Proverbs 16

This chapter begins and ends with a discussion about free will with an extra comment thrown in for good measure in the middle:

• To man belong the plans of the heart, but from the LORD comes the reply of the tongue. (Proverbs 16:1)
• In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps. (Proverbs 16:9)
• The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD. (Proverbs 16:33)
  

We are explicitly told three times that God is in control. But, then why is it such a mess down here? Verse 4 says that God works everything for his own ends, even when it appears otherwise (i.e., the wicked will get their due justice in the end). So is that it? For some things God just hasn't gotten a "round to it"? I don't know if that is quite fair; I have no concept of the complexity of the score that God is orchestrating. It is frustrating none the less.

We are told "Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed." (Proverbs 16:3) This seems straight forward enough, but there is a spiritual catch: even though the sentence is written as a conditional statement (e.g., if A then B) it is actually a logistic tautology (i.e., a statement that is always true). Why do I say this? Well, by committing what you do to the Lord, you are committing yourself to his will. Once 100% committed to his will, you will not devise plans that go against his will. And finally, we're back at verse 4 with God's will always being served in the end.

So it's easy right: if we simply align our will with God's will our plans will always be successful. But I don't always know God's will! I am often bumbling around in the dark. And when God's will is filled with pain and suffering on my part (or even worse my family and friend's part), how easy is it for me to align myself with his will. That's the rub right? It sounds so nice and peaceful: "Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven". But God's will is rough! Look at what he asked of his son. Or of what He asked of Paul, of Peter, of John, of all those who loved him dearly; they all knew the "fellowship of sharing in his[Christ's] sufferings" (Philippians 3:10).

So we must take comfort in knowing that God's will will be served in the end and that his will is good for all (including me). We take this on faith. But, when "faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see" (Hebrews 11:1) we will often find ourselves standing in a sea of tangible evidence to the contrary!

So where am I going with all of this? I don't really know :) I guess that I am wrestling with some of my oldest spiritual difficulties (and maybe man's in general). I know that I have free will; however, I and the universe in general will be better served if I align my will with that of God's. But, how am I certain of God's will when his path is often strewn with pain and suffering that appears contrary to what I might even trust as God's will.

Proverbs 15

Our tongue is such a powerful muscle. It can turn away wrath or stir up anger (Proverbs 15:1); It can disseminate wisdom or contribute to the confusion (Proverbs 15:2); It can bring healing and comfort or strip someone's spirit bare (Proverbs 15:4); It can spread knowledge or ignorance (Proverbs 15:7).

At times I feel as if my tongue is a muscle of its own accord, and at these times it is the betrayer of my heart. It will abuse those I love without my consent and speak lies while I desire to speak the truth. I pray for wisdom to control my tongue. I want to be its master at all times and never be bound by the deceit that it may spread. I am much less a victim to the wag of my tongue as compared to my youth, and I assume this is a sign of wisdom. All too often, however, I wish for more wisdom and a tongue that is a servant of the light.

Proverbs 14

The friends we surround ourselves with are a reflection of who we are or of whom we will become.

I don't know if the above is an actual quote, but I think that it sits well within the proverbs Solomon has presented in the 14th chapter.

Stay away from a foolish man, for you will not find knowledge on his lips. (Proverbs 14:7)

But who are the fools? We can recognize them by their outward appearances and actions:

1. They will be the demise of their own home (Proverbs 14:1)
2. They will find themselves in trouble with authority (Proverbs 14:3)
3. They practice in deception (Proverbs 14:8)
4. They will not make amends for their wrongs (Proverbs 14:9)
5. They are hot headed and quick to anger (Proverbs 14:16)

And this list is only from chapter 14. Though we are not all fools, we all display the characteristics listed above on occasion. So then what really makes a fool a fool: They lack the fear of the Lord. But of course we already knew that! (see the first post in this series if you need your memory jogged)

Peace be with you

Proverbs 13

Pride only breeds quarrels, but wisdom is found in those who take advice (Proverbs 13:10).

Solomon spends a great deal of energy pointing out the folly of pride:

One man pretends to be rich, yet has nothing; another pretends to be poor, yet has great wealth (Proverbs 13:7).

He who scorns instruction will pay for it, but he who respects a command is rewarded (Proverbs 13:13).

He who ignores discipline comes to poverty and shame, but whoever heeds correction is honored (Proverbs 13:18).

My wife has probably been the best teacher of this lesson: pride is the mask of the ignorant, of the fool who turns his back on understanding. She is one of the most intelligent people I know, but she does not wear her intellect as a cloak of pride. Instead, she is always the first person to admit that she does not understand something and to diligently ask questions of those around her until she understands or has enough information to put it all together at a later date.

This is so different from my own natural instincts in which I follow the mantra "better to be thought the fool than to open your mouth and dispel all doubt". Often in my prideful way, I will assume that if I don't understand something, then I can figure it out later on my own. But, if I don't figure it out, then I continue to live in ignorance while if I had employed my wife's approach I would be the wiser.

And this is no different with my walk with God, though my pride is so much more humorous when in the company of our Creator. Still I find myself behaving as if I've got it all figured out or if I don't then I will surely work it out on my own in good time. But this is fool-hardy: our spiritual character and relationship with our Heavenly Father has been something we as a collective whole have wrestled with for generations upon generations. Who am I to think that I can work this stuff all out. And so I work on my pride. I take conscious effort to open myself up and admit that I struggle with my relationship with God, with my understanding of how I should behave during my waking hours, of what it means to live within the Kingdom, to be alive in life and be saved from death. I admit to being ignorant of the whole story. I am allowing myself to be vulnerable so that I may grow in the Kingdom from the words of the wise around me. I pray for a soft heart and the mouth of wise men.

Peace

Proverbs 12

Better to be a nobody and yet have a servant than pretend to be somebody and have no food (Proverbs 12:9).

Why do we spend so much time behind our masks of insecurity? Who told us that we are not of worth? I am a child of God. Created by my Father of perfection. My God loves me for who I am and not what I want Him to think I am. With that so, why do I worry so much about what the world may think of me. But I do! I spend immeasurable amounts of energy spent on my earthly façade while I spend a relatively small amount of energy on my eternal relationship with God.

It is truly better to have the service of Christ and admit that we are not worthy of the treasures of heaven than to behave in arrogance and inherit our just compensation, i.e., nothing.

Peace

Proverbs 11

Justice: The upholding of what is just, especially fair treatment and due reward in accordance with honor, standards, or law (American Heritage).

There is no need to cheat, and those who do will receive their just reward. That about sums up the entire chapter, no? We are talking about honesty here and behaving in a just manner. From my interactions with people over the last 30-odd years, I am quite certain that most folks are truly seeking honesty from those around them. Why is it then that "honesty", as Billie Joel so eloquently put it, "is such a lonely word"? We've known since before the time of Solomon that the long-run payoff for the unjust is a negative return. But, our short-sightedness keeps our eyes on the immediate, and so we cut corners and behave dishonestly.

So how can we improve our long-term vision? Faith? Faith that even though we are presented evidence to the contrary, the just will prevail. And I again am not talking about heaven in the sky, singing with the angels kind of reward because even the unjust and dishonest have a chance to play in that big gig in the sky. I am talking about rewards here on earth in our lifetime. In business relations we always have the choice to either reap the immediate rewards today or to nurture long-term business relations that may produce smaller return up front but the long-term return greatly outweighs any up-front loss.

A quick story here. My wife took our car in to be inspected yesterday and the mechanic told her that the oxygen sensor was faulty and for $300 he would replace it and get the car legal. So she leaves the car with him, goes to work, and comes back later to pick up the car. She gets the bill and it's for $335. According to the mechanic, after installing the sensor, the car needed to be driven around in order for the new reading to be registered by the car's computer and the extra $35 was to pay for his joy ride. My wife tried to explained, to no avail, that she could have driven the car around for free and that he didn't obtain her permission. So she walks away from the mechanic who will never receive our service again. Why? Because he didn't behave justly and was only focused on being payed the $35 dollars he felt he deserved. But that money is all the money he will ever see from us.

And why do you think that Jesus explains how it is just and righteous to love your enemy? to turn the other cheek? Because the payoff in terms of kingdom currency is immeasurable. Our physical reaction to those who attack us is to attack right back. And of course we gain the immediate satisfaction of having our anger satisfied. But we are told that "a man who lacks judgment derides his neighbor, but a man of understanding holds his tongue." (Proverbs 11:12) Why? Because you have now made an investment of love (of agape) which has the potential to return infinitely. And we see this idea throughout this chapter:

A kind man benefits himself, but a cruel man brings trouble on himself. (Proverbs 11:17)

One man gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty (Proverbs 11:24).

A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed (Proverbs 11:25).

People curse the man who hoards grain, but blessing crowns him who is willing to sell (Proverbs 11:26).

Peace, be just, and find both in others.

Proverbs 10

The fear of the Lord, this will be my pillar of wisdom for today. As such, my aim is to act in complete respect of God and to behave in all ways so as not to offend. The fear of the Lord is a fear of the known and will fill me with strength and confidence for I have been provided boundaries within to act. This is not the fear of the unknown which has the power to debilitate, but in fact provides me with the power to act. (For more discourse on this topic, see my earlier post on Proverbs 1)

When I truly live in fear of the Lord, when I behave with awe and reverence for our creator, then I will truly walk in a right relationship with God; I will be able to count myself among the righteous. And we see clearly here in chapter 10 of Proverbs the benefits of being counted among the righteous. Those who are righteous (or wise) will

• Bring joy and life into the world
• Be cared for and blessed
• Be secure in their dealings with the world
• Provide for their neighbor

The righteous are

• Honest
• Diligent
• Receptive
• Loving
• Educated
• Disciplined

Many of the above traits are given mouth service by our generation as being positive aspects of a man's character. However, when I turn to our leaders, whether in business, politics, or community, the opposite of these characteristics are at the forefront of their behavior.  We must truly take note of God's promise here. Proverbs 10 clearly outlines the benefits bestowed upon the righteous and the detriments awarded to the immoral. Though we may find numerous examples to the contrary, dishonest men making fortunes hand over fist, the sloth who is served on hand and foot, the fool who runs a country (oops, are my political feathers showing), though we are bombarded day and night by stories of unscrupulous people succeeding in the world we must stand firm that in the limit God's promise is right and true. I don't mean this in some far off heaven explanation of God's promise. I mean that we will reap the benefits of right living here in our lifetime, but don't be surprised if the glory looks very different from what you envisioned - God has an awesome way of providing us with exactly what we need :)

Peace and may the fear of the Lord be your pillar of wisdom.

Proverbs 9

I am a numbers man. So when this chapter opens up with Wisdom building her house from 7 pillars, my very first question was, "what are these 7 pillars?" So being the Google junky I am, I simply put it in as a search and found that the seven pillars are related somehow to the life of Lawrence of Arabia (see Wikipedia). 

Visting another site I found someone connecting the pillars of wisdom to the beatitudes. He had a some difficulty squishing the 9 beatitudes into 7, but his argument can be accepted. Two months ago, I might have even been able to go along with his connection; however, after working through Dallas Willard's "The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life in God", in particular the 5th chapter, I have come to a very different understanding of the beatitudes:  the beatitudes is not a comprehensive list of those for whom God is pleased and will bless, but actually it is an extremely small subset of those for whom God has blessed, because EVERYONE IS WORTHY OF GOD'S BLESSING since there is nothing we can do to ever earn his blessing. (If you are questioning this interpretation of the beatituds I strongly reccomend that you spend some time with Willard's discourse on the subject because he has mapped it out quite elegently and it is a freeing journey from the shackling power of other interpretations.) So even after some beatitude squishing (i.e., from 9 to 7), Jesus's sermon on the mount can not be accepted as the defining fource behind Solomon's seven pillars.

Another cyber-author (Knight of Faith) digs into both the current and previous chapter to excavate the possible 7 pillars. Quoting directly from his site, we have from chapter 9:

1. Acceptance... (Proverbs 9:4)

2. Hospitality... (Proverbs 9:5) 

3. forsaking the foolish (i.e., establishing serenity)...(Proverbs 9:6)

4. restraint and good manners (serene comportment)... (Proverbs 9:7-8)

5. understanding... (Proverbs 9:8-9)

6. teaching, and... Proverbs 9:9)

7. fear of the Lord (awe, reverence, surrender, and mystical transcendence)

...(Proverbs 9:10)

or from chapter 8:

1. prudence...(Proverbs 8:12)

2. counsel (transmitted & shared wisdom & understanding) ... (8:14)

3. strength (8:14)

4. justice (8:15)

5. love (8:17,21)

6. prosperity (8:18-19,21)

7. righteousness (8:20) 

With some creative word associations we could probably line up some of the characteristics between the two groups, but clearly the two lists are not identical (e.g., prosperity is not discussed in Proverbs 9). So we again are with more than 7 characteristics! Maybe we should wake up every morning and assign seven characteristics to wisdom and approach the day in that mentality. How would that look? I think it would be awesome because I don't think that I start the day with even a single characteristic for Wisdom clearly emblazoned in my mind. If I were to start the day conciously visualizing seven characteristics of Wisdom, then I would likely not only see God's infinite wisdom all around me, but would more likely act in those areas of wisdom because I would be working with a tangible definition of wisdom as opposed to an abstract concept. Shoot, I could even start out small and simply begin with a single concrete description of Wisdom and have my world completely rocked. I like it! I am going to start my blogs from here on out with a characteristic of Wisdom and keep it as my mantra for the day. For today I will beging with "acceptance"; Wisdom is the acceptance of others without judgement or condemnation but with love and compassion and an understanding that they too are reflections of our maker. 

I know that I got stuck on the first line, so I leave the rest open for discussion if anyone wishes to pick up the cause. However, I am quite sure that we will pick up the themes laid out in this chapter later in subsequent sections of Proverbs. 

In closing, I will add another blogger's list of Wisdom's pillars pulled from a poem by Rumi:

In generosity and helping others be like a river.

In compassion and grace be like the sun.

In concealing others' faults be like the night.

In anger and fury be like the dead.

In modesty and humility be like earth.

In tolerance be like the sea.

Either appear as you are or be as you look. 

That is, Wisdom is: generous, compassionate, forgiving, peaceful, modest, tolerant,  and honest.

Please add to the list. What characteristics do you see Wisdom embrace? What makes up God's foundation for his house?

Peace

Proverbs 8

I love the poetry of this chapter. And within the poetry I see the reflection of Jesus. As Paul writes in I Cor 1:30 "It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption". So we know Christ to be the channel through which God shares his wisdom with us. When comparing "The LORD possessed me (wisdom) at the beginning of his work" (Prov 8:22) and "He (the Word) was with God in the beginning"(John 1:2) we see a similarity that suggests that the Word (i.e., Jesus) and Wisdom are one and the same. We can also compare:

"You who are simple, gain prudence;  you who are foolish, gain understanding."(Prov 8:5) 

and 

"Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong."(I Cor 1:26-27)

"Choose my instruction instead of silver, knowledge rather than choice gold, for wisdom is more precious than rubies, and nothing you desire can compare with her." (Prov 8:10-11)

and

"By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward."(Heb 11:24-26)

 

"By me kings reign" (Prov 8:15)

and

""I confer on you a kingdom, just as my Father conferred one on me, so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." (Luke 22:29-30)

"Whoever finds me finds life and receives favor from the Lord" (Prov 8:35)

and

"And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you." (Romans 8:11)

Of course, this chapter may simply be pretty poetry on the part of Solomon which is reflected in the poetry of the Gospels and Paul's letters.

Proverbs 7

Do we really need to be beaten over the head again with this adultery theme?!! I think that we get it by now: The frosting is sweet, but the cake is poison. 

The irony of all of this is the fact that Solomon had over 700 wives and 300 hundred concubines (I Kings 11:3). So in fact, the area of wisdom that Solomon harped on for so long was also his downfall. Granted, he did not commit adulter according to the letter of the law, but he surely committed it according to the spirit of the law. 

So once again we should pay close attention to the spirit! And then by default we will follow the letter.

Proverbs 6

1-5: It is better to be the banker and not the debtor's security! If you find yourself in debt, get out of it by all means: humble yourself to your neighbor (the friend you are securing) and encourage him to make right his debt.

This warning extends beyond the ideas of money. What if we vouch for our brother's character? We should again approach him in love and humbleness, begging that he correct his ways. It is also an implicit warning to be careful when we vouch for our neighbor. We have no control over his or her actions, but by securing his debt or his character, we somehow accept responsibility for his or her actions. We are incapable of any such control. We may be able to manipulate, bully, or force our neighbors hand, but this is not an action one would take within the agape of God and is also not true control. In fact, Solomon clearly paints the picture of how we should behave: in complete humbleness on our knees admitting that we do not control the situation and that our neighbor's debt is in his hands and that we have no power over it.

If our friend is behaving out of character we are not to approach him as a bully strutting our superiority and informing him how he should correct his ways. Nor should we be passive aggressive in our dealings. But instead we must approach him with love and humility and understand that we must first remove the plank from our eyes before we may ever hope to help him with the speck in his.

Proverbs 5

It has been some time since I last posted to this site. In the interim, I moved from my home of three years in Pickerington OH to my new home in Rockwall TX. It has been quite an upheaval and we are slowly getting abreast of our lives. I plan on being more diligent in the maintenance of posts to this site for anyone whom might be following my wondering mind as I weave through the Word. Before I spend any time directly throwing out my thoughts on Proverbs 5, I want to spend a little time discussing what God has been working in my life.

We have been made in His image. This is to say that we were created in a form that directly interacted with the creator of the universe. We were not made separate from God but in God; "in the image of God he created them". It was through sin that we have become deceived that we are separate from our creator; the illusion that God is outside our sphere of interaction came into shape at the fall of man. This was the consequence of our disobedience. Jesus Christ came as the eternal sacrifice to remove this separation, the death of our true nature, we have inherited from Adam and Eve Romans 5:12. Therefore, our mandate through the shedding of Christ's blood is to work to renew the holy connection we have with our Father. It is my belief that God never actually separated himself from us after the fall, but through the Adam and Eve's disobedience, an illusion of separation was erected. As such, it is simply an illusion, the only tool of the deceiver, that separates us from a complete relationship with God. And so we must wrestle with concepts and precepts outside of our flesh in order to align ourselves with the Father of Heaven. But we have been told that we are not able to take on this task alone. In fact, it is only by relying solely on our creator to bridge this divide that we actually place our footing on the path of salvation.

I see these ideas reflected in the 5th chapter of Proverbs in that we are reminded again to stay away from the adulteress; we are to recognize that she may be enticing at first glance, "the lips of an adulteress drip with honey, and her speech is smoother than oil", but in the end she is death, "she is bitter as gall, sharp as a double-edged sword". And here we are in the words of Solomon dealing with illusion. At first glance, we take the reality of the flesh to be all that it is "reality". But nothing can be further from the truth! Reality is the infinite connection and relationship with the author of all creation. Reality is interacting with our brothers and sisters at the sincere level of the soul as opposed to the superficial level of the flesh.

When we fall in line with the adulteress, we answer the call of our flesh. Now, Solomon is not suggesting that we should not engage in activities that are pleasing to our physical senses: "may your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth loving doe, a graceful deer— may her breasts satisfy you always, may you ever be captivated by her love". The wife of our youth is the woman we have loved at the level of the soul, for the lust of the flesh will only last a fortnight within the confines of matrimony and an enduring marriage requires the desires of the spirit, of the soul.

Adultery in this setting is an image for the greater illusions of fleshly desires. Our eyes hunger for the things of the world. In our present civilization, we are required to focus all of our endeavors toward the unattainable goal of physical satisfaction. Our economy is completely based on the rat wheel of never ending consumption (see The Story of Stuff). We are reminded time and time again throughout the bible that God does not reside with the pursuits of earthy desires but is outside this sphere of influence (though he does surround it completely and will engage and educate us through this inefficient medium). Therefore, as we rejoice in the wife of our youth, of our innocence, of our purity, of our soul, just as we conduct this soulish activity, we also should approach our relationship with our Heavenly Father.