Hello everyone. Let’s turn to Proverbs 25:1 and continue in our study through this wonderful book of Proverbs. Proverbs 25:1:
1 These are also proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah copied out.
So here we see the third part of the book of Proverbs. As we’ve mentioned before, the book of Proverbs is organized into five parts, and we now are going to open up and go through the third part of the book of Proverbs involving the next few chapters. And there’s an interesting point made here in verse 1. It says:
1 These are also proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah copied out.
There were three thousand proverbs God inspired Solomon to speak and to be preserved, and so the proverbs that the men of Hezekiah copied out were selections from those three thousand proverbs spoken by Solomon.
We can read about that over here in I Kings 4:32. Occasionally we’ll take time to cross reference. Of course, if we do too much of that, we will not get through the book of Proverbs for a long time. So our purpose has been to just go on through the book of Proverbs and mainly emphasize and concentrate on the verses in that book and try to tie them in with practical everyday Christian living. But occasionally cross referencing other verses is a very helpful thing, and in your personal Bible study through the book of Proverbs, it’s good to do a lot of that.
Let’s notice here in I Kings 4:32. If you read it in context beginning in verse 29, you’ll see it’s talking about King Solomon, and it says in verse 32:
32 —he spoke three thousand proverbs: and his songs were a thousand and five.
Three thousand. It’s amazing how God used this man and inspired this man to utter and speak and have written down so many wonderful proverbs—principles that will guide us through life and therefore it becomes scripture, because God inspired it, and becomes truth, because God inspired it. Let’s notice here in Ecclesiastes 12—this book also was written by Solomon and inspired of God—and it says here in Ecclesiastes 12:9:
9 And moreover, because the preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge; yea, he gave good heed, and sought out, and set in order many proverbs.
And indeed he did that, and God inspired it. So that gives you a little bit of background regarding the book of Proverbs and in particular this third part of the book of Proverbs which the men of Hezekiah, King of Judah copied out.
By the way, these were copied out nearly three hundred years after God used Solomon to speak them and write them out or have somebody write them out. Nearly three hundred years later, the men of Hezekiah copied out a selection from these three thousand proverbs that Solomon authored. You can research a little bit and you will see that Hezekiah lived over two hundred years after Solomon died.
Now, why did they copy these out? Well, perhaps the Proverbs had been referred to so much that the manuscripts may have been worn out or started to wear out or started to fade. But, anyway, that’s what happened, and if you follow this man, Hezekiah, who was an outstanding king, you will see that under his leadership he obeyed God, and there was a religious reform that set in under his leadership—a renewed interest in the truth of God. And that explains one of the reasons why he saw to it that these proverbs would be copied out and renewed and refreshed.
You can read about this King Hezekiah in the book of II Kings, and in particular you can read about how he obeyed God, and how those under his leadership began to be renewed spiritually. You can read about that in II Kings 18. So I just wanted to give a little bit of that background, take time to do that. Let’s turn back now to Proverbs 25:2.
2 It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honor of kings is to search out a matter.
In other words, God knows everything that can be known and He knows what to reveal and what not to reveal. And He knows when to reveal it, and He knows when it’s a good thing to reveal knowledge and truth and when it’s good to hold it back. He’s perfect. He knows everything. That’s why as we go through the books of the Bible, we understand much of it—and our understanding grows as we get closer to Him—but some of it is not clear yet and hasn’t been revealed of God yet. And when He gets ready He will reveal the meaning of those verses that are not clear—particularly, let’s say, in the book of Daniel and in the book of Revelation. The last part of verse 2:
2 —but the honor of kings is to search out a matter.
You know, the normal way that leaders do. Sometimes they search out a matter and they reveal too much and they overreach and they overstate and then they can have problems as a result of it. Some have the right balance and it’s an honorable thing.
3 The heaven for height, and the earth for depth, and the heart of kings is unsearchable.
A mature king—a leader, a president who has good balance and good depth—there are certain things you will understand about him, but there are certain things that you won’t understand, and that you don’t need to understand, that I don’t need to understand, that he won’t reveal—because many things are confidential, many things are partially in the development stage and not in the complete development stage in terms of plans and projects and intelligence. And if he told what he knew, it would be used the wrong way, the wrong spin will be put on it. Just like we don’t know how high the heaven is and how deep the earth is, we don’t know what’s really inside the heart of a king except what he wants to reveal.
4 Take away the dross from the silver, and there shall come forth a vessel for the refiner.
Or for the jeweler, as some translations would put it. Precious metal out of the earth, and it’s not in the refined, precious metal state, it’s usually embedded in ore and it has to be put through a refining process—sometimes the tumbling barrel, sometimes the furnace, sometimes both. And it heats away and knocks away the debris and the waste, and what emerges is pure silver or pure gold, and then that can be used in precious metals and in precious jewelry, etc. That process of knocking away the waste has to take place.
Well, that ties in now with verse 5. Notice how that leads into verse 5. Just as that happens with precious metal—that is, the waste is removed and then the precious metal can be used in a very beautiful and profitable way.
5 Take away the wicked from before the king, and his throne shall be established in righteousness.
A king who is a good leader will see to it that the righteous are the ones that he relies on and that he rewards and that he organizes into leadership and governmental structures. If he does not do that, but rather he entertains wicked people and puts unrighteous and evil people in positions of authority or lets them do what they want to do, he’s going to be in big trouble.
What a righteous king, a successful king, a leader that really wants to achieve things should do is to do the right thing and use those who are trying to do the right thing and deal with those who are evil and wicked. And that then will cause his administration and his leadership to emerge free of debris and free of waste and free of dross, and he will be successful, just like what it says in verse 4. You take away the waste and precious treasures emerge. That’s the principle.
In other words, in our lives, whether we are a leader or not, we need to make sure that we’re not mingling evil with good. We need to make sure that we’re not coexisting with people who are doing the wrong thing and trying to make it all work. But we need to make a difference between right and wrong, good and evil—and including people in those two categories—and then good things will happen. But if we blur the lines between right and wrong, and good and evil, and right people and wrong people, and try to make that work, it’s going to be complicated and it’s going to fail. And that’s what it means here in verse 5:
5 Take away the wicked from before the king, and his throne shall be established in righteousness.
6 Put not forth yourself in the presence of the king, and stand not in the place of great men:
Respect the office of the leader. Respect the person of great people. Don’t just come in there and treat them as if they’re nobody, treat them with disdain or contempt or casualness or disrespect. Don’t be forward and overbearing. Don’t shoot your mouth off and act in a way that disregards them and their feelings. Don’t do that with anybody, but especially don’t do that with someone in a position of authority or leadership because if you do that, you’ll find yourself in hot water pretty quick. That’s what the proverb is telling us. Notice here in verse 7:
7 For better it is that it be said unto you, Come up here; than that you should be put lower in the presence of the prince whom your eyes have seen.
You come prancing in, or I come prancing in, and we start spouting our own greatness and our own goodness and honoring ourselves in the presence of people in positions of decision making and in positions of authority, then we could be told, “Be quiet and go to the back of the room and sit down. We’ll let you know if we need you. We’ll let you know if we want to hear from you. We’ll let you know if we think you’re as great as you think you are.” And that’s a very, very embarrassing situation and a very poor circumstance to be put into because of our foolishness.
Now, many interesting things about Proverbs and in particular this third part—one of the interesting things about this third part is, it is quoted often in the New Testament. See, God inspired the whole Bible and it’s interwoven from Genesis to Revelation, and all inspired by God through God’s spirit. Same God, same spirit inspired all these words and this is what makes up the truth. And from this foundation of true knowledge comes other knowledge that is worthwhile and right. And so the Bible is the foundation of all true knowledge because it is the fountainhead of truth. Now, let me show you an example of this. It says:
7 For better it is that it be said unto you, Come up hither;—
You know, Jesus Christ spoke similar words over here in the New Testament. Let’s just see one example of that over here in Luke 14. Notice how He put it, Luke 14:7. It says here in Luke 14:7. We see Jesus Christ says this:
7 —he put forth a parable to those which were bidden, when he marked how they chose out the chief rooms;—
Did you see that? Get this in context, it’s talking about a very important principle here and how people were invited to a wedding and He talked about how some people just walked in and they chose the best places right away—just right away—and He said about this, He said unto them:
8 When you art bidden of any man to a wedding,—
or wedding feast
8 —sit not down in the highest room;—
or the best places
8 —lest a more honorable man than you be bidden of him;
9 And he that bade you—
or invited you
9 —come and say to you, Give this man this place; and you begin with shame to take the lowest room.
He comes and says you’re in the wrong place, you need to go back and this man sits here.
10 But when you art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room; that when he that—
invited you comes
10 —he may say unto you, Friend,—
you come up here to a better place.
10 —then shall you have worship in the presence of them—
Or then shall you have glory or respect in the presence of them
10 —that sit at meat with you.
And here’s the whole point of this whole principle.
11 For whosoever exalts himself shall be—
humbled or
11 —abased; and he that humbles himself shall be exalted.
In other words, be humble and take the back seat. Be humble and let somebody else in, in traffic. Be humble and take the lowest seat, and then God will see to it that you can be invited to a better seat and a better place in due time. And then it’s very, very rewarding and very, very worthwhile and very encouraging.
But if we just put forth ourselves and we choose the best place and we exalt ourselves, then God will see to it, and others will carry this out, that we’re going to be told, “You just calm down or you settle down and you go back here and get in place where you belong, which is back there in the lowest place. You’re not ready for this yet, and besides you’ve exalted yourself, you’re going to be humbled.”
What we need to do is humble ourselves and then let God do the exalting, that’s the whole principle and point of what we just read in Luke and what we’re reading here in Proverbs 25. These are godly principles that I hope we understand and will learn from and inculcate and establish in our thinking and in our lives.
Back to Proverbs 25:8. You noticed the connection here between the Old and New Testament, the connection here between Proverbs and in particular this part of Proverbs and the New Testament. God inspired it all and look how it ties in.
8 Go not forth hastily to strive, lest you know not what to do in the end thereof, when your neighbor has put you to shame.
Be careful about jumping too quickly. It’s better to get all the facts and arrive at a conclusion, rather than just making a hasty decision and end up in deep water and not knowing what to do. In this particular case, one translation says: “Go not forth hastily to bring a lawsuit, lest you know not what to do in the end thereof.” And you’ve overreached and now you’re in big trouble. You’ve walked way out on the limb, and somebody is going to saw that limb off behind you. We need to use wisdom in what we do and in what we say and think and the answers and decisions we have. Notice the last part of verse 8:
8 —lest you know not what to do in the end thereof, when your neighbor has put you to shame.
Now the facts start coming forward and it’s not what you said and it’s not the way you presented it. The facts begin to show that you cannot carry through with what you had planned to do because you’ve overlooked some things, maybe modified some things, maybe left some things out. Now you’re going to pay big for that.
9 Debate your cause with your neighbor himself; and discover not a secret to another:
A better translation: “Plead your case with your neighbor between you and him.” Go talk about it first. Maybe you can get it settled before you just jump ahead of everything, launch a lawsuit, or start making a case without the facts and you end up being made a fool out of. And also
9 —discover not a secret to another:
Don’t disclose all this to somebody else. Keep the circle small. Keep it between you and the person that you have the question or the problem or the situation with, and settle it between you and him. If it needs to get into a bigger arena, do that carefully and with counseling and with wisdom. But don’t go spreading it around to others because:
1. The one that you could have settled it with is now not going to trust you any longer because you’ve been blabbing to others about it, and;
2. The people you’ve blabbed to could take his side against you and now you’re in real trouble.
10 Lest he that hears it put you to shame, and your infamy turn not away.
The evil report concerning you does not pass away. Your trouble not only doesn’t go away, it just gets worse and worse.
Verse 8, verse 9, verse 10—all of these verses 8, 9, and 10 here in Proverbs—give us tremendous counsel in how to conduct ourselves toward others and personal relationships with others in difficult situations. In the book of Proverbs, you will find a lot of instruction on how to interact and relate with other people in pleasant situations, in everyday life, in Christian living. And it also gives us some wonderful advice on how to handle sticky wickets and really tough, hard situations—this being an example of that regarding taking care of a difficult matter with our neighbor. And you find the same principles in the New Testament about going to the individual that you have the question with or you have the problem with or that you have the fault with, or even going to the individual who has sinned against you.
Let’s continue now in verse 11:
11 A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.
A word spoken at the right time is like apples of gold in settings of silver. It’s pleasant. It’s beautiful. It represents tasty things like apples, odors that are pleasant like when you eat an apple. It’s pleasant to the eye. It’s pleasant to the taste. It’s pleasant to the smell. And it’s surrounded by a setting of beautiful, precious silver as it were.
It’s talking about good words. It’s talking about fitting words. It’s talking about a word spoken at the right time. It could be words of encouragement. It could be words of instruction. It could be words of edification. It could even be words of correction. You’ve heard people do that. They got right down to the nub of the matter and said it just right, and it sure did open up all kinds of doors of understanding. The lights went on, and now the actions that follow are going to be good actions. It’s so pleasant to hear because it’s true, it’s right. It was nailed down and that is the bottom line. That’s what verse 11 is talking about.
12 As an earring of gold, and an ornament of fine gold, so is a wise reprover upon an obedient ear.
Here’s a humble man or a woman. Here’s someone who wants to do the right thing. Here’s someone who has an attitude of obeying God.
12 —an obedient ear.
And so when someone corrects them or encourages them or points out a mistake to them, they appreciate it. They love it. They’re easy to be entreated. They’re teachable. They’re responsive, and they love the person who will do that. They want to correct something when it’s wrong. And it’s like
12 —an earring of gold, and an ornament of fine gold,—
It’s pleasant. It’s precious. It’s very valuable. I hope we have that attitude.
13 As the cold of snow in the time of harvest, so is a faithful messenger to them that send him: for he refreshes the soul of his masters.
That doesn’t mean that if you’re out in the field harvesting corn or harvesting wheat and a four–foot snow falls, that’s refreshing. That’s not what it’s talking about. You couldn’t even finish the harvest then. But it’s talking about when you’re out there in the time of harvest and it’s hot and it’s dusty and it’s humid and you’re dirty and hot and weary, and then the temperature changes and it gets cooler or there might even be some snowflakes. It’s so refreshing. It’s so helpful. Now you can cool off. Now you can work harder. Now you’re not as weary. Now you are more energetic. That’s what it’s talking about and using that analogy.
Well, the same thing is true when you send somebody to do something and they come back and they faithfully carry out what you asked them to do and they faithfully relay to you information. In other words, they give you true information. They are a faithful messenger. They did what they were told to do. They got the information you asked them to get and they reported to you properly, or they reported to the person that you sent them to properly and in the right manner. They passed on the message. They passed on the truth. It’s refreshing
13 —for he refreshes the soul of his masters.
Or his supervisor or his employer or his friend or his family member—anyone. You know why? Because he’s reliable and she’s reliable, and she or he will speak the truth, do the right thing, carry out the assignment and fulfill the job that they were given to do. What a wonderful thing, because here’s somebody that we can believe and depend on. A faithful messenger. It’s so refreshing like cool weather or the cool of a snowfall in a time of harvest when normally it’s really unbearably hot and really tough to work in those conditions.
So we will stop there and begin the next Bible Study with Proverbs 25:14.
This is Charles Bryce with the Enduring Church of God.