PROVERBS
23:1-18 – ‘Continue in the fear of the Lord all day long.
Let reverence for the Lord be the concern of your life’. To those who
put Him first in their lives, God gives His great promise of blessing,
‘There is surely a future hope for you. You have a bright future. Surely
you have a wonderful future ahead of you’ (17-18). What a glorious
future lies ahead of those who love the Lord: ‘No eye has seen, no ear
has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who
love Him’ (1 Corinthians 2:9)! We must not become ‘short-sighted’. We
must look ahead to ‘the eternal Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ’. God has given us ‘His very great and precious promises’. Let us
press on in ‘faith’, becoming more and more ‘active and effective in
our knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ’ (2 Peter 1:3-11).
23:19-35 – ‘Keep your heart on the right path’ (19). How are
we to do this? We must seek ‘truth, wisdom, instruction and
understanding’ (23). We must give our hearts to Christ. He is ‘the
Truth’ (John 14:6). We must open our hearts to Christ. He is ‘our
Wisdom’ (1 Corinthians 1:30). Opening our hearts will mean opening our
Bibles. Giving our hearts to Christ will mean giving time to reading
God’s Word. As we read ‘the Scriptures’, we will receive ‘instruction’.
We will learn about ‘salvation through faith in Christ Jesus’. We will
receive ‘instruction for right living’ (2 Timothy 3:14-17). As we read
God’s Word, we must pray that the Holy Spirit will give us
‘understanding’ (1 Corinthians 2:9-13). ‘Be filled with the Spirit’.
‘Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly’ (Ephesians 5:18; Colossians
3:16).
24:1-14 – ‘Wisdom is sweet to your soul. If you find it,
there is a future hope for you’ (14). How do we find wisdom? We read the
written Word of God, seeking God’s promised blessing: ‘The law of the
Lord is perfect and revives the soul. The Lord’s instruction never
fails. and makes the simple wise’. As we read God’s written Word,
keeping our eyes fixed on Christ, the living ‘Word’ of God’, we discover
that He is the ‘Wisdom’ which is ‘sweeter than honey’and we rejoice in
Him, our ‘Hope of glory’ – ‘You believe in Him and are filled with an
inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your
faith, the salvation of your souls’ (John 1:1-2,14; 1 Corinthians 1:30;
Psalm 19:7,10; Colossians 1:27; 1 Peter 1:8). ‘Ask God’ for
‘wisdom’.‘Seek and you will find’ (James 1:5-8; Matthew 7:7).
24:15-34 – ‘Though a righteous man falls seven times, he
rises again’ (15). We are ‘kept by the power of God’. We do not raise
ourselves. It is the Lord who is ‘able to keep us from falling’. He
‘knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations’ (1 Peter 1:5; Jude
24; 2 Peter 2:9). When our ‘faith’ is ‘tested by fire’, we must pray
that God will give us His victory: ‘Our God whom we serve is able to
deliver us from the burning fiery furnace’ (1 Peter 1:6-7;Daniel 3:17).
When our strength is almost gone, the Lord comes with His Word: ‘My
grace is sufficient for you. My power is made perfect in weakness’ (2
Corinthians 12:9), ‘Amazing grace!… Through many dangers, toils and
snares, I have already come. ‘Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far,
and grace will lead me home’ (Mission Praise, 31).
25:1-28 – ‘The Lord will reward you’ (22). The work done by
God’s servants is tested by fire: ‘the fire will test what sort of work
each one has done’. There is work of real ‘quality’ – ‘gold, silver,
precious stones’. There is work which has no real value – ‘wood, hay,
straw’. God wants us to think about the work we do in His Name. We are
to ‘remove the dross from the silver’ (4). We are not to be content with
superficial work which does not lead to changed lives. Our words are to
be ‘apples of gold in a setting of silver’. They are to be words of
wisdom, words which are ‘better than fine gold’, words which ‘surpass
choice silver’ (11; 8:19). We are to bring God’s Word -‘good news’ – and
God’s Spirit -‘rivers of living water’ – to our hearers (25; 1 Peter
1:12,23-25; John 7:37-39).
26:1-28 – ‘There is a lion in the road, a fierce lion roaming the streets!’ (13). This is the voice of fear speaking. We need to speak with the voice of faith
– ‘I believed, and so I spoke’ (2 Corinthians 4:13). We know that ‘the
devil prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour’.
The devil can fill us with fear. We must not let him do this. We must
face him with faith – ‘Resist him, standing firm in the faith’ (1 Peter
5:8-9). When we ‘resist the devil’, standing firm in the faith, ‘he will
flee from us’ (James 4:7). Let us face the ‘roaring lion’ with faith in
an even more powerful ‘Lion’. Jesus Christ – ‘the Lion of Judah’ – ‘has
conquered’ Satan. He ‘has triumphed’ over him (Revelation 5:5). May
Christ’s ‘perfect love drive out our fear’ (1 John 4:18).
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