Transcript: Verse by Verse Study – Proverbs Chapter 21:9 to Chapter 22:11 – Zac Poonen

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It’s easy to find fault if we want to. That indicates that basically within us, there is an unmerciful attitude. When we find ourselves picking faults in others easily, that is a pretty good test — an indication of the fact that we are basically unmerciful in our attitude. Wicked people are always hungry for evil, to find fault. They have mercy on no one.

Proverbs 21:11 – Two Ways to Learn

Verse 11 in the Living Bible reads, “The wise man learns by listening, whereas the foolish man or the simpleton can only learn by seeing scorners punished.” There are two ways to learn. One is by hearing what God has to say, and here it says another is by seeing scorners punished. This is why the Word of God says that there is a place for public rebuke in the church. We read in 1 Timothy 5:20 where it says that if anyone continues to sin, he should be rebuked publicly so that others also may fear. There is a place for public rebuke so that others should be rebuked in the presence of everyone, it says, so that others also may be fearful of sinning.

There is a place for private counsel, but if private counsel is not received by a person and he continues in sin or rebellion, then there is a need for public rebuke so that others will fear to sin in the church. This verse is also referring to that; some people learn only when they see others punished.

Proverbs 21:12 – God Knows What Goes On in Every Home

Verse 12 reads like this in the Good News Bible: “The righteous one, God, knows what goes on in the homes of the wicked, and He will bring the wicked down to ruin.” The righteous one referred to there is obviously God Himself, because He is the only one who understands what goes on inside the house of a wicked person. That teaches us that God knows what goes on in everybody’s home. God, the righteous one, knows what goes on in the different homes, and He brings the wicked down to ruin. That shows that He is interested to see what goes on in our homes. God is not deceived by the impression people give to others. He knows what goes on in different people’s homes.

Proverbs 21:13 – Mercy Shown Is Mercy Received

Verse 13 states, “He who shuts his ear to the cry of the poor will also cry himself and not be answered.” We read that in many portions of scripture. “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall find mercy.” He who has not shown mercy will not find mercy from God. In the same measure in which we treat others, in the same measure God treats us. That’s one of those verses that tells us that God treats us in the same way that we treat other people in need who come across our path.

When we find that God is treating us in a particular way, it’s good for us to examine ourselves and see whether we’ve treated some other human being in that same way. Perhaps we’re just reaping in the same measure; God is using the same measure to measure it out to us. These are verses that should put a fear in our hearts in our relationships with other human beings in general — not just with believers, but with human beings in general.

Proverbs 21:14 – A Gift Given in Secret

Verse 14 reads in the Good News Bible like this: “If someone is angry with you, a gift given secretly will calm him down.” That’s really a very practical exhortation. That can happen even in our relationship with different people. You find that someone is sort of cooled off towards you for some reason or the other. Obviously, when somebody cools off, he’s carnal or soulish; he’s not spiritual. No spiritual person cools off towards any other brother, that’s clear. But carnal people, babies who don’t have victory, can sometimes cool off in their relationship towards us.

Even in the church, because there are babies in the church, there are carnal people in the church, and they can tend to cool off in various ways. It says here that a practical way, if you really want to overcome evil with good, is a gift. Given secretly means not publicly. Of course, the person knows that you gave it, but you don’t embarrass him by giving it to him publicly. In fact, all gifts should be given secretly. A gift given in secret can calm him down and change his attitude.

All people love gifts, particularly worldly people and carnal Christians and babies all love gifts. So when such people receive a gift, they tend to change their attitude. This is one of those instances of using the mammon of unrighteousness to make friends for ourselves so that we can have someone in those eternal habitations.

Proverbs 21:15 – Justice: Joy for the Righteous, Terror for the Wicked

Verse 15 states, “The execution of justice is joy for the righteous, but is terror to the workers of iniquity.” A righteous person is always happy when justice is done because he loves righteousness and he loves justice. This verse is really just referring to that. But the execution of justice is a terror to the workers of iniquity.

Proverbs 21:16 – Wandering from the Way of Understanding

Verse 16 reads, “A man who wanders from the way of understanding will rest in the assembly of the dead.” There is an assembly called the assembly of the dead. That’s obviously Babylon, spiritual Babylon. When a person wanders away from the way of understanding — meaning the way of wisdom, which is called by many names in the Word of God — it’s called the path of the righteous, the way of holiness in Isaiah 35, the new and living way in Hebrews chapter 10, and here it’s called the way of understanding, the way of wisdom in the book of Job. Many titles, but it’s all the same way.

A man who wanders from this way, who does not take heed to the voice of the Spirit that tells him when he drifts to the left or right, will end up in the assembly of the dead.

Proverbs 21:17 – The Danger of Loving Pleasure

Verse 17 states, “He who loves pleasure will become a poor man, and he who loves wine and oil will not become rich.” This refers to becoming a slave to material things, to food and drink, and to a comfortable easy life that involves no self-denial. We can apply that spiritually and say that it means that self-denial is the way to spiritual wealth. It is one who denies himself who really becomes spiritually rich.

It also teaches us that these things which God has created are things to be used, but not to be mastered by. There are many pleasures we can enjoy, but here it speaks about those who love pleasure — not those who have pleasure. God gives us pleasure in many, many things in life. He has given us richly all things to enjoy, but it’s a question of loving it. It says in the last days, men will be lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. It speaks about loving good food. It’s not a question of eating good food, but loving good food. That means the person has been mastered by it.

Paul said, “All things are lawful, but I will not be mastered by anything” (1 Corinthians 6:12). So that’s what it’s referring to here: we must not allow any of these things on the earth to master us if we want to be spiritually rich.

Proverbs 21:18 – The Boomerang Effect

Verse 18 reads like this in the Good News Bible: “The wicked bring on themselves the suffering that they try to cause to godly people, to good people.” In other words, what we considered in an earlier study is that what the wicked does — verse 7 in the Living Bible — boomerangs on him. It’s like the Old Testament story of Haman. He prepared a gallows to hang Mordecai, and God turned the tables in such a way that finally Haman himself hung on it.

We can apply that to ourselves: when we seek to do something which is not good to another, we may find later on in life, sometimes years later, that very thing comes back upon us. For example, here’s a young person who, in his zeal and lack of wisdom, criticizes an older brother or even a servant of God for something he sees and doesn’t agree with. He criticizes him for being lukewarm or carnal or something like that.

God has made a record of that, and maybe five years later that person will find himself in exactly the same situation which he criticized somebody for five or ten years ago. If he has ears to hear, he will hear the Spirit saying, “Now you are reaping what you have sown.” We bring on ourselves the suffering that we try to cause to good people, and criticism of another person can be included here. That’s why it’s always safest not to be a busybody in other people’s matters, to leave them to themselves, and let God take care of them.

Why do we want to criticize or find fault with someone in something? One day it will come back on us. A young person can criticize, for example, the way someone else brings up his children. Ten years later, when this man himself is married and has a whole lot of children, he may find that his children are much worse than the children he criticized in some other family. That’s just a reaping of what he sowed in his younger years.

It’s very important that we don’t sow such things in our younger years and reap a harvest of sorrow and misfortune ten years later. These are laws of God: the suffering we cause to good people in any way — maybe you hurt someone by words you speak and the person is a good person — God can’t overlook it. One day it will take its course, this boomerang, and ten years later it comes back. It’s really true.

That’s why we need to radically repent of these things. I’ve come to see more and more that the proof of repentance is that I don’t do it again. If I do it again, that proves that I didn’t really repent; I just said words to God. Very often we find we hear a message on something like this and we say, “Yeah, Lord, I’m sorry for all that I’ve done in the past,” and the next year we go and do the same thing all over again, which shows that we didn’t really repent.

We just felt sorry that this boomerang may hit us five years later, but we weren’t really convicted of the guilt of causing suffering to some good person by something we said or did. We have to be very careful that we don’t cause any suffering to others by the words we speak. They’ll boomerang on us one day or the other.

Proverbs 21:19 – Driven to the Desert

Verse 19 presents a further step from verse 9. We commenced in verse 9 with this man running off to the roof, but now we find that the wife has chased him to the roof as well, and now he’s left the house altogether and gone out to the desert. It’s better to live out in the desert than with a nagging, complaining wife. That’s a sad thing — the poor man didn’t get peace on the roof either and had to go off even from there.

This is really something which a sister should take seriously. It’s not that we’re against women, or that Solomon was against women, or that Paul was against women. A lot of people have got these ideas. The Holy Spirit speaks about a nagging wife, and it’s interesting — it never speaks about a nagging husband. There may be a few exceptions like that, but generally speaking, it’s a nagging wife who is referred to more — a drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, drip.

It’s spoken of in another chapter, this possibility of making life difficult for your husband at home. The poor man seeks for peace somewhere, in some corner of the house. It may not be a desert because there are no deserts nearby, but it may be that he goes off to some other place, or perhaps dreads to come back home. It must never be like that.

Dear sisters, when you’re married, you’ve got the responsibility to make your home such a place that your husband just longs to come back home, and your children just long to come back there because that is the most wonderful place they can ever be in. Think of building a house like that. It is by words spoken of a nagging, complaining wife, it says in the Good News Bible. Nagging means to constantly be after your husband for some little thing here and some little thing there.

The Wise Woman and the Home

It’s not a big, major thing—usually something here, something there—and complaining about this and complaining about that. Now, it’s a peculiar temptation that comes to sisters, to married women. Therefore, you need to ask God for grace to overcome it. Say, “Lord, make me that wise woman who can build my house so that it can be a place of peace.”

You know, Jesus said, when you enter a house, He told His disciples, first of all, say, “Peace be to this house.” That is the fruit of wisdom, and that’s a tremendous responsibility. The Book of Proverbs has much to say about women. In fact, the Book of Proverbs closes with a whole, almost a whole chapter on the virtuous woman, chapter 31. There is something there that sisters can take very seriously: never turn your home into a place where people don’t feel happy to be in—not even for one day of your life. Take that seriously.

Verse 20 – The Wise Man Saves for the Future

Verse 20 states in the Living Bible, “The wise man saves for the future, but the foolish man spends whatever he gets.” We can apply that in two ways. We can apply that in relation to earthly things. The wise man saves for the future, but the foolish man spends whatever he gets. The wise man thinks, “Well, I’m not God.” It says in the Book of James, chapter 4, that I don’t even know what’s going to happen tomorrow.

It says, “You can’t even say tomorrow, I will go to that city and I will do this business and come back.” It says, “You must say, if the Lord wills,” for we do not know what one day can bring forth, even for believers. Therefore, a wise man thinks, “Yeah, I may have some need tomorrow.” Either I must have faith that God will provide my need, or if my faith is not that high—because God has allotted to each person a different measure of faith—and He may not have allotted to you and me the measure of faith that He allotted to George Müller or Hudson Taylor, we have to humble ourselves and say, “Lord, I don’t have that measure of faith.”

Well, maybe I need to save a little so that when my time of need comes next month, I don’t have to rush to the brothers and sisters for help, or go to some money lender to borrow, or sit there expecting somebody to come to me with a gift. All of these things are unworthy of a Christian. That’s because he’s been foolish; when he got something, he spent it all.

That can be a foolish thing to do when I don’t have any forethought about the future, that I spend whatever I get, I spend it all. Then I have to depend on gifts and become a sort of a dignified beggar after some time because I’m foolish. I don’t know how to manage my expense within my income. Maybe I’m foolish in the sense that I compare myself with other people.

It says that in 2 Corinthians 10:12: “Those who compare themselves with others are foolish.” I say, “I want to live like that person,” and the end result is I can’t manage it, and I am in debt. But the wise man saves for the future. We can say that wisdom is to be frugal; that is, not to waste unnecessarily anything. That is wisdom, so that we can have something in our time of need.

We can also apply that spiritually. Of course, we understand the meaning of that, like the wise virgins who had reserves of oil that kept them ready to meet the bridegroom when he came.

Verse 21 – Pursuing Righteousness

Verse 21 states, “He who pursues righteousness and loyalty finds life, righteousness, and honor.” That is very similar to what Jesus said in Matthew 6:33: “Seek the kingdom of God first and His righteousness, and all these other things will be added to you.” Those who hunger and thirst after righteousness will be satisfied. In other words, it’s those who pursue after it who get it. If you don’t pursue after it, it’s not going to come to anyone who sits back in an easy chair expecting God to give it to him.

Verse 22 – Wisdom Is Better Than Strength

Verse 22 reads, “A wise man scales the city of the mighty and brings down the stronghold in which they trust.” That basically means what it says elsewhere in the Book of Ecclesiastes: wisdom is better than strength. That has an application to many, many areas in life. Wisdom is able to overcome mighty walls that people have built.

You know, there’s a verse in scripture which says that a brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city. But a man of wisdom knows how to scale the walls of that city, how to win this offended brother back. Very few people have wisdom. They usually try to hammer against the walls, and it only ends up in that brother making the walls a little stronger. It’s not by strength; it’s not necessarily by rebuke, but by goodness.

There we see what a need there is for wisdom in all of us to be able to scale the city of the mighty. It is by good that we overcome evil. Wisdom is better than strength. If you have a wife who is offended, what’s the solution to that? She’s not going to talk to you. Well, you can handle strength with strength, tackle strength with strength, and say, “All right, I won’t talk to you either. Fine. We’ll see how long it lasts.” What is that? That is only folly.

The woman’s a fool there, and the man’s a greater fool. No, what he needs there is wisdom to scale this wall that his wife has built between him and her. How can I scale this with wisdom? Strength won’t do it; wisdom is better than strength. Or it can be the other way. Think of a wise woman who can scale the wall that her husband builds. That has many applications. A wise man can scale the city of the mighty and bring down the stronghold. Wonderful! And build a relationship.

Verse 23 – Keep Your Mouth Closed

Verse 23 reads like this in the Living Bible: “Keep your mouth closed and you’ll stay out of trouble.” That’s really true. A lot of people get into trouble just because they open their mouth. Keep your mouth shut and you’ll stay out of a lot of trouble—so much trouble. I mean, just think of all of us; we can look back in our past life, and I think all of us have experience in this area.

Think of the different situations where if you had just kept your mouth shut, some problem would never have arisen. But because we went ahead and opened our mouth, it caused more trouble. Particularly when we are young, we need to see that even a fool can be wise if he just keeps his mouth shut. What a lot of problems we cause just because we cannot keep our mouth shut. We lose our testimony, we mess up things, we spoil things, we make a mess of things just because we don’t keep our mouth shut.

Keep your mouth shut and you can stay out of a lot of trouble. Now the thing is, we can hear this, but we have to be gripped by it. Otherwise, we’ll still go ahead and do the same old thing. God’s intention is at least that we learn from our past follies so that we know in the future—particularly when we are in unrest about something.

My dear brothers and sisters, we don’t make laws in the church, but I’ll give you one simple principle to live by: when you are in unrest, keep your mouth shut—old or young—until you have come to rest, even if it takes one week. Keep your mouth shut, particularly when you’re in the presence of somebody who is causing that unrest to you. Very important. It’s a simple principle, but we haven’t followed it in the past and gotten into a lot of trouble and ruined our life. At least we can do that in the future.

Verse 24 – Conceit and Inconsideration

Verse 24 reads like this in the Good News Bible: “Show me a conceited person and I will show you someone who is arrogant, proud, and inconsiderate.” A conceited person is a person who thinks too much of himself, who’s got higher thoughts about his own spirituality and about his own worth than is really the case, which is the case with most people. That conceit is what makes him inconsiderate about the feelings and needs of other people.

One of the most important laws or principles for good relationships in the church and for wisdom in learning how to live with one another and get along with one another is this simple principle of consideration. Consideration for others. Consider the feelings of that person when you speak like that. Why is it we find it so difficult to be considerate? It’s because of conceit. That’s what this verse says.

It’s conceit that makes us inconsiderate towards the feelings of other people. When we are, there’s a certain pride in us, and that’s why we don’t have light on being considerate about others. For example, when a few people are sitting together and one person dominates the conversation and speaks the most, usually you can find that that is the most conceited person in that group because he has no consideration for others.

That’s a folly that all young people should get rid of. It’s one thing if it’s someone who’s got wisdom. Very often you find that there’s a tremendous amount of lack of consideration. That’s just a small area, but there can be many other areas where we can be inconsiderate towards the conveniences of other people. We can think only in terms of our own convenience, and that can be purely a result of conceit.

I think I’m so important that other people’s convenience must be secondary to mine. That is conceit. It’s good to have small thoughts about ourselves where we think more about the other person’s convenience than mine. That is humility.

Verses 25–26 – The Sluggard and the Righteous Giver

Verses 25 and 26 can be read together: “The desire of the sluggard—or as the Good News Bible says, a lazy man who refuses to work—is only killing himself. All he does is think about what he would like to have. A righteous man, however, can give and give generously.” Now it is the will of God that all of us become righteous. Though we may not begin there, we may begin without being righteous. We do not know how to give; we are dependent on other people giving us.

But we should never think that we should live there all our life. We are to move out of that. Think, for example, of this verse in Ephesians 4:28 which says, “Let him who steals, steal no longer, but rather let him work, working with his own hands what is good.” Not only so that he can meet his own need, but that he may have something to share with someone else who has need.

In other words, when a person comes into the church, even if he started off as a thief, his aim should be not only to give up stealing but to so take care of his own financial need that he can also give to someone else who has less than him. That should always be our goal. If we say, “Lord, that is what scripture says; I want to make that my goal in my life,” then we will find that we experience that blessing which Jesus said in Acts 20:35: “It’s more blessed to give than to receive.”

This verse also speaks about the diligence necessary for that.

Verse 27 – The Sacrifice of the Wicked

Verse 27 states, “The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination; how much more when he brings it with an evil intent.” In other words, the Lord hates it when wicked men offer Him sacrifices, especially if they are doing it from evil motives. It’s a hypocritical sacrifice.

The Lord hates the sacrifices of wicked people in any case, but particularly when it comes with a wrong motive. I can do something, for example, in the church which is a sacrifice, and yet I can do the whole thing with some selfish motive of my own gain in the whole thing. The Lord hates it. It looks like a sacrifice that I’ve made. The other brothers and sisters see what I’m doing, and they really think I’ve sacrificed.

But the Lord, who sees the inner motive and all the hidden things, sees that there’s some corrupt motive even in that sacrifice, which has gained the esteem of so many other brothers and sisters. The Lord hates it when people offer Him sacrifices with wrong motives.

Verse 28 – The Testimony of a Liar

Verse 28 states, “The testimony of a liar is not believed, but the word of someone who thinks matters through is accepted.” We must not get a testimony that we are not truthful. I just want to say it’s very easy—very easy—to get that testimony if we don’t hate lying in every form in our lives. The Word of God says in Colossians chapter 3, “Don’t tell lies to one another.”

In other words, it’s possible to tell a lie to a brother in the church because I want to give him the impression that I’m spiritual. In some particular situation, I say something which is not 100% true. I’ve given him a wrong impression because I want him to think I’m spiritual. If I tell him the real truth, it’ll put me in a bad light. It’s so easy to tell a lie—so easy.

That shows that I don’t love the truth. It’s far better that I become small in that brother’s eyes and love the truth rather than that I remain big in his eyes and God sees me as a liar. That happens a lot. If we really are honest, we will see what a fantastic amount of lying there is even in our conduct with one another.

If you haven’t seen that yet, brother and sister, I just say you’re not judging yourself sufficiently. Maybe that’s why we haven’t seen it. But when we judge ourselves, we discover what a fantastic amount of lying there can be in our conduct and in the words that we say to one another in the church. Here is where we need a radical cleansing from all lying.

Because the testimony of a liar is not believed. Whatever testimony I give cannot have power if I have not cleansed myself from lying. But the word of someone who thinks matters through is accepted. The man who listens to the truth, his word will be accepted.

Verse 29 – The Godly Man Reconsiders

Verse 29 reads like this in the Living Bible: “An evil man is stubborn, but a godly man will reconsider.” That’s a good verse to think of. To be stubborn about some decision we have taken or something we have done—to say that is right—can sometimes be the mark of an evil man. But a godly man is one who is humble enough to say, “I’m not God. I may have been mistaken.”

Like Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:12, “I don’t know myself fully. I don’t know everything perfectly.” A brother thinks about what you say: “Maybe I shouldn’t have said that. Maybe I shouldn’t have done that.” That must always be the attitude. A godly man is willing to reconsider. He makes his way sure, it says here. That means he tries to find out which is the perfect way.

Every man who is not perfect is willing to reconsider his way, and none of us are perfect. To press on to perfection means to find that perfect middle path and to say, “Yeah, I may be drifting maybe half a degree only, but maybe a little off from the center.” I just want to think about what that person said. Sometimes maybe you got a hard letter from someone who hates you. Take it before the Lord because sometimes our enemies tell more truths about us than our friends.

You know that. Even those who speak straight to us, our enemies can sometimes tell us more truths about us than our friends, and it’s good to think, “Is there some truth in that? Let me think about it before God.”

Verse 30 – Human Wisdom Is No Help Without God

Verse 30 in the Good News Bible reads like this: “Human wisdom and brilliance and insight, they are all of no help if the Lord is against you.” Think of that. All our human wisdom, all our brilliance, and all our insight—none of it is of absolutely no use if the Lord is against us. We know that according to the Word of God, God is basically against the proud.

God is against the proud, it says in 1 Peter 5:5. If I am proud, then all my brilliance and cleverness and wisdom and everything—even spiritual wisdom and brilliance—is just no use if God is against me. It’s far better to have God on my side than all this human cleverness and everything else.

Verse 31 – Victory Belongs to the Lord

Verse 31 states, “The horse is prepared for the day of battle, but victory belongs to the Lord.” It says here you can get the horses ready for battle, but it’s the Lord alone who can give you the victory. That’s related to what we see in verse 29. If you turn to 2 Chronicles chapter 14, verses 9-11, there’s a very beautiful story there that can be an encouragement to us.

There was a king in the Old Testament called Asa. Asa was a man who started off very well, but he did not end very well. When he started off, he trusted in the Lord. We read in 2 Chronicles 14:9 that against Asa, the Ethiopian army came out against him with an army of one million men. Think of that! Ten lakhs of people came to fight against him, and 300 chariots, and Asa went out to meet him.

Verse 11 states, “Asa called to the Lord his God and said, ‘Lord, there is no one besides Thee to help in the battle. So help us, O Lord, for we trust in Thee.'” It says here in verse 12, “The Lord routed these one million Ethiopians.” These things are written for our encouragement. One million people may come against us. If we humble ourselves at that time and say, “Lord, I don’t trust in my horses. I don’t trust in my chariots. I don’t trust in my influence or my power or my ability. I trust only in You,” the God who helped Asa will help us too.

But the same man Asa, a little later in chapter 16, we read that when the king of Israel came against him, Asa did not seek the Lord for help. It says he went and asked for help from the king of Syria. There was a prophet who came to the king in verse 7 and said, “Because you relied on the king of Syria and you did not rely on the Lord, therefore you will not be able to overcome this army.”

We’re not the Ethiopians—that’s the one we saw in chapter 14, an immense army, one million people. Yet, because you relied on the Lord, He delivered them into your hand. Here is that verse which we’re all familiar with. It comes in this context: “The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to strongly support those whose heart is completely His.”

When you read the context, you understand what it means to have a heart completely His. That means those whose hearts are completely relying on His help alone and who are not depending on human help but who depend on the Lord. But then here you have acted foolishly. From now on, you will have wars. Asa became more stupid; it says he was angry with the prophet and just put him in prison.

That doesn’t solve the problem; you get angry with the man who tells you the truth. But that’s how many people even today—the fate of many preachers. They go up to someone and tell them the truth; the man gets angry with them instead of judging themselves.

Proverbs Chapter 22 – A Good Name Over Great Riches

Now we move to chapter 22, verse 1. The Living Bible says, “If you must choose, take a good name rather than great riches. For to be held in loving esteem is better than silver and gold.” It’s far better to have a good testimony in your locality than to be known as a rich man in your locality. It’s far better to have a testimony in your locality that you are righteous, upright, humble, good, loving, kind, and pure rather than to have a testimony in your locality that you are wealthy and have this, that, and the other.

That’s basically what that verse means.

Verse 2 – All Are Equal Before God

Verse 2 states, “The rich and the poor have a common bond. The Lord is the maker of them all,” which teaches us that basically all human beings are equal in God’s eyes. If in my thinking I despise any human being—either because of his community, background, education, intelligence, culture, or barbarianism—that shows that I have not understood the first thing about God, that God is the one who has made all people.

If I haven’t understood that first thing, there’s not much hope that I’ll understand anything else about God. It’s one of the first things I need to understand: that God has made all people, and He’s made them all equal. There are these differences of wealth and intelligence and color and culture, but in God’s eyes, they’re all the same. We need to look at every single human being, particularly when we look at the poor people—those who are far beneath us in social level.

I’m not talking about our neighbors; they are usually around the same social level. I’m talking about the people who are very much lower than us, very much lower, much lower levels of society—to see them as equal to us in God’s eyes. Now that’s something we must always keep in mind. That person may be poor, I may be rich, but in God’s eyes, we’re just the same. One day when we stand before the judgment seat, none of us will be on a higher level than the other person.

All are going to stand on the same level ground. It’s good to keep that in mind always.

Verse 3 – The Prudent Sees Danger Ahead

Verse 3 states, “The prudent sees the evil and hides himself, but the simple go on and are punished.” That teaches us that wisdom is to think ahead and to consider, “If I go this way, there can be some snare of the devil there.”

He sees the evil ahead and avoids it, whereas the simple person just goes on simply and falls into the pit which the devil has made. Jesus said, “Be shrewd as serpents,” to think ahead and to see what will happen if I continue along this way. What will happen if I bring up my children like this? What will happen if I run my home like this? What will happen if I continue along this way in my office and doing this?

Or in this type of conversation, what will happen if I continue this friendship with this particular person? Where is it going to finally lead to? The wise person sees all that and takes precautions now itself. The simple person says, “Yeah, the Lord will take care of it.” He’s got spiritual language for all this and goes ahead and falls.

Verse 4 – Humility and the Fear of the Lord

Verse 4 states, “The reward of humility and the fear of the Lord are riches, honor, and life.” We can say that those are the two things which are the most important qualities for the soil in which the fruit of the Spirit is to grow. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.

In the fruit of the Spirit, we don’t see humility, and we don’t see the fear of God. Why is that? Because humility and the fear of God are the soil on which the fruit grows. We can say they are the two most important qualities for the soil in which the fruit of the Spirit is to grow. By humility and the fear of the Lord are all spiritual riches, all spiritual honor, and all spiritual life.

We have to cultivate these qualities. This is to dig up the fallow ground: to humble ourselves, to fear God, to humble ourselves and fear God so that the fruit of the Spirit can grow forth in our life.

Verse 5 – Thorns and Snares of the Perverse

Verse 5 speaks about something else that can grow up. If we don’t have this type of soil, “Thorns and snares are in the way of the perverse.” You know, Jesus said in the parable of the sower about the man in whose ground the seed brought forth fruit, but then thorns grew up. Thorns can’t grow up in a soil that has got humility and the fear of God.

It’s because of a lack of humility and a lack of the fear of God that these thorns grow up—the lusts for so many things, the deceitfulness of riches, the cares of this world—and crush and crowd out the fruit that God is seeking to grow in our lives. Thorns and snares are in the way of the perverse, but he who guards himself will be far from them. That means the person has to guard himself in order to stay far away from these thorns. He has to pull out the weeds.

Verse 6 – Train Up a Child

Verse 6 states, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” It doesn’t tell us here how many years a person is a child. It doesn’t say, “Train up a young man”; it says, “Train up a child.” I would think it’s probably referring to the first 12 years of a person’s life. The first 12 years a person is a child; after that, he’s growing up to be a young man or a young woman.

Those 12 years God gives to us as parents to train up, to discipline, to teach, to correct, to rebuke, to punish, to encourage, to strengthen, to challenge, and to train that child in the way that he should go. When he is old, what we have labored in all those years—just like the evil that the wicked does boomerangs on him—this that we have sowed will one day, even if the child drifts away for a while, come finally, it will come back and bring that person to the Lord.

So that’s very important: those early years of a person’s life. A father and mother who have no time for their children in those first 12 years to teach them the way of the Lord will leave it to the Sunday school to do that or the church will do that. They will have to reap the consequences in later years.

That’s the sad thing we see today so often: how when you have situations where parents are too busy—sometimes father and mother are all out to work, and the child is alone at home—they’re busy making money. But money is not what that child needs in the first 12 years. It can do with a little less. It can do with a mother who has time to instruct that boy or girl in those early years.

That’s something we need to think of, those of us who have growing children: never think that time spent with our children in those first 12 years is a wasted time at all. It’s the most important investment we can ever make in all of our life as parents.

Verse 7 – The Borrower Becomes a Slave

Verse 7 states, “The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower becomes the lender’s slave.” Now that’s basically what is the result of getting into debt. When we get into debt, it says we become a slave. It’s not God’s will that any of us should become slaves. That’s why the Word of God says in Romans 13:8, “Owe no man anything.”

If we are not wholehearted to take seriously that exhortation that we should never be in debt—”Owe no man anything”—then we shall remain slaves. Because it says here, “The borrower is a slave to the lender.” Then I’m a slave, and I have to cry out to God and say, “Lord, all my spirituality and all my knowledge is just a lot of garbage as long as I’m a slave. Help me to be free from the slavery and never to be in the slavery at any time of my life.”

Let no one deceive himself here: keep out of debt. There’s a sad story we read in 2 Kings chapter 4. You know the story of that widow who came to Elisha, and Elisha told her to go and borrow vessels from all her neighbors and to pour the little oil that she had. But what was her problem? Leaving aside the miracle, what was her problem? Her problem was that her husband had died and left her in debt.

He was a preacher! Think of that! He was a man who spoke the Word of God, and he left his wife in debt. It was a shameful thing to do. No, we should never do such a thing. That’s why it’s very important that we never get into debt at all.

Overcoming Anger and the Blessings of Generosity

Verse 8 in the Living Bible states, “The unjust tyrant will reap disaster, and his reign of terror shall end.” We can see that happening in many countries around us in the world—in Asia and Africa—where some unjust tyrant dominates the people, and then finally he’s assassinated, and his reign of terror ends.

We are not in that danger because none of us are going to rule any countries. But we can apply this to ourselves in areas where we tend to be tyrants towards somebody else. It says here that the rod of his fury will perish. A time can come if I haven’t overcome my anger in my younger days, a time can come when I’m older—physically weaker, mentally weaker, emotionally weaker—and this anger just overpowers me.

It frustrates me because my body is not strong enough like it was in my younger days. I could explode in anger, get people to do what I wanted like a father who’s a tyrant over his children. He hasn’t overcome his anger. He can be old, and his body becomes weak, but he hasn’t overcome his anger yet. There can be a frustration there that makes him irritable, that hinders his own spiritual life.

It’s good to overcome anger quickly—quickly. It’s good not to be a tyrant over anyone—not over our children, not over servants, over no one—to learn to overcome our anger.

The Blessing of Generosity

Verse 9 states, “He who is generous will be blessed, for he gives some of his food to the poor.” That’s a truth we have already considered on a number of occasions. Just notice that the book of Proverbs repeats some truths again and again and again and again for emphasis. It’s more blessed to give than to receive. There’s a blessing in being generous.

Driving Out Pride to Preserve Peace

Verse 10 states, “Drive out the scoffer, the proud man, and contention will go out. Even strife and dishonor will cease.” Get rid of that conceited person, and then there’ll be no more arguments or quarreling or strife. There must be no place for a proud person in the church of the living God. All strife comes through proud people, and the preaching of the Word must be of such a nature always in the church that there is no place for proud, conceited people to have any place there.

That’s how we keep the church free from strife.

Purity of Heart and Graciousness of Speech

Verse 11 states, “Two things, purity of heart and graciousness of speech makes the Lord the King our friend.” “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks,” Jesus said. When there is purity in the heart and graciousness in our speech, the Lord the King will be our friend.

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