Posted on 11/09/2022 7:40:13 PM PST by Pilgrim's Progress
“Wise men lay up knowledge: but the mouth of the foolish is near destruction. The rich man's wealth is his strong city: the destruction of the poor is their poverty” (Proverbs 10:14-15).
“Wise men lay up knowledge,” that is meditate on it, memorize, and learn it. That is, really get it into your mind until you need it, so that you can use it later. Some folks might ask, “Well, what good is that going to do for me now?” It might not do you a bit of good right now, but five years down the road you may be glad you have it. You may even run across someone else that it may really help. It may well become a “word fitly spoken” (Proverbs 25:11). So, lay it up, like banking it away.
“. . . but the mouth of the foolish is near destruction,” his words condemn him “For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned” (Matthew 12:37).
The mouth of the fool will talk himself into a mess that often he can’t come back from. Someone might dare him, “Would you do that?” And the fool will boastfully answer, “Yea, I would do that!” YouTube is full of videos of people that said that and paid the price. There are all kinds of dares out there. And there are a lot of people wishing they could take back the thing they did that landed them where they are now. Of course, a few of them would be thankful for a second chance to get it right and still end up in traction.
Kids play chicken with cars out on the highway. Kids taking dope. “Yea, I can do that! I’m a man!” Yes, and you may be a dead man right after you do it.
“. . . but the mouth of the foolish is near destruction,” that mouth can get you in a bail of trouble.
“The rich man's wealth is his strong city,” money is what he trusts for his defense. Who needs God as long as the coffers are full? In Luke 12:16, you have the rich fool and his wealth was his strong city—his riches, but it didn’t help him on the day of his death. Sure, it was his defense against the poverty of life, but it didn’t help him for eternity.
“. . . the destruction of the poor is their poverty,” Agur gives us the explanation of this verse later on: “Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me: Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the LORD? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain” (Proverbs 30:8-9 KJV).
Both men—the rich and the poor—have a real problem. The rich man trusted in his wealth, but because the poor man is poor, he tends to have to steal. The one man trusts his riches, the other man is tempted to do wrong to get what he needs. And both end up being destroyed.
“. . . feed me with food convenient for me,” give me just what I need, let me get by. “Lest I be full,” like the rich man that fared sumptuously every day like the rich man in Luke 16, “and deny thee.” That rich man trusted in his riches and denied any need for God. “Who is the Lord? Why do I need him?” “. . . or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain.”
Christ came to preach the Gospel to the poor, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor” (Luke 4:18 KJV). You can bet that more poor people will hear the Gospel than rich people. “Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God” (Matthew 19:23-24 KJV).
Most rich people won’t come to church. You take poor folk, they don’t have any where else to go. If they want to go out, church is free! One day a young boy’s parents were bad-mouthing the preacher and saying how horrible his message was. The kid said, “I don’t know, it was a pretty good show for a nickel.”
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