indicates a lack of discipline, the writer warns against a few other symptoms of lack of discipline: lack of industriousness (or laziness), and being deceitful.  Then he returns to warning against adultery, against allowing our sexual desires to govern our lives.  The writer warns us that all of these poor decisions result from not listening to wisdom.  Further, the writer goes on to tell us that wisdom calls out to us if we will but listen and look for it.  Acquiring wisdom does not require hard effort, or seeking obscure sources of knowledge.  Wisdom can be acquired merely by being open to the lessons around us.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Proverbs 1-4.

One gets the most out of Proverbs by taking note of Proverbs 1:7

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge,
    but fools^[c] despise wisdom and instruction.

All of it is important, but I think we often miss the important aspect highlighted by the translators’ note designated by that “c”.  That note points out that the word generally translated as “fool” in Proverbs, and much of the rest of the Old Testament indicates a person who is morally deficient.  We today view a fool as one who does things which they have not thought through, that a fool may be well-meaning but misguided.  However, Proverbs implies that foolishness results from trying to get away with the morally reprehensible.  You may imagine that doing something you know is wrong will result in positive outcomes for you, whether that will be pleasure, or wealth, or power, or something else which you think will benefit you, but, while you may get the outcomes you imagined, you will also get negative outcomes much greater than anything positive which comes from doing so.  On the other hand, you may imagine in certain circumstances that doing what you know to be the right thing will have negative consequences you do not wish to face.  Again, you may be correct, but you are passing on blessings of which you are unaware.  The writer of Proverbs tells us that doing the wrong thing will always come with a price higher than you would be willing to pay if you realized in advance you would have to pay it.  While doing the right thing always has a reward for which you would pay much more than whatever price taking that action costs you.

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