Humility and Honor Toward God

Introduction:

We have examined a passage that places the self and the Lord in potential conflict.

Prov. 3:5.

The Lord’s ways are not deceptive, and they lead to proper living.

Trusting the Lord is to be total, like loving the Lord is to be total.

Deut. 6:4.

The passages before us will reinforce, and even restate, these principles.

This is not anti-intellectual.

This has nothing to do with choosing a career, a home, or a location to live.

Do we hunger and thirst after righteousness?

2 Tim. 3:16-17.

Fear the Lord

Prov. 3:7 is part of a quatrain of verses which reinforce similar admonitions.

Implied in this case is the arrogance of coming to be wise in ones own eyes.

It presumes no need for humbling the self before Jehovah.

Also implied in these statements is that the normal path for a human being is one pursuing evil.

Yet again the self is put in conflict with Jehovah.

To assert our own wisdom, or its sufficiency, is to rebel against God.

We are reminded that a right relationship with Jehovah affects how we live in our present lives.

God doesn’t just change our eternity, he also changes our present.

Prov. 3:8 reinforces the higher quality of life fearing God can result in for those willing to humble themselves.

There is an ease of life that exceeds the “hard living” that we would otherwise subject ourselves to if we refuse to live in the fear of the Lord.

Glorify Jehovah as Creator

The writer of Proverbs now gives a specific example of an area of life where we demonstrate humility.

These statements are rooted in the teaching of the firstfruits offerings.

Prov. 3:9: Glorify Jehovah from your possessions and from the first (chief) of all your harvest.

Ex. 23:19; 34:26; Deut. 26:2: this is not the total list for the firstfruits passages, but they are a start.

Deut. 26 is especially important for understanding the full weight of the section.

At the core of the firstfruits offering there is:

The recognition of Jehovah as the creator.

Honoring Him for the produce not ritual in order to get him to come to life to cause the produce. He, therefore, is distinct from the gods worshipped by others.

Caring for the Levitical priests who received their portion from the offerings instead of having a specific allotment of tribal land.

Trust in God that you will not starve. No need to put the self-first in eating.

Honoring the Lord and obeying His word will lead to his “blessing” (see Deut. 28:8) instead of His curse on the productivity of the land.

The New Testament principle akin to this is expressed by Jesus in his model prayer.

God is the provider of our food.

We are able to work and enjoy the benefits of the labor because He made the creation (and us) in such a way as to sustain our well-being.

He Corrects Because He Loves

Prov. 3:11-12 give us another example of humbling ourselves to God.

In Prov. 3:11, the focus shifts, slightly, to God’s training.

“the discipline of the Lord” refers to “correction which results in education” (TWOT 1.?).

Despise = to reject, despise, or lightly esteem (LXX of this verb).

Loathe comes from the same term used of the Israelites’ attitude about having to eat the “manna” provided by the Lord day after day.

Solomon longs for his son to take the proper attitude toward God’s instruction.

Instead of coming to abhor it or to take it lightly, he wants to see him take it seriously.

Having a proper attitude toward God’s instruction depends on having a clear understanding of the Lord and His motives in providing the correction.

To correct is not to hate.

To correct is to show love.

If God did not love us, he would not try to correct us.

Bitterness and resentment toward God should not be our responses to his instruction.