PROFITING FROM PROVERBS

“The evil bow before the good; and the wicked at the gates of the righteous. The poor is hated even of his own neighbour: but the rich hath many friends” (Proverbs 14:19-20).

“The evil bow before the good,” they may not do it in this life, but the day will certainly come when this will be accomplished: “That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:10-11).

One day every evil person will bow before that which is good—Jesus Christ. He said that “there is none good but God,” and to the rich young ruler in Matthew 19, he said “and you are looking at Him.” Man will save himself a whole lot of trouble then, if he’ll just go ahead and do it now.

“. . . and the wicked at the gates of the righteous,” and not only will one day they will bow before Jesus Christ, but they will also do so before us. All those people that mocked us, whether in person or online, they will fall on their faces before us and acknowledge that we were right and they were wrong. I can only imagine that many of them will beg us to intercede for them before God but they will be reminded that there was only one intercessor between God and man, and that was the Man they rejected in life: “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (I Timothy 2:5). Not Mary, and certainly not us, the saints. Not Mary Baker Eddy, not Joseph Smith, and not Judge Rutherford.

This event will occur before the gates of the New City Jerusalem. It is just the reverse of this now, but this will happen in God’s perfect timetable.

Now we get into some money matters.

“The poor is hated even of his own neighbour,” other poor folks. “I’m poor, you’re poor—you can’t help me. You are not my friend.” Poor folks can barely stand themselves, let alone other poor people. One fellow said, “If you are poor, ain’t nobody know you; but if you are rich, you don’t even know yourself!” Who wants to run around with poor folks? Well, the Bible says to “be of the same mind one toward another. Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits” (Romans 12:16).

In other words, Paul is saying that we would be better off running around with people that know what life is all about, and don’t have all the junk that the world considers success. These would be saved people that are very rich in heaven’s treasures, though poor of the trappings of earth. Their concern is for people, and not for things and money.

“. . . but the rich hath many friends,” they are temporary. The prodigal son of Luke 15 had all sorts of friends while the money held out, but once the money was gone, they were gone—and all he had left to hang around with were the hogs. That’s just a maxim of life. “. . . but the rich hath many friends,” and friends of that nature are very expensive.

Daily Bible study is necessary if we are going to begin our day with the right attitude and the right spiritual diet. Proverbs has 31 chapters, and most months have 31 days, so let’s read a chapter of Proverbs a day and see what God might have for us. As the Lord leads, share with us what God has shown you in a special way and by His grace let us build up a devotional repository. Let’s keep our knives and forks handy for some daily bread! Ideally, a chapter or two of Proverbs will fit in nicely with a good plan of reading our Bibles through each year.

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