Proverbs 16:8-9, Truths Hard to Learn!
October 24, Proverbs 16:8-9
James 5:1-4 “God humbles pride in prosperity, and prevents despair in adversity.”
Truths Hard to Learn!
1. God’s Riches: Better is little with righteousness, than great revenues without right. We have had this proverb, in substance, before. Treasures with trouble (15:16) have become revenues without right (16:8). The one dealt with material wellness, while this one stresses the spiritual, what is right! It seems too obvious to need much illustration. Few, however, actually possess great revenues, but that desire is still insatiable in the human breast. Every new Casino or lottery has crowds lining up to “try for the millions”. We blindly go on thinking that there will be true peace and contentment at the end of the golden rainbow. “The treasures of wickedness will be found treasures of wrath eternal,” is Bridges’ sober reminder. When will we learn this simple, yet oft repeated warning? “Far better to have little than to have much accompanied by guilt and fear” (Alden).
2. God’s Reach: Verse 9 also presents a familiar theme. A man’s heart devises his way; but the Lord directs his steps. Sinful man walks blindfold, but words like accident, chance or good-fortune should have no place in the life of the child of God. There is nothing “causeless or vain” in God’s universe. Man is allowed, nay required, to devise his own way. That in turn, often becomes the means God employs to direct his steps. What natural causes can explain the events that occurred from the Call of Abraham to the Coming of the Seed of Abraham? In everything, in the ordinary, as well as in the miraculous, God is there “behind the shadows keeping watch above His own.” He has been called the Infallible Director.
3. God’s Re-direct: God is there in the success or failure of some business venture. This proverb, then should check every anxious care about future events and how they will work out. God is there, too, in the choice of one’s career. We can recall the many choices we made, as youngsters, as to what we would be “when we grew up.” How many never stayed in the place they chose, but they little thought that Another was re-directing their steps. David Livingstone started as a “hand” in a Glasgow factory, but God had other plans for him. He became a dedicated missionary to Africa. William Carey was, on his own admission, only “a cobbler,” but God wanted him to be His missionary-ambassador to India. We sometimes refer to this or that “event” which shaped our destiny, but let us never forget that the “event” to which we give the credit was all along in the plan and purpose of a Sovereign God. Looking back, we will say: I, being in the way, the Lord led me in the right way (Gn. 24:27, 48). “All must of necessity fulfill the plans of Infinite Wisdom in God’s universal government” (R. Wardlaw).
God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform;
He plants his footsteps in the sea, and rides upon the storm. (Cowper)
Thought: “If the Lord will not suffer it, neither man nor devils can do it” (CHS).
Prayer: Lord, make me learn these familiar truths.