A Difficult Choice

Proverbs 9:4 (BES) Whoso is foolish, let him turn aside to me: and to them that want understanding she says,

The LXX here uses “foolish” compared to the “naive” of the NASB and the “simple” of the KJV.  It is a condition that most of us suffer from when we’re talking about the wisdom of God.

What struck me here is the fact that in our present condition, whichever of these words you choose, we still have to make decisions.  Further down in the chapter you have evil making the same invitation.  Again, the choice is offered to people.  One of the things that I noticed reading in the Old Testament is this matter of choice is very clear.  Contrary to the understanding that we have in some traditional theology, we have choices.  We decide which way we want to go.  God responds to our decision, but He doesn’t force it on us.

So?  Choices start in every day decisions.  Our motivation and our priorities decide which way we go.  Ultimately we have to decide and make a choice on whether we are going to respond to the offer salvation found in Jesus Christ.  God’s grace is waiting for our decision.  

Another Chicken or Egg Question

(Pro 22:14 KJV)  The mouth of strange women is a deep pit: he that is abhorred of the LORD shall fall therein.

Here is where my presuppositions settle into my interpretations.  Reading this simply and in isolation one would get the idea that the only people who fall into sin are those whom God has already written off.  In this thinking God becomes the cause of your sin.  He has abandoned you.  He has left you to fall into the pit.

I think that is skipping a significant part of the reality.  The Psalms and Proverbs are full of descriptions of people who have made the decision to either pursue evil or seek righteousness.  One does his own thing.  The other seeks to obey God.  In some theology God is the one who decides which way you go.  In my understanding God responds to the desire of your heart.  He makes it possible for you to respond correctly.  The choice is yours.  

So?  Yes.  He that is abhorred by God will fall into the pit but before you go too far down that path repeat to yourself John 3:16.  Once you reject Him you fall into this category.  

Reach Out

(Pro 8:34 NAS77) "Blessed is the man who listens to me, Watching daily at my gates, Waiting at my doorposts.

The Living Bible phrases this in an interesting way.  For doorposts it says, “waits for me outside my home!”  

As an introvert I am generally willing to let people come to me.  I can handle social contact when it confronts me but I would rather sit in my Lazy Boy with a good book.  As much as I try to get myself to reach out I find it very hard to pick up the telephone.  In my daily social activities it is just a blip of my personality.

In relation to God we need to overcome this.  While it is true that God reaches out to us and sent His Son to die for us there is still an aspect of growing that requires us to seek His face, or as it says here, His doorpost.

So?  I know it gets monotonous but this needs to be a daily priority.  Notice the word “daily”.  That is not just filler.  

House Keepers

(Psa 113:9 KJV)  He maketh the barren woman to keep house, and to be a joyful mother of children. Praise ye the LORD.

When I see statements or promises like this I have to scratch my head because it doesn’t seem to match what I see.  First of all, if God makes them fertile and gives them children they are not barren.  Secondly, is there a reason why God has made them barren?

We all know people who have no children.  Many make that choice.  Some choose it because they want to live Mercedes level rather than dented fender mode.  They want the finer things of life.  Culture has even invented the DINK title, “double income, no kids”.  Some choose it because they are going to Libya as missionaries and don’t think kids fit into the danger.  Those are explainable.

What about the people who claim to want children but it isn’t happening.  Is God drying up their wombs?  Why?  Obviously on the individual level we cannot proclaim great authority but as a generalization I have a theory.  I wonder if God keeps some women childless because He knows that their career is going to trump children and family.

So?  I believe God has a reason for the things He does.  We will often have no idea but He sees the deeper picture and fits it into His plan for the universe and you.  Keep trusting.  Keep growing.  He is still God.  

Make Them Count

Psalm 90:12 (KJV) So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.

(Proverbs 10 also read)

How do you number your days?  To know that you would need to know how long you’re going to live.  A few verses before this, it tells us that 70 years would be normal and that if we’re strong 80 years would be seen.  That gives us a place to start.  For people like me that are 78 years old that doesn’t give a lot of time to do any planning.

The point isn’t how much time do you have before Jesus calls you home.  The point is what are you going to do with the time you have.  Are you going to be conscientious?  Are you going to redeem the time as it says somewhere?

It also tells us that in a sense God is going to be waiting for us to present Him with the results of our counting.

So?  Make every day count.  I need to hear that, especially at times when I am feeling a bit of sloth, creeping into my soul.  

Step One

Genesis 1:1 (KJV) In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

(Proverbs 24 also read)

This is the first verse that came to mind as I was hovering over my coffee and inhaling.  It was a bit dark so I could not see the horizon but the inner light was adequate for seeing.

This is where it all starts.  This is the dividing line between creation and evolution.  It is where real science and the modern cult of scientism part ways.  It is the attitude of historians that makes it possible to put the puzzle together or not.

So?  Start at the beginning.  If you don’t get this step right it is hard to make it to the next one.  It is like making your morning coffee without any coffee.  

Detour

Proverbs 22:5 (KJV) Thorns and snares are in the way of the froward: he that doth keep his soul shall be far from them.

Life is full of traps. Most of us know not to go looking for trouble. Such advice as, “Don’t go down dark alleys” should be common sense. Too often we tend to think we are smarter than the average bear and such advice does not apply to us. I predict a future of thorns and snares for such clever people.

On the other hand there is a promise here. Stay away from things that have an evil smell or appearance. It really begins that basically. If you do that then the traps of life will be on a road you do not follow.

So? Does this guarantee that you will never face a temptation? I don’t think so but it is clear that living in thoughtful righteousness can keep us away from most tragedy.

Priority

Proverbs 8:17 (KJV) I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me.

I first read this in the NASB which says to “seek diligently”.  I found myself again wondering how that relates to “early” in the KJV.  The general idea is that when you get up and get started, that is when you seek God, not when the day is over or when you’re in the middle of trouble.  It brings to mind a New Testament scripture,

(Mat 6:33 KJV)  But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

I think this is about priorities.  It tells us what our priorities should be in planning our day.  It’s not saying that you can’t find God if you wait until the crisis, or until you’re tired, or in the midst of chaos, but it is pointing out that the best way to know who God is, and what that means for your life, is to seek Him first.

So?  Start your day with a good spiritual breakfast.  Think in terms of tangents and vectors.  A small variation at the beginning of a line can make a massive difference when it arrives on target.

Putting It All in Perspective

Proverbs 28:5 (KJV) Evil men understand not judgment: but they that seek the LORD understand all things.

We like to find categories such as wisdom, the law and righteousness.  We like terms and theological concepts, such as grace and justification.  Most of these concepts get watered down and lose their meeting when we start trying to deal with the world around us.  That’s because we forget what our real focus and our real target should be.

Notice here our understanding is dependent upon us seeking the Lord.  I haven’t looked at the Hebrew tenses and I’m not that good at Hebrew, but I have a feeling that this concept here is a continual, ongoing, unrelenting seeking of the Lord.  When we have a situation that we do not understand, when we have to make a judgment, if we’re just going on our college classes or our articles of faith, we are doomed to failure.  Everything is to be based on us continually seeking the Lord.

So?  There are the subjective aspects of the seeking such as prayer and meditation.  There’s more important the objective foundations of the seeking in the word of God and our study of the word.  Seek God on all fronts and He will grant us understanding.  

Heart Unity

Psalms 86:11 (KJV) Teach me thy way, O LORD; I will walk in thy truth: unite my heart to fear thy name.

(Proverbs 10 also read)

That phrase “unite my heart” resounds within me.  My first thought was that it had the idea of gathering all the parts and assembling them into a unit.  When I looked at the usage of the word, I found a bit different idea.  It’s only occurring three times in the OT.

It has more of the idea of uniting us with God or having us join a group than doing something within us.  So when David calls to have his heart united, he is calling to become closer and more obedient to the God of his fathers.  That involves fear.  That involves walking.  That involves truth which must be taught.

So?  This could almost be a daily prayer.  It could also be a prayer of times of great turmoil.  Either way it still resounds.  

Being a Know It All

Proverbs 30:18 (KJV) There be three things which are too wonderful for me, yea, four which I know not:

If you look at the things listed in the next verse, we in modern times can explain at least the first two.  We know about Bernoulli’s principal and how an airplane flies, let alone a bird.  If you’ve seen scientific videos, you’ve watched the underside of a snake as it slither across the surface.  Knowledge is a wonderful thing to have.  We can assume that as time goes on that more knowledge will be available.  Will all the knowledge be worth investing the time in to learn?  I doubt it.  I really don’t need a catalog of all the different shapes of snowflakes that have fallen in the history of the world.

The point here. though. is that it is better to have wisdom than just knowledge.  Another point that you could infer from this is that it is better to be an ancient without certain knowledge and know the principles of God then to be a modern scientist living in arrogance, or for that matter a theologian.

So?  Research the things of God.  Know His principles.  Know Him.  You will be better off than Solomon, even though Solomon did not write this Proverb. 

Count Your Strings

Psalms 33:2 (KJV) Praise the LORD with harp: sing unto him with the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings.

(Proverbs 11 also read)

As I read over this verse, my mind went down one of its rabbit trails.  I noticed that this Psalm specifically mentions 10 strings.  Is that divinely inspired and are we supposed to make a sermon based on that?  What about an instrument with nine strings?  11 strings?  My guitar only has six strings.  Can I use it or not?  It’s easy to get off on these tangents.  I think of a denomination that does not use any kind of instruments in their worship because all references to instruments are in the Old Testament and we are now in the new covenant.  They sang beautiful.  I don’t know what their theology is, but I would welcome them as part of the family of God.  They are straining after gnats and swallowing camels.

I recently started watching a video of a guy who was going to make an entire speech on 153 fish the disciples caught.  I listen for a few minutes, and then I realized that perhaps the time would be spent better in looking at the gifts of the spirit, the fruit of the spirit, what it means to love your neighbor, and so forth.

So?  We can get so caught up in meaningless details.  When you read the Bible, God has something to say to you and I don’t think it has to do with how many strings your guitar has.  I could be wrong, but I don’t think so.  

Running on Empty

Proverbs 30:8 (KJV) Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me:

These couple of verses are really powerful as a basis for our prayer requests.  We spent so much time on long list of concerns or desires.  We pray for friends and relatives.  We pray for the nation.  All that is good, but there’s a basis that we need to start with and that’s found here.

The first thing mentions here in the KV is “vanity”.  Other translations use words that have to do with deception and lies.  The basic idea behind it is emptiness.  A lie can be a statement of truth that has no truth.  Deception is giving the appearance of something that is not shown.  This is a basic call to honesty.  It’s a call for us to rely on truth and reality and not just what we want.

So?  Make it a request maybe each morning.  Make it a conscious desire of your life.  Strive to get rid of the emptiness of vanity and fill your life with the substance of truth.  Of course the place to start with that is in reading your Bible and seeing what God has to say about life.  

Focal Point

Proverbs 17:24 (KJV) Wisdom is before him that hath understanding; but the eyes of a fool are in the ends of the earth.

(I almost missed today.)

 One of the jokes that stands out in my mind is the wise man, who said that he and his wife have an understanding that he deals with the big things in life, and she deals with the small things.  He then goes on to explain that he’s in charge of the national debt, world peace, and the space program.  Just about everything else is hers.

Sometimes we make our lives along the lines of this joke.  We spent so much time focusing on things that we I have no control over.  We worry about the Middle East.  We worry about corruption in government.  We worry about things that in which we have no say.  Oh, that’s OK to be concerned about those things but not to get eaten up by them.

Our focus needs to be on those things which are right before us.  That involves our family budget not the spending of the United States.  It involves being kind to our neighbors and not worrying about whether Israel and its neighbors get along.  It’s about applying the love chapter in our daily walk, rather than worrying about whether the rapture is pre-millennial or post millennial.

So?  Listen to what God has to say to you today.  Read.  Contemplate.  Listen.  Live in Joy.  

Plan for the Day

(Pro 7:8 KJV)  Passing through the street near her corner; and he went the way to her house,

If you look through this chapter in Proverbs, you see the story of a young man who is seduced by a married woman whose husband is out of town, and the end of the story is that his soul is lost to hell.  At least that is a common way of reading it and interpreting it.  I will grant you that parts of this are true and accurate.

The woman was out looking for some action.  It is clear that she knows her husband is going to be gone for a while and that she has a clear field for her operation.  She is out on the prowl.  That much is clear.  She has her house all set up for a night of wild abandon, and she is ready to go.  All she needs is someone to fill the role of seduced.

Enter the young man.  Some might think that he is the innocent victim.  In a sense he is a victim because if he had found no one to fill the spot in his soul, he would have gone home frustrated.  However, this verse tells us that he took the path to her house.  I guess it’s possible that this was just a coincidence.  It may have been an accident.  Or maybe it wasn’t.

We can’t know for sure with him.  We can know for sure with us.  We can know what our ultimate goal is for the day.  We can know that certain pathways will not get us to our goal if our goal is righteous.  We can know that certain behaviors will make it impossible to reach a goal of righteousness.

So?  What is your goal for the day?  Where do you want to be when the sun goes down?  Do you have a choice of paths?  Choose prayerfully.  Choose wisely . Choose with eternity in mind. 

One Way

Proverbs 1:31 (KJV) Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.

Remember the gesture we used to make meaning “one way”?  Remember watching Billy Graham riding in a parade and holding up that index finger signifying, “one way”?  It was a glorious moment.  It meant the Jesus was the only way.  Unfortunately it was not something that the entire population adopted.  Tragically it wasn’t even something that the entire church adopted.

Notice the one way that the general population and the majority of Christians choose to follow.  It is called “their own way”.  There may be brief times where it seems to follow the path that God has laid out, but ultimately it branches off, and does its own thing.  It may even be so close to the actual “way” that you can’t tell the difference with a casual glance.  That is where you would look to the other verses in this chapter and get clarification.

So?  Are you walking in your way or His way?  Don’t settle for second best.  It is almost never too late to get on the right path.  I would say never too late, but I’m afraid I read the verses before this. 

I Don’t Like This Comparison

Proverbs 15:19 (KJV) The way of the slothful man is as an hedge of thorns: but the way of the righteous is made plain.

But then God isn’t asking me if I like it.  He’s just telling me what it is.  This entire chapter of Proverbs is contrasting different types of people.  I have no trouble when it contrasts the upright with the wicked, but here it gets really personal.  This says that the person who takes too many naps is contrasted with the righteous.

Of course, the question comes down to my paraphrasing.  Is sloth the same as too many naps?  And then we get into sophistry.  How many is too many?  Do you know the old question rewritten, “How many naps can dance on the head of a pin?”

But the real conflict is not established by how many part-time jobs you have in the afternoon or whether you keep your yard up perfectly.  The conflict is the one between the person who is following God’s path or taking the side trail that is less demanding and leaves more time for “personal fulfillment”.

So?  It’s never too late to stop and examine your priorities and your schedule.  What do they reflect?  Sloth or righteousness? 

Trash Talk

Proverbs 15:14 (KJV) The heart of him that hath understanding seeketh knowledge: but the mouth of fools feedeth on foolishness.

I like good adventure stories.  One genre that fits that is solid science fiction.  Westerns also qualify.  I can also enjoy spy novels and mysteries if they’re well written, and are not woke.  That last part is one of the key issues.  The main problem with all of these types of reading is that they usually don’t give you anything worth remembering.  They are escape.

Often what we read, even if it’s news, becomes escape because we aren’t serious about finding real truth.  Double that for things that we listen to.  I recently listened to an hour long discussion and the theme was the danger of dispensationalism.  They continually talked about the danger, and the tragedy brought about by this theological system, but they never got down to explaining in reality why it was so dangerous.  I invested my time with their conversation, but for me it was mush.  That’s why when I read the NLT, it jumped out at me with the final word,

Proverbs 15:14 (NLT) A wise person is hungry for knowledge, while the fool feeds on trash,

So?  If you have a desire, and again, I say “if”, to be wise rather than foolish, then spend your time feeding your mind and your heart with that which is not trash.  It can be done.  It just takes a little bit of focus and concentration. 

Biggest Sale Ever

Proverbs 8:34 (KJV) Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors.

One of the uses of paraphrases like the NLT is that the surprising way of putting things can catch your attention and make you think.  This verse got me today.

Proverbs 8:34 (NLT) Joyful are those who listen to me, watching for me daily at my gates, waiting for me outside my home!

As I contemplated this verse and tried to think of situations where we would make a priority of standing and waiting, my mind went to Black Friday.

I must confess that I have never gone out early in the morning on Black Friday and searched for great deals.  There are no bargains that are worth me sacrificing my dignity and personal safety by standing in a mass of people who are willing to shove, push, step on you and many other unsocial behaviors in order to get the first TV off the pile.  I cannot identify with that.

However, it is an attitude that would be good for us if we could adopt it when it comes to learning the truth of God.  You might not need to stand in line and push and shove.  It might require simply getting up an hour early, find a quiet corner and opening your mind of God.

So?  I’m not looking for guilt trips.  I’m just suggesting that we often find what we’re really looking for.  Just as you always seem to have time for what you want to do but not time to do the chores your wife has for you.  You’ll have more chance of hearing God’s voice if you’re actively listening. 

The Big Robbery

Proverbs 1:19 (KJV) So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; which taketh away the life of the owners thereof.

This month I am reading Proverbs from the New Living Translation (NLT).  First a disclaimer. I am not a big fan of the NLT.  I don’t consider it a translation, it is a paraphrase.  If it admitted it was a paraphrase, I might find a use for it more often, but I don’t like hiding behind phony titles.  That being said, it did have an interesting paraphrase of this verse,

Proverbs 1:19 (NLT) Such is the fate of all who are greedy for money; it robs them of life.

Focusing on the financial aspect of life as your main motivation, robs you of real life.  I like the use of that word, “robs”.

Again note that this is not saying that money is the root of all evil, it is the priority of money, not the quantity.

So?  What is the love of your life?  What is your number one priority?  What makes everything else get in the backseat?  If you could answer that honestly, you may be on the road to revival.