The Way Up (And Down)

At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore (Ps. 16: 11)

There is that maketh himself rich, yet hath nothing: There is that maketh himself poor, yet hath great riches

Proverbs 13:7

It is better to be a wise steward of hardly anything at all, than to be a lousy steward of a great amount. Poor people can become wealthy and rich people can become poor, and it all depends on what they do with what they have.

In this proverb, the poor man and the rich man both share a commodity and, as it turns out, they both have the same amount of that. That commodity (better called a grace, or a gift) is seen in the shared phrase “maketh himself.” Maketh is a verb, and verbs occur in time. 

Each of them has 24 hours, and each of them has 7 days. When it comes to time, no man is wealthier than another. Time is God’s currency, and He never permits any inflation at all. So as it turns out, if a man husbands his nothing carefully, he will grow wealthy. And if another man fritters away his riches, this will bring him down to nothing over time.

There are three characteristics (and their opposite) which display this wisdom (or folly) over time. The first is the honoring of God financially, the second is hard work, and the third is generosity. In short, tithing, working, and giving. This is God’s way to a wealth that is blessed by Him, as opposed to the kind of riches that are kept in a bucket with a hole in it. The counterpart to God’s path to financial blessing is refusing to tithe, neglecting work, and prodigal spending. And of course, people being the way they are, there are some who are in transition between the two types.

Read Full Article

At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore (Ps. 16: 11)

There is that speaketh like the piercings of a sword: But the tongue of the wise is health (KJV).

There is one who speaks like the piercings of a sword, But the tongue of the wise promotes health (NKJV).

Proverbs 12:8

There are those who do enormous damage in how they speak—they hack, and thrust, and hew. If someone calls them on it, they will often appeal to another proverb, saying that faithful are the wounds of a friend (Prov. 27:6).

And yes, a surgeon cuts someone open, and does so with the well-being of the patient in mind. That is quite true. But it does not follow that anyone who successfully draws blood can consider himself a surgeon. There is more to medical training than that. 

You tell the difference between these two kinds of tongues—the piercing tongue and the healing tongue—from the manifest results. After the slashing of the one, there is blood everywhere. And after the wise man speaks, there is health and flourishing. 

When the fool causes mayhem by his speaking, he often doesn’t know the damage he has done because he doesn’t stick around to find out. He says his piece, and is gone. He is frequently able to do this because he is in a position of authority, and the place where the damage is done is a place occupied by people under his authority. If they say something, it seems to them that they might be inviting more of the same. This is why people can live together for years without having any idea of how many wounds their words have caused.

Such a person could say that “he didn’t know,” and it might be true enough that he didn’t see with his eyes, and that his victims never spoke up. He can say, with faux innocence, that “nobody ever said anything.” That might be true, but if you bite your kid’s head off for messing with his food, what might you do if your kid confronted you for being a vile human being? Think about it for a couple minutes. Don’t wait for your kid or your wife or your husband to tell you. Let Proverbs 12:18 tell you.  

One of the apostle Paul’s complaints against the Corinthians was that they suffered fools gladly (2 Cor. 11:19). But of course, tolerating fools is simply one more way of demonstrating that you have yourself become a fool.

Read Full Article

At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore (Ps. 16: 11)

A fool’s lips enter into contention, and his mouth calleth for strokes (KJV).

A fool’s lips walk into a fight, and his mouth invites a beating (ESV).

Proverbs 18:6

One of the apostle Paul’s complaints against the Corinthians was that they suffered fools gladly (2 Cor. 11:19). But of course, tolerating fools is simply one more way of demonstrating that you have yourself become a fool.

We need to remember that in Scripture, a fool is someone with an ethical deficiency, not an intellectual one. There are many atheists, for example, who can bounce the right side of their intellectual tachometer, and their entire brain is a hot little red sports car. But it is a fool who says in his heart that there is no God (Ps. 14:1). So this kind of smart person is blowing down the wrong road in the middle of the night, not knowing that right around the next bend the bridge is out. The fact that his car can go really fast doesn’t really enter into our concern.

But the folly indicated by this proverb is a belligerent folly. This is not just a person who did poorly in figuring out why his cocaine habit costs a lot of money. This is a fool who shoots off his mouth, on the supposition that the person he is talking to is the foolish one—which is usually not the case.

Scripture says that such persons might be spiritual improved by means of a drubbing. And if they are not, then a simple person standing nearby might be edified by the sight. “Smite a scorner, and the simple will beware: And reprove one that hath understanding, and he will understand knowledge” (Prov. 19:25).

Corporal punishment is sometimes instructive. But not always.  

Read Full Article

Leave Nothing to Chance

At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore (Ps. 16: 11)

The lot is cast into the lap; But the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord.

Proverbs 16:33

Let us say that a man rolls a pair of dice, and it comes up snake eyes. We can say, on the strength of this proverb, that God foreordained that result. Before the worlds were fashioned, God had decided that the dice would land that way. God not only decided that soldiers were going to gamble for the Lord’s robe when He was crucified, He had also determined which soldier was going to take that robe away. Every detail of everything that happens in this world is determined by God. The hairs of our head are numbered (Matt. 10:30). A sparrow cannot fall to the ground apart from the will of the Father (Luke 12:6-7).

So does this mean that we can infallibly determine the will of God for our lives by rolling dice on every decision? No, we cannot. If we were to roll the dice, we know that it was determined by God to come up as two threes. What we don’t know is the meaning that should be assigned to this, and we have no way of knowing. “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” (Deut. 29:29). The meaning of the two threes could be your own assigned meaning, which was that you were supposed to apply to med school. But it might also mean that you were a fool, and God thought it was time to prove it to everybody.

So an employer who has a stack of applications and who settles on one by flipping coins in his office is an employer who deserves everything he gets. But if he has carefully winnowed the applications down to two, and they are both equally qualified, and he decides by flipping a coin, that is a different matter. That is how the disciples chose the replacement for Judas (Acts 1:23).

Read Full Article

At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore (Ps. 16: 11)

All the days of the afflicted are evil: But he that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast.

Proverbs 15:15

Scripture does teach us that different things, both good and bad, happen to men and women, whether they are good or bad. These things have to do with our external circumstances, and to a certain extent our emotional responses to these events are like a thermometer. They reflect what is going on. Job knew when he had received bad news, and he responded accordingly. 

But there is another sense in which we carry our own emotional weather around with us. In other words, we are not just thermometers, but also thermostats. 

If someone is afflicted, all his days are evil. He is a thermometer. But there is another man who has a merry heart, and he is a thermostat. His attitude is such that everything is wonderful. He has a continual feast because he brings his food with him. He always packs a lunch. 

These two circumstances are placed in tension by Solomon. He is not saying that “positive thinking” overcomes everything, but he most certainly is saying that an optimistic outlook, a merry heart, overcomes a lot. And when a person under affliction wakes up to another day of pain, or another week of struggle, he needs to endure what God has assigned to him.

But at the same time, he must take care not to forget the second half of the verse. He must not let a stretch of affliction train him into thinking that how you think of your circumstances doesn’t make any difference at all. A set of bad afflictions is really bad, but not quite as bad as a set of bad afflictions along with a negative attitude. In other words, no situation is so bad but that you can’t make it worse.

And a merry heart is a wonderful companion for most circumstances.

Read Full Article