Tag: Devotion

God works by means not by miracles, so said Charles Bridges. The illustration of this proverb comes from farming. Those living in Palestine would readily understand it. What farmer, in order to have clean cribs, would do without the help of oxen? If he did, he would have no messy cribs, no strenuous work to do. He would have neat, tidy, clean-smelling barns, but at what a loss? If no work is done, you have gained neatness and order, of a kind, but at the cost of having no oxen in the crib, no sheep in the fold. Then is not your gain loss, for all your neatness? Who would plough your fields, carry home the sheaves, tread out the corn? Thus, the freedom from the labour of cleaning the cribs comes at the loss of everything. You have the clean crib but you have also an empty barn, and a fruitless farm. Sloth saves strain, but the price is both physical and spiritual ruin.

Pride grows from a root of bitterness in the heart. This in turn produces a rod of insolence and folly that inflicts great harm and hurt. Pride and scorn are but briar and thorn, and both are a fruitful source of misery. “He who sows brambles will reap thorns,” thorns that tear both the proud man and those around him.

What we believe about God must profoundly affect the way we live. Our life is a demonstration either of faith in the living God, or of faith in our own self-will and self-judgment. He that walks in his uprightness fears the Lord, but he that is perverse in his way despises him (v.2). We are either walking in uprightness or in perverseness. Matthew Henry observes that this verse shows grace and sin in their true colours, for those who despise God’s precepts and promises, despise God and all His power and mercy. Mark how men deal with each other and you will soon know their feelings toward God.

Modern “enlightened” man, rejecting Christ, rejects God’s Word as well. Yet he feels competent to legislate how marriage shall and shall not be defined. The homosexual lobby is controlling the agenda of many of our Parliaments. The coming years, if the Lord tarries, will witness a horrendous harvest that this corrupt tree must produce. From an old work, quoted by Bridges, we have this outline for the building of a house that will also be a home. “Firstly, a holy coming together; secondly, a special fitness in the head of the family, and lastly, a holy living together. As many order the matter, they so provoke God by the first entering upon a family, that the family travels ever after under the banner of God’s anger.” What does this matter in our day when so many, even professing Christians, are living in unholy unions? Our Proverb warns us: The foolish plucks it down with her hands. The “enlightened” here are only fools, but what wreckage they are wreaking! In contrast, Every wise woman builds her house, but it only begins when she is married in the Lord (1 Cor. 7:39). Then, Christ is present on the Wedding Day (Jn. 2:2), in the Home (Mk. 2:1), and on the whole of Life’s Journey.

History proves that a wife can be a blessing or a curse to her husband. This has given rise to that old saying, “A good wife and health are a man’s best wealth.” The Hebrew reads: The wisdoms of women but the verb is singular. This may be a reference to the plural of excellency. Thus it is applied to every wise woman. Can anyone estimate the worth of a godly mother, a Hannah, a Ruth, and a Eunice? Mothers make men, because they have the formation of their boys’ characters. “From the mother, rather than the father, the members of the family will take their character.” A foolish woman, by contrast, can destroy an empire. Such was Jezebel (1 Kg. 16:31)! Such was Athaliah (2 Kg.1 1:1)!

“God’s blessing gives to a righteous man food and contentment, but the wicked man wants one or both of them” (Lawson). Truly, “the righteous is more excellent than his neighbour” (Pr. 12:26). God does promise temporal blessings as far as they are good for us. He will give us enough to satisfy our needs, not to gratify our wants (Pr.1 0:3). God, who thinks of sparrows, cares for souls.

There is a critical loss of discipline among children. Does not the onus come back to parents? This discipline begins with the self-discipline of parents. Indulgence of children reflects the self-indulgence of parents who shirk their duty to correct their children in the right way and at the right time. “If you who love him do not bend him while he is a child, those who do not love him will break him after he has become a man” (Arnot).

Our verse states boldly that to spare the rod, is to hate one’s son! Do not most parents claim to love their children? Yet, if the rod of discipline is banished from our homes, what does this say about our parental love? With government-sponsored children’s rights advocates, parents, threatened with legal penalties, are now reluctant to discipline their children. The Bible, however, teaches that the right kind of discipline has an assured place in every godly home. “The shortest way to spoil children is to let them have their own way, to allow them to do wrong and not to punish them for it” (J.C. Ryle).

Pastor J. C. Philpot preached on The Tillage of the Poor on Thursday, July 26, 1849 in Trinity Chapel, Southwark, England. In that sermon he makes some valuable suggestions that are still relevant that we will try to re-phrase here.

Stretch or Starve is a humorous, but practical, motto around the dinner table of a large family. It also expresses the truth in our proverb today. Palestine, a small country, was carved into little strips of land for cultivation by each family. The establishment of the Year of Jubilee (Lev. 25) was intended to prevent the acquiring of larger holdings by any one Israelite. Thus all could share its wealth more equitably. “This text is a message to ordinary, mediocre people, without much ability or influence” (Maclaren).