PROFITING FROM PROVERBS

“Exalt her, and she shall promote thee: she shall bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace her" (Proverbs 4:8).

One of the keys to a good ministry is trying to emphasize what God emphasizes, in proportion to how He emphasizes it. We know how often the Lord talks about idols, and we know how often the Lord speaks of sin, and of Hell, and of judgment and those things. Yes, the Lord also speaks of love, and the Lord speaks of tenderness and kindness and all those things as well. Do you know how much the Lord talk about the word of God?

So, if you attend every single service of a Bible-believing church that lifts up and exalts the word of God, if you go there and you get something exalting or magnifying the word of God there is no way possible that anyone could ever be off balance as far as the proportion of the Bible that talks about the Bible.

“Exalt her [talking about wisdom], and she shall promote thee: she shall bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace her.”

There's a difference between this world promotion and how the Bible promotes you. When we look for a promotion in this world, we're talking about climbing the ladder somehow. We're talking about getting paid more. We're talking about eventually winding up in a corner office and all that kind of stuff. Well, that's all fine and good and it's not wrong for you to be promoted in your job; but there's a different kind of promotion that you need to start seeking: “Exalt her, and she shall promote thee,” there's a promotion that is nothing like anything in this world. Like everything else, there's two kinds of promotion, such as two kinds of wisdom and two kinds of understanding and two kinds of knowledge. There is a promotion that comes from this world, or perhaps even from the devil; and then there's a promotion that comes from God:

“Lift not up your horn on high: speak not with a stiff neck. For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another" (Psalms 75:5-7).

One guy is demoted. He's put down, and the other guy is set up. He's promoted. So, Proverbs chapter 4, verse 8, says that “she shall promote thee.” The Lord promotes His people with wisdom and with understanding: “The wise shall inherit glory: but shame shall be the promotion of fools" (Proverbs 3:35).

So, the promotion of the wise is that they will get glory, and the promotion of fools is that they will get shame.

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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