PROFITING FROM PROVERBS

“It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter” (Proverbs 25:2 KJV).

For good reasons, God conceal some things: “But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God” (I Corinthians 2:7-10).

There Paul says God chooses to reveal His secrets to his children, and not to unbelievers. You'll find in Matthew chapter 13 when they asked him why he spoke in parables He said, “It is given to you to know, but to them [the unbelievers] it is not given, because they don't want the truth.” So, that brings honor and glory to God. He shows it to who wants it and he doesn't show it to those who don't want it. That shows that He understands man so well [He is so all-knowing] that he can do that. So, “it is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of Kings is to search out a matter.” in other words, when you talking about a man and a King who is to be Just and right, he doesn't know the heart behind every case. He is to search a matter out.

Man looks up on the outward appearance, but since God can look on the heart, then it is the glory of God that he will conceal a thing, because He understands that some men's hard are not right But a king doesn't know that, when it comes to the life or death judgment, of crime or punishment, the king must search the thing out. For him to do that, that's an honor, but when a King is lazy and just condemns people without a cause or without justice: then that is a dishonor.

“Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets” (Amos 3:7).

“And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. But ye shall receive power” (Acts 1:7-8).

So, whoever gets the power of God can know the times and seasons and not be ignorant of it. Again, God get glory from doing it that way. You have to have the power of God to know a thing.

“The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law” (Deuteronomy 29:29).

The other thing about the glory God is that it shows you how wonderful He is, how magnificent He is, that there are some things we can't know. As smart as man can be, there is still a whole lot of things that man cannot know about God. Paul says in First Corinthians, chapter one: “Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men” (I Corinthians 1:25). That’s just part of his character. He is just so wonderful, He is just so all-knowing, that man is just so far down the path, so far down the ladder, it's just not funny.

Chapter 25 begins kind of a new section in Proverbs. Some want to say that these were proverbs collected by King Hezekiah’s men, much later on. It doesn’t say that, it says, “These are also proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah copied out” (Proverbs 25:1 KJV). It doesn’t say that this happened at a later date, it just says that they copied them out. Hezekiah, of course, was a king that came about 400 years later. What the ‘scholars’ want to suggest is this, Solomon wrote another book, a mystery gospel, and these are five chapters that were copied out of that so that there is a missing book somewhere. These scholars always want to come up with an apocryphal book, a “q” document, some missing thing that we don’t have in order to ‘imply’ that the Scriptures are not complete. That is just another way to get around what the Scriptures say as ‘final.’ They are just what 25:1 says they are, and nothing more.

Chapter 25 begins a new section, and this is kind of like throwing salt on wounds. Chapters 25 through 29 is every bit as rough as it gets. Added admonitions and rebuke for the way that people live. This is the third section. The first section chapters 1-9 contrasted wisdom and folly, the second section of chapters 10-24 were Solomon’s proverbs, and this third section are more of Solomon’s proverbs but their style and approach changes.

“These are also proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah copied out.”

Now, you see that little phrase in there—God just stuck that in there to foul the scholars up—those that wanted to disbelieve the book. God, it seems, always has a wrench to fit somebody’s nut. If a man wants to make a mess, God will supply the material to mess them up. He’ll put things in the Bible that seemingly contradict just so that men will have fuel for their fire, and that because He delights in seeing them made fools of. Why does He do this? Well, some men refuse to believe the truth, so He makes it possible for them to believe a lie.

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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It’s quite interesting to read how the Lord operated with the leaders and judges throughout the scripture and not just the people. How often He influenced those who acknowledged Him as well as those who did not.

So we know that Gods ultimate will and purposes will always prevail....even when we can’t see that this is so.

All the author wrote may be true, but that is not what this proverbs is talking about.
The honor of kings is to find out who is truthful and who lies or steals than corrects or punish for such. The glory of God is to conceal wrong doings of those that repent,out of mercy to the repentant. People relish being able to proclaim others errors and gain notoriety. God is humble and abhors pride.