PROFITING FROM PROVERBS

“He that soweth iniquity shall reap vanity: and the rod of his anger shall fail . . . Cast out the scorner, and contention shall go out; yea, strife and reproach shall cease. He that loveth pureness of heart, for the grace of his lips the king shall be his friend” (Proverbs 22:8, 10-11).

What a man sows is what he reaps. Haman sowed iniquity, he reaped vanity. We see something like this in 14:3: “In the mouth of the foolish is a rod of pride: but the lips of the wise shall preserve them.” The Devil has a rod. He tries to beat the nations with it. It will fail. “He that sows iniquity shall reap vanity,” eventually God will take it away from him.

The Syrian in Isaiah 10:5-14 is a rod of God’s anger. God eventually brings judgment upon him. His rod will fail.

“Cast out the scorner, and contention shall go out; yea, strife and reproach shall cease” (Proverbs 22:10).

What this is telling us is that discipline and judgment is needed in the home and in the believer’s life. If there is any scorn in you, cast it out, then strife and reproach will end in your life. If you have a scorner in your house, cast him out. Do you want peace in your home, then you need discipline in the home. The church is the same way, there needs to be discipline. The same is true of the country, the scorners need to be dealt with according to the law.

To the rest of the world, America is a reproach, because we allow people to burn our own flag, and we allow people to curse our own president. It is necessary to the common order to have a free society, but there must be lawful restraints. We have carried it too far. Speech should be free, but only within the scope of the law. It is against the law to burn our flag.

“Cast out the scorner, and contention shall go out,” if we’d just deal with these people in America that are sowing discord, and we will enjoy the peace we are meant to.

“He that loveth pureness of heart, for the grace of his lips the king shall be his friend” (Proverbs 22:11).

Now notice, “grace of the lips,” in other words, gracious things coming out, are the result of the pureness of one’s heart. We see this in Matthew, where Jesus says, “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh” (12:34).

“Righteous lips are the delight of kings; and they love him that speaketh right” (Proverbs 16:13).

Notice that when a man is right with God, and right with himself, he will have gracious lips and he will have friends in high places. That’s the best way to do get what you want, just do right. To many people are hasty to get it all now.

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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