Words of Wisdom
[A Study of Proverbs]
[Please read the
first paragraph of Part One before proceeding.]
PART THREE:
In this teaching, we are going to go back to Proverbs,
Chapter Three and work that chapter extensively. Ideally, Chapter Three focuses mainly on the subject of
WISDOM. We will conclude our study on
Words of Wisdom with Part Four where will we will continue our study on the
last part of Chapter Three.
My son, forget not
my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments:
God is exhorting us as His son
not to forget His law, which is His Word.
Why is He telling us this?
Because the only source of true wisdom comes from His Word. The rest of the verse tells us to keep His
commandments in our hearts. You can’t
keep God’s Word in your heart unless you know it, study it, and apply it. The best way I have found to keep God’s Word
in my heart is to memorize as many Scriptures as I can pertaining to everyday
situations. When I come up against a
situation that I know is devilish, I
know by heart the Scripture for that emotion or situation. In the next verse, God tells us the benefits
of doing what Scripture 3: 1 tells us to do.
This verse is self explanatory.
Do you not want to experience those benefits?
For length of days, and long life, and
peace, shall they add to thee.
Let not mercy and truth forsake
thee: bind them about thy neck; write
them upon the table of thine heart:
In this verse, God is telling us not to let mercy
and His truth get away from us. He is
saying to bind them around your neck, which is a figure of speech. He also says to write them upon the table of
your heart. I must say again that when
you memorize Scriptures, you are writing them upon the table of your
heart. Can you possibly miss the wisdom
in these verses? And again, in the next
verse, God tells us the benefits of doing what is said in verse three. He says you will find favor and good
understanding in the sight, not only of God, but of men also. You will learn to live, if at all possible,
peacefully with all men. There is a
much greater success in your life if you walk by the Word of God. Worldly people who forsake God and His Word
will only spend their wheels in this life.
The adversary will always make it appear like they’re headed towards
success, but they will always fail.
That’s why there is so much suffering in this world today. People refuse, by their own free will, to keep
God first in their lives.
So shalt thou find favour and good
understanding in the sight of God and man.
There is an awful lot of wisdom in these first four
verses. So let’s continue to examine
and study verses five through eight.
These verses impart great wisdom and have often been quoted. You will probably be familiar with some of
the verses.
Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine
own understanding.
How are we to trust in the Lord? God says to do so with all of your
heart. This means with the innermost
part of your being. You are not to
trust in man or the police department or the politicians or even your
priest. You are to trust in God. Then the verse says not to lean or turn to
your own understanding. Many times God
will work in very unusual ways and you will not understand what He is
doing. He is the creator of life. Don’t you think he knows how to live
it? Our understanding is mainly based
on our five senses and our five senses can be very deceiving. To walk by our five senses is to walk in a
carnal manner and it says in the epistle of Romans that to be carnally mind is
death. In contrast, to be spiritually
minded is life and peace. Now which one
are you going to choose? Is that not a
ridiculous question? But you would be
surprised how many people do not trust in God today, but they lean on their own
understanding. This is because of the
power of the god of this world. His
time is short and he is working overtime to take you with him. I have tested and tried every one of God’s
principles that I could possibly know and they all work with a mathematical
exactness and scientific precision every single time. What choice are you going to make?
In the next verse, as usual, God repeats Himself
because He knows that we learn by repetition so He says the following. In all of your ways – that means all,
people. In all of your ways you are to
acknowledge or go to Him, but that’s not all.
If you do this, God says He will direct your paths. He will help you to make the right decisions
and He will steer you in the right direction so that you can become successful
and full of joy and happiness even in this life. Again, you have a decision to make. What’s it going to be?
In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he
shall direct thy paths.
In the next verse, God tells us not to be wise in
our own eyes because what we see pertains to our five senses. Don’t turn to man and his ways, but respect
God. Once you respect God first, then,
then, then you are to depart from evil.
What is evil? Evil is anything
that contradicts the Word of God. You
know the difference between good and evil.
Again, and not to be repetitious, but the question begs itself. What choice are you going to make? Are you going to go to God for guidance or
do you think you’re going to be wise in your own eyes? Oh, the enemy will deceive you into thinking
that you can walk by sight, and not spiritual insight. Don’t let him take you for a ride. He will eventually destroy your life. Now you’re going to get sick of this. But what choice are you going to make? Are you going to get away from evil
influences, which many times are people?
Are you going to break bad habits that you know are wrong? Or are you going to let the destroyer
destroy your life? Tough choice, isn’t it?
Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear [respect] the Lord, and depart from evil.
And again, watch the pattern that God follows. He gives you the benefits once again of
respecting Him and departing from evil.
This is in the next verse – verse eight.
It shall be health to thy navel, and
marrow to thy bones.
Don’t you want to be healthy? That’s what this verse is talking
about. You see when you keep God first
and you depart from evil, the enemy cannot get into your life. He’s the one that brings sickness and misery
to people. But God protects His people
so that any form of evil cannot get into your house and cannot get into your
life. Choice?!
Honour
the Lord with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine
increase:
If you desire to have the wisdom of the Lord, you
must honor and respect God with all of your heart and with everything you
own. Actually, we own nothing -- we
simply steward things for God. This
simply means that we take care of what God gives us. Although obvious, God is telling us how we are to obtain
wisdom. Then God goes on in the second
part of the verse and He tells the believer that he must also honor God with
the firstfruits of his increase. This
may confuse some people, but it's talking about the subject of prosperity. We should know by now that we should tithe
at least 10% of our gross income. This
money is to go to the person or organization that is teaching you the Word of
God rightly divided. When we studied
with a very large Ministry, we use to give away about $500 per month as a
tithe. Later in our lives, as God
promises in His Word, God blessed us back more than abundantly. Financially, we are set for life and have
never had financial difficulties. So
don't tell me that tithing doesn't work.
In the type of ministry that we operate right now, our financial burden
is very light. We do not accept tithes
of any type, neither do we need them.
That's a lot in one verse, isn't it?
So shall thy barns be filled with
plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine.
We have
already covered the blessings that result from adhering to verse nine. The first part is talking about barns and
wine and things that were part of everyday life back in biblical times. In essence, God is saying that He will bless
you to the point where you hardly have room for all of the abundance. From my experience, I can tell you that this
is true. But I learned recently that it
does not matter what my experiences teach me when it comes to what the Word of
God teaches us. Your experience may be
true and line up with the Word of God.
But what the Word says is what really takes preeminence over everything
and that includes your experiences. So
what God is really doing here is giving us a promise that if we listen to and
carry out His Word, we will prosper above and beyond what we can ever
imagine. In my own life, I have
experienced so much prosperity in so many areas, that I don't want any more. Too many material things will choke
you. So God knows how much you need and
want and He will stop at that point.
My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord; neither be weary of his correction:
It's as
if God knows that some of us are going to argue with what has been previously
said. Especially the part about giving
money to your church or organization.
Man, that really hits people when you asked them to open up their
pocketbook. So God says in a loving
manner, “My son”…………. Isn't that a nice way to begin this subject matter? He says don't despise the fact that I'm
going to straighten you out and don't be afraid of my attempt to correct
you. That's really all this verse is
saying. The next verse tells you why
God will correct you and that you should not be weary of his correction, but
you should be blessed that God is taking the time to help you out and to steer
you in the right direction. This is a
difficult area for many people, including myself at times. Once we study so much of the Word, why we
think we know it all and no one can tell us anything. Don't have this type of attitude. It is from the god of this world and the only reason it is
happening to your mind is because he is influencing you and you may not even
know it. Listen to reprove and
correction especially if it comes from another believer. God may know that you will not listen to
Him, so he may send another person to talk to you. This has happened to me many times in my life. If it's not your spouse, it could be your
brother or your sister or a friend or any other believer.
For whom the Lord loveth he correcteth; even as a father the
son in whom he delighteth.
The Lord
loves those who will listen to Him.
This is very similar to a figure of speech meaning that God can work
with that person who respects Him. To
the unbeliever, who God knows will not listen to Him, He will not make such an
effort to correct that person because, by their own free will, they will not
listen and God knows this. God loves to
correct His son in whom He is proud of and He delights over him because He
knows that that son will listen to Him.
It's that simple. God corrects
you, as a faithful believer, because He loves you and He wants to see you walk
the way the Word of God says you should walk.
He will not let you stray and make mistakes and be influenced by the god
of this world if He has anything to say about it and He does.
One time,
I finally had the nerve to sit down and reprove and correct my branch
leader. He was doing things that did
not line up with the Word of God. This
was difficult but I sat down at my kitchen table with this great man of God and
I slowly moved towards the subject.
This person did something that amazed me and raised my respect for
him. He said not a word and that is the
only way to react to reprove and correction from another believer when it is
right on from the Word of God.
At the
end of that session with this person, he got up and he put his hand out and
shook my hand and he said something like “Thank you Ralph -- I never knew I was
doing the things that I was doing until now.”
I was amazed at the outcome and I must admit that tears were struggling
in my eyes. This man was and still is a
great man of God – fearless, bold, humble.
I was fortunate to be a part of his fellowship. I hope that true story helps you if someone
reproves you. They are trying to help you and the only way I can put it is
“Keep your mouth shut.” Just listen and
you will get blessed. Now one final
point. When or if you are doing
something wrong in your life and are unaware of it, it is obviously destroying
you in some way. When someone outside
of your own life, comes to you and tries to help you by first making you aware
of the problem, why you should get down on your knees and kiss their feet and
you know what I mean. When someone straightens
me out and shows me that I'm doing something wrong, I just love that person as
much as I possibly can. If it weren't
for that person I would make the same mistake destroying my own life.
Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding.
There is
nothing wrong with being happy. Being
happy is a good thing. Do you want to
be happy, then you will seek out wisdom and you will also seek out
understanding. Where are you going to
find these things? Do/apply the Word of
God and that settles it. We have named
these teachings Words of Wisdom. God
gets right to the point in this verse and He specifically mentions finding
wisdom.
For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than
fine gold.
This
chapter actually seems to be getting simpler and simpler. God is saying, in using the word
‘merchandise’, that it means the value of something. He is saying the value of obtaining wisdom is much better than
the value of silver. And God is also
saying that the profit that you receive by applying wisdom and applying it in
your life is really greater than the gain you would receive from fine gold. You see, the value of silver and gold is
fleeting. It can be here one day and
gone the next. But the innermost
working of wisdom is permanent in a person's heart. It can be applied at any time and brings great profit to a
believer. This wisdom is free. God does not charge anybody for it. Try and get your hands on silver and gold at
no charge. It's a wonderful verse if
you understand that God is trying to put in your heart how valuable it is to
have wisdom as a part of your being. God
continues telling you the value of wisdom in the next verse.
She is more precious
than rubies: and all the things thou
canst desire are not to be compared unto her.
God is
using the pronoun ‘She’ to refer to wisdom.
God says that she is more precious than rubies. I guess many people get off on precious
stones. They don't do anything for me
and also don't do much for my wife. She
has no desire for precious stones. We
like to get things and buy things that are useful and productive and help us to
live the more than abundant life. I'm
not putting down anyone who likes diamond rings, but everyone has their own
preferences.
God also
says that all things that you can desire -- now God gets into stereos, jet
sprays, Corvettes. These are some of
the things that I like. So God is also
telling us that there is nothing that can be compared to having a working
knowledge of wisdom that emanates from the Word of God. Again, can God put it any simpler? But do you know there are some people that
would rather have those precious stones and all those other things I mentioned
rather than the wisdom of the Word of God?
These people are in a sorry state and are being tricked by the god of
this world to think that the more material things they possess, the stronger
and more powerful they will become.
That is until they need that power more than anything in the world and
the adversary pulls the rug out from under them and they fall flat on their
face and they have nothing left. As I
said in prior teachings and in this one also, what choice are you going to
make? You must know the Word of God
rightly divided very well to be able to discern the counterfeit. The adversary, the devil, Satan, whatever
you choose to call him is a master -- a master of deception. Do not think for a minute that he cannot
fool you because he can. But the more
of the rightly divided Word you know, study, and apply, the less chance he has
of deceiving you. Why? Because this accurate knowledge of God's
Word enables you to be able to separate truth from error.
Length of days is in
her right hand; and in her left
hand riches and honour.
Again God
is referring to wisdom using the feminine gender. For some reason in this life, we do the same thing, don't
we? We refer to hurricanes and give
them a feminine name. As my wife likes
to get me going, she says that most guys give their cars a feminine name and
this is true. So it seems to be just a
quirk of our lifestyle.
God says
that length of days is in wisdom's right hand.
In her left hand there are riches and honor. What a promise this is. I
know we’re not supposed to seek vengeance and it's a real tough thing to
do. But you know what my vengeance
(figure of speech) would be? That I
outlive all of my adversaries and I'll tell you the truth, I'm going to do
it. I like to work out and
exercise. I like to swim a mile. I like to walk 8 and 9 miles. Do you know that in my neighborhood not one
person does any type of exercise?
Nothing! It's pathetic - it's
sickening. So who is going to bury
who? I simply take care of myself
because the Word says we are a tabernacle for the holy spirit. That’s why.
God says
that those who walk by the wisdom of His Word will have length of days -- they
will live a long time. I mentioned
before about material things. Riches
are a relative thing. I do not want any
more material things in my life. I have
enough and to me they are riches because they serve a purpose and they make me
happy. How about honor? Where do we get honor today? Well that's a tough one. We may get some honor from other believers
who respect our stand. But don't expect
to get honor from the unbeliever and from the person who has one quarter acre
of grass and he buys a riding lawnmower because he’s so damn lazy it makes me
sick to my stomach. God says that if we
walk by the wisdom of His Word, we will have riches and we will find
honor. Riches and honor also, to me,
are relative terms. If I find one
believer that enjoys this website and studies it well, I feel honored. If I have all the material things that I can
ever desire in my life, I feel that I have riches because I don't want any
more.
Do you
see what God is trying to say and He says it so simply? Let me conclude this one section with an
actual event that is taking place right at this very moment.
I have
been trying something new when it comes to cleaning leaves on my property. I am not using any machines except one very
simple one and it's called a rake. It
does a really good job, it gives me exercise, and I can do my whole yard in
about the same time or less than my neighbors who are using every type of
machine imaginable to man to clean the leaves off their yard. Right now, as I speak to you, I have a
neighbor who has a huge riding lawn mower going up and down his yard picking up
a small portion of leaves. It's
pathetic to me -- it's sinful. I could
rake that person’s yard in less time than he can with his big machine. And also I'm not burning up gas and I'm not
making any noise whatsoever. The fact
that I do this is because God has instilled the wisdom of His Word in my life
because I have studied diligently and worked at renewing my mind since
1974. And the really agitating part is
that these people who are so damn lazy actually think they're right. I'll give one more example. I'm not saying you shouldn't have a snow
blower if you have a large driveway, but this same person uses a snow blower to
clean his driveway going downhill. I
can clean his driveway quietly and more efficiently with a snow shovel. And what are the benefits of the wisdom that
I apply? I get exercise. It was brought up to me just yesterday that
in biblical times everyone walked at least 5 miles a day. That was part of their life and
lifestyle. This convenience trip that
the world has introduced is a trick of all tricks to get you to sit on your
butt and do nothing. Then you wonder
why hospitals are so busy. I know I
sound a little bit obnoxious but I'm going to say it anyway just this one time. My wife works in a hospital so go ahead,
give her the job security. It's
terrible, isn't it? Well these people
could use some reproof and correction but they have eyes that cannot see and
ears that cannot hear because they have rejected God's Word in their
lives. I belong to a national gym and I
must say that I admire all those people that belong to that gym. Because they're trying -- they're doing
something and obviously that's better than doing what all my neighbors are
doing -- nothing!
Proverbs: 3: 17 – 20
Since there are 35 Scriptures in this chapter, we
are going to end part three with verse
20 and we will continue with part four which will entail verses 21 through
35. Just like in a fellowship, a
teaching should only be so long.
Otherwise the person will tend to lose interest in what he or she is
reading or hearing. This is an
important detail and one that is often overlooked.
Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.
Again, the subject is wisdom and God says that the
ways of the wisdom acquired from His Word are pleasant. Now who in the world doesn't like things
that are pleasant? You will find a
counterfeit in the world but it won't last for long. In fact, it will probably trick you into letting down your guard
and then the adversary will pounce on you in some area of your life.
The Scripture also says that all the paths of wisdom
lead to an end result of peace. Do you
know of anybody who is not searching for peace in their life? It has been said that if a company could
successfully manufacture a pill that would give a person peace, they would make
trillions of dollars. Well, God has
that ‘pill’ and it is called wisdom and it is acquired by an accurate knowledge
and application of His Word. I have a
tendency to say at the end of each one of these Scriptures “that simple”. I will say it one time. IT’S THAT SIMPLE.
She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon
her: and happy is every one that retaineth her.
More benefits and more
promises. Wisdom is a tree of life to
those that hold upon her. Happy is
every one that retains her. We have to
read between the lines here. We can't
overlook the fact that God is saying that we have free will to hold wisdom in
our hearts and to retain it in our hearts.
Do you see it in the verse?
Wisdom is only going to be a tree of life with all its blessings to
those that hold and retain her. And we
know that ‘her’ is referring to wisdom.
If we don’t know that by now, I suggest you begin reading this teaching
over again. I do not like to be
repetitious and God does not like repetitious prayer. But you will get some people who are unbelievers or unbelieving
believers that will make an issue out of the pronoun ‘her’. Let's keep the teaching simple because it is
a very simple teaching. However, it is
filled with treasures -- treasures beyond our understanding at times. But we can pick up very much of the abundant
life and the promises that God has made in His Word for us, His children.
I would think that a good
example of the hidden meaning of what this verse is saying is a believer who
turns his back on God and His Word. That person chooses not to hold on to
wisdom. That person chooses not to
retain the Word of God and all of its wisdom in the innermost part of his
being, which is his or her heart. God
never oversteps our free will. We can
believe and act if we so choose. God
never wanted people to love Him in a robotic manner, but by their own free
will. Everybody can make that choice.
The Lord by wisdom hath founded the earth; by
understanding hath he established the heavens.
Now here God is making a
case for Himself. He is showing you the
importance of wisdom by telling you that by His wisdom, He has founded and
created the earth. Notice, at this
point, that God often uses understanding and wisdom interchangeably. So in the second part of the verse, He says
that by His understanding He has established the heavens. Now if someone can create the heavens and
the earth by His great wisdom, isn't wisdom that we get from the true God something
that we want to imitate in our own lives?
Does that question really need an answer? Let's move on to the final verse in this teaching which is verse
20 of Proverbs chapter 3.
By his
knowledge the depths are broken up, and the clouds drop down the dew.
Now if some of you think I
know everything about the Word of God, I do not. The first part of this verse has been giving me some
problems. I am not certain what God
means by the ‘depths’ and I am not sure what He means by ‘broken up’. So what's the first thing that you do? You do some research. You should have extra translations in your
research library and the one that I turn to the most is The New English
Bible. The following is how that Bible
translates this verse.
By his
knowledge the depths burst forth and the clouds dropped dew. – NEB
I am going to let you
research this verse with me and I'm going to share a little secret with you
about a website that is extremely helpful as far as time is concerned and as
far as learning other translations. This
website is called Bible Gateway and of course you're welcome to use it because
it is available to anybody. I even
wrote to these people and told them what a great help their site was to me when
I am preparing teachings. I simply
choose the KJV 99.999% of the time, enter in the Scripture reference, and this
website brings up the KJV of the Scripture for me. Now let's get back to the verse.
By God's knowledge,
everything comes into fruition. By
God's knowledge the clouds drop dew. In
other words, everything that happens in this world was initially created by the
true God. When the other god became the
god of this world, he corrupted and tried to pervert and counterfeit everything
the true God did. His time is limited
and Jesus Christ will be coming back for the second time and the devil and all
his devil spirits will be destroyed permanently. Isn't this a great thing to look forward to? We need to remember this when we are under
tribulation. It will help you to keep
going and to keep depending and relying on God and His Word. If you are in a right standing with the true
God, don't think for a minute that God will not send you an angel or angels to
help you.
By His
knowledge the deeps were broken up And the skies drip with dew. -- NASB
Here is another
translation of this verse. We can see
that this translation is also having some problems with the word ‘depths’. So this is an interesting verse and one that
can be worked. I can guarantee you that
if you work it long enough, God will reveal its true meaning to you. Watch.
Let's take a look at another translation.
By his
knowledge the deep fountains of the earth burst forth, and the dew settles beneath the night sky. -- New Living Translation (NLT)
Now isn't that a beautiful
translation and I believe it is quite accurate. Whoever wrote this translation was a charismatic writer. The second part of the verse sounds like
something so beautiful that only God Almighty can do. I am satisfied to conclude this part three with that translation
of that verse, even though it's not from the King James version. You surely remember why we use that version
by now. It is because the words that
are added by the translators are put in italics and I don't believe you will
find that in another Bible. I hope this
series of teachings has blessed you and taught you much about the endless
promises and wisdom that are written in God's Word, not only in the New
Testament and the church epistles, but also in the Old Testament and in every
book of the Bible. In part four, we
will finish Chapter Three and I am going to share with you how I initially got
interested in the book of Proverbs and how that book eventually led me to an
accurate knowledge of God's Word.
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[ END OF PART THREE ]