Wisdom Loves Righteousness
01 A wise son heeds his father's instruction,
00 But a scoffer does not listen to rebuke.
02 A man shall eat well by the fruit of his mouth,
00 But the soul of the unfaithful feeds on violence.
03 He who guards his mouth preserves his life,
00 But he who opens wide his lips shall have destruction.
04 The soul of a lazy man desires, and has nothing;
00 But the soul of the diligent shall be made rich.
05 A righteous man hates lying,
00 But a wicked man is loathsome and comes to shame.
06 Righteousness guards him whose way is blameless,
00 But wickedness overthrows the sinner.
07 There is one who makes himself rich, yet has nothing;
00 And one who makes himself poor, yet has great riches.
08 The ransom of a man's life is his riches,
00 But the poor does not hear rebuke.
09 The light of the righteous rejoices,
00 But the lamp of the wicked will be put out.
10 By pride comes nothing but strife,
00 But with the well-advised is wisdom.
11 Wealth gained by dishonesty will be diminished,
00 But he who gathers by labor will increase.
12 Hope deferred makes the heart sick,
00 But when the desire comes, it is a tree of life.
13 He who despises the word will be destroyed,
00 But he who fears the commandment will be rewarded.
14 The law of the wise is a fountain of life,
00 To turn one away from the snares of death.
15 Good understanding gains favor,
00 But the way of the unfaithful is hard.
16 Every prudent man acts with knowledge,
00 But a fool lays open his folly.
17 A wicked messenger falls into trouble,
00 But a faithful ambassador brings health.
18 Poverty and shame will come to him who disdains correction,
00 But he who regards a rebuke will be honored.
19 A desire accomplished is sweet to the soul,
00 But it is an abomination to fools to depart from evil.
20 He who walks with wise men will be wise,
00 But the companion of fools will be destroyed.
21 Evil pursues sinners,
00 But to the righteous, good shall be repaid.
22 A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children,
00 But the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous.
23 Much food is in the fallow ground of the poor,
00 And for lack of justice there is waste.
24 He who spares his rod hates his son,
00 But he who loves him disciplines him promptly.
25 The righteous eats to the satisfying of his soul,
00 But the stomach of the wicked shall be in want.
Did you know that the Bible has more to say on laziness than drunkenness? Yet, how often are we quick to judge someone when they've had a bit too much to drink, but neglect to chastise another person who sits around all day and does nothing?
Laziness is a pervasive, insidious disease in our society, one that seems to be growing in leaps and bounds. No one seems to want to work hard anymore. They want the easy life, the easy job that doesn't require much of them, the cushy couch and big screen TV and fancy vacations, but work?? Don't make me work too hard!! It's not fair!
I'm reminded of the story out of Florida. Where these excursions took tourists out to the ocean to see the dolphins. It was great to see God's animals frolicking in the water, the tourists would even feed the dolphins tuna and sardines when the friendly mammals came to the boats. However, back in 1991 the government forced the excursions to stop allowing the tourists to feed the dolphins, because the dolphins got lazy and stopped hunting for food.
Yup, the dolphins even began teaching their offspring how to wait for boatloads of tourists bearing buckets of chum instead of how to hunt for wild fish in the ocean. The dolphins were getting lazier and lazier with every generation and forgot how to work for their food. Sound familiar? Interesting how the government noticed that free handouts without any requirements of work can devastate generations of dolphins, but not notice the destruction it does to human societies.
In the last 60 years our government has leaned towards Socialism in a huge way. In order to keep in power, politicians have used the concept of redistribution to supply everything a citizen needs to survive from cradle to grave. As time went on whole segment of our society has gotten lazier and lazier from generation to generation. I mean, why should you work if you can fill out some paperwork and get government assistance?
The number of people receiving food stamps today is well over 50 million people. Do some of these people need food stamps to survive? Absolutely. I'm not against Food stamps. I know they really help some people. They succeed where the Christian church has failed in this country, but that's a topic for another day. I guess what I'm trying to say is that humans are inherently lazy and when you offer them free stuff to survive, they become just as lazy as the dolphins off Florida, and the bears in Yellowstone Park who also became lazy from being fed by tourists.
Human's and animals alike will become lazy and count on others to care for them if they are not forced to learn to work for their survival. God warns us of the consequences of being lazy, it's right there in the Scriptures. God bless you all, and have a great day.
The purpose of Writing the book of Proverbs was to reveal the mind of God in matters high and lofty and in common, ordinary, everyday situations. It appears that no topic escaped King Solomon's attention. Matters pertaining to personal conduct, sexual relations, business, wealth, charity, ambition, discipline, debt, child-rearing, character, alcohol, politics, revenge, and Godliness are among the many topics covered in this rich collection of wise sayings.
Without wisdom, knowledge is nothing more than an accumulation of raw facts, influenced by emotional feelings. Many highly educated people are in positions of power in the United States, but very few of those educated leaders have the wisdom needed to rule properly.
One can say that they have been educated well beyond their intelligence. A cursory look at the court system will prove my point that knowledge without wisdom will only lead to an immoral society that eventually crumbles from within. Judges are supposed to be above the fray, and immovable to emotions. Instead, the vast majority of judges today are Godless individuals who are vacant of wisdom. So their rulings are totally based upon emotional feelings.
We the people are to blame, because we ignored God's guidance in appointing our leaders. Instead of putting leaders full wisdom in power, we instead chose those who would scratch our itchy ears to lead us.
Of the 31 Proverbs, only the first 24 were written by Solomon. King Hezekiah wrote 5, Proverbs 25 to 29, Agur wrote Proverb 30, and Lemuel wrote Proverb 31. Now many believe Lemuel was in fact King Solomon and Lemuel was just a nick name his Mother, Bathsheba gave him. We are told that Solomon write over 3000 Proverbs and composed 1000 songs, but the only Proverbs God decided to preserve for us are Proverbs 1-24. Like the New Testament epistle by James, it is impossible to get a chronological outline for a study since they all bounce from subject to subject.
Along with my daily routine of reading the Bible, I try to read through the book of Proverbs once a Month. It's an easy task when you consider there are 31 Proverbs. So all you need to know is what day of the Month it is. In the Months that have 30 days, or in the case of February, I just double up by reading more than one two proverb so I can begin the next month with Proverb 1 on the first again.
No comments:
Post a Comment