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Our scripture reading this evening is taken from the book of Proverbs, reading from Proverbs chapter 22 and verse 17 through to Proverbs 23 and verse 11. Proverbs 22, 17 through 23, 11. Here we begin a new section of the book of Proverbs, the section of the words of the wise. This section, it's been observed by commentators, has some resemblance, in fact a very close resemblance, to an ancient Egyptian collection of proverbs. And yet at the same time, in this book of proverbs, it is very much godly wisdom. It's a reminder that wisdom which is practical and to do with life in this world is something that can be found even among people who are not Christians and yet have observed how the world is and how in some ways to survive in it. So Proverbs chapter 22 verse 17 to 23.11. Cline your ear and hear the words of the wise, and apply your heart to my knowledge, for it is a pleasant thing if you keep them within you. Let them all be fixed upon your lips, so that your trust may be in the Lord. I have instructed you today, even you, have I not written to you excellent things of counsels and knowledge, that I may make you know the certainty of the words of truth, that you may answer words of truth to those who send to you? Do not rob the poor because he is poor, nor oppress the afflicted at the gate, for the Lord will plead their cause and plunder the soul of those who plunder them. Make no friendship with an angry man, and with a furious man do not go, lest you learn his ways and set a snare for your soul. Do not be one of those who shakes hands in a pledge, one of those who is shorty for debts. If you have nothing with which to pay, why should he take away your bed from under you? Do not remove the ancient landmark which your fathers have set. Do you see a man who excels in his work? He will stand before kings, he will not stand before unknown men. When you sit down to eat with a ruler, consider carefully what is before you, and put a knife to your throat, if you are a man given to appetite. Do not desire his delicacies, for they are deceptive food. Do not overwork to be rich. Because of your own understanding, cease. Will you set your eyes on that which is not? For riches certainly make themselves wings. They fly like an eagle toward heaven. Do not eat the bread of a miser, nor desire his delicacies. For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. Eat and drink, he says to you, but his heart is not with you. The more you have eaten, you will vomit up and waste your pleasant words. Do not speak in the hearing of a fool, for he will despise the wisdom of your words. Do not remove the ancient landmark, nor enter the fields of the fatherless, for their redeemer is mighty. He will plead their cause against you. And may God bless the reading of his holy word. As Proverbs once again moves into another section, another collection within the collection, if you will, we have once again an exhortation to listen to wisdom. The words of the wise are there to be listened carefully to, and they are primarily, of course, when we think of the words of the wise, we think of the words of God, who is altogether wise, and of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the wisdom of God, who is made unto us from God, wisdom among other things. We are to listen, says the writer here, and we are to listen carefully, incline your ear and hear and apply your heart. There are many voices in the world. There are many who speak and seek, even demand attention. And we are reminded of the words of the Apostle Paul in Philippians chapter 4 and verse 8. Finally, brethren, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue, and if there is anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you. Here, the words of the wise, the words that speak of not only the way things are, but the way things ought to be, that speak of how to live in a world where there's all manner of uncertainty and all manner of wickedness. Apply your heart to my knowledge. The writer here reminds us that wisdom takes effort, that there must be an applying of the heart, that it must be an an inward work, an inward labour. How are words to be kept? And they are to be kept. It is a pleasant thing, verse 18, if you keep them within you. And we are here, I think, reminded of the Psalmist in the 119th Psalm. Psalm 119. 19 and verse 11 where he says, your word I have hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you. That is what it means to keep them, to keep them as a treasure that is locked up in the heart, to keep them within you and let them all be fixed on your lips that they are not only to be inside but to come out as well. And why is this? Well, it all comes down eventually to faith. Verse 19, so that your trust may be in the Lord, I have instructed you today, even you. The wisdom books, although they deal with life in the world, although they deal with things down here very much, at the core they are books about putting our trust in God. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Faith is central to wise living. If we put our trust in the Lord and do not lean upon our own understanding, though we exercise our understanding, we don't lean upon it. Your trust may be in the Lord, and part of that, trusting in the Lord, means that our lives are lived in such a way that We don't worry about those things that, as the Lord Jesus Christ says, that the Gentiles worry about. Think of our Lord's words in his Sermon on the Mount, about not being anxious, but rather trusting in God, because the answer to anxiousness, the answer to that anxiety, he says, is trust in God. Do not worry, Matthew 6, 31, saying, what shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or what shall we wear? For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. result of trusting in God and doing what's right is that we won't be tempted to do the wrong thing just in case. We won't be tempted to do as King Saul did when Samuel delayed to come and it was getting late and he was worried that the people, the army, would desert him and so he offered sacrifice in spite of not being a priest. or a Levite, and then of course Samuel turns up immediately, and because Saul did not trust in God to bring Samuel there, Saul sinned, and it's part of his great descent away from the kingdom, part of how he lost everything, because his trust was not in the Lord. Wisdom involves trusting in God's faith, which then leads us to do what is right. Have I not written to you excellent things of counsels and knowledge, that I may make you know the certainty of the words of truth? And knowing those things means that we are able to speak those things, knowing the scriptures, means that the scriptures are not simply there that we may read it, but that we may meditate upon it, that it's sinking to our hearts, that the scripture may change us and we may be able to speak those words of comfort and the words of wisdom, the words of truth, emphatically the words of God, to those who ask us. And then the writer here goes on. The why is Do not rob the poor because he is poor, nor oppress the afflicted at the gate. For the Lord will please their cause and plunder the soul of those who plunder them. There is somebody who is concerned for the poor, and that somebody is God. Proverbs, of course, a major part of Proverbs is by Solomon. And many of these Proverbs are to do with people who are at least in the landowning classes, that sort of people who have the ability, if they want, to oppress the poor. The poor, after all, in the ancient world, they were the ones who couldn't afford to get justice in many cases. Poor people today are the people who can't get a good lawyer. And so there's a temptation among those who don't think about these things, to oppress the poor. To rob the poor because he is poor, because the poor can't retaliate the way the rich can. Nor oppress the afflicted at the gate, because the gate here is the law court. It's the idea of taking people to court, not because there's anything that needs to be dealt with, but rather it's abusing the legal system again to rob and oppress people. And whether the legal system is that corrupt, well, who's going to worry about the poor? The answer is God. And it's recognising again that God rules, that this is God's universe. That That is absolutely necessary to consider. This is God's universe and God is concerned for the poor. The oppression of the poor is something that is again and again mentioned in Proverbs, the law of course, the law in The books of Moses deals very much with protecting the rights of the poor, with matters of a just society. That is to say, not a society where your access to justice depends on how rich you are, but where everybody equally has access, where everybody can seek justice. And where that doesn't exist, God still exists and God is still concerned. And so we find The same issue is raised in verse 28. Do not remove the ancient landmark which your fathers have set. This is about field boundaries, the boundaries of people's inheritance within the land. And it's repeated somewhat in verse 10 of Proverbs 23 and verse 11. Do not remove the ancient landmark nor enter the fields of the fatherless, the picture here being that you've got orphan children who are not yet old enough really to protect the estate, and you've got a neighbour who decides to annex some fields. for their redeemer is mighty, he will plead their cause against you. And of course the word redeemer here is that word that appears in the book of Ruth, the one who has not only the legal right of redemption but a legal responsibility to protect other members of the family, to protect those who cannot protect themselves. And the point here is that God is the one who protects those who cannot protect themselves. God is concerned with these things. God is concerned with how people live and God will appear for the oppressed and the downtrodden. Do not rob the poor because he is poor, nor oppress the afflicted at the gate. And then verses 24 and 25 are about this important matter. Do not be deceived. Bad company corrupts good manners. Be careful with the company you keep because people tend to become like those that they spend their time with. Make no friendship with an angry man, and with a furious man do not go. It's particularly here dealing with the point of people who have a short temper, people who are angry all the time. And if you associate with people who have a short-fused temper, who are always flying off the handle, who are always angry, then you'll tend to be always angry yourself. It's something, of course, that doesn't just deal with personal friendships these days. It's also a matter of what people consume in terms of entertainment, in terms of news media. There are some websites that specialize in just being angry about everything. And people who spend too much time on them, they get angry about everything as well. Everything is a reason to be angry. But here Trotters warns us that being with angry people is dangerous for your health. For a variety of reasons of course, because if you're with angry people you'll be pushing other people away, people won't want to associate with you. lest you learn his ways and set a snare for your soul. Because of course, one of the other problems angry people often have is that eventually they come unstuck, they get angry with the wrong person and then all manner of unpleasant things happen. They may be a fighter, they may get angry with a police officer. You see that sometimes that you read stories of somebody who called the police and The police basically told them, look, no, there's actually nothing to be upset about here. And they started arguing with the police and eventually dealt the police officer. And then, of course, they're the one who goes to jail. Learning the ways of the angry can cause all kinds of trouble. Don't be friendly with angry people. But secondly, be careful about shaking hands in a pledge. one of the great dangers that is brought up again and again in the book of Proverbs is that problem of standing shorty for alone to somebody else. Someone who is regularly standing as a guarantor of a loan, will eventually find that what happens is that somebody calls in the loans, somebody defaults, and then, well, there's a matter of counting the cost. If you have nothing with which to pay, why should you take away your bed from under you? That picture of losing absolutely everything. Not through your own problems, but lending money to people who really guaranteeing rather loans to people who shouldn't be borrowing money in the first place, being careful, understanding, recognising the importance of counting the cost as it were. But then verse 29 is a recommendation to work hard and to look at hard workers and commend them. Do you see a man who excels in his work, a man who works hard and does his best He will stand before kings, he will not stand before unknown men, those who do their best. All other things being equal are those who get the best. To some extent, and certainly when it comes to work, when it comes to work we tend to get out of it what we put in. The best worker produces the best work. It's the best workers who tend to be commended But then we have, beginning of chapter 23, we have certain social situations, shall we say. Social situations, first of all, verses 1 through 3. Dinner with the king. That's reading at the week-ender. commentary on the Book of Esther. And of course, in the Book of Esther you have those occasions of meals with the king. Esther invites the king to a banquet. And the first time she invites him, she doesn't bring up the real reason why she did it. Why? Because she's being careful, he may be her husband. that she is a queen in the harem of a Persian king who has recently dismissed his previous chief wife because she didn't do what he wanted. She's very careful. And of course the picture here is your eastern ruler, your eastern potentate, who has absolute power, who is like King Ahasuerus in the book of Esther, who could command that Haman be dragged out and executed. He's a man who has the life and death. Life and death is in the power of the king. And therefore, at a banquet with the king, it often sounds as if something, certainly something that people very often aspire to is being invited to a garden party at Buckingham Palace. Being invited to eat at a royal banquet. But of course, you've got to be so careful with etiquette. I know someone who was invited to one of these garden parties to do with charity work. And there is a big list. This is how you must dress. These are things that you must do. And these are things that you mustn't do. And this is what you have to do when you are introduced. Of course, back then it was the queen. Now it will be the king. These are the things that you must do. These are the things you mustn't do. And the thing here that's being mentioned is you mustn't stuff your face. You must be very careful with the food because the picture here, of course, it's not the sort of set meals we have, but rather there's all these plates that you can help yourself from. And it's great, you can help yourself, but of course you can't really help yourself before the King, because if the King sees you're taking this, taking that, taking the other, you must be very, very careful. You may get in trouble otherwise. The other day I read an account of a an office in the United States where some people had to work over Thanksgiving. And the boss was very kind and brought in turkey with all the trimming, several turkeys actually. And to the utter horror of everybody else in the office, one worker came in, oh turkey, picked up a whole turkey and dragged it back to his computer, his workstation, and was there just chowing down. Shortly afterwards, A message came from on high that all future Thanksgiving meals will be cancelled until some people learn to behave themselves and to control their appetites. Well, that's again a picture here. If you're a man given to appetite, put a knife at your throat. It's a striking image. It's not literal, of course, but the idea is think of it like this. A knife at your throat if you eat too much. That will happen. And then you have the deceptiveness of overworking to be rich. Do not overwork to be rich. Overwork is always a bad idea anyway. It causes breakdowns. It could destroy families, of course. In our day and age, when people go out to work, we have a situation where those who overwork barely see their families and family breakdown results. Relationships fall apart. Don't overwork to be rich. And the goal here that the overworker has set himself is, I want to be rich. But what's the point of it all? Because of your own understanding, cease! Think! Think about the fact that riches are not a worthy goal. Wanting to be rich is not a worthy goal for human beings. We were made in God's image, we were made for fellowship. We were not made to desire simply to accumulate wealth. And wealth itself is deceptive. Would you set your eyes on that which is not? For riches certainly make themselves wings. They fly away like an eagle towards heaven. Money gets put in a bank and the bank fails. Money gets invested in a business and the business fails. And even if none of that happens, we die, and you cannot take anything with you. What's the great goal in life? We ought to have a worthy goal, and there is only one worthy goal, and that is to know God, and to be known of Him. Or to use the language of the old Puritans, it is indeed to know God. What is the chief end of man? To know God and to glorify Him forever. We are to glorify God and enjoy Him. That's a worthy goal. But do not overwork to be rich, because the best The best goals are reached in God. And then we have this wonderful picture, verses 6 through 8, this picture against another meal. And this time the host isn't a king, he's a miser. He is, other translations use the word, the language, a stingy man. He's a man who doesn't like to spend his money. At the same time, this is an Eastern culture, it's a culture where if you want to get on at all in the culture, you've got to hold the odd banquet, you've got to invite people to dine with you. And here this stingy man, this miser, is presumably a man of slightly higher social standing. Perhaps he's a local magistrate or a local businessman. And you're invited to dine with him. He's somebody important. And he says, eat and drink, don't worry, but verse 7, the first sentence, for as he thinks in his heart, so is he. Now, what that's not saying is that the way you think affects who you are, it's saying the way you think is who you are. That the inward man is the real man. That the outward expression of the gracious host, eat and drink, don't worry, is all affront he's putting on, but he's a miser on the inside. His heart is not with you. The more that you've eaten, you will vomit up his food. His hypocrisy is nauseating. And you will waste your pleasant words, your flattery to him, oh, what a wonderful meal. is completely wasted as well. It's all completely pointless. It's a social situation which has no meaning. Again, we have here this point about, just as with not overworking to be rich, about using our time, our lives in worthwhile ways. Not social climbing, not trying to be rich, but fellowship with people it's worth having fellowship with, people who we can have fellowship with, avoiding indeed the perils, as one has put it, of the social heights. And finally, verse 9, we have the fool, that character who flits in and out of Proverbs and is never too far away. The fool. He's not just, he's not an idiot. The fool is someone who is morally twisted. Morally there is something wrong with him. He hates the truth, he hates God, he hates God's Word. If the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, then the lack of the fear of God is the beginning of folly. The fool is proud and self-centred and arrogant and won't listen to anybody because the fool is absolutely convinced that he is the wisest man alive. The fool parades his foolishness. And the fool, if he's corrected, he flies into a rage. You see this occasionally. You see these are often, in some sense, amusing exchanges that get shared sometimes on the internet. Somebody makes a fatuous statement, and it's corrected, and then goes, well, what did you know? I mentioned before about a funny one involving a man, a student who asks, can you help me with this particular piece of homework? And along came somebody and said, yes, it's physics, something difficult like that. And this person said, yes, what you've said is Slightly questionable. Oh, so who are you? What do you know? Well, he said, I just happen to be the... one of the top physicists in the world. The fool, you see, doesn't want instruction. The fool wants people to say how clever he is. Do not speak in the hearing of a fool. If you're a wise man, don't speak in the hearing of a fool. For he will despise the wisdom of your words. He doesn't care. And therefore, why should we? Very often when somebody shares a wrong opinion, a wrong idea, They don't want to be corrected. And certainly the fool spouts all manner of nonsense and doesn't really want anyone to say, hang on a minute, but no, he wants people to go, oh, how wise you are, how profound you are. The fool despises the word of God. The fool, for example, I think of a very foolish thing that I read once in a It was a student newspaper and I was a student, not my university, a different one. And someone was ridiculing the Bible. And it was a stupid thing. And one of them was, well the Bible talks about corn. Well, corn wasn't introduced from the Americas until... You know, first of all, the Bible's written in Hebrew and Greek and a bit of Aramaic. It's not written in English. Secondly, in the 17th century English, corn, as it does really in England, because this person just reprinted American stuff, corn just means wheat grain of certain kinds often used for wheat. And this person is a complete... hadn't bothered to think, hang on a minute, what language was the Bible written in? But again, the fool likes to think himself clever and likes to look down on the Word of God. He ridicules the Bible. Oh, how can people believe this stuff? And then he goes and checks his horoscope. Or he goes and... surfs the web and looks at all manner of questionable sites and says, oh, I read on the internet that this happened. But did it happen? And he uncritically shares celebrity death hoaxes because he is a fool. He thinks he's so wise. And so do not speak in the hearing of a fool. Those who ridicule the word of God, those who think they're wiser than God, for he will despise the wisdom of your words, and that is his problem. Do not cast, said the Lord Jesus Christ, your pearls before swine, or cast that which is holy to dogs, but let the word of God be spoken reverently, and let the word of God have its work We are to listen to the word. Again, this final point, verse 9, takes us back to those words. To listen to the words of the wise so that your trust may be in the Lord and so we may know Him and be guided into His ways, learning of Him and letting His wisdom dwell richly in us. Amen.
Words From the Wise
系列 Wisdom from Above
Wisdom matters, because wisdom allows us to live in God's world as it is, and not to be fooled by what is unreal. In this section of Proverbs, the beginning of the "Words of the Wise," we have an exhortation to hear, warnings about bad behaviour and bad company, and a warning about the dangers of the social heights that implies the importance of seeking the true and the lasting and the real.
讲道编号 | 127222055483572 |
期间 | 33:29 |
日期 | |
类别 | 周中服务 |
圣经文本 | 所羅們之俗語 22:17-23:11 |
语言 | 英语 |