PROFITING FROM PROVERBS

“Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth. Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee: love her, and she shall keep thee. Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding. Exalt her, and she shall promote thee: she shall bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace her" (Proverbs 4:5-8).

First of all, with this wisdom thing. You’ll exalt one thing or another in life. You'll either exalt something pure and right, you'll either exalt wisdom and understanding or some such thing; or you will exalt foolishness, and that's what this verse says: “He that is slow to wrath is of great understanding: but he that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly" (Proverbs 14:29).

He holds up folly to the light like some professional football team did with the Lombardi trophy every February and exalt it. Now, it says in proverbs 4, “Exalt her,” talking about wisdom. “Exalt her, and she shall promote thee.” Now, there's something to exalt, and it's not a popular thing to exalt wisdom because folks just don't like to hear it.

Our best bet is to exalt what God exalted, because if you will exalt what the Lord exalted; then you are in good shape. Do you know that He exalted? His son, Jesus Christ. Okay, you know that's true but there is this also this one also.

“I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name" (Psalms 138:2).

Stop and think about that one for a second, because Jehovah is held pretty high. “I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images" (Isaiah 42:8).

Now, look, He exalts his word above all his own name. The word of God is more important to God than his name. I've seen people that won't spell out the name of God . . . they write G-d, and those same people have poo-pooed the Bible as our final authority. They are exalting the wrong thing.

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.

If anyone would like to be added to the ping list, please let me know either by post or by p.m.

For more books on all topics of the Bible, visit my web site at:

BAPTIST BIBLE BELIEVERS WEBSITE

BEGGARS AT A CAMP MEETING - KING JAMES BIBLE PREACHIN' GOOD OL' BOYS

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.