Eloquence or lies

DEVOTION

PROVERBS

ELOQUENCE OR LIES

Prov 17:7

7 Arrogant lips are unsuited to a fool — how much worse lying lips to a ruler!

NIV’

Perhaps arrogant isn’t the best choice as other translations along with the original carry more of a sense of excellent words spoken, or eloquent words are simply not suitable for a fool to speak. It is unlikely that a fool would say anything that was considered worthy of eloquence, but what is eloquence? We should not dare to judge someone to be a fool based on his inability to speak in an eloquent manner, yet those who God considers as fools are the ones who refuse to accept Jesus Christ. So perhaps if one is not speaking about the things of God, no matter what they are speaking about it is not eloquent. The rest of this saying is certainly a condemnation on those who would be considered rulers. Those who, in our country, we elect to lead us, to be in positions of leadership in the government, are surely guilty of having lying lips. Every day we are exposed to another lie by most of those in office. Certainly they will receive their just reward in the end. But we should also consider that many of us rule in some sense. We who are the head of our family are responsible to God for them and therefore are given authority over them. Since we have authority we could be consider a ruler and therefore should be careful not to fall into the traps of lies. It is far better the keep our lips from lies and speak eloquent words.

Crown and Pride

DEVOTION

PROVERBS

CROWN AND PRIDE

Prov 17:6

6 Children's children are a crown to the aged, and parents are the pride of their children.

NIV

It is a great joy to see the children of children, to be great-grandparents certainly does well as a crown in our oldest years. But this truth runs much deeper than simply being grandparents. There is a family relationship shown here that should exist within all the families of God. Whoever is the family patriarch and matriarch bear a great burden of leading their families in the ways of the Lord. They should be respected by those descendants, both living and the ones born after they are gone. There should be such a heritage left by them, one like Abraham left for his descendants, one of following God, trusting God, obeying God, no matter the cost. We aged should hope that our children and their children can say of us, “There was a person after God’s own heart”, as God said about David. Our descendants should be pride to claim they are ours, speaking well of us after we have left this earth for paradise. There is a receptacle relationship that must exist in the families who follow the ways of God. A sense of pride in each other, a respect for each other, a love for each other that goes beyond self. What a joy to watch children and their children grow into a child of God. But there can be pain along the way if the children tend to stray. It can be painful to watch them endeavor to travel their own path, and not respect the views of their parents or grand-parents. Yet love must always prevail. It is our hope and our prayers they will return to the fold of God, if they have strayed. Still they are our crown, and we are their pride. 

The Poor

DEVOTION

PROVERBS

THE POOR

Prov 17:5

5 He who mocks the poor shows contempt for their Maker; whoever gloats over disaster will not go unpunished.

NIV

Certainly we believers would never mock a poor person, we would speak in such a manner as to deride them or for that matter gloat when disaster strikes upon a group or a single person. So why are we admonished not to do this? Is it possible we could be guilty and unaware of our offense? It does seem that in our country those who are in power, those who we call politicians might be guilty of this type of offence. By their self-servicing help of the poor it is a form of mocking, a form of gloating over the disaster which befalls people. But what of believers, those of us who read and contemplate the scriptures? How would we mock, as imitating a foreigner, to speak unintelligibly? Could we, by putting on the poor mouth, be mocking those who are truly poor? Could we, when seeing someone who has far more than us, having a bit of envy, thinking how little we have in comparison, be in some way mocking those who are really poor? What about the spiritual aspect of wealth and poor?  There is no greater wealth then to be co-heirs with Jesus. But do we speak against in any way about those who choose to not believe? Do we mock or show contempt toward those poor souls who are bound for disaster? Jesus said that we would always have the poor among us, that we can help them anything we want. Now in context he was speaking to his disciples and that they would not always have him in the flesh to be with them, but of course Jesus is always with us, even to the end. But the fact is we will always have to poor, the truly poor, but the poor in material goods and the poor in spiritual blessings. We should know we are not poor, and we such not in any way speak ill of those who have nothing materially, but especially of those who do not have Jesus, the truly poor.

He Who Has an Ear

DEVOTION

PROVERBS

HE WHO HAS AN EAR

Prov 17:4

4 A wicked man listens to evil lips; a liar pays attention to a malicious tongue.

NIV

There certainly are a lot of voices out there that are doing their best to entice us to do things which are not pleasing to God. Surely in our society today we are bombarded with various voice of s sensual nature, the movies, the television, magazines, billboards, even catalogs mailed to us, everywhere we turn it is there. But we also are bombarded in a far more subtle way in other areas which are just as evil for us to listen to. The world would speak with evil lips that we need to trust in our own abilities, rather than God. There are those who would speak those evil words about storing up wealth for our own pleasures of life, rather than doing what God desires of us. There are lips which speak gossip which we should tell to be quite rather than listen with tingling ears. The temptations are only temptations if we are interested in all in them. At the core of all temptations is lust, not just in the sensual sense but in every aspect of our lives, lust for thing, lust for money, and lust for fame, to be somebody special, to be lifted up, to be thought of as a scholar, or a learned person in the scriptures, to have a fancy title. The list of things we can lust for is extensive and they all come from evil lips, and are of a malicious tongue, the tongue of Satan. We should be listening only to the lips of the Holy Spirit, and pay absolutely no attention to the voice of the evil one. Yet he continues to whisper in our ears those things which would lead us in the wrong direction away from God. God has given us the gift of discernment so that we will know what voice is speaking to us, what lips are moving, whether they are liars or are the truth of God. He who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to us. 

Finding Pureness

DEVOTION

PROVERBS

FINDING PURENESS

Prov 17:3

3 The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but the LORD tests the heart.

NIV

The fact that both silver and gold must undergo a treatment of extreme heat to separate the purest form from anything that would have been mixed in with it is a simply fact known by all. It does not take the Wisdom of Solomon to understand the dross is separated from the pure metal by heat. But with the heart that is a different story. It would seem that God purifies our heart through fire, or adversity. This is not to find the dross or the faults of our heart or character, but to find the purest form of our heart. God desires to separate anything from our character that would distract from us being the purest form of his image. That is why he send Jesus to become the sacrifice for our dross, our sin, that which keeps us from being pure. Through this process we have been made pure if we accept Jesus into our heart. God then sees us through the blood of Jesus, he sees a heart filled with Jesus, pure and blameless. Yes it is true that in the human sense our heart may never be absolutely pure as the finest gold or silver, but the human heart will never inherit the kingdom of God, for we are told that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, but that we will all be changed. What is corruptible will be made incorruptible and what is mortal will be made immortal. So it is with our human hearts. It is and will be always deceitfully wicked, but through the power of Jesus, God sees us as a pure image of him. If we communion with Jesus, if we are in Christ and he is us then our hearts have been tested and found pure. Surely we cannot simply go about our sinful ways and expect a pure heart just because of Jesus. Certainly we must make every effort to free ourselves from wicked ways. We must do all that we are humanly possible to live a life pleasing to God and the purest form of that is accepting Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. That pleases God more than anything we could do that we label “good works”. The purest form of testing our hearts is to find Jesus there.  

Living as a Brother

DEVOTION

PROVERBS

LIVING AS A BROTHER

Prov 17:2

2 A wise servant will rule over a disgraceful son, and will share the inheritance as one of the brothers.

NIV

Once again we could view this in the historical sense when there were servants or slaves as it were, and as in the case when Abram was upset over the fact that he was sonless and had no heir, he determined that his faithful servant would be his heir. It might also been sense in that same story that Hagar, a servant girl became family by giving birth to a son by Abram and therefore should have been entitled to share in the inheritance. But we could also see this as our own self being that disgraceful son. We, being unable to obtain any righteousness of our own, unable to inherit any part of the kingdom of God, must learn to allow the greatest of servants to rule over us. Jesus said that he did not come to be served, but to serve, to be a servant, a wise servant going to the cross in our place. So as he is the true wise servant and we are in fact the disgraceful son, we need to see that he does in fact rule over us so as he shares in the inheritance so do we. We might also see ourselves as the wise servant who rules over self when we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, forfeiting the life of sinful pleasures and submitting to his Lordship, then we become co-heirs with Christ, we become as brothers with him. We need to see the need to leave the disgraceful life behind and live as a brother of Christ. 

Contentment

DEVOTION

PROVERBS

CONTENTMENT

Prov 17:1

Better a dry crust with peace and quiet than a house full of feasting, with strife.

NIV

We could see this in the context of history whereas it may have been the custom in some places to burn one of the quests as a sacrifice during a very sumptuous feast, but we should consider how this would apply to us today when we would never do such a thing. Perhaps we could see this as an instruction to be content with what we have enjoying it, even if it is not as the rich and famous have. It would seem those who make their goal the accumulation of as much as possible are never quite happy and content with what they have, always wanting more. We need to see the folly in striving for as much as we can get. We need to see the foolishness of not enjoying the peace and quiet of the blessings bestowed upon us by our Lord. God may desire some to have more than others for the purpose of being about to share the gospel with people of the same status in life, but that is for God to decide and whatever place he has planted us we should be content with, be at peace with and enjoy our life in him. What joy can come from all the sacrifices, all the stuff if it brings strife along with it? It would seem that only those who do not trust God, but trust in sacrifices, in treasures here on earth strive to have more of them. Contentment comes from God.