Hi! I apologize for not showing up last week. I did not create enough margin in my week to get this done. What I did instead was to listen to our reading along with some other things. I praised God for all of the goodness and greatness I was aware of and showed back up this week to pick up where I left off. Not very fancy or complicated. Not perfect, but driven by a single desire to know and serve God because He is my Lord. Hopefully that is enough to encourage you to get into the word today and spend some time with Jesus! We are on a journey together, it doesn’t always match our expectations, but don’t ever give up. We’ll walk together and grow in the process.
Proverbs 25-27
Let’s begin with some background. Proverbs 25 – 31 is a collection of poems/writings primarily given through Solomon that have been copied and read again to the worshipers per the orders of King Hezekiah. You see that some, not all, of those verses have already been used in previous passages. When we are told that they are copied it means, copied! You’ll see the references in your margins in many of your bibles.
When Hezekiah enherited the position as Judah’s king, 200 years of chaos (my words not God’s words) had passed. King Hezekiah, the son of Ahaz, did a great deal to restore the temple, restored worship, and ultimately what he could to restore the nation’s relationship with God after so much damage had been done.
It is also helpful to note that at this time the northern kingdom of Israel has been captured and dispersed by the Assyrian Empire. The southern kingdom of Judah will be captured within another 100 years and moved out of Jerusalem. They will be held captive there for 70 years which begins the Jewish calendar countdown that leads to Christ and to his final return. But I digress.
Back to Proverbs. Having understood a little bit of the context, I can better appreciate the refreshment and restoration of these words in the chapters we are reading this week that would have heard and heeded many years ago and even further worship the God who uses those life giving words in and through us today.
a closer look
Proverbs 25:11 A word aptly spoken….
Even 2700 years later when I read this verse it is assuring, restoring, I would even like to use the word centering. A word aptly spoken can be long awaited. Or maybe we simply didn’t know what we didn’t know and when God used a kind and gentle spirited soul to pose a question, or make a statement that redirected our attention it was a brilliant moment that caught our attention so we could pause and refocus.
My heart’s desire it to speak like this into others’ lives. To avoid rambling avoid quick pat answers but wait for the apt words that will truly help someone. How about you?
Proverbs 26:22 The words of a gossip….
These words are like sugar. They create a hunger for more.
According to webmd-
Eating sugar gives your brain a huge surge of a feel-good chemical called dopamine. That explains why you’re more likely to crave…”(more sugar) Studies have linked a high amount of sugar intake with depression.
We’ve always heard that sugar will rot your teeth but beyond that it is not to known to age your skin, cause inflamation, and create a host of other problems.
It’s not good for you but it tastes so good, doesn’t it? I think I could very easily “live” on sugar.
This is a good picture for gossip. Listening to, contributing to, not walking away from gossip will affect your life in ways that you would not have known and it does not promote good spiritual health, it feeds decay.
I want to continue to squelch gossip. Help me press on to build people up with our words and give hope, help and truth with each opportunity.
Proverbs 27:2 Don’t praise yourself. Let someone else do it.
Speaking of words aptly chosen. This verse has been valuable to me over the years as I have watched and listened to people. Honestly it can be a tough temptation to walk away from at time but the reward of directing people’s attention to others, and letting God be the One who lifts and holds you up is sweet. It is far greater than doing it yourself or can I also add relying on others to do that for you.
Could we work together on relying on God for our praise? I think this is an area that we can all grow in.
challenge
Words are important. They can build up and tear down. We’ve talked about this throughout our study of Proverbs and will continue as we finish over the next couple of weeks. These simple reminders are worth copying down as Hezekiah did. They are worth speaking as words of worship and wisdom. And they are worth remembering so that they can be woven into the fabric of our lives.
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