Daily Devotional For Thursday, February 15, 2024

I hope you loved reading the devotional yesterday about Proverbs. Today, I want to help you  more in appreciating and applying the Proverbs to your life. In our own American culture, we have proverbial sayings:

• • “Not all danger comes with a warning” (Native American Proverb).
  • “Strike when the iron is hot.”
  • “Honesty is the best policy.”
  • “Don’t judge a book by its’ cover.”
  • “The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.”
  • “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.”
  • “Don’t bite the hand that feeds you.”
  • “Practice makes perfect.”
  • “The early bird catches the worm.”
  • “Don’t put off tomorrow what you can do today.”
  • “Where there’s a will, there’s a way.”
  • “Actions speak louder than words.”

You have heard these and probably have said some of them. So, Proverbs are not new to us. When it comes to the Bible, there is a whole book titled, Proverbs. There are 31 chapters filled with Proverbs for everyday living. So, what are the purposes of Proverbs. I wish to thank Chuck Swindoll for providing us the answer to this question (See Charles R. Swindoll, Living The Proverbs: Insight For the Daily Grind, pp. 9-11).

• “To inspire reverence and obedience within the reader’s heart The opening words of the first section establish the purpose for the entire book in very clear terms: “to know wisdom and instruction” is to put instruction into actual practice. Failing to do what we know to do is the definition of foolishness. Therefore, the chief aim of the book of Proverbs is to bring divine truth into proper focus, enabling us to look at life through God’s eyes—from His eternal, all-knowing point of view—and then live accordingly. Proverbs teaches us how to gain wisdom from God’s reproofs so that, in the power of the Spirit, we will obey. 
• To teach discernment “To discern the sayings of understanding” (1:2). Discern is a crucial term. The Hebrew term means “to separate; to make distinct.” Discernment is the ability to look at a situation and clearly see all its moving parts. A discerning mind has the ability to think critically, to distinguish truth from error, and to anticipate the likely consequences of any given choice. 
• To develop alertness in the walk “To receive instruction in wise behavior, righteousness, justice and equity” (1:3). The original term translated receive carries with it the idea of mobility, taking something along with you, or hauling something. In this case, the student of God’s sayings gains “instruction in wise behavior.” The proverbs make us alert for the journey of life. Anyone who has driven long distances can affirm that bad things happen—wrong turns at best; fatal crashes at worst—when the driver is no longer alert. These Old Testament proverbs help us remain attentive to our surroundings and aware of potential dangers.
• To establish discretion and purpose in life “To give prudence to the naive, to the youth knowledge and discretion” (1:4). The Hebrew concept of wisdom doesn’t put ignorance and foolishness in the same category. The term rendered naive means, literally, “simple.” Those who have not experienced much of life or have not yet benefited from education are like workers without tools or warriors without weapons. Youthful and naive people approach life poorly equipped. Intellectually empty-handed, they cannot accomplish much as laborers, and they remain defenseless against attack. The sages offered this intellectual and spiritual equipment to the simple, to those who are naive and young. While some readers and hearers will be older than others, none have “arrived” in life’s journey. Regardless of age or experience, each person remains young and naive in some respect. The book of Proverbs—and Solomon’s section in particular—assures us that these sayings will equip us for life’s challenges. To all those who wander aimlessly, lacking purpose and embracing merely a human viewpoint of existence, the wisdom of God offers hope! 
• To cultivate keenness of mind “To understand a proverb and a figure, the words of the wise and their riddles” (1:6). These sayings will help us think keenly: divine wisdom will give our minds a razor-sharp edge. Keep in mind such blades require the application of friction if they are to stay sharp. This process of honing causes sparks and is rarely pleasant. Like that hard stone, the proverbs prepare our minds to slice through layers of falsehood to the core of truth in any matter. Divine wisdom gives us the ability to understand more of life’s riddles. Before long, the grind of a merely human viewpoint will slowly be replaced by the wisdom of God’s perspective.”

I don’t know how many of you remember the old TV show, Lost In Space. It was on CBS for 3 years. For 1965-1968. The series was inspired by the 1812 novel The Swiss Family Robinson. The series follows the adventures of the Robinsons, a pioneering family of space colonists who struggle to survive in the depths of space. The show ran for 83 episodes over three seasons. Their spaceship was called The Jupiter 2 and it had a robot that any time there was danger, it would shout, “Warning! Warning! Danger Danger!!”

Many of the Proverbs is God’s way of warning of us of dangers ahead or around us. To not heed a danger is to play with fire. And we all know what happens when we play with fire? Another proverb — you get burned. 

Chuck Swindoll tells this story about Pastor Andy Stanley in Atlanta when Andy was a teenager ((See Charles R. Swindoll, Living The Proverbs: Insight For the Daily Grind, pp. 17-18).

“Author and pastor Andy Stanley tell of a time when Andy and a friend drove from Birmingham to Atlanta. To shave an hour off of their trip, they decided to use an unfinished section of Interstate 20. Impulsive teenagers, they felt a rush of adrenaline as they eased their car between the words “Road” and “Closed” and then gunned it. They had the entire highway to themselves, so they made great time . . . for a while. Fortunately, they were stopped by a good Samaritan before an unfinished bridge sent them sailing into a swamp.”

When we are young, we tend to ignore the warning signs because we think we are invincible. 

• In my early twenties, I went cliff jumping into a reservoir that was low on water. I thought I would not hit the rocks. Fortunately, I did not. Some were not so fortunate. 
• When I was in my teens, I drove carelessly at times to impress friends though the speed limit was telling me differently. In fact, I was driving one time with 2 other friends and I went around this curve that we called “Dead Man’s Curve.” I knew at the time I was driving way too fast. When I got to my friend’s home, one of the mothers met me at the door. She said she had been in bed asleep waiting for Ricky to come home when suddenly she was impressed by the Holy Spirit to get up out of bed and get on her knees go pray for our lives and safety. When the told me the time, it was just as we were approaching “Dead Man’s Curve.” I believer her prayer to God saved 3 teenagers lives. I never confessed it to her, but I knew, God had had warned her. She showed wisdom in honoring God’s warning to her while I stupidly ignored God’s warning to me.

Look at this warning to us from God in this Proverbs 27:12, “The prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it” (ESV). People with wisdom heed this warning. And though we may survive the warning, which I did by God’s grace only, it reminds you and me that God’s warning are for all of us. When we heed God’s warning signs, it shows we have humility and a godly attitude that says God, who is omniscient (all-knowing the past, present and future) might be right about this. Read James 1:5-8, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. (6) But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. (7) For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; (8) he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways” (ESV).

“In July of 2006, the world-famous geneticist William French Anderson was convicted of child molestation charges. In a press conference, his attorney said, "Nothing about having a 176 I.Q. means you have good judgment or wisdom or listens to warning signs” ("The Buzz," World (7-29-06), p. 12).

Intelligence is no guarantee that anyone will heed any kind of warning. We often assume people with college degrees or master degrees or Ph.D’s are very intelligent and ooze with wisdom. We do not assume a doctor is intelligent for how well they do their taxes, but on how well they continue to improve through “practicing medicine” and their vast knowledge of medicine, health, treatments and prescriptions. 

Questions to Consider

1. As you have just read these give reasons, which one most applies to you and why?
2. When has been the times in your life you either chose to use wisdom or you lacked it and how did that impact your own life?
3. When you read a Proverb from the Bible, what is your response to it when you read it?
4. What is the strangest warning you have ever seen or been given and why?
5. When have you read a Proverb from the Bible and you did not heed the warning and what were the results? Did you “drive off a bridge into a swam?”

Scripture to Meditate On: Proverbs 10:17, “Whoever heeds instruction is on the path to life, but he who rejects reproof leads others astray” (ESV).

Prayer to Pray: “Dear Jesus, I desperately want to heed Your Word. I don’t want to dive into life and hit “rocks.” I can be stubborn and You know that. I want to listen to “that still small voice” of Yours in my heart. I want Your Word to inspire reverence and obedience in my heart. I want Your Word to teach me discernment and to give me alertness in my spiritual walk. I want Your Word to establish discretion and purpose in my life as well as keenest of mind. Jesus, help me with this. I ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen!”

I love you, Pastor Kelly