Category: Devotions

Are not disappointments the common lot of humanity? Without counsel purposes are disappointed. So it has been for prince and peasant, for rich and poor, young and old. The word purposes comes from the root to think. They are devices or thoughts, usually of man. Another meaning of disappointed is to be frustrated, to make ineffectual. Do any of these words describe you? Is your life clouded because of some past disappointments?

Again and again the Book of Proverbs asks, What do you really think of Folly? Does it not warn us that “folly is wise in her own eyes,” and that “a fool constantly advertises his own folly”? Death overtakes him engaging in his senseless folly, and without a serious thought for his eternal destiny.

There is similarity in line one of 10:1 and today’s verse (15:20), but note the difference in the second part, but a foolish man despises his mother. Bringing gladness and despising are not strictly opposites as in 10:1 where gladness and grief (heaviness) are contrasted. In 15:20 the mother’s grief lies beneath the surface. Instead, we are told of a callous son who stoops to despising his mother. An old saying has it; “Children are certain cares, but uncertain comforts.” The message of our verse, however, is quite clear. Wise sons (children) bring joy to both parents, but foolish children end despising both father and mother.

Difficulties, imagined or real, are conquered, because the way of the righteous is made plain, literally, cast up as a highway, or as in the margin, “is raised up as a causeway.” “And he (God) shall say, Cast ye up (make plain), cast ye up, prepare the way, take up the stumbling block out of the way of my people” (Isa. 57:14). This is the picture we have in today’s proverb. It is God’s Highway being made plain for the redeemed.

There is a surprising contrast in today’s Proverb. We would expect the slothful contrasted with the diligent or industrious. The contrast, however, is between the slothful and the righteous person! This reminds us that there is something dishonest and sinful about laziness! He is wicked because as a slothful servant he neglects his duty to God as well as himself and others. Laziness here is just another name for unrighteousness. Laziness lives on the labours of others! Further, it demonstrates that the straight course is not only the easiest but also the best. The righteous man is the honest man. He faces the challenges of life, prepares himself well, and works hard to accomplish his goal. He travels on his way both freed of obstacles and made smooth for easier travel.

Someone who “torches” a building, for whatever reason, is called an arsonist. This is a most serious crime, and is becoming all too common in our cities. How much more serious is the “crime” of “torching” another person’s reputation or that of a whole congregation! “Anger,” says Matthew Henry, “strikes the fire which sets cities and churches into a flame.” Fire begins with little sparks, but the result may wipe out large parks! Surely “the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked, who can know it?”

What dangers there are in possessing riches! A dinner of herbs (v.17a) is surely not better than a stalled ox. Can that be true? Can poverty be better than riches? That would not be so without some qualification. The poor contend with serious obstacles, the direct result of poverty. Rich folks do enjoy many advantages primarily because they are rich. What the proverbs say, over and over, is that poverty with the fear of the Lord is better than riches without God. Compare, an average rich person, without God, with an average poor person who knows the fear of the Lord. You will find that the condition of the godly is better than the other, no matter how rich he or she might be (Eccl. 4:6).

Verse 16 and 17 are the first of many better than proverbs. Verse 16 also renews the theme of the Book of Proverbs, namely, the fear of the Lord. Today’s proverbs provide a much-needed reminder in our day that spiritual wealth is to be preferred to material bounty. “Taken in excess, even nectar is poison.”

The Bible is the “heart-specialist” book! Its diagnosis of your heart condition will be true. Will you accept its findings and follow its infallible prescription? Our three proverbs today all have this in common – they deal with the heart. “The Bible speaks much about human hearts and much to human hearts” (Thomas).

Handling criticism well is never easy, for most of us at any rate. A scorner considers any criticism of him or his work to be beneath contempt; he scorns it! This springs from a consciousness or belief in his own superiority or ability. Scorn for the evil or ignoble, should be the attitude of every true child of God, but the scorner disdains the reproof of a holy and merciful God. As we saw in our last study, the admonition to receive reproof rings out again and again. The reason for this repetition should be obvious. Our stubborn, proud, self-righteous, sinful hearts resist, resent, and more often reject criticism, even when it is kindly meant.