Through the Word in 2020 #109 - Sep. 2 / Random Wisdom on the Loose

Due to some glitch in the algorithm, we not only had Titus 3:12-15 and Luke 13:22-35 to read, but 20 entire chapters in Proverbs. I’ll suggest that we simply read 1 chapter of Proverbs a day with the other readings until we get through the book. The daily visit will be well worth it - as chapter 10 today will make abundantly clear.

So today on Through the Word in 2020 - let me just highlight a few of the profound gems in Proverbs 10 - and ask you to consider especially how the Believer is to think of wealth. It’s not the World’s view for sure.

I’m Reid Ferguson.

10:4 is as true in the spiritual as it is in the natural. One simply cannot make true spiritual progress apart from the discipline of working at it. The Bible must be read. Prayer must be engaged in. Fellowship must be sought out and cultivated. Worship must be participated in. We would never dream of telling our doctor that he was legalistic for telling us we must eat, drink, exercise and breathe. These are the things which make for the sustaining of life. So it is with our souls. They will grow weak and impoverished if we do not tend to them.

10:11 What a question to ask ourselves - How do our words impact others? Do we minister life to them? Or violence? It leads me to pray, Father, let my words feed and refresh and nourish the hearts and lives of others, and let me not (as I have so often in the past) send out the stings of death and destruction through an acid tongue. Deliver me from ungracious words, unseasoned with salt. With my spouse. With my children. With my siblings. With my parents, co-workers, my brothers and sisters in Christ. With the lost. With those who sin against me. With you.

10:15 Can be taken two ways.

It could be a straightforward statement of truth: The Wealthy have the security of a strong city in their wealth, and the poverty of the poor is in fact that which is their ruin. Or, the thought could be a rich man imagines his wealth to be real security and so he has no need - especially spiritually, while the poor often imagine that poverty is their big problem as opposed to their spiritual state.

Passages like Prov. 11:4, Prov. 11:28, Prov. 18:11, Psalm 52:7, Mark 10:24-25 would seem to favor the second view.

Proverbs has several different angles to consider on wealth and poverty. On the one hand, wealth is NOT to be something we seek - Prov. 23:4 will state that categorically. On the other it is also the product of diligence and honesty Prov. 12:27.

Then too Proverbs contrasts two kinds of wealth, spiritual and temporal. Which is being referred to in each passage requires careful study.

Men can live illusory lives no matter what their condition. The rich can think they have safety and security because they have money. They're wrong. The poor can imagine they can have nothing but ruin because they are poor. They are wrong too. Both need to look to Christ. The one for true security, the other, for true wealth.

10:17 One who cannot receive reproof or instruction, is one who is not fit to lead - for they will lead others only after themselves, and not after Christ. This too bids me pray: Father, forgive me for the hardness of heart and the pride that has so often made it difficult for others to reprove me, and for me to receive it.

10:19 The point here is not to play down sound discourse, but to increase LISTENING, and giving answers with discretion. We so much more want to be heard, than to hear. What a timely word.

10:25 Trials and storms weed out the impostors.

God willing, we’ll be back tomorrow.