PROFITING FROM PROVERBS

“For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee. The morsel which thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up, and lose thy sweet words . . . Apply thine heart unto instruction, and thine ears to the words of knowledge” (Proverbs 23:7-8, 12).

When a kid messes up in a horrible way and commits some crime, almost immediately people say, “Well, he’s a good kid.” No, he’s not! He has an evil heart and his evil deeds proceed from that heart. He is not a good kid. No, he does not really have a good heart. “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.”

“Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee,” he is deceitful and trying to trip you up. “ The morsel which thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up, and lose thy sweet words,” if a man’s appetite leads him to excess, he will vomit, and all the flattering words you have said will fly away. It will not have done you any good to say any of those things, those sweet words.

“For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.” In connection with this consider this expression:

Sow a thought, reap a deed; Sow a deed, reap a habit; Sow a habit, reap a character; Sow a character, reap a destiny. What a man thinks in his heart, That is eventually what he is.

First clause—read the Word of God— “Apply thine heart unto instruction.” Second clause—listen to good, sound preaching— “[Apply] thine ears to the words of knowledge.”

Solomon dealt with the important matter of receiving knowledge back in Chapters 2, 5, and 8. We are simply to work at it, apply it, get in there and study. Don’t just listen to a message and take notes and that is all the further you go with it. Heart knowledge is gained only after applying truths to your life and making them part of your character. Head knowledge is only that, and it doesn’t last as long.

There was a time when I was deeply involved with memorizing whole books in the Bible, about half of Paul’s epistles. I admit that I had them down, and could quote chapter 1, verse one clear through to the last chapter, last verse. But I had to constantly review it because I would forget them after a time. Now, the review wasn’t difficult and was back to quoting the whole book again within a couple of weeks, but again the book would fade. I simply had a head knowledge, but not a heart knowledge. I was saved, no question about that, but my work was bypassing my heart and simply filling up my head. My head leaked.

Study the stuff, look the verses up, and try to find a way to make them apply to your life. As babies growing up, we learn to identify with the things that we experience so that they become second nature to us. We don’t even have to stop and contemplate the color blue—we just know it without thinking about it. Certain verses are like that for us. John 3:16 is so much a part of a born-again believer that he doesn’t even have to try to remember it—it just flows off the top of his mind like nothing.

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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