The Scoffer and the Simple

For Friday, January 5, 2006
Proverbs 19:25

Strike a scoffer, and the simple will learn prudence;
reprove a man of understanding, and he will gain knowledge.

Strike the scoffer and at best he will curtail his behavior; yet he will not learn. As Proverbs 9:7, 8 note: Whoever corrects a scoffer gets himself abuse...Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you. A scoffer is someone to be controlled. His attitude prevents him from actually changing. He only grows more hardened.

The simple, however, might change, whether he be the one receiving punishment or observes it in on others. He is the foolish teenager who cleans up his act when a friend dies in a drunken car wreck; he is the person who hangs out with the wrong crowd, but wises up when they get arrested. He has a chance to change for the good because he is marked more by folly than by a hardened heart.

The man of understanding welcomes and improves from being reproved. Because his desire is for knowledge rather than to be thought knowledgeable, he benefits from correction. Because he desires more to give than to receive, to be useful than to attain luxury, he benefits from lessons regardless how they are delivered to him.

This is a theme that runs through Proverbs. It is attitude that matters. To be wise one must desire wisdom, and as one grows in understanding then he will all the more grow in wisdom and knowledge. In the matter of wisdom and knowledge it is true that he who has little will lose what he has, while he who has much will receive all the more.

Pray for the scoffer to be restrained; pray for the simple to learn prudence; pray for yourself that you may be a person of understanding who gains wise knowledge from each days lessons, however those lessons come your way.

The Sluggard

For Thursday, January 4, 2007
Proverbs 19:24

The sluggard buries his hand in the dish
and will not even bring it back to his mouth.

The sluggard begins a task and does not complete it, even the simplest task. "I'm tired," he says. Everything is work; it takes too much effort.

But if the hand does not bring back the food to the mouth then the sluggard will become only more tired and even malnourished. It is making the effort that gives the energy, and the result of the effort that gives the food so there can be more energy. What is the prescription for feeling tired? Doctors say exercise. The very thing a tired person doesn't want to do is what will cure him of his tiredness.

Extend this to productive labor. If the sluggard will push himself to work, he will reap the benefit of affording food and even labor saving devices. He will earn the opportunity to rest if he works productively. His very laziness prevents him from doing what he desires most, which is to avoid strenuous activity.

Thus the sluggard creates more worse conditions for himself which makes the smallest activity strenuous; the energetic person can afford rest, but now that he is energized he enjoys activity. And that becomes the true payoff. The true difference between the sluggard and the active person is that the latter has the energy to enjoy life.

The Fear of the Lord

For Wednesday, January 3, 2007
Proverbs 19:23

The fear of the Lord leads to life,
and whoever has it rests satisfied;
he will not be visited by harm.

The "fear of the Lord" is not a popular concept in modern Christianity. We associate such an idea with pagan religion in which worshippers cringe before an idol in terror or a slave trembling before a cruel master. And yet scripture portrays the fear of the Lord as something to desire. As the proverb says, it "leads to life."

Some say "fear" should be understood as "respect." Fear does include respect, but there is more to it than that. When Isaiah "saw the Lord" (cf Isaiah 6:1ff), he did not pay his respect to God; he cried out, "Woe is me!" When John saw "one like a son of man" (cf Revelation 1:12ff), he did not politely bow his head. And yet, neither men experienced the sense of terror one feels in the presence of mere power or of evil.

I have found C. S. Lewis' depiction of a holy fear helpful in understanding the fear of the Lord. In
Perelandra he describes the feeling of coming in the presence of an "eldil," what we would know as an arch-angel.

"My fear was now of another kind. I felt sure that the creature was what we call 'good,' but I wasn't sure whether I liked 'goodness' so much as I had supposed. This is a very terrible experience. As long as what you are afraid of is something evil, you may still hope that the good may come to your rescue. But suppose you struggle through to the good and find that it also is dreadful? How if food itself turns out to be the very thing you can't eat, and home the very place you can't live, and your very comforter the person who makes you uncomfortable? Then, indeed, there is no rescue possible: the last card has been played. For a second or two I was nearly in that condition. Here at last was a bit of that world from beyond the world, which I had always supposed that I loved and desired, breaking through and appearing to my senses: and I didn't like it, I wanted it to go away. I wanted every possible distance, gulf, curtain, blanket, and barrier to be placed betweeen it and me. But I did not fall quite into the gulf. Oddly enough my very sense of helplessness saved me and steadied me. For now I was quite obviously 'drawn in.' The struggle was over. The next decision did not lie with me."

Perhaps Lewis picks up on why the fear of the Lord allows one to rest satisfied. For really happens is not that we break through to good, but that "Good" breaks through to us, forcing us to be helpless, forcing us to let the "next decision" lie with God. There is a sense that we cannot trust God until we fear him; we cannot really love God for who he is until we understand what it is to fear him. We cannot really know fear until we behold the "one like a son of man" dying on a cross for our sin.

Steadfast Love

For Tuesday, January 2, 2007
Proverbs 19:22

What is desired in a man is steadfast love,
and a poor man is better than a liar.

It is better to have a poor friend who shows steadfast love through all circumstances than to have wealthy friends who are false. It is better to be a person who shows such love than to attain wealth and friends through deception. Money cannot compare in value to friendship, and friendship is only as valuable as the steadfast love that bonds it.

But understand that what matters is what God desires to see in a person. It is God who desires to see steadfast love. He could care less for the wealth a person has; he values highly for the love a person possesses. He detests a liar. Offer to God your wealth; but that wealth should spring out of your steadfast love.

And understand that God values what he possesses. He values steadfast love for he supremely holds such a trait.

"The steadfast love of God endures all the day" (Psalm 52:1)

"Answer me, O Lord, for your steadfast love is good" (Psalm 69:16).

"It is good...to declare your steadfast love in the morning" (Psalm 92:2).

"Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever! (Psalm 106:1).

And how has his supremely demonstrated such love? "In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins" (1 John 4:10).