PROFITING FROM PROVERBS

“Put not forth thyself in the presence of the king, and stand not in the place of great men: For better it is that it be said unto thee, Come up hither; than that thou shouldest be put lower in the presence of the prince whom thine eyes have seen” (Proverbs 25:6-7).

Verses 6 and 7 go together.

Now this principle is given to you in the New Testament by the Lord Jesus Christ in Luke chapter 14:7-11, “And he put forth a parable to those which were bidden, when he marked how they chose out the chief rooms; saying unto them, When thou art bidden of any man to a wedding, sit not down in the highest room; lest a more honourable man than thou be bidden of him; And he that bade thee and him come and say to thee, Give this man place; and thou begin with shame to take the lowest room. But when thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room; that when he that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, go up higher: then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee. For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted” (Luke 14:7-11).

This is a principle of life, a principle of pride and humility.

“Put not forth thyself in the presence of the king, and stand not in the place of great men,” you do, and it might be expected of you to do the things of a great man. You might not be up to the task. You might not be up to the responsibility. You just might end up making a fool out of yourself. Haman was a man that did that. He put himself in the front of the king, and eventually it cost him his life.

Now, that expression, “Come up hither,” only occurs three times in the Bible. It shows up here, in the Old Testament. It shows up again in Revelation 4:1, “After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.”

We see it again in Revelation 11:12, “And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them.”

In 4:1, it's a picture of the rapture of the New Testament Saints. In revelation 11:12 it takes place with the two Jewish prophets; Moses and Elijah which is a type of the rapture of the Tribulation saints. Is there anybody else that has already gone ahead of us? We have the rapture the New Testament Saints here and the Trib Saints, is there anybody preceding that? So, evidently this verse here in the Old Testament, and notice, you just had a passage on the Millennium and the second coming in verse 5, and then in verse seven, “. . . it is better that it be said into thee, Come up hither; than that thou shouldest be put lower.” Do you know what the expression in the world? “put down,”

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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