PROFITING FROM PROVERBS

“A naughty person, a wicked man, walketh with a froward mouth. He winketh with his eyes, he speaketh with his feet, he teacheth with his fingers; Frowardness is in his heart, he deviseth mischief continually; he soweth discord" (Proverbs 6:12-14).

“Frowardness is in his heart, he deviseth mischief continually,” “Mischief” in the Bible is also like that word, “naughty.” Some folks say that the boys are getting into mischief while they are blowing up somebody’s mailbox with a firecracker. No, naughtiness and mischief in the Bible are not cute.

“. . . he deviseth mischief continually; he soweth discord.” Now, that discord sown, of course, is a huge theme in this passage. In verse 14, he sows discord, and then in verse 19 brackets some other things, but the sowing of discord among the brethren; and that sowing of discord is something that started a long, long, time ago that that's what the devil did. The devil sowed discord between Eve and the Lord. That’s all that thing was. Then, the devil sowed discord between Abel and Cain, and that's all that thing was; and then Korah comes along and starts badmouthing Moses, and saying, “You lift yourself up too high above the people of God, we’re all holy, and all this kind of thing. He got all the nobles together and got a group and got the strife on, and that's all that happened. It was just discord. And then here's Miriam and Aaron and their displeased over the fact that Moses married an Ethiopian woman, and they get something going. Miriam winds up with leprosy and would have been thrown out of the camp if Moses had not intervened with God on her behalf. That thing is a cord that runs all the way through the Bible: sowing discord. Anyone can sow discord easily. Tones and inflections are enough sometimes to get major rumors started.

That’s why diplomats and ambassadors of countries have a strict diplomatic language and they can be so aggravating. This is why there are lawyers. Those phrases mean very specific things in a court of law. So, even in private conversation, just a roll of the eye, or a little bit of a wink, or a little bit of a shake of the head at the right time while talking about somebody lets everybody in the circle know that a little bit of something else is going on. And boy, you let a human being get off on thinking what else might be going on and the boulder is rolling then!

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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