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

“For three things the earth is disquieted, and for four which it cannot bear: For a servant when he reigneth; And a fool when he is filled with meat; For an odious woman when she is married; And an handmaid that is heir to her mistress.”

Proverbs 30:21-23

This proverb displays Hebraic rhetorical technique that is fairly common in the book of Proverbs. “I have three things to say, and no, wait, make that four.“ It has the effect of making you feel like that list has now been topped off or completed.

The four intolerable things mentioned all have one thing in common, and before getting to that, we should note just how intolerable it is. According to Solomon, these four things are completely disruptive. The earth is disquieted. The earth trembles (ESV). The earth quakes (NASB). The earth is perturbed (NKJV). In short, whatever this is, it is kind of a big deal. These are all things which the earth just simply cannot bear. 

The thing they all have in common is the fact of an unwarranted promotion or windfall. The first is a slave who rules. The second is a fool with a full belly. The third is an odious woman who managed to land a husband. And the fourth is a handmaid who has become her mistress’s heir. The idea is that we have four people from a lowly position who get an unexpected advancement, and who all let it go to their head. Like giving a glass of whiskey to a three-year-old.

In short, Solomon believes that while everyone should know their place, these sorts of people should particularly know their place. But alas, he says, when they receive the unlooked for promotion, they forget their lowly origins, and become the worst versions of what their new status. And as Richard Feynman once put it, “When you are dead, you don’t know that you are dead. It’s pain only for others. It’s the same thing when you are stupid.”

This proverb contains wisdom which we, in our egalitarian age, would like to forget or minimize. But it remains true, and perhaps it is our age that is most in need of learning the truth of it.

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

“Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and look well to thy herds.”

Proverbs 27:23

To obey the wisdom found in this proverb, it is necessary to take a step back prior to the hard work. Or, to be more precise, it is necessary to include the gathering of information as a needed part of the hard work.

I have had the experience of telling many people over the years that “information is gold.” Knowing where you are is often the first step in knowing what to do. But there are too many Christians who assume that the solution to their challenges is always to “work harder.” But if you go into the work with the wrong assumptions, working harder can often make a bad situation worse. It is the same as the distinction that Peter Drucker made between efficiency and effectiveness. Efficiency is getting a lot of things done, while effectiveness is better understood as getting the right things done.

Notice what the proverb is urging us to do—“to know the state of the flock,” and to “look well to the herds.” Analyze before acting. Think before doing. Count before assuming. 

Now of course, there are people who have the opposite problem. They know how to analyze a problem to death, but they never can motivate themselves to get out of their chair to go do something about it. Those sorts of people do exist, but it appears that Solomon is not talking to them here.

He is talking to the student who is working late into the night, reading the wrong assignment. He is addressing the shepherd who miscounted the sheep and spent half the night looking for a sheep that wasn’t missing. He is urging the grocer to know that whenever he sells a pound of apples, he is losing money.

In short, information is the gold that many small businesses could use.

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

“Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart from him.”

“Though you grind a fool in a mortar with a pestle along with crushed grain, yet his foolishness will not depart from him.”

Proverbs 27:22

To illustrate the principle here, we may take a page from an American proverb which says, “Beauty is only skin deep, but ugly goes clean to the bone.” There are certain kinds of stupidity, folly, ugliness, and so on that go all the way down.

First, what the proverb says, strictly speaking, is this. If you took a particular kind of stupid person and put him in a mortar, along with some grain, and ground him up with a pestle, what you would have at the end of the process would be stupid flour, for use in the making of stupid bread. In other words, there is a certain kind of folly that is manifest all the way down to the cellular level.

Certain qualities are altered as you go down, and other qualities do not change at all. For example, if a large object is heavy, when you break it up into little pieces, each piece can be light. But if a large object is made of metal, and you break it up into little pieces, each little piece is still metal. What this proverb is saying is that a certain kind of moral stupidity is like that object made of metal. It doesn’t matter how far you break it down.

I used the phrase moral stupidity to make it clear that we are not talking about intelligence of the kind that is measured by IQ tests. There are people who are very bright in that way who fit the description of the fool outlined here. And there are also very simple people who are wise within their sphere.

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

“He that blesseth his friend with a loud voice, rising early in the morning, tt shall be counted a curse to him”

Proverbs 27:14

An American saying is that the only difference between salad and garbage is timing. One moment the bowl is still on the table, and some people are still helping themselves, while the next moment that same bowl on on the counter over the dishwasher, and its few remaining contents are headed for the garbage disposal momentarily. Timing matters.

This points to the same truth that Solomon is giving us. Timing matters. If someone shows up at your house at 5 am, pounding on the door with loud, exuberant cries of joy, the residents of the house will consider him to be the equivalent of someone given over to railing and cursing. It does not matter that he had an appointment to go fishing with his friend because it was dark at 5 am and he got the wrong house.

Timing matters. Proverbs tell us elsewhere about the value of a word that is “fitly spoken” (Prov. 25:11). In other words, when the words spoken are set with due regard for timing, it is like fine jewelry. When words are evaluated on the basis of the content of the words only, this is a haphazard approach, one that runs the risk of making a big mess.

A wise person pays attention to more than the truthfulness of what is said. It is also important to note the propriety of what is said, and a big part of that depends on when you say your piece.

A common saying is that the door of your mouth should have three keys—is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary? I would like to suggest that we add a fourth key—is it timely? 

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

“A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself; But the simple pass on, and are punished”

Proverbs 27:12

We begin with what we might assume to be the common sense side of this. The prudent man checks the weather forecast and takes an umbrella with him. The simple does not, and it is the simple man who is soaking wet. The shrewd businessman has a contingency fund for when a crucial piece of machinery might break down, and the simpleton does not. He does not have the machinery anymore, but he does have a really good excuse.

The Lord told the parable of the wise virgins and the foolish ones. Those who were wise were prepared beforehand, and the foolish ones were living in the moment (Matt. 25:1-13).

But if the wise are those who look ahead, and anticipate the things that might happen, one of the other things they must do is look at the entirety of Scripture. This enables them to prepare beforehand through knowing that they are situations where you should not prepare beforehand.

“And he called unto him the twelve, and began to send them forth by two and two; and gave them power over unclean spirits; And commanded them that they should take nothing for their journey, save a staff only; no scrip, no bread, no money in their purse: But be shod with sandals; and not put on two coats” (Mark 6:7–9).

And then there is this scenario. 

“But when they shall lead you, and deliver you up, take no thought beforehand what ye shall speak, neither do ye premeditate: but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye: for it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost” (Mark 13:11). 

There are times, in short, when the best preparation means knowing that you must speak without notes. 

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