Year 2, Day 305: Proverbs 14

Letting Our Folly Get In The Way

The wise woman builds her house, but with folly her hands tear it down.  What a great opening verse for this chapter!  For the record – I think this proverb is just as true about men as it is for women.

How many times have I worked hard – day after day and encounter after encounter – only to tear it down in a few thoughtless strokes?  How quickly do a few false steps destroy or tarnish a well-developed plan or approach to life?  How many people’s lives have been ruined by a few thoughtless events driven by their passion?  All of these questions are in the same vein as this opening verse.  We must be a people who are dedicated to wisdom.  We must be a people who promote thinking, pondering, discerning, and learning.  We must be a people who act, but who act in ways that are meaningful rather than meaningless.  For more information, see Proverbs 14:15.

Getting Dirty To Produce Fruit

Proverbs 14:4 intrigues me.  Where there is no oxen, the manger is clean.  But the harvest comes because of the strength of the ox.  It seems to me that Solomon is saying that we can live a so-called perfect life on the outside if it is utterly empty of genuine work on the inside.  Let me put that another way.  If we want to actually produce fruit in our life – if we actually want to participate in the harvest – we might have to tolerate a little “dirt” in our life.  In the end, Solomon seems to be asking a simple question: would you rather have a pretty life or a fruitful one?

I love that proverb.  I think I might paint that verse on a wall or something…

Proverbs 14:23 says that in all toil there is profit.  Again, what an incredible piece of wisdom.  I don’t know that I’ve ever truly worked and not learned something.  Granted, the lessons are not always good.  I’ve worked and worked and worked and had negative results.  I’ve toiled for hours only to discover that I’m really just not good at a particular skill.  But even that knowledge is valuable knowledge.  Learning one’s weaknesses is just as important as learning one’s strengths.  Learning how not to do a task can be just as useful as learning how to do it.

More On Truthfulness

Then we jump to Proverbs 24:25.  A truthful witness saves lives.  Think about this in the court of law.  The person who tells the truth saves the innocent from a verdict of guilt.  Now think about this on a spiritual level.  The person who speaks about the truth literally participates in God’s saving work of grace.  The person who speaks about the truth quite literally is God’s tool in the process of salvation.  What a great way about thinking of our work as God’s people!

Leaders Need A Following

Proverbs 14:28 talks about a king having all kinds of glory when there is a bunch of people around him.  But the leader who has nobody around him is no leader at all.  I’ve always relied upon a pretty useful saying.  If you are leading, turn around once and a while to make sure you have people who are genuinely following.  It seems like a silly comment, but it is true.  A leader without a flock is just a radical with no following.  If we cannot participate with God in the motivation of other people into the greatness and glory of God, then we are no leader in His kingdom.

Insulting God

I’m going to end with Proverbs 14:31.  Whoever oppresses a poor man insult his Maker.  Think about that for a second.  When we take advantage of the people around us, we insult God.  That’s really challenging, isn’t it?

God has created us to be a part of creation.  God has called us to be one another’s servant.  After all, did not even His own Son come not to serve but to be served?  God has challenged us to respond out of love to one another.  So what do we do when we neither join in the fellowship of creation nor serve nor love?  We insult God.  We insult what He has called us to become.  We insult His plan and His calling.  We think ourselves better than what He has called us to be.

Wow.  I’m not going to lie.  That verse is really going to cause me to think long and hard tonight.  When I do not take the time to look upon my fellow creation as the brother and sister that God has intended them to be, I insult God.  The applications for this are endless as I think about my time in the car, in Walmart, as I watch TV, as I talk to my neighbors, etc.

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