Month: September 2021

Proverbs 4:12 When thou goest, thy steps shall not be straitened; and when thou runnest, thou shalt not stumble.

Listen to my words of wisdom, says the Father to the son. If you do stay on the path of wisdom you will not be hampered when you walk nor stumble when you run. Life will be smooth and happy when you keep to The Path. The Path is Jesus. Stick with Him and life will go well.

Listen to the Word, believe in Jesus, and wait on the Lord: Isaiah 40:31: “They who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.” Inner strength and a moral compass comes from the Word. Strengthening and renewal of the inner man positively affects the outer man.

Life may not go as smoothly as we would like it to, but we do have this conditional promise that we will not be hampered or stumble when we abide in Jesus and in the Word. Falling can be a dangerous thing for the body, but spiritually stumbling can be eternally disastrous. From this the Word protects us.

Proverbs 4:10 Hear, O my son, and receive my sayings; and the years of thy life shall be many.

If you listen to wisdom and receive it, then you will have many years of life. One of the many conditional promises of wisdom is a long life. This promise is embedded in the Fourth Commandment about honoring parents. “Long” may be a relative term, but one definite part of the promise is a full, rich, and abundant life no matter the number of years granted.

Although Wisdom is personified as female, Wisdom speaks to the son as a father speaks. I am the son, God is my Father and He speaks to me words of wisdom. If I listen to Him I am promised many years of life, a full and happy life. Following the manufacturer’s advice only makes sense to maintain a smooth-running, long-lived life.

Listening and doing what God says is good for you, but it is also intrinsically and inherently beneficial to obey God the Father. Just do what He says, whether you understand the reason for it or not, and you will be blessed with life. For example, we don’t have to know why extra-marital sex is bad for you. Just don’t commit adultery. Be faithful. You will have a blessed life. God said so.

How many years are many? We don’t know, but we do know how to make them long and full: hear the Word of God and keep it. Repent of failure to do it, and believe the gospel of forgiveness. The result: “the years of thy life shall be many.”

Proverbs 4:9 She shall give to thine head an ornament of grace: a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee.

Wisdom is awesome in the weight and number of promises it can deliver to those who get, gain, and keep her. Getting Wisdom is believing in Jesus, for the Wisdom of God = the Word of God = the Life of God = Jesus. Going to church, hearing the gospel, and studying the Bible all do the same thing. It tells the gospel which gives us Jesus who is the wisdom of God.

It may not look to the world like a great thing and it is not a “good work,” but hearing Law and Gospel regularly really does do wonders for us. It is much more than just “going to church.” One of these conditional promises is an ornament and a crown, which we can see, at least we can visualize it. It symbolizes Grace and Glory, which we can only see with eyes of faith.

Beauty and Power is what is promised to believers in Christ. We do not see the beauty and power that the simple believer is adorned with. If we could only see what another Christian actually looks like we would be blown away with the beauty of holiness and the power of life. That’s what we will see in heaven. And once in a while, such an adornment shines through a genuine smile and an act of kindness.

Proverbs 4:8 Exalt her, and she shall promote thee: she bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace her.

The temporal promises of Proverbs continue on the condition, gaining, and keeping Wisdom. Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom. Wisdom is the foundation of life that produces many temporal blessings during life on earth. If that is true, one would be wise to exalt and embrace Wisdom. If you exalt wisdom and embrace her then she will promote you and bring you honor. When you know the right thing to do and do it then the world notices and promotes you for it.

To exalt and embrace wisdom is to seek first the kingdom of God, gladly hear the Word of God and keep it, dig into the Word and believe it, and hold on to Jesus as a treasure. Then you have God’s eternal life, you are forgiven, and saved. We exalt and embrace Wisdom (the Word, Jesus) in our life, because He first loved us. All these “other things,” like worldly honor, will be added.

Whether we see worldly honor or not doesn’t matter, for we have the spiritual promotion, blessing, honor, and glory of God anyway. In the Great Reversal God exalts the humble. Jesus says to us, “Friend, go up higher!” The “Wisdom of God” has graced us to sit with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

Proverbs 4:6 Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee: love her, and she shall keep thee.

Wisdom is the “her” that we are commanded not to forsake; and we are commanded to love her. There are several conditions preceding this promise: retain my words, keep my commandments, get wisdom, get understanding, forget it not. All mean essentially the same thing: listen to God’s Word of Law and Gospel and keep it in your heart. Then that wisdom of God (Jesus) will preserve you and keep you.

Many wonderful promises come to those who hear the Word and keep it, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest it, take to heart, memorize it, believe it, and live it. Here the promise is preserve and keep you. This means all of you, all of your life, all of your health, all of your time, and all your eternity. He will preserve you in the one true faith of the Life of God forever. He not only keeps you in The Life; He also blesses you with everything good thing you ever need. All these promises for those who are “in the Word” and receive Wisdom by faith In Christ.

For this reason we not despise the assembling of our selves together nor neglect the preaching and teaching of God’s Word and Wisdom. It holds awesome preserving and keeping power.

Proverbs 3:33, 34, 35 The curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked: but he blesseth the habitation of the just. Surely he scorneth the scorners: but he giveth grace unto the lowly. The wise shall inherit glory: but shame shall be the promotion of fools.

There is a difference between the wicked and the just, the scorners and the lowly, the wise and the fools. This is not a difference between reward and punishment, but the difference is a natural result of consequences of lifestyle. Generally speaking, but not always, the just find blessing, the lowly find grace, and the wise find glory.

The bedrock truth for all humanity is the Curse of the Fall, which no one escapes. Second, humans reap what they sow, the scorners are scorned. Third, fools (unbelievers) will be ashamed. The second bedrock truth is that Jesus Christ has redeemed us from the curse of Sin. We live in both worlds, a world of faith or of sight, a world of grace and glory or a world of sin and evil, a world of life or death.

The promise is that Jesus, the Blessing, Grace, and Glory of God, has come into our world of Sin, Shame, and Death and given us a new life. The Lord has revealed both worlds to us in its stark reality so that we would be drawn to the one and avoid the other. This promise is ours today.

Proverbs 3:26 For the Lord shall be thy confidence, and shall keep thy foot from being taken.

Confidence and security are further conditional promises based on keeping sound wisdom and discretion. Blessed are those who hear the Word of God and keep it so that they will be safe and secure, and confident in the Lord. When we make it a point to receive and keep the Wisdom of God, Jesus, then we can live assured and confident under the Lord’s protection and blessing. Confidence is in knowing God’s word, God’s will, and God’s way, and praying and believing that God’s will shall be done.

We cannot always be absolutely certain that we are in God’s will, but after a certain point in seeking the will of God we stop and rest in the confidence that the path we are on is the will of God. We go forth in that confidence.

Proverbs 3:24 When thou liest the down, thou shalt not be afraid: yea, thou shalt lie down, and thy sleep shall be sweet.

A further promise on condition of keeping sound wisdom and discretion is that you shall not be afraid when you lie down to sleep, and your sleep shall be sweet. If we receive and keep the Word and Wisdom of God we can trust the Lord to keep us unafraid when we are vulnerable. We may be vigilant, but sometimes we still need rest and sleep. We must be able to trust the Lord to keep us unafraid at all times. God gives His sweet sleep and allows us to rest in safety and comfort.

Sound wisdom and discretion comes from hearing the word of Christ. We keep that word of promise and ponder it in our hearts. Then we go about our daily and nightly lives trusting Him to keep us unafraid.

Fears and anxieties give many people sleepless nights, but we have the promise that the sound wisdom and discretion of Christ can remove the anxieties and allow peaceful sleep.

Proverbs 3:23 Then shalt thou walk in thy way safely, and thy foot shall not stumble.

This is a further promise based on the condition that you gain and keep wisdom, understanding, and knowledge. That is, if you receive Jesus (the Wisdom of God) and keep faith in Him, then you will walk in your way safely and you will not stumble and fall. “Your way” is your life’s peculiar spiritual journey, unique to you and no one else’s way. “Your way” is Jesus, who is the one and only same way for all us, but He mixes His perfect plan and design with our character to create a unique way for each of us. If we stay on that way with Jesus abiding in us we can be sure that we will walk in our way safely.

We make sure that we are walking in our way safely by hearing His Word and keeping His Wisdom. The works and ways of the evil ones surrounding our path are relentlessly trying to get us to stumble and fall from the path. The promise says your foot shall not stumble. Oh, we slip many times along the way, but we are continually repentant and see set upright again and again on the right path. Trust the keeping power of the Word and the Spirit.

Proverbs 3:22 So shall they be life unto thy soul, and grace to thy neck.

It is by wisdom, understanding, and knowledge that the universe was created. Therefore, if you keep those with you and let them not depart, then they will be life to your soul and grace to your neck. Where do you get and how do you keep this wisdom? You get it from God, who reveals it to you in His Word. If you read, hear, learn, and meditate on the Word the Wisdom of God (Jesus) will breathe life into your soul and will adorn your neck with grace. Wisdom has a way of making one beautiful on the inside and on the outside.

We know that without God in your life (life in your soul) you are empty, blind, stupid, weak, and dead. We may not realize how much difference it makes when Jesus comes in to live in our soul. One thing that happens is that we are filled with wisdom, understanding, and knowledge, and we keep growing in it.

The other part of the promise is “grace to our neck.” Our poise and our bearing glows with beauty and charm and strength. Yes, the wisdom of Jesus received through the word of faith does a lot for us, more than we think or imagine. These two things we need to believe about ourself: We are dumber than we think we are without God; we are wiser than we think we are with God.