Category: Devotions

Strife is so evil that if not quickly remedied it will burst the dam, and carry everything before it.

1. Begins So Slight: The beginning of strife is as when one lets out water. It may be just a damp spot on the dike wall at first, then a trickle, then a rivulet, then an unstoppable torrent! Truly, is not this an apt description of what happens when personal quarrels break out among us? The cause may be some slight point, a careless word or innocent gesture, but how quickly it can lead on to an all out war, between individuals or even nations! If neither side yields, feelings harden, things escalate and the break becomes fixed. One drop leads to another till it becomes a mad, rushing torrent. When the dam goes, it lets loose devastation, more terrible than anyone can predict, much less control!

2. Evil’s Grief for grief it brings and to grief it must surely come. Evil cannot be conquered by evil, but it can be overcome by good (Rm. 12:21).

1. Evil’s Guise: Satan does more harm in a sheepskin than in his lion skin (Mt. 7:15; Jn. 10:12)! Evil, like the serpent in Genesis, is a dangerous associate.

Preserving “peace among friends” and “a word to the wise is enough” is the sum of our next two proverbs, reinforcing the wisdom that is still too often ignored. Peacemakers are the children of God; peace-breakers are the children of the devil.

Spurgeon said, “Characters that are really great are always simple.” Is not character a man’s true capital? It is the most precious stock-in-trade of life. Let no one who reads these pages lose it or diminish it, for once lost, it is lost forever.

Here is a quick survey of a few Proverbs, most of which we have encountered before. Only let this repetition drive their message all the more surely home.

1. Love that Blesses; Hate that Blights (vs.1): Which is more important, what we eat or with whom? Love can transform a dry morsel into a meal, while strife turns even a banquet into a bitter bone (of contention, 15:17). It’s a case of the little leaven of malice corrupting all it touches, and it touches all. A mind contented, how precious it is! “Riches cannot secure happiness, and poverty cannot destroy it. Invite Christ to come into the house, and into the hearts of its inmates, for He is our peace, and constrain Him to abide” (Arnot).

Walk though any shopping Mall today, and one is likely to see people lined up at the lottery booths to “take a chance” on the “millions” being offered to entice some “lucky” winner. Knowledge that the chance of winning the “big prize” is in the “millions to one” doesn’t deter people from buying into the millionaire dream. Gambling is an express train to ruin, but our governments care only for the revenue!

Here is another synonymous, better than, proverb. It is a reminder to us all of the imperative need to control our tempers. Our greatest fight, therefore, is in gaining victory over our spirits. What monuments are built to the Alexanders and Napoleons of this world? Who, but God, has ever built a monument to the one who has conquered himself or herself? Is not the heart the most difficult field of battle? “The glory of this victory is indeed far above the mighty. The taking of a city is child’s play, compared with this ‘wrestling against flesh and blood’” (Bridges). Only godly men and women are so tried. “Totally depraved spirits are never tempted.” For self-control, try these three vital steps.

1. The Right View: Modern versions (NKJV excepted), following the RV, reject the if in KJV, and read. “A gray head is a crown of glory; It is found in the way of righteousness” (NASV). The KJV is accused of “reading too much into the Hebrew.” We turn this around and claim that modern versions “read too much into the value of old age.” True, the if is only implied, but it does make a vital distinction, namely, that the hoary head apart from righteousness is not a crown of glory at all. Is not an old sinner an awful sight to behold? He who was once a red-cheeked choir-boy, is now a godless rebel, beyond redemption (Isa. 65:20b)! Without that walk of righteousness the crown falls from the hoary head in shame! “What is more lamentable.” asks Bridges, “than a graceless old man?” Let this be a warning to all. Yet IF that hoary head be found in the way of righteousness, it sparkles as a crown of glory, and the young may sit in awe at its feet.

What descriptive words are used here! Such men are said to be ungodly, evil; sons of Belial. They are forward, perverse. They are violent, fierce, cruel. You have met such, no doubt, for they are everywhere. They are the people who delight to snap the links of friendship and sow strife broadcast.