What Voice Do We Hear?
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Stay Home?
Stay Home?
Go Out?
Go Out?
Open?
Open?
Wait?
Wait?
Which Camp Are you In?
Which Camp Are you In?
The World says you must pick a side
Does the Bible Speak to our Current Circumstances?
Does the Bible Speak to our Current Circumstances?
Wisdom Literature
Wisdom Literature
King Solomon was the son of King David
He walked in the ways of God and that pleased God
He sacrificed to God and lived for God in the way his father David taught him
One evening God appeared to Solomon and said “Ask for whatever you want me to give you.” 1 Kings 3:5
Solomon didn’t ask for wealth, fame or longevity
He ask for wisdom
It is said that he was given Godly wisdom unlike any man up to that point and that there will never be another man as wise as Solomon was
In fact people would come from all over the known world for advice from him
The book of proverbs is a book in your Bible that dispenses some of this wisdom
Most of it is credited to King Solomon
Its wisdom is sound and applicable today
I think we should seek Godly wisdom especially today
There is no shortage of questions, experts, and opinions out there today
People, even with the best of intentions, And we should always assume the best of intentions unless we have overwhelming evidence to the contrary,
Often substitute wisdom for a talking point, or headline, or agenda
Today, I want to consider some wisdom from Proverbs
Sometimes several verses or chapters of Proverbs will have an overarching theme
Sometimes the point will be made redundantly, or poetically and sometimes with literary devices like chiasmus or parallelism
The section I want to look at today doesn’t have a theme but it does have a structure; parallelism
We’ll look at 7 verses and find application to our current situation
Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord,
but those who act faithfully are his delight.
Lying was all too common in King Solomon’s day
It is alive and well in our time too
A lie is the opposite of truth
But perhaps the greatest lie is a lie that comes close to the truth; an almost truth
Those are the most believable kind of lies
Nonetheless they still are lies and detestable to God who is truth
To act faithfully, however, is to act in a loyal manner to a God who is truth
A prudent man conceals knowledge,
but the heart of fools proclaims folly.
To act prudently is to act in a way that shows forethought and care for the future
A prudent man doesn’t feel the need to stand on a soap box and proclaim to the world how smart he is
He keeps this knowledge to himself, not in a selfish way, the knowledge is there for anyone willing to observe it
On the other hand, the heart of the fool proclaims folly or foolishness
Some translations say “the fools heart blurts out folly”
That is foolishness is often the loudest voice in the room
Or the most popular on the TV
It could be the best looking
But the fool is all too proud to tell you what you ought to do
Sometimes its hard to hear the prudent over the foolish
The hand of the diligent will rule,
while the slothful will be put to forced labor.
To be diligent is to show care and conscientiousness in your work
The diligent become rulers not because they become the boss
But they work diligently because they care about what the work provides
It provides freedom;
The slothful or lazy on the other hand is forced into labor or strenuous work
Not necessarily hard work but work you don’t want to do
EX a person that grows their own food works diligently; They have freedom to rule over that aspect of their life as compared to someone that may be slothful by comparison has to subject themselves to the grocery store; store hours, stock etc...
Their work allows them a certain rulership over that aspect of their life
Humans are made to work; working diligently produces a certain kind of freedom
Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs him down,
but a good word makes him glad.
Uncertain outcomes produce anxiety
We were one of the most anxious nations before the COVID 19 outbreak
It is through the roof now that we have added another for of uncertainty
To be glad is to be delighted or pleased
In this context the good word that makes him glad must be a word of assurance
Christian, we have eternal assurance
This world and everything in it is temporal and ever changing
God is not
He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow
We can have assurance of our future, not necessarily the immediate future, but the forever future
Because God said so
That makes us glad
One who is righteous is a guide to his neighbor,
but the way of the wicked leads them astray.
The quite, prudent, wise person leads his neighbor mostly through his actions
Fear breads more fear
To produce waves in a lake you need to move something across the water; like a boat
To calm the lake you need something unmoved by the waves; like a pier, or wall
The righteous guide to righteousness
The wicked guide to wickedness
We are reminded that in a nation that is concerned with being led left or right we ought to be concerned with being led up or down
Whoever is slothful will not roast his game,
but the diligent man will get precious wealth.
The idea here is that the slothful or lazy will not have caught any game to roast
Or that the slothful are too lazy to feed themselves
But the diligent will gain wealth; or an abundance
Enough for more than just himself
In the path of righteousness is life,
and in its pathway there is no death.
The path of the righteous leads to life with no death
Now King Solomon did not know Jesus
Perhaps that is why he went on to write Ecclesiastes where he talks about the vanity of life and how hard it is to obtain perfection
The path to righteousness is impossible for us to traverse
But Jesus did
And because He did,
In the sight of God, we did
Consider The Voices You Are Hearing
Consider The Voices You Are Hearing
Are you seeking wisdom
Or hearing folly
Amen! Amen!
Amen! Amen!