Hello everyone. Let’s begin by turning to Proverbs 24:1 and continue through the book of Proverbs in this Bible Study. It says in Proverbs 24:1:
1 Be not thou envious against evil men, neither desire to be with them.
In other words, evil men who do evil things will end up in an evil place and will end up being punished severely. So to envy them and want to be like them and want to follow after them is something that is foolish. And you know, if you desire what they have or begin to envy the way they are, the temptation will be to try to be like them. And that will end up in a disaster for you just like it’s going to end up inevitably in a disaster for them.
So we should emulate Jesus Christ. And we should want to follow those who are following Christ and want to follow His word, not evil people who are rebelling against God’s word and against Jesus Christ.
2 For their heart studies destruction, and their lips talk of mischief.
This is what they’re consumed with. This is what they’re interested in. This is what they are absorbed with. Destruction and trouble is a better translation for the word mischief there. And we don’t want to be like that, and we don’t want to go there. And that’s where they like going, and they end up in big trouble themselves.
And that’s what they talk about. They talk about trouble all the time Things they like to do end up being big problems and big trouble for them and everyone else. So we need to stay away from them.
3 Through wisdom is a house builded; and by understanding it is established:
And verse 3 is not just talking about framing a house or building a structure. This is talking about a family. This is talking about a home. This is talking about a nation. This is talking about a church. This is talking about a career. This is talking about life itself.
And we are to build a life, build a home, build a marriage, build a family through wisdom—wisdom that comes from God, wisdom that is right and proper and will achieve great results—not fleshly sensual wisdom, worldly wisdom, wisdom that is generated by Satan or man. That tears down, but the wisdom that comes from God builds up.
3 —and by understanding it is established:
Not by hook or crook, and not by political wranglings and powerful connections, not by conniving and maneuvering will it be established, but by godly understanding the home, the family, the church, the nation, the company, the career are established.
4 And by knowledge shall the chambers be filled with all precious and pleasant riches.
God will bless us with opportunities and with benefits. But the main thing to keep in mind when the Bible talks about riches and precious things is the spiritual aspect of what that means. Now it does mean that He will give us an abundant life if we follow in the path that he has laid down for us to follow and if we absorb and inculcate and ingrain into our innermost being the knowledge that comes from Him and put that knowledge to use. Yes, there will be physical blessings. But above all, there will be spiritual riches that are precious and pleasant—riches such as peace of mind, clean minds and clean hearts, and holy righteous godly character, deep understanding of who God is and what His word means, and who we are and where we’re going and how we’re going to get there, the purpose in life—that kind of riches, riches in faith.
God tells us in other places in the Bible that we ought to be rich in faith. Pleasant riches like that is what He will fill our lives and fill our homes and fill our families with, along with physical bounty as well if we use the knowledge that comes from Him properly.
5 A wise man is strong; yea, a man of knowledge increases strength.
And it’s not talking about physical strength, although there can be that as well. But primarily the point here is spiritual strength. A wise man will be spiritually strong and a man of knowledge will increase His spiritual strength, or a woman of knowledge will increase her spiritual strength—strength of character, strength of virtue, strength of values, strength of attitude in trying to do the right thing in trying to follow wherever Jesus Christ leads, in trying to emulate and imitate and reflect Him. That’s an individual who is strong—a man, woman, or child—that’s an individual who can withstand tremendous pressure and withstand tremendous trouble and withstand tremendous stress because they’re so strong spiritually, and they’re increasing in that spiritual strength. And that comes from walking with God.
6 For by wise counsel you shall make your war: and in multitude of counselors there is safety.
In multitude of counselors there is safety. Once again, we’re not supposed to be going to war. In ancient Israel, they did go to war because they were God’s nation led by Jesus Christ Himself and He fought their battles for them, and they did seek wise counsel from God and from wise men who followed God. But this is talking about the warfare we’re involved in—a spiritual war that everyday a Christian has to fight, fight against human nature, fight against the pull of this world, and fight against the influence of Satan the devil.
And with wise counsel, we should make that war and wage that war. Counsel that comes from God, from having His Holy Spirit, from people who serve Him with their whole heart. Counsel that comes from His word.
6 —in multitude of counselors there is safety.
Other people will think of things we didn’t think of, we’ll see things in God’s word we didn’t understand before. And when we take counsel and feedback and guidance from those sources, it does lead to safety. It does lead to success if we have the humility to listen and to weigh it out and to prove it and then to put it into practice along with our own understanding and our own wisdom that comes from God.
7 Wisdom is too high for a fool: he opens not his mouth in the gate.
It’s something a fool is not interested in, and even if he did try to get interested in it, because he’s so full of himself and so full of carnality and foolishness, it’s beyond his reach. He can’t grasp it. He can’t comprehend it. It’s out of his bailiwick of understanding. And so nobody invites him to open his mouth in the gate, and he’s afraid to anyway when he’s surrounded by so many wise people who are there to try to speak good things.
And when you read about gate here in verse 7, it’s not talking about a gate to the yard or a gate to the pasture. This is talking about the court of justice. This is talking about a gathering place in cities of old of wise men, movers and shakers and leaders, who would consider facts and problems and situations and circumstances and render decisions that would affect families, communities, and even whole nations.
Well, a fool was out of place there, didn’t fit there because he didn’t like wisdom, didn’t want wisdom, and nobody wanted to hear what he had to say because they knew it’d just be foolishness. And he quickly would feel uncomfortable and move on and wouldn’t dare open his mouth because of how stupid he would look and sound.
8 He that devises to do evil shall be called a mischievous person.
Quite often this word mischievous is trivialized today. You know, it’s kind of put in a category of being cute and bouncy and all of that. That’s not what the Bible is talking about here. And quite often if you’ll take it in context, you’ll find that that’s not what the Bible is talking about when it uses the word mischievous.
A better translation is: He that plots to do evil shall be called a schemer, or a master of evil plots. So now we see evil is involved here and scheming is involved here and plotting is involved and conspiracies and cabals of people who come together to conspire and they’re up to no good. They’re going to end up hurting other people. They’re going to lay down a plan that will benefit them and be detrimental to others. It will add up to evil, and God views them as schemers and masters of evil plots, not just cutesy pie, mischievous people. We don’t want to be like that and don’t want to be around people who are like that if we really have the mind of Christ and if we’re trying to live our lives in a Christian way.
9 The thought of foolishness is sin: and the scorner is an abomination to men.
We see here that not only actions can end up being sin, but thinking can also be sin. And so we’re judged not only by what we do but by what we think. And of course what we think leads to what we do. We can understand a little bit more thoroughly, if we consider that point, what the Bible means when it talks about the letter of the law and the sprit of the law.
The letter of the law told us in the Bible, in ancient Israel, it says that you shall not kill and that was it. That’s the letter of the law. That was under the old covenant. We’re under the new covenant which magnifies the law. It doesn’t do away with the law. It magnifies the law and takes it to a higher level. So now Jesus Christ is in the middle of the old covenant and He is in the middle of the new covenant, Jesus Christ is. And therefore He certainly knows what He’s talking about, about everything including the old and new covenant.
He tells us in the New Testament that not only can you not kill, but you can’t hate anymore. So it’s the thought as well as the action that counts. So if we kill somebody, we’re sinning. But if we hate somebody, then we’re breaking the spirit of the law and that’s sin.
He says that they were told in old times, I’m paraphrasing it, you cannot commit adultery. That’s the letter of the law. Now He says under the new covenant, not only can you not commit adultery, but you cannot lust after another person. Because if you lust after another person, that’s sin. You’re thinking about committing adultery, and under the new covenant, that’s sin.
So you see, the point in verse 9, if you really want to get down into the deeper meaning of it is, that not only do we have to obey God in our actions, but we must obey Him in our thoughts because if we don’t, then our thoughts can be sin as well as our actions. So if we obey the letter of the law, we will not kill. And we obey the spirit of the law, we will not hate. Then we are blessed physically and spiritually, and God requires that.
So let’s make sure that we’re bringing every thought into the captivity of Jesus Christ and let’s make sure that we understand that not only can we not do evil, we can’t even think to do evil. If we think to do evil, that in itself is sin. That’s what verse 9 means.
9 The thought of foolishness is sin:—
You know, foolishness isn’t a light thing. A fool that thinks foolish things and does foolish things, it says right here, that’s sin.
9 —and the scorner is an abomination to men.
They’re not to be entertained at all, the scorner. They’re not somebody that is a novelty. And “Oh my, well, he’s just negative or he’s critical or sarcastic or he’s just unusually full of accusations. He’s a skeptic, he’s a cynic.” No, a scorner. One that scoffs and scorns and accuses and heaps ridicule on others. That is an abomination to man. People don’t like that. But I tell you something else, it’s an abomination to God as well as we’ve read in other verses.
10 If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small.
And all of us are going to have adversity. We will have adversity spiritually and physically. Life does have times of trials and tests and obstacles and adversity. We know that. So therefore we need to be preparing for that, and how do we prepare for it? By getting closer and closer to God, by praying everyday, by studying everyday, by developing strong character. And as we do that, then when adversity comes, we’re not going faint, we’re not going to fall, we’re not going to collapse, we’re not going to cave in. We’re not going to give up because we have used the window of time when things were going along very well to get stronger and stronger and stronger spiritually so that when things begin to come out of nowhere and hit us hard and painful adversity descends on us, we can just keep on going because of the strength that we have developed prior to that time.
But if we haven’t done that and then all of a sudden we’re hit with adversity, we will cave in and we will quit because our strength doesn’t exist—spiritually, it doesn’t—or else it’s very, very small and it’s not enough to overcome the adversity. So we need to use every day—every day—to grow and overcome and develop the strength that we need to keep going no matter what comes and no matter what is around the corner.
11 If you forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and those that are ready to be slain;
12 If you say, Behold, we knew it not; does not he that ponders the heart consider it? and he that keeps your soul, does not he know it? and shall not he render to every man according to his works?
A better translation, although this one still makes the point here in the Authorized King James, but a better translation reads like this: If you forbear to deliver those who were drawn toward death and hold back those stumbling to the slaughter, then that’s what’s going to happen to you. In other words, if you forbear to help those that are headed for trouble and if you forbear to hold back those that are stumbling toward the slaughter, and if you say:
12 —Behold, we knew it not; does not he that—
weighs
12 —the heart consider it?—
Meaning God who knows everything, our innermost thoughts and all of our actions.
12 —and he that keeps your—
life
12 —does not he know it? and shall not he render to every man according to his works?
If your works are one of helping someone who is stumbling toward slaughter or someone who is headed toward big trouble and you can help them and they will take your help, then you better do that because God is watching and He’ll help you when you need it and He’ll help me when I need it. But if we refrain from helping someone who is headed toward big trouble and maybe even death or slaughter, then when we are faced with such circumstances, God is going to remember what we did and didn’t do and He’s going to respond in like kind. And we’re going to want Him to help us, but He’s going to back off from helping us because our works did not include helping others.
Once again, whatever you sow, you reap. We won’t help others so when we need help from God, He’s going to remember that and teach us the lesson by letting us suffer the consequences of our actions and not helping us.
Now it’s bigger than that as well. Verse 11 and 12 also apply to doing the work of God. Jesus Christ said in Matthew 24:14 to his church, “You shall preach the gospel of the Kingdom of God to the whole world as a witness and then shall the end come,” to paraphrase it.
So God wants us to carry out the commission of preaching the gospel to the whole world and the message that we read about in Isaiah 58 where He says, “Cry aloud, spare not, lift up your voice, and tell my people their sins.” Now, some will listen, some won’t. But at least the warning is there and those who listen can be protected and can be saved from the slaughter, and those who don’t listen or respond to what they hear, well, they’re going to suffer the consequences of that.
But if we say, “Oh well, the work is already done. We know the truth. We’ll just take care of one another and wait for Jesus Christ to come,” we’re ignoring what we’re told here in Proverbs 24:11-12. We are not loving our neighbor as ourselves, and we are not helping those that need help. And therefore when we come to a point where we need help, God is going to remember that and then He’s going to let us learn a hard lesson by not helping us. So consider those points as you read Proverbs 24:11-12. Now let’s notice verse 13:
13 My son, eat honey, because it is good; and the honeycomb, which is sweet to your taste:
Obviously, we have to put all the scriptures together on any one subject and let the Bible interpret the Bible. And the Bible certainly shows that we ought to practice temperance, we ought to practice moderation. You can eat way too much honey that ends being very, very bad for you because you ate too much.
Honey of and by itself—good, pure, clean honey—it’s very delicious and it’s good for us—but in small amounts—and it’s very, very sweet to the taste. So that’s one point. But a bigger point is found in verse 14.
14 So shall the knowledge of wisdom be unto your soul: when you have found it, then there shall be a reward, and your expectation shall not be cut off.
If you think honey is good and if you think the honeycomb is sweet, well, the knowledge of wisdom and the truth of God is much better and much sweeter if you have the big picture in mind. And that’s what the lesson is in verse 14.
Just as a taste of honey is good and a taste of honey is sweet, knowledge and wisdom and the truth of God is wonderful to a Christian. And when you’ve found it, you’re going to know that that’s going to lead you toward a tremendous reward, and you’re going to know that your hope for that reward will be fulfilled and will not be cut off.
15 Lay not wait, O wicked man, against the dwelling of the righteous; spoil not his resting place:
Today, one of the biggest and most oft committed crimes all over the world is armed robbery, or breaking and entering in the homes and sanctuaries of people and of businesses and even of churches. This is a despicable thing and it’s especially despicable in the eyes of God. It’s a tremendous wickedness.
And so He just warns, He said, “You better not lay in wait against the dwelling of the righteous. My eyes are on the righteous. I will look after them. I will protect them and you will pay dearly if you do that and if you interrupt and intrude and plunder into his sanctuary, his home, his resting place and that of his family.”
16 For a just man falls seven times, and rises up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief.
And you know what, even someone who is just, even someone who is trying to do the right thing, we’re going to stumble. We’re going to make mistakes. We’re human beings, and we’re going through life learning lessons. And some of those lessons are going to include trials and tests and pain and suffering and missteps. There’s no getting around that. That’s all a part of the tumbling barrel of life that is necessary to build the character that God wants for His Kingdom.
But here’s the point, and here’s what separates the just from the wicked. A just man will fall seven times, but he keeps getting up. It doesn’t mean he just sins and just keeps on sinning and keeps on sinning. It means he may stumble, he may make a mistake. He may fall down in his life. He may get involved in the wrong thing or whatever, and come to himself and then repent. He may face setbacks. He may face failures. But you can’t keep him down. He’s irrepressible. He keeps bobbing up again and she keeps bobbing up again. Why? Because they’re trying to obey God. They’re trying to do the right thing. God is with them. And if God be for you, who can be against you?
And so we all must be that way, verse 16. We all must get up again. Don’t quit. Don’t cave in. Don’t stop. Don’t rollover and die. Keep getting up. Keep going. Dust yourself off and get back on track and keep moving ahead. That’s the lesson in verse 16. And God will help us do that. He’ll pick us up sometime, and He’ll dust us off, and He’ll put us on our way.
16 —but the wicked shall fall into mischief.
They fall and they stay down. They get into calamity. They get into big trouble. They get entangled in all kinds of horrible situations and they can’t get out of them. Why? Because they are wicked and God will not deliver them.
But when a just man gets entangled in situations and cries out to God, He will deliver them and forgive them and they can move on down the road. So as we obey God, He will help us keep going no matter what. But if we don’t obey God, He won’t help us keep going no matter what and we’re going to fall into big mischief. So let’s make the right choices and do the right thing and have God’s backing and blessing.
We’ll stop there and pick it up next time in verse 17.
This is Charles Bryce with the Enduring Church of God.