Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 1, 2021 3:24:40 GMT -6
“The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel” (Proverbs 1:1).
The first thing we notice in the Book of Proverbs is that its author is “Solomon the son of David, king of Israel.” Now, that's important because Solomon, of course, was the wisest man to ever live outside of the Lord Jesus Christ. The important thing to learn as we see from Ecclesiastes that he basically ruined his wisdom from God by his actions and his idolatry. So, the first thing we need to see is that wisdom is nothing to play with. This book is written for that purpose, and that's what the first six verses are about.
It is for this purpose that the Book of Proverbs is written. Solomon was quite another person when the Lord came to him and asked, “What shall I give you?” He said, “I am but a little child, and am completely overwhelmed by all this and I need wisdom by which to judge the children of Israel,” and the Lord gave him that and then gave him riches as well. There is nobody ever compared to Solomon for his great wisdom. What we read in proverbs is some truly insightful stuff.
One tremendously helpful habit and something, by the way, that brother Sam Gipp promotes a lot, is to read a chapter of Proverbs every day. It works pretty out pretty well because there's 29, 30, or 31 days in a month and there's only one or 2 days a month that you might have to even read 2 proverbs. To read a proverb a day as a preface to just about any of the rest of your Bible reading is real good stuff. If you go and read 5 chapters of proverbs at one time, by the time you're done you're probably asking yourself, “What did I just read?” Your mind is just rolling. Okay, there is some really profound stuff in Proverbs. It's real deep stuff. If you want insight into human character in short pithy statements this is where you get it.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 2, 2021 1:43:32 GMT -6
“For the upright shall dwell in the land, and the perfect shall remain in it. But the wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it" (Proverbs 2:21-22).
People are really shallow with the Bible sometimes, and they'll say, “Well, the Bible says that there is none good, no, not one.” So, what are you going to take from that then? Are you going to walk around skeptical of everything and everybody absolutely all the time? That’s not what the Bible teaches. Over in Titus chapter 1 and verse 8 with regard to a Bishop, one of the characteristics is that he is “a lover of good men.” Do you know what good Christian men ought to appreciate? Good men.
What is too bad is when people get to the point where they are too busy trying to see all the bad in good man, and trying to tear down the good men, rather than to appreciate where that man would be heading if he had not found Christ; and had not walked with Christ all these years. We need to be able to appreciate the good in a man and not just see the bad in a man, or woman.
“But the wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it.”
There is some real dispensational stuff here, and you can apply it that way. There's no question about the doctrine and there's no question about the prophecy in the Old Testament when the Lord carried those people into the land; if somebody that did right the Lord did prosper them, and a lot of times they're righteousness and uprightness translated eventually into their sheep being “prolific” and their crops producing abundantly and so on and so forth.
There is coming yet another day like that in Israel where if you do right brother, that man will have it paid back to him, and not just in heaven, but here on earth.
But, devotionally speaking, “for the upright shall dwell in the land, and the perfect shall remain in it,” there are positive results that come from doing the right thing and it's not always about money and it's not always about what you own it's not always about your car never breaking down in the middle of the winter; but there are other things that are positive about it.
“But the wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it.”
It’s a wonderful thing to live in this dispensation. It is a shame that so many will not study their Bibles with this in mind. We walk by faith and not by sight, and if you ever think that that's bad; just look around at all the wicked, wretched people in this world that still haven't gotten it in the neck. Someone might say, “Well, that's not good well.” It is if you are wicked and just don't recognize it. Maybe you would have gotten it in the neck.
This is a parenthesis in God's time frame, and there is yet another day coming where if you're right God will bless you, and if you're wrong God will judge you, and it can come down harsh.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 3, 2021 1:11:11 GMT -6
“Be not afraid of sudden fear, neither of the desolation of the wicked, when it cometh” (Proverbs 3:25 KJV).
“Be not afraid of sudden fear,” there are some things about fear over in First John:
“Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world [You get in the right relationship with God, you will know God’s boldness in your life]. There is no fear in love [The more your love is perfected toward God—the more you understand Him—the less you will fear]; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love him, because he first loved us” (I John 4:17-19 KJV).
“. . . but perfect love casteth out fear,” you want to perfect your Love for God. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with . . . what? . . . ALL! You have no worries, “Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you” (I Peter 5:7 KJV). Or, as my daughter would say when she was young, “Casting all your carrots on Him, because He has carrots for you!” Jesus said that He would give us rest.
“. . . because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love,” when a saved man is afraid of the elements, and afraid of the circumstances, he just doesn’t understand the Lord yet. He doesn’t realize that “the love of God is shed abroad in his heart,” or “that he will never leave thee, nor forsake thee,” or that “all things work together for good.” When a man begins to realize all that God is doing for him, and has done for them, that love for God begins to become perfect and he loves him with all his heart, and soul, and might. Then he won’t need to worry about anything because he knows that the Lord will take care of it.
God walks in front of us, behind us, and by our sides. Forget Allstate, we are in good hands with God!
“. . . neither of the desolation of the wicked, when it cometh,” it is good to be living with and for the Lord for when the judgment falls, you’ll be in the right place. “And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues” (Revelation 18:4 KJV).
When we are doing right, we’ll be just as safe as Rahab when the walls of Jericho fell. Everybody else was destroyed. Everybody else was wiped out, but Rahab was snug as a bug in a rug. Her house was still standing. She did right. She obeyed God.
“Be not afraid of sudden fear, neither of the desolation of the wicked, when it cometh.”
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 4, 2021 0:48:46 GMT -6
“Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth" (Proverbs 4:5).
“Get wisdom, get understanding.” Sure, get it on your own; but also come to the place where God ordained that folks should assemble and get under the thing that the Bible says is the power of God: Preaching, and “Get wisdom, get understanding.”
“Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not,” that's the danger is it not? Forgetting stuff? One of the things that you'll learn is the more you learn the more you forget. It's just the case. I've had the uncomfortable experience of studying my Bible and memorizing entire epistles that Paul wrote and then forgetting what I had memorized just a few days later despite the fact that I was able to quote the entire book from beginning to end. It is just the way that our brains work. And I had to learn it all over now again, though what once took weeks and months of intense work now only takes a few days.
“Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth.” Do you remember a couple chapters back where it said to incline your ear unto wisdom, to incline yourself towards the word of God (2:2); well the opposite of that is decline. If a room is inclined so that all the water runs to that corner, well it's inclined that way. You ought to incline your heart to a certain direction. At the same time, to decline from the word of God means that you're basically veering in the other direction. Our tendency, if we are not careful, is to always veer away from the word of God. That's what the world does. If it's not openly hostile, what they try to do is just basically veer away from certain subjects. You couldn't get these political candidates to comment particularly on sodomy if you try because they're going to decline to talk about something like that because it's too controversial.
“Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth.” Never go the other way just stick with what came out of God's mouth. Folks, do you have the “words” of God or don't you? Do you realize how sad and how sick it is to quote a verse like that and then say, “Well, it's too bad that we don't have the very words of God anymore because after the originals all we have today are the best representation of them, and you know, no translation is perfect.” Do you understand how crazy it is to say that? After having been given a command like that.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 5, 2021 5:19:29 GMT -6
“And thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed, And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof; And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me! I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly" (Proverbs 5:11-14).
Have you ever really thought about what that means? “I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.” The Bible says that the plowing of the wicked is sin and the sacrifices of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord, so there are people that go to church regularly that lies to them all the time. It’s not a church where they get any truth, there's no light in it, and they are surrounded by Devils and demons and falsehood and false light, and so on. They are sitting there in the middle of a congregation of people who, in words, are worshipping God’s Son, but in the end that sacrifice is an abomination to the Lord. He doesn't hear the prayer of that wickedness. And so, they are “in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.”
They go to church and sin. They go to church and are an abomination to the Lord. They go to church and have fellowship with devils. Isn’t that something? And then after a lifetime of faithful service to that religious organization, and then they die and go to a Christless hell for an eternity of suffering. And for that eternity they will mourn: “How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof; And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me!”
A more frightening scenario I can not possibly think of.
“Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well" (Proverbs 5:15).
The preceding was a bit heavy, so I’ll end this one on a bit of a lighter note.
If you follow this passage on down a little bit you can see that this is an admonition to a husband with regard to his wife and so on, but there's another application: “Drink waters out of thine own cistern.” Did you notice how socialistic God is? You see? God is not for private ownership at all, is He? In order to drink water out of your own cistern, you're supposed to have your own cistern. You’re supposed to have your own stuff. “Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well.” This is speaking of private ownership.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 6, 2021 5:11:14 GMT -6
“A naughty person, a wicked man, walketh with a froward mouth. He winketh with his eyes, he speaketh with his feet, he teacheth with his fingers; Frowardness is in his heart, he deviseth mischief continually; he soweth discord" (Proverbs 6:12-14).
“Frowardness is in his heart, he deviseth mischief continually,” “Mischief” in the Bible is also like that word, “naughty.” Some folks say that the boys are getting into mischief while they are blowing up somebody’s mailbox with a firecracker. No, naughtiness and mischief in the Bible are not cute.
“. . . he deviseth mischief continually; he soweth discord.” Now, that discord sown, of course, is a huge theme in this passage. In verse 14, he sows discord, and then in verse 19 brackets some other things, but the sowing of discord among the brethren; and that sowing of discord is something that started a long, long, time ago that that's what the devil did. The devil sowed discord between Eve and the Lord. That’s all that thing was. Then, the devil sowed discord between Abel and Cain, and that's all that thing was; and then Korah comes along and starts badmouthing Moses, and saying, “You lift yourself up too high above the people of God, we’re all holy, and all this kind of thing. He got all the nobles together and got a group and got the strife on, and that's all that happened. It was just discord. And then here's Miriam and Aaron and their displeased over the fact that Moses married an Ethiopian woman, and they get something going. Miriam winds up with leprosy and would have been thrown out of the camp if Moses had not intervened with God on her behalf. That thing is a cord that runs all the way through the Bible: sowing discord. Anyone can sow discord easily. Tones and inflections are enough sometimes to get major rumors started.
That’s why diplomats and ambassadors of countries have a strict diplomatic language and they can be so aggravating. This is why there are lawyers. Those phrases mean very specific things in a court of law. So, even in private conversation, just a roll of the eye, or a little bit of a wink, or a little bit of a shake of the head at the right time while talking about somebody lets everybody in the circle know that a little bit of something else is going on. And boy, you let a human being get off on thinking what else might be going on and the boulder is rolling then!
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 7, 2021 3:12:25 GMT -6
“And, behold, there met him a woman with the attire of an harlot, and subtil of heart. (She is loud and stubborn; her feet abide not in her house” (Proverbs 7:10-11).
One thing that I’ve never seen work even once, and it is very disturbing. Once in a while you'll run upon a couple, and it's becoming more common, where the woman is out making all the dough and the guys staying home. That never works. There is always something weird about that whole thing. It doesn’t just look weird; it is totally weird. After a while that whole mess works on those two souls, and inside, they're just not normal.
That whole thing is totally wrong, and the reason why it is wrong is because man was made to sweat and work. A man needs to work. The old timers all say that a man needs to work; well, we have an old timer that’s been around a lot longer than the old timers and in Genesis 3, the Lord said a man needs to work. He needs to sweat. If you're not sweating you should go find a place to sweat because you need to work; and if you don't work, you're going to go crazy. If you don't work, you're going become a schizophrenic. You’re going to be bipolar. You're going to be all those other things that people lay on you, and you'll be able to have an excuse and put a sign on your forehead: BIPOLAR. You’ll have an excuse for the rest of your life and some of it is just because you won't get out and bust your rear end.
Ladies, there's a certain satisfaction for you in keeping the kitchen clean and doing necessary things at home; being a keeper at home. That's your domain. Yeah, your husband ought to pick up his socks, and I'll grant you that, and if he can't figure out how to turn the washer on; well, he’s an idiot
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 8, 2021 1:32:44 GMT -6
“My fruit is better than gold, yea, than fine gold; and my revenue than choice silver” (Proverbs 8:19 KJV).
“My fruit,” what you get from believing on Jesus, “is better than gold, yea fine gold.”
“For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” (II Corinthians 4:17 KJV).
Some people are looking for honor down here, well, you had better wait for durable honor. Wait for the kind of honor that will last. Take the sports heroes of twenty years ago, except for a very small number, no one remembers them today. For every Bogart or Cagney, there are a hundred movie stars that no one remembers today. When we go to heaven and receive riches and honor at the hand of Jesus Christ, no one will forget us. We are talking about a durable honor and riches. The fruit of serving our Saviour.
“. . . fine gold,” that is refined gold, the best you can ever get. It’s a fair sight better than 24k gold that people seem to go crazy over here.
“. . . and my revenue than choice silver,” we all know about the internal revenue or as some might refer to it as the infernal revenue, but we have an eternal revenue. Here is the payoff. Yes, whether you are right with God or wrong with God, there is a “payday, someday” –will it be based upon “wood, hay, or stubble” or “gold, silver, precious stones.”
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 9, 2021 1:41:15 GMT -6
“Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars: She hath killed her beasts; she hath mingled her wine; she hath also furnished her table. She hath sent forth her maidens: she crieth upon the highest places of the city, Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither: as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him” (Proverbs 9:1-4).
This wisdom is personified as a woman, and we will see another woman in this chapter that is not so wise. Wisdom is building her house, and in this case, it is a woman and she is building her house and hewing out her seven pillars. I don’t know if anyone knows exactly what those seven pillars of wisdom are. We can certainly know that one of them is that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,” right? We can say that something that's foundational to wisdom is knowledge and understanding, and we can back that up with the Bible. “He that winneth souls is wise,” is a pillar of wisdom; but by the time we add all the wisdom passages together, we have too many pillars, so we’re not exactly sure what the precise pillars are, but we can be sure that God knows what they are.
One thing you can say about wisdom is that she is prepared. She’s well prepared. She has been laid out for a long time, and you can say this, the Lord has laid out a table for you, and there is a lot of preparation that's gone into making you a wiser man, woman, or child.
Verse 2, “She hath killed her beasts; she hath mingled her wine; she hath also furnished her table.” Okay, she's set her table. She is going to feed you. She has mingled her wine. Now, I hope that you know that not all the wine in the Bible is alcoholic wine. I'm certain that a Christian doesn't have any business drinking alcoholic wine.
Wisdom can mingle her wine. It’s not wine that is going to make you drunk, because drunkenness is not very wise. It apparently has to do with taste and all that kind of thing.
“She hath also mingled her table,” so, here's the thing with all this. She's killed her beasts, she’s mingled her wine, and she has furnished her table. The Bible says in First Corinthians 10 that there are two tables. There is the Lord’s table, and there's a table of Devils. Deuteronomy says that there's two rocks. There is the Rock (capital R Rock) which is the Lord, and then there's another rock: the heathen’s rock. Then, there is two kinds of wine. There is the drunk’s wine, and then there is God's wine, right?
What you find here is kind of interesting because in verse 4, you have wisdom crying, right? 9:1, this is wisdom. In verse 4, “Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither.” Well, go down to verse 16 and notice that the context is found in verse 13: “a foolish woman is clamorous: she is simple, and knoweth nothing.” This is a harlot, and who does she call over in verse 16? “Whoso is simple.” So, guess what? The poor simpleton is the target of both of these women: both wisdom and this old harlot.
Okay, verse 4, “Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither,” who is he? “As for him that wanteth understanding,” and go down to verse 16 again, “as for him that wanteth understanding.” Both of these women are crying out for the same simple man who lacks understanding. Well, perhaps we can say that one is praying for, and the other is preying after him. One seeks to defile him even more, and wisdom is trying to get to him to save him.
Okay, so you are the target. The question is which are you going to respond to?
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 10, 2021 4:52:58 GMT -6
“The way of the LORD is strength to the upright: but destruction shall be to the workers of iniquity. The righteous shall never be removed: but the wicked shall not inhabit the earth” (Proverbs 10:29-30 KJV).
“The way of the LORD is strength to the upright,” doing things God’s way will strengthen you: “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might” (Ephesians 6:10 KJV). Perhaps the best biblical definition of this is found in the Book of Philippians: “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Philippians 4:13 KJV).
Everything we do through Jesus Christ strengthens us. Anything He asks you to do you can do through Him—in fact, that is the only way you can do it.
“. . . but destruction shall be to the workers of iniquity,” eternal destruction of Matthew 25.
“The righteous shall never be removed,” that is a solid foundation. A believer may be killed but he can never be removed. We are going to live forever.
“. . . but the wicked shall not inhabit the earth,” Jesus said that it would be “meek” that would inherit the earth. The humble, those that are “yielded to God.” They are going to inherit the earth. Now, the wicked is certainly going to try to take over the world before it’s all over with when they are gathered together under the wicked one, but God will destroy them all in an instant.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 11, 2021 1:43:07 GMT -6
“He that is surety for a stranger shall smart for it: and he that hateth suretiship is sure” (Proverbs 11:15 KJV).
They used to say when someone got hurt, “Wow! That smarts!” That’s where that expression comes from, the King James Bible. “Suretiship” is guaranteeing against loss. Webster’s 1828 says, SU'RETISHIP, n. [from surety.] The state of being surety; the obligation of a person to answer for another, and make good any debt or loss which may occur from another's delinquency.
Any kind of insurance is a guarantee against loss. The verse before us here is speaking of a stranger. In chapter six, a friend is considered. “My son, if thou be surety for thy friend, if thou hast stricken thy hand with a stranger, Thou art snared with the words of thy mouth, thou art taken with the words of thy mouth” (Proverbs 6:1-2 KJV).
That is like co-signing for a note—you guarantee that if the borrower fails to pay—you will pay it. You are putting yourself under an obligation that you may well smart for it. You may have the right attitude, you may want to do something for the Lord, but from a human standpoint, if you lose you are the one that signed the statement. Rejoice in the Lord ever more, and everything works together for good, but you learned—the hard way—but that’s the way it is. There is no more difficult situation you can get into than to work with other people where money is involved. Especially among Christians that are friends. If you want to lose friends fast, get into money situations with them. That is probably the best way to lose your friends.
“He that is surety for a stranger shall smart for it,” a stranger has nothing to lose, he can just walk out on you, and you’ll end up paying the bill. “: and he that hateth suretiship is sure.” The best way to do it is just don’t do it.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 12, 2021 1:51:43 GMT -6
“The thoughts of the righteous are right: but the counsels of the wicked are deceit. (Proverbs 12:5).
“That ye put off concerning the former conversation [that is your lifestyle] the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts [that is what's going on inside]; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind” (Ephesians 4:22-23).
You can't do that with anything but the word of God, or the application of the word of God.
There is a lot that passes for mental illness that is actually nothing more than a spiritual problem, and it can be solved by being born again. But being born again doesn't fix it all. Just because you are saved doesn’t fix your character.
That is the basic problem with the guys that are in prison. They get saved and they're just as saved as any born again Christian, but the problem is that they have deeper character ruts than folks that have never been in trouble with the law. Just because you got saved doesn't change your character, and part of character is the way you think. That has to change. That's why salvation doesn't fix everything down here. Sure, it fixes it all for heaven, but the reason the Lord left us here was so that we would be transformed into the image of his son, and not conformed to the things down here. Its character, and a lot of it is hard work.
“Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him” (Colossians 3:9-10).
That’s a renewed mind; it’s a renewed heart, and it’s renewed in knowledge.
All this started with, “the thoughts of the righteous are right.” Everybody reading this knows that all your thoughts are not right, and that's because there is an unrighteous guy inside of you, alongside of the righteous one. And he is thinking stuff too. When you have an unrighteous thought, at least you know which guy was thinking it, right?
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 13, 2021 2:21:12 GMT -6
“Every prudent man dealeth with knowledge: but a fool layeth open his folly” (Proverbs 13:16).
“Every prudent man dealeth with knowledge,” he doesn’t avoid it, he takes hold of responsibility and he is reasonable. He is cautious, he is careful, he is prudent. He deals with knowledge and does what he has to do. He finds out that he is a lost sinner, and he deals with it. So many times, people are exposed to this truth and they just don’t want to deal with it. They say, “Later! I don’t want to deal with it now, I have too much to do!” That is crazy. What a man does right now will determine what happens to him later—and certainly even one more second is not guaranteed to any man. Hell is filled with, “If only I’s.”
“. . . but a fool layeth open his folly,” he comes up with all his reasons why God is surely not speaking of him. He has all of his excuses at the ready. “I’m a good man,” “I go to such-and-such church,” “I give money to charities,” you name it—they have their substitutes for God’s grace and the Blood of Christ ready. “I was baptized,” or “I am an American and America is a Christian nation.”
Excuses are folly! Excuses will be of no help in the day of judgment. Excuses will not avail on the day that the books are opened and a vain search is made for their names in the Book of Life. Excuses will be no good on the shore of the Lake of Fire.
The man that will put off the day of his salvation when he understands his need and has the knowledge of salvation lays open his folly, and only shows his foolishness.
The saddest verse in the Bible is, “And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:15).
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 14, 2021 2:28:09 GMT -6
“Where no oxen are, the crib is clean: but much increase is by the strength of the ox” (Proverbs 14:4).
“Where no oxen are, the crib is clean,” that is a true statement, and somewhat humorous. What else could it be if there is no animal taking up residence? You can also go into a house where there are no kids and there’s a real good chance that it will be tidy. There won’t be toys scattered all over the place, and everything should be in its proper place.
“. . . but much increase is by the strength of the ox,” truth be told, I think we’d rather have the dirty crib then not to have the increase that the ox provides. If you are a farmer, you don’t want to have a clean barn—you want to have the oxen, or other animals, to provide for you and to make you a living.
The principle of capitalism is that you have to invest in an ox, and to provide for the food and the fodder that it needs, to have the results that the ox can provide. The principle hasn’t really changed from Old Testament times, the farmers just invest in a four-wheeled ox called a John Deere and they till their farm. It does the same job, just a whole lot faster and more productive.
Saving and investing are pillars of a capitalistic and prosperous economy. To buy an ox, a farmer denies himself short-term pleasures to accumulate the needed funds: this is saving. Then he must spend those saved funds for an ox that eats much feed every day and is expensive to maintain: this is investing. Wisdom loves saving and investing.
By saving some of his own production, the farmer created capital; by investing it in better means of production, he has converted his capital to income-producing assets. Invested capital will bring wealth, which creates more capital and investment, which leads to even greater wealth. Much increase is by the strength of the ox! Thank you, Solomon!
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 15, 2021 2:10:44 GMT -6
“The LORD will destroy the house of the proud: but he will establish the border of the widow” (Proverbs 15:25).
“The LORD will destroy the house of the proud,” that’s the Devil’s house, he has been proud since the beginning. Haman was proud, God destroyed his house. Ahab was proud, God destroyed his house. God will destroy the house of the proud.
“. . . but he will establish the border of the widow,” the border is the outer edge of the property that the widow owns. God took care of the widow in the Old Testament, and He takes care of the widow in the New Testament. “He doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loveth the stranger, in giving him food and raiment” (Deuteronomy 10:18).
One widow God took care of in the Old Testament was Naomi, who He took care of by Ruth. He took care of the widow of Zarephath through Elijah. In the New Testament in First Timothy chapter 5 he made provisions for those widows that were widows indeed. They are to be taken care of by the church. If a woman did not fit the qualifications, she was to be cared for by her family.
A true widow is a lady that is past the age of 60 and has no other form of income who is not only a member of the local church, but a faithful member.
“Honour widows that are widows indeed. But if any widow have children or nephews, let them learn first to shew piety at home, and to requite their parents: for that is good and acceptable before God. Now she that is a widow indeed, and desolate, trusteth in God, and continueth in supplications and prayers night and day” (I Timothy 5:3-5).
So, God takes care of the widow, and He establishes the border of the widow—her inheritance.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 16, 2021 1:37:06 GMT -6
“He shutteth his eyes to devise froward things: moving his lips he bringeth evil to pass” (Proverbs 16:30).
“He shutteth his eyes to devise froward things,” well, spiritually speaking, he shuts his eyes to the truth. It isn’t speaking about that specifically, its talking about dreaming, imagining, devising evil plans. It was so bad in the days of Noah that the imaginations of men’s heart were continually evil. The heart will make them up, you can just think up the most wicked things imaginable, the most ungodly things, the most selfish things. Who knows how many horrible mass murders have been played out in some men’s minds? Thank God they never acted upon them.
“. . . moving his lips he bringeth evil to pass,” he thinks about it and then he talks about it. Back in verse 28 we read that “a whisperer separateth chief friends. He does that with his mouth.
This proverb is connected to the one before it that reads this way: “A violent man enticeth his neighbour, and leadeth him into the way that is not good.” These violent men abuse others personally or morally by persuading them into actions that are wicked.
Even the thought of foolishness is sin, and every sin begins in the heart and mind. Wicked men block out any advice or warnings against their lives in order to focus on their plans to seduce and harm others in their lust for sinful pleasures.
What are froward things? Anything that is contrary to what is right or reasonable, things that are bad, wrong, or perverse. The sinful desires and conduct of natural men without the fear of the Lord are always froward. They are always perverting God’s way on earth.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 17, 2021 0:54:37 GMT -6
“Whoso rewardeth evil for good, evil shall not depart from his house” (Proverbs 17:13).
“Whoso rewardeth evil for good,” you do somebody good, and they turn around and stab you in the back. A good example is Saul and David. David did good, and delivered the armies of Saul by slaying Goliath—he did it for the Lord, he did it for the king, and he did it for the nation—but how did Saul respond? He because zealous of David’s instant popularity. David was subservient to Saul, and what did the king do, he rewarded him with evil. “And the women answered one another as they played, and said, Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands . . . And Saul eyed David from that day and forward” (1 Samuel 18:7, 9).
Evil did not depart from Saul’s house until the day of his and Jonathan’s death.
There are two lessons here. First, you should soberly consider all those that have treated you well in your life. Have you honored them? Have you kindly rewarded their goodness? Second, you should consider those that have despised your goodness. Do not contemplate personal vengeance. God will grind them for you, and the Lord grinds best.
If a man allows sin to pull him in and drag him down, he’ll get to the point where he can’t enjoy right things. The only thing that he will enjoy in this life is misery. He’ll enjoy misery and he’ll enjoy making other people miserable. “Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them” (Romans 1:32 KJV).
That is the end of a person, when they just allow themselves to indulge in the path of the wicked and the way of sin—they get to the point where they just can’t live without it. They are so tainted, and so wicked, that they can’t sleep, except they are doing mischief.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 18, 2021 2:30:01 GMT -6
“The poor useth intreaties; but the rich answereth roughly. A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother” (Proverbs 18:23-24).
verse 24, “A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly.” How have we always read that? If you want to make friends you have to be friendly. Well, that is not what this says. It says that a man “hath friends.” He already has friends and “must shew himself friendly,” that is, a man with friends has responsibilities towards his friends. Sometimes folks lose friends because they do not uphold their end of the responsibility. I know we always think of friendly as being smiley and slobbery and gooey and huggy and stuff. Well, “a man that hath friends must shew himself friendly.” How is a man with friends supposed to act? Friendly. It does not mean he is just nice all the time and goes around hugging folks. Right?
“. . . there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother,” so, define friendly. Well, how about this. Do you stick close to your friend, or are you willing to cast him under the bus if he offends you one more time? See, a man that has friends has a responsibility, and that responsibility is to be friendly. Right? I know that we often interpret friendly to be something kind of soft, but it is not like that.
Let me ask you a few questions. Are you easily reconciled? A man that have friends will get crossed up with some of those friends somewhere along the way. Right? Are you easily reconciled? Is it easy to reconcile with you? “A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly,” now maybe he should be nice and friendly if he wants to make friends too. I understand that, but this guy already has friends. Sometimes folks forget that your responsibility to those friends is to be objective with your them. Will you search out a neighbor, like verse 17 said? Your friend comes to you and tells you, “Man, I am ready to quit my job! That boss of mine has spoken to me for the last time like that! By the way, I think I am going to go to his house and beat him up.”
Are you somebody that will step in the gap and actually search your friend out, and bring him back to their senses? Sometimes a friend has to be calmed down. Sometimes a friend is going to do something stupid and sorely needs your help to convince him not to do it.
“A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity” (Proverbs 17:17).
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 19, 2021 3:04:22 GMT -6
“He that wasteth his father, and chaseth away his mother, is a son that causeth shame, and bringeth reproach” (Proverbs 19:26).
We know what it means to “waste,” and the best example in Scripture for this is the Prodigal son. He wasted all the father had given him. He went out there and lost all of his money, and brought reproach down upon himself. Fortunate for him was that he had a father that love him more than he hated the shame and the reproach—and restored him to the family.
We read of a blind man in John 9. In that case, in a sense, the boy had brought shame upon the family and they were more ashamed of him than they were concerned about him. As a result, they wouldn’t help him. They turned their back upon him. Then the boy got right, and the religious people wouldn’t accept him. Not the old man and his prodigal son—he was more concerned about the boy.
That is how it is between a man and God. We have nothing to offer God, in fact, as sinners we are a shame to Him. But thank God He will welcome us with open arms into His family when we recognize our need and come to Him for forgiveness. The reason that God will welcome us is because of what is in us that is redeemable—it certainly isn’t our flesh—but the image of God. God will redeem His image which is in us.
Because of the potential to bring Him glory through that image, the love of God is there. The redeemable image that Adam lost, is in the potential of a man when he is saved. God restores the image of Jesus Christ in the Spirit. And that Spirit serves the Law of God, is born of God, and never sins; and that brings glory to God.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 20, 2021 1:17:29 GMT -6
“Man's goings are of the LORD; how can a man then understand his own way?” (Proverbs 20:24).
This passage is so deep that a simple devotion could never cover it. It is rather a companion to this: “A man's heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps” (Proverbs 16:9). According to the way a man thinks, God will direct his paths. If a man thinks right, God will direct him in the way of righteousness and to good people; but if his thoughts are wicked, God will run him by the wrong people—companions of fools. Jeremiah 17 says that God will give to every man according to his [man’s] ways.
If you want right, God will give you right—but if you want wrong, God will make it possible for you to destroy yourself with the wrong. This is why a man cannot understand his own way. An unsaved man simply does not realize that God is involved with his life. He doesn’t understand where he came from or where he is going. He cannot understand any of it without a revelation of God, though he probably has a Bible sitting right there on his coffee table or bookshelf. It is like medicine; you have to use it to be helped by it.
If you are saved, can you honestly say that you understood yourself before you got saved? No. It was all trial and error, and everything was by chance. But after you were saved and you got into the Word of God then you began to see God’s hand on your life and how He has directed you along the way, even when you were lost. You begin to see who you really are. And God begins to reveal to you His plan for your life.
The prudent understand his way, that is, God’s way. A fool’s deceitful heart causes him to revel in his ignorance. They follow their heart instead of following the Bible, therefore they don’t understand even the simplest things. The wise man seeks God’s way, and not his own way. With the foolish man, it is not so:
“All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the LORD weigheth the spirits” (Proverbs 16:2).
|
|