Greetings everyone. Let’s pick the Bible Study up in Proverbs 27. So here in Chapter 27 verse 1, we see a very important principle. It says:
1 Boast not yourself of tomorrow; for you know not what a day may bring forth.
You see, as Christians, if we are looking to God for everything—for His blessing, His protection, His guidance, and His direction—we don’t leave Him out of the picture as we plan for tomorrow. We don’t begin to make assumptions and think, “Oh well, everything will be just fine. I’ve got it all covered and it’ll all work out great.”
And so we make these plans and chisel them in concrete, not realizing that every breath of air that we breathe is totally dependent upon the eternal God. And so therefore as we make plans and as we look forward to tomorrow—and it’s good to have foresight and it’s good to plan—we must always base it on and predicate it on God’s will and God’s intervention and God’s blessing and God’s guidance.
So we don’t boast about tomorrow and all of our greatness and all of our great plans since everything is in God’s hands and we really don’t know what tomorrow will bring. Rather we live by faith and not by sight, and we live in confidence and trust in the Almighty God to take care of tomorrow.
We should plan. We should anticipate, but we should also realize that all the effort we put into yesterday, today, and tomorrow is still based on whatever God wants and whatever God directs. So we don’t go around boasting about tomorrow. We plan, but we look to God for His guidance and direction and blessing for tomorrow. We walk with Him.
2 Let another man praise you, and not your own mouth; a stranger, and not your own lips.
This is just a common sense attitude. Who likes anyone who goes around just bragging about himself all the time? And yet there are many people who do. Many people as soon as they start talking, it’s going to be all about themselves. It’s all about how great they are, where they’ve been, who they know, what they’ve accomplished, and it’s a big turnoff.
Humility attracts and vanity repels. It’s much more interesting to be around someone who is thinking of others and who is giving credit to God or who is talking about interesting lessons that others have taught them, and experiences that others have had which they have learned from, rather than just boasting and bragging and drawing attention to themselves. So there’s a very, very important proverb here in verse 2 and it’s a spiritual principle. It’s also a good point in terms of human relations.
2 Let another man praise you, and not your own mouth; a stranger, and not your own lips.
3 A stone is heavy, and the sand weighty; but a fool’s wrath is heavier than them both.
You’ve probably picked up stones that are so heavy you can barely pick them up and you know, you might strain your back, you might even drop them on your foot. It’s a painful thing.
3 —and the sand weighty;—
You might have poured concrete and you’ve had to roll wheelbarrows of sand or shovel sand or pick up sacks of sand, and it can also be quite strenuous and even painful.
3 —but a fool’s wrath is heavier than them both.
And that’s really saying something. When a fool gets mad, he gets out of control and the end result is much more painful and much heavier in terms of weighing a person’s life down and complicating and cluttering up the day or the week or the month of an individual than heavy stones and heavy sand.
And so we’ve already read that God says, “When you discern that an individual is a fool, don’t be a companion of that individual.”
4 Wrath is cruel, and anger is outrageous;—
Or a torrent, kind of an endless stream that just pours out when a person can’t control their anger and their wrath.
4 —but who is able to stand before envy?
That’s even worse. Jealousy is a better translation. Because, you see, when a person loses their temper, it’s evident, you know that right away and just comes pouring out. When a person is wrathful, it is cruel, but yet you know that person is cruel and wrathful.
But someone who is jealous can be very devious, very cunning and cagey, and it can be subtle, and nuance is used quite often. And so therefore it can be undercover and then come out later, and just keep on going and be endless and never stop; whereas usually when a person loses their temper, it has an end to it. And so that emotion of envy and jealousy is something that we must bring under control and must root out so that as Christians we are building character like Jesus Christ, which does not include envy and jealousy, but rather it includes respect and love for the other individual.
We don’t sit there comparing ourselves to others, coveting what they have and developing envy and jealousy, and therefore creating problems for them and us.
God will help us overcome that if we see that trait in ourselves.5 Open rebuke is better than secret love.
Or concealed love. Sometimes open rebuke is kind of tough to take. But at least you know where the person stands, at least you know how they feel, at least they had enough concern for you to point out something to you that they felt you ought to know. Maybe they did it in a way that wasn’t as diplomatic as they should have been. But yet at least they let you know how they feel, and it says in verse 5, that’s better than concealed love or secret love.
You know, love unexpressed is not love. You can say, “Oh I love that individual”, but if you don’t ever show it or if you don’t ever express it, then they don’t know that and they don’t know how you feel, they don’t know what you think.
If a husband says he loves his wife but never tells his wife that he loves her, how does she know that he loves her? He needs to tell her and the wife needs to tell her husband. They need to express that love not only by what they say, but by what they do. Parents need to tell their children that they love them. And children need to tell their parents they love them.
To give the idea, “Oh well, you know, I love my children”, but we never tell them that or show them that, or to give the idea, “Oh well, I love my parents”, but we never tell them that or show them that, then how do they know? They might suspect it. They might deep down inside believe it, but why not remove all doubt and express it and show it?
And so that’s what verse 5 is saying. You can have secret love, but how does anyone know that you actually love them when it’s concealed. Love should be shown. Love should be expressed, and when it isn’t
5 Open rebuke is better—
in the sense of, well at least there’s an expression of feeling.
6 Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.
Now human nature is such that we love compliments and if we are not really alert, we can get to where we kind of like flattery which is very dangerous. And there are many instances throughout history where enemies have kissed, kissed and kissed some more and yet as soon as they get the opportunity, kill the individual they were kissing, or do them damage. Enemies—it’s easy to shake hands or kiss one another. Judas kissed Jesus Christ and yet look what he went out and did. He betrayed Him.
Yet a friend sometimes can get kind of tough. A friend can say something that cuts a bit or even wounds us. They might tell us about a problem, they might tell us about a falter, a mistake and it might hurt, it might be painful. But because they are a friend and because they care enough for us, they will have the guts and courage to tell us something that might even make us mad at them. But that’s much better when someone does that and does it for our own good, and we can see a problem we didn’t see before and a blind spot we weren’t aware of. And then we can do something about it. That is much better than for an enemy to flatter and to compliment and to kiss and to play nice while they set us up to do us in.
That’s the warning of verse 6 and it says there that that’s a deceptive thing, the kisses of an enemy. Be careful when that starts taking place.
7 The full soul loaths a honeycomb; but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet.
You would think you’d never get to where you would loath a honeycomb. It’s so nice, it’s so tasty, and yet you can get so full of food or you can eat so much honey or you can eat too much of anything. Too much of anything is not good for you. And you can eat too much of anything, and get to the point to where what you thought you would never get enough of you can’t even stand the thought of. It could be steak, it could be wine, it could be honey. And yet to the hungry soul, someone who hasn’t had anything to eat for a long time or someone who hasn’t had anything to drink for a long time, that individual can be brought to the point to where a glass of muddy water—while it might be deadly or while it might be unhealthy—they’re so thirsty, a glass of clouded or muddy water will taste good, as opposed to not having any water at all. And someone who is really, really starving for food, they’ll eat things that before they wouldn’t even think about eating or touching or tasting, even bitter things.
So you can apply that even to the spiritual part of our lives. You know, a person can get to the point to where they take spiritual understanding and knowledge for granted. We should never get that way, but we can get familiar with truth. We can get careless with understanding. We can get to the point to where we can take this approach, “Oh well, here comes another sermon. Oh well, here’s another article to read. Oh well, here’s another Bible Study for me to sit down and partake in.” And we must never get that way.
And yet if you are so far away from a minister or so far away from a church—or you might have drifted off into the world and you might be in a horrible condition and you’ve come to yourself and now you want to get right again and you want to come back to the truth, come back to the church, come back to God—you’re so spiritually hungry, you can’t get enough of sermons. You can’t read enough articles. You can’t study the Bible enough.
What we need to do as we read verse 7 is learn this lesson: Be balanced in all that we do and be thankful for what we have. And be thankful for the food and the water, and especially be thankful for the spiritual food that we have and never take it for granted. And be hungry and thirsty for more so that we can grow in grace and knowledge. And never treat it with contempt. Always have the attitude of being hungry and thirsty.
There’s a companion scripture, and I do this occasionally. If we did it too much, we would take too long to get through the book Proverbs as I‘ve mentioned before, but here’s a good one to tie in with verse 7—Matthew 5:6. Jesus Christ said in Matthew 5:6:
6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness. And that hunger and that appetite for righteousness and truth should and it can always be there.
8 As a bird that wanders from her nest, so is a man that wanders from his place.
Now here’s a very important rule for Bible Study. A very important rule for Bible Study is to really think about what you’re studying as you study it. Think about what you’re reading as you read it and ask questions. Who, what, when, where, how, why, etc.
What does that mean in verse 8?
8 As a bird that wanders from her nest,—
We see birds flying around in the air, perched on trees, perched on power lines, down in the yard picking seed and grubs and worms out and eating them or taking them back to the nest. What does that mean as a bird that wanders from her nest?
Well, if a bird has eggs in the nest that she is sitting in order that the eggs will hatch, or if she has little offspring that have been hatched and they’re depending on her to bring their food to them or to protect them or to look after them or to keep them warm or sheltered, but the bird just flies off and wanders around and doesn’t take time to carry out her or his responsibility, but seems to be off somewhere else doing something else—maybe doesn’t come in very often or come in at all—then the nest is not going to be secure and the little offspring will not survive. That’s the lesson. And there are animals that do that sometime, and there are birds that do that.
And the lesson here in verse 8 is, that’s the way a man is that wanders from his place. He’s irresponsible. He doesn’t step up and take care of his home. He doesn’t step up and take care of his wife and his kids. He doesn’t go to work and do his job. He wanders around and gets distracted and diverted and involved in all kinds of side things, digressions. You cannot depend on him. He ends up in the wrong place with the wrong people doing the wrong thing. He gives in to his appetites, gives in to his baser desires, and the result is bad.
Instead of being responsible, instead of being diligent, instead of looking after business and fulfilling his duties, he’s wandering around and not accomplishing anything. That’s like a bird that doesn’t take care of her little offspring or his little flock. And it’s not good when that happens. And so there’s the warning. Don’t be that way. Certainly don’t be that way as Christians. Don’t be that way spiritually. We need to take care of our responsibilities not only physically but spiritually.
We need to pray to God everyday. We need to study out of His word everyday. We need to be involved in His work and in His church. We need to be careful about who we are around and what we are doing. We need to submit to God and walk with Him. We need to make sure that whatever we do, we do it with our might, realizing that we are really working for Jesus Christ in all that we do, and He’ll help us do that.
9 Ointment and perfume rejoice the heart: so does the sweetness of a man’s friend by hearty counsel.
You know, the right kind of aroma, the right kind of perfume. You can walk through a flower garden and not only is it beautiful to see the flowers, but the aroma, the smell, it’s just wonderful. It just is so delightful.
Well, the same is true when you have a friend who will give counsel of the soul, so to speak. Someone who will tell you the way it is, not in a mean way. They tell you in a loving way, a kind way, a clear way, but they love you enough and care for you enough to take enough time and to take the risk to give you hearty counsel. They don’t tell you necessarily what you want to hear. They’ll take time to tell you what you don’t want to hear but you should hear. That’s a real friend.
And the result of that if we respond to it properly is a wonderful, sweet thing. It is a wonderful, delightful experience. The result will be a blessing. So what kind of friend are you? What kind of friend am I? We need to ask ourselves, are we the kind of friend that when we need to, not only will we give counsel, but we will take courage and give hearty counsel? And how do you receive counsel like that from a friend who means well and who has your welfare in mind?
Do you pout, do you recoil, do you resist, do you resent it, do you hold it against him or her, do you take it personally? Or do you say, “You know what, that’s kind of tough, that kind of hurt, but it’s good for me. Thank you for having the love and the courage to give me hearty counsel. Thank you for pointing something out to me that I didn’t want to hear, but needed to hear. I can work on it now, I will take care of it and I will be a better man or a better woman as a result of it. Thank you for being that kind of friend.”
Well, that’s how a Christian will conduct themselves as a friend, and that’s how a Christian will receive hearty counsel from a friend. We need to do that. It’s a wonderful thing. It’s a delightful thing. It’s a very, very valuable, helpful, beneficial thing, both to receive that kind of counsel and to give it. Not to pick on our friend, not to nag and belittle and berate. That’s not what it’s talking about here. But it’s talking about deep, mature, substantial counseling, worthwhile feedback and input so that a disaster can be avoided and pain can either be reduced or avoided altogether because we care enough to warn our friend and to tell our friend or friends the truth and take the risk in doing that. A real friend will appreciate it.
10 Your own friend, and your father’s friend, forsake not;—
You know, I’ve seen my father and his friends and see how they interact and react to one another. My father is dead now, but even after his death, some of his friends lived on and I became friends, as I grew up and became an adult, I became friends with some of my father’s friends. And I tried to remember to respect them and to attend to that friendship out of honor to my father, and it was a wonderful and valuable thing.
And so friends are a tremendous blessing. They’re so valuable to have and it’s such a wonderful thing to be a friend of someone else. Friendship should be cared for, cultivated, protected, honored, and it should be developed. It should get deeper and deeper. It’s such a valuable thing, and that’s what it says here.
10 Your own friend, and your father’s friend,—
Don’t forsake them. Now, if they are fools and if they are going in the wrong way and if they’re not trying to do the right thing, no, that’s not a real friend. We’re talking about a friend who’s trying to do the right thing.
10 —neither go into your brother’s house in the day of your calamity: for better is a neighbor that is near than a brother far off.
Well, a good brother can be a good neighbor. Sure you can look to them and sure you can go into their house and sure they can come into your house. But what it’s saying here is, so often a good friend will stand by you when a brother who has kind of gone his own way might not. And it’s certainly better to have a friend and a neighbor that’s close by who can help than a brother that’s far off—and that brother could be far off geographically or he could be far off just in terms of his concern and care and relationship with you. And yet quite often that friend will be there. Now, if your brother can be both your brother and your friend, then that’s really the best.
11 My son, be wise, and make my heart glad, that I may answer him that reproaches me.
One of the greatest delights to any parent is to have obedient, successful children who are trying to do the right thing. One of the biggest problems, one of the most heartrending disappointments in life is to have a child that is rebellious and ungodly and just goes their own way and gets into trouble all the time and wreaks havoc for themselves and others.
And so verse 11 is simply saying, “My son, my daughter, grow up and be wise and make me happy about it. Make my heart glad. Be a delight to the family so that when people make fun of our family or make fun of me or make fun of you, I’ll be able to say, ‘You’re wrong, you don’t know what you’re talking about. You’ve listened to the wrong individual. My son, my daughter, I love them and they’re doing well and they want to do the right thing.’”
It’s the fifth commandment all over again. Verse 11 is talking about the fifth commandment—honor your father and mother that things may go well with you and that your days may be long on this earth. We must honor our parents. That’s connected to, as we grow and mature, honoring God, and we are blessed for doing so. And nothing makes a parent happier then to see children who are successful and who honor them and honor God. And blessings flow out from God when children do that.
12 A prudent man foresees the evil, and hides himself; but the simple pass on, and are punished.
That’s just simply using common sense. It’s using wisdom. It doesn’t prove anything to be a big shot and go thundering and plunging into danger to show how tough you are or fearless you are. That’s just foolishness and the result will be pain and suffering and punishment. That’s being shallow and simple.
It’s not being a coward to see danger and to see evil and to go around it and to back off from it and to take refuge so that it doesn’t come cascading in on top of you. That’s being prudent, that’s not being a coward. You still don’t forsake God when you take that action. You stand up for God, but you’re simply using common sense to protect you and your family from evil that down the street or down the road or in the yard or in a particular situation involving people. But the simple just throw all caution to the wind and plunge ahead and then they are punished for it. There are painful consequences as a result of that.
13 Take his garment that is surety for a stranger, and take a pledge of him for a strange woman.
We’ve covered that principle before in Proverbs. It’s mentioned more than once. It’s simply saying, “You better be careful in your financial dealings.” You better be careful about being a cosigner with anyone, including a stranger or someone that you know. You better be careful. If you decide to do that, you better have some kind of backup, you better have something of value in escrow or something available to fall back on to try to make sure that the individual you are helping will do what they’re supposed to do and if they don’t, at least you don’t lose everything. And it’s especially true if he’s wanting you to make a pledge or be a cosigner for someone who is of shaky character and of a shady background.
Just don’t be drawn into that. Just go on pass that. Just say no and you’ll be much better off because you used wisdom in your financial dealings instead of just giving over to your emotions or giving over to someone else’s emotions and making a rash decision that you’ll pay for, sometimes for the rest of your life. He’s telling us to avoid those kinds of decisions and choices.
Okay, we’ll stop right there and next time we’ll pick it up in verse 14.
This is Charles Bryce with the Enduring Church of God.