Proverbs
A Wise Child Will Hear His Parents Instruction
It is only when the heart is ready to receive instruction, and the ear is ready to hear that a person will grow in his spiritual life (v. 12). There is a big differ¬ence between reading the Bible (or hearing it explained) and meditating upon it. That is why so many people never grow much in their Christian …
Judgments Are Prepared For Scoffers
Pay attention to advice and accept correction, so that you may be wise in the time to come (v. 20). We may make a lot of plans, but the Lord will do what he has decided (v. 21). What matters most is loyalty. It’s better to be poor than to be a liar (v. 22). Those who fear the Lord “will not be …
An Exhortation to Acquire Wisdom
In this passage the key thought is to get wisdom and to get understanding (vv. 5,7). It starts out by saying listen to your father’s instruction (v. 1), that he is giving you good teaching (v. 2), just as his father and mother had given him (vv. 3-4). If you prize wisdom, it will embrace you and honor …
How to Redeem The Time
How true it is that “A wise son maketh a glad father; but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother†(v. 1). The son who is characterized by wisdom, causes his father to rejoice is the case of Solomon himself (see I Chronicles 22:12 and II Chronicles 1:7-12). Be …
Emotions Effect Our Physical Conditon
It is healthy to be content but envy will eat you up (v. 30). Not being able to control a persons emotions will effect his physical condition. Medical science today knows that a person with a healthy disposition probably will have a healthier body also. Such things as anger, envy …
The Lord Tests the Hearts
It is far better to have a peaceful and quiet meal of dry bread than having a lot to eat in a house where there is strife (v. 1). Harmony of a person’s relationship with others is to be desired over a bountiful supply of food. Think of the children today who grow up in a home w …
Encouragement to Moral Purity
The Lord has made provision for man’s happiness, not through immoral entanglements but through the blessings of married life. Marital love with one’s wife is pict¬ured as enjoying one’s cistern or fountain. As a person would not get water from his neighbor’s cistern because he had his own …
A Child Is Known By His Deeds
A person’s behavior reflects his character. Even a child’s actions and conduct reveal what they are like We all must do the things that please God (v. 11). That is why it is important to not only listen to what people say but also to observe with our eyes what people do (v. 12). Sleeping when …
Giving Needed Rebuke is Never Easy
The oppressive rule of a wicked leader is compared to the vicious attack of a roaring lion (v. 15). He oppresses the poor like a wild beast among the people. He bears rule with a heavy hand and fails to see that the security of his job should be related to the welfare of those under him (v. 16) …
Lives Are Easily Wrecked by Immorality
This is really a sad story as we read it but even more sad as we see it happen to young men we know personally. Can you think of people you have known who has ruined and wrecked their lives in immorality. Happy is the young man who will heed this warning and live by it …