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

I found today’s passage challenging to write on because it is composed entirely of some of the proverbs for which this book is named (I know, I write this every year).   For the most part, these proverbs do not have a theme and are all useful lessons in wisdom.  However, there are a few ideas which the writer comes back to again and again.  The writer tells us that wisdom teaches us to control our tempers and not allow ourselves to let anger, or other emotions, control our actions or our tongues.  For that matter, the writer reminds us that wisdom teaches us to choose our words carefully.  Throughout the Book of Proverbs, the writer uses the word “mocker” as a synonym for fool.  It is worth noting that other translations use the word “scoffer” where the NIV uses “mocker”.   In this particular passage, the writer tells us that those who mock others, or scoff at them, have trouble finding wisdom, but those who seriously listen to others gain knowledge and wisdom easily.

The writer tells us that while we may plan our course, God determines how things work out.  If we plot evil, we will find everything going astray.  On the other hand, if we plan to do good, good will come of what we do, even if our plans do not work out as we intended.  Throughout the Book of Proverbs the writer teaches us that we should seek wise counsel when making plans, but here he reminds us that the wisest counsel includes allowing for God to direct us down a different path than what we planned to take.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Proverbs 9-13.

Both Wisdom and Folly sit in places of prominence and call to every passerby, “Let all who are simple come to my house!”  So, since both advertise themselves and call to us, how do we tell the difference?  Well, the writer informs us that righteousness and wisdom go hand in hand: righteous acts display wisdom, wicked behavior displays folly.  Further, the wise accept instruction and correction, while the fool resents anyone who makes them aware of their mistakes.  Further, the writer says that Folly promotes dishonesty and deceit.  The writer goes on from there to list a bunch of proverbs which help us act both wisely and righteously.  He tells us that the wise choose their words with care and think before they speak, while the fool allows their emotions to control their mouth.  The writer reminds us that we find what we seek.  If we seek good we will find it, and if we seek evil that is what will come to 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 5-8.

The writer makes two main points in today’s passage.  The one which takes up the bulk of the passage tells us that the wise person avoids adultery.  For the other point he writes that wisdom calls out loudly to any who listen, that it does not take much effort to acquire wisdom.  So, although wisdom tells us to work hard, we do not have to work hard to learn the value of doing so.  Having said that about the two main points I want to focus on something which is almost an aside.  At one point the writer tells us:

There are six things the Lord hates,
seven that are detestable to him:
haughty eyes,
a lying tongue,
hands that shed innocent blood,
a heart that devises wicked schemes,
feet that are quick to rush into evil,
a false witness who pours out lies
and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.

Most of those things are the subject of many sermons and homilies.  But we do not often talk about how God detests those who stir up conflict between others.  This is not someone who gets into conflict with others, but someone who gets others into conflict with each other.  When someone tells you that the solution to your problems is to be mad at someone else, they are not trying to help you.  We do not help someone by telling them that they can solve their problems by attacking someone else.  Throughout the Book of Proverbs, and the rest of the Bible, we learn that wisdom teaches us that we need to take responsibility for that which we can control.  The Bible tells us repeatedly that the best thing we can do to address our problems is to put our trust in God, and do the good He guides us to do.  And the best thing we can do to help others is to give them direct aid, not try to get them to blame someone else for their problems.

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.

We come now to the Book of Proverbs, which was put together to provide a means for gaining wisdom and receiving instruction in prudent behavior.  The writer makes clear that wisdom teaches us to not let sinful people entice us into violent or other sinful behavior.  Those who seek ill-gotten gain ultimately harm themselves.  But wisdom will save you from the self destructive ways of the wicked and perverse.  Wisdom is not hard to find, it calls to us loudly in the public square.  In fact, the ease with which we hear wisdom and know its truth is why the wicked want to silence some voices in the public square.  Wisdom, if allowed to speak, will drown out all other voices.  Seek insight and understanding and you will find the knowledge of God, you will understand that which is right and just.  Following the straight paths which wisdom shows us will allow us to live in safety without fear of harm.

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

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.