Posted on 05/26/2022 11:36:18 PM PDT by Pilgrim's Progress
“My son, be wise, and make my heart glad, that I may answer him that reproacheth me. A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself; but the simple pass on, and are punished” (Proverbs 27:11).
“My son,” here's a father to his son, “be wise.” That's what every father wants his son to be, or daughter. “My son, be wise and make my heart glad.” So, a good kid is a comfort to a parent.
Secondly, “that I may answer him that reproacheth me,” People reproach you and say, “Well, you're stupid, you’re dumb.” Well, if your child is wise, what could you say? “Yeah, well you're wrong. You may think I’m stupid, but I've raised a smart kid.” In other words, not only is a child a comfort to you to give you a glad heart, but he's also a credit to you.
Do you know they said about Jesus Christ? They said “He's a devil.” They said that He was a fake and a phony. Do you know what Jesus Christ said? He said, “wisdom is justified of her children.” You’ll find that in Matthew 11:19, He said, “My children are wise because I taught them.” He said, “You may not think I'm wise, but my children justify me.” He said “They’re good, they’re righteous, they’re wise. They know what's right. Matthew 11:19.
Two things there. A child is a comfort to the parent, and a credit to the parent. People may reproach you. You can answer them, “I must not be too dumb, my child is doing pretty good.” You know them by their fruits.
Right there is the definition of prudence. Our King James Bible does not leave us wondering what a word means, and we don’t need any Greek scholars and Bible professors to tell us. The Bible is its own best dictionary, and the Holy Spirit is our teacher. You can have confidence in your Bible. You don’t have to worry about the “originals” which no one in the last few thousand years have ever seen. We . . . have . . . God’s . . . preserved . . . and . . . Holy . . . Word . . . in . . . our . . . hands!
The definition of prudence is “seeing things in advance.” It is being concerned with, and dealing with, future results, sowing and reaping and so forth and so on. That's all a prudent man is. Before he does things, or says things, he is concerned about what effect it will have on his future, and somebody else’s future. A prudent teenager would not post something silly on Facebook that will keep him from ever getting hired by a decent company. He looks at how it's going to come out. He's got the long view, and not the short view.
Some people are only concerned in what they can get today. Bob Jones Sr. said, “Never sacrifice the permanent on the altar of the immediate.” In other words, don't throw away the future just for a thrill today. That's not a prudent man. That's a simple person. Solomon says, “The simple pass on, and are punished.” They don't see the result of what they're doing, they don't want to see it. They're just so wrapped up in what they're doing they don't want to see the punishment, the result, the judgment that will come upon them.
The prudent man hides himself from all that. That's a great passage! See, all it’s saying there is that a prudent man understands the law of sowing and reaping. And a simple do not understand that what you do today can affect you for bad tomorrow.
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