Posted on 10/26/2020 7:18:59 AM PDT by Pilgrim's Progress
“The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason” (Proverbs 26:16 KJV).
TODAY’S VERSE:
“The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason” (Proverbs 26:16 KJV).
Often when Scripture uses the number seven it is not conveying an exact figure but is rather addressing a sense of completeness. In other words, the subject of this verse is wiser than anyone else that he might meet along the way. In the sense of being complete, one might also infer that this man believes himself to be even wiser than God Himself.
Occasionally I will sit down behind my keyboard and begin to work on a devotion without any thought of asking God for spiritual guidance and understanding of a passage or verse. I manage to write the daily work without so much as a, “help me Lord!” And then I present it as something from God when it is nothing more than my own thoughts. I thank God that He somehow blesses anyway, but then I catch myself and chastise myself by asking, “What? I don’t need God’s help. Do I think that I can act independently of God and expect His blessing?”
Paul told the believers to “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (II Timothy 2:15 KJV).
There is so much contained in this one verse that one could spend months mining out the great truths. All Christians want God’s approval, but they are unwilling to study His Word which is the source of that approval. They are hoping for something with little effort on their part. Christians hope that when they face God one day, they will not be ashamed, while their Bible lays unread on a coffee table or back seat of their car—only to be opened on Sunday in the church. And then they are so excited about the blessed hope of the church—the return of Jesus Christ—but yet they fail to understand God’s dispensational program for His church. God tells us that we must be able to “rightly divide” His Word.
The Christian that is a sluggard knows that he has eternal life and that he cannot lose his salvation, but he doesn’t see any necessity to study and grow in the Lord. And because he doesn’t know the difference between Jesus’ ministry to Israel and Paul’s ministry to the church, he struggles to explain what “enduring to the end” means in relation to one’s remaining in relationship with God. Because he does not recognize Jesus’ specific teachings dealing with the Millennial kingdom, he gets confused with those that would trip him up with the “sermon on the mount.”
All that we have and all that we are is because of God and His love for us. We are nothing apart from Him, and the presence of the Holy Spirit indwelling us for power and for service. Let us take heed to Paul’s warning: “Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God” (Ephesians 5:14-21 KJV).
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