Beloved, I am glad to share with you today the above theme from Pr 15:1-2 and following. Indeed, the way to soothe our own anger, as we learned yesterday, is patience and prayer. Here is now a remedy for the anger of others: This sovereign balm is called “a sweet word.” Gideon’s humble and peaceful response to the men of Ephraim in Judges 8:1-3 overcame their irritation; and is this not the least of the victories of this man of faith. In contrast, “a hurtful word” as its name suggests, opens a wound, which is then very difficult to heal. Let’s bring verses 5, 10, and 12 closer together (Pr 15:31-32). Having regard for reprimand and correction, allows you to become intelligent. This is to take it into account to avoid starting to do wrong again. Pr 13:24 (and Hebrews 12:4-13 in relation to God) has told us that parents, contrary to appearances, show their love by disciplining their children! The secret to accepting the rebuke is therefore to understand that it is dictated by true love and that it has in view “our profit”. So, let’s not be like the mocker, who does not love the one who takes him back (verse 12).
“The prayer of upright men is pleasing to him,” says v. 8. Righteousness is indeed the absence of one’s own will, full submission to the thought of God, who will then be able to answer such a prayer (1 John 5:14-15). “The joyful heart brightens the face” (verse 13). The joy of a child of God must be read on his face. And how can his heart be happy and joyful? By continually finding his strength and nourishment in Christ, the object of his happiness. “The happy heart is a continual feast” (verse 15; John 4:31-34). Verses 16 and 17 teach us what the true values are here on earth: the fear of God with the love that comes from Him. “Piety with contentment is a great gain – testifies the apostle – … having food and enough to cover us, we will be satisfied” (1 Timothy 6:6-12).
Let’s emphasize verse 23: “A word said in its time, how good it is!” How many times we remain silent when there would be a word to say! And this is usually because of a lack of courage or dependence on the Holy Spirit (Matt. 10:16-22). But when, with the Lord’s help, we have been able to seize the opportunity to speak of Him, we experience the first part of this verse: joy comes to fill our hearts. Our chapter concludes with this proverb so often commented by the Lord Jesus: “The lowering goes before glory” (Matthew 18:1-6; Mt 19:23-30; 20:27, 28; Mt 20:20-28; 23:11, 12… Mt 23.1-12). But He didn’t just teach it in His words. Who has ever lowered himself like Him? So, no one will be exalted any more either.
A gentle response deflects fury, but hurtful speech excites anger (v. 1). A gentle response has far more effect, in reverse, than hurtful speech. It disarms the fury, and the latter, not knowing who to attack, turns away from its object. The hurtful word excites the anger that, if it did not already exist in the heart, at least slumbered there. It would seem, in bringing this passage closer to chapter 25:15, that it should be related to v. 35 of chapter 14. The tongue of the wise asserts knowledge, but the mouth of fools brings forth madness (v. 2). The discourses of the wise bring the knowledge of God’s thoughts and assert them, are careful to bring out their value; those who ignore these thoughts and do not care about them, have a mouth from which comes out without anything stopping it, like a gushing water, folly, the evil abundance of thoughts of hearts from which God is absent. The eyes of jehovah are everywhere, looking at the wicked and the good (v. 3). God sees, knows, appreciates everything and everywhere. He knows the state of the wicked and the good, but also he makes his sun rise over them all (Matt. 5:45). The benignity of the tongue is a tree of life, but the perversity in it is a break of mind (v. 4).
The healthy and peaceful words that the mouth utters are a fruit of life that nourishes those who receive them. In chapter 13:12, one feeds on oneself. See again Pr 11:30 and 3:18. Perversity, when found in speeches, destroys instead of edifying, but it is also a break of mind for those who had received their food from it; for in the same tongue can “proceed blessing and curse” (Jas. 3:10). The fool despises his father’s instruction, but he who has regard for reprehension becomes wise (v. 5). The fool, the one who is alien to Wisdom, despises the teaching, discipline, and warnings of god’s given experience, to which he should submit; but he who heeded the reprehension, which was part of his education as a son, became wise, adept at choosing the right path.
The heart of the intelligent man seeks knowledge, but the mouths of fools feed on madness (v. 14). There is a direct connection between the heart and the mouth. The heart of the intelligent man seeks knowledge and, in v. 2, the language of the wise asserts it. In v. 7 the heart of fools does not spread knowledge, while the lips of the wise spread it. Here the mouth of fools feeds on madness, as it makes it spring up in v. 2. It is full of it, because their hearts are full of it. All the days of the unfortunate are evil, but the happy heart is a continual feast (v. 15). The unfortunate is under a direct and continual discipline of the Lord. “My days,” says Jacob, “have been short and bad”; but a happy heart is a continual feast. He has more than the joyful heart of v. 13. He has found true happiness, an object from which he can feed and feed endlessly. “If someone eats this bread, he will live forever.”
Better with the fear of the Lord than a great treasure with trouble (v. 16). “Piety with contentment of spirit is a great gain” (1 Tim. 6:6). The “great treasure” is not that of the house from the righteous to v. 6. Better a meal of herbs, and love, than a fattened ox and hate (v. 17). This verse is a counterpart to the previous one. In v. 16, the fear of Jehovah – a soul placed in the light of God’s presence, hating evil and loving good as He – replaces what we lack on the side of earthly enjoyment. In v. 17, it is a question of love, of the nature of God himself, which the soul is made capable of enjoying and which it tastes in the communion of brothers and sisters. Would we exchange this love for the pleasures of opulence? The meal of herbs, the shortage, is enough for us. The body can live from a meal of herbs, the soul lives from love. Hatred, on the other hand, characterizes the man distant from God: “hateful, hating each other.” (Titus 3:3). Can all the worldly prosperity of those whose “God is the belly” compensate for the evil that dwells in the heart of man? The violent man excites the quarrel, but the one who is slow to anger soothes the argument (v. 18; Pr 28:25; 29:22). The character of the violent man provokes the quarrelsome explosion in others. The opposite state of the heart, the very character of God (Ex. 34:6; Nh. 9. 17), a character reproduced by one who knows God and possesses His nature, soothes the dispute when it has already manifested itself.
The following verses have been compiled for your edification and grouped together for your better understanding.
The Lord and daily life:
- The madness of men, the madness manifested with certainty
Pr 15:2 The language of the wise makes science lovable, and the mouth of the foolish spreads madness. Pr 18.2 It is not to the mind that the fool takes pleasure, it is to the manifestation of his thoughts. Ec 10:3 When the fool walks in a path, he lacks meaning, and he says of everyone: Here is a fool! 2 Tim 3:9 But they will not make greater progress; for their folly will be manifest to all, as was that of these two men.
- Unfair gain
Pr 16:8 Better with justice than great incomes with injustice. Pr 21.6 Treasures acquired by a false language are a fleeting vanity and the forerunner of death. Jer 17:11 Like a partridge that incubates eggs that it has not laid, Such is he who acquires wealth unjustly; In the middle of his days he must leave them, and in the end he is only a fool. John 5:4 Behold, the wages of the workers who have harvested your fields, and of whom you have frustrated them, cry out, and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.
- Contentment, the duty of
Pr 15:16 Better, with the fear of the Lord, than a great treasure, with trouble. Lk 3:14 Soldiers also asked him: And we, what should we do? He replied: Do not commit extortion or fraud against anyone, and be content with your balance. Phil 4:11 I do not say this for my needs, for I have learned to be happy with the state I am in. Hb 13:5 Do not indulge in the love of money; be content with what you have; for God Himself has said: I will not abandon you, and I will not abandon you.
- Widows and orphans, under God’s protection
Dt 10:18 which entitles the orphan and widow, who loves the stranger and gives him food and clothing. Ps 10:14 You look, however, for you see pain and suffering, to take their cause into your own hands; It is to you that the unfortunate is abandoned, It is you who come to the aid of the orphan. Ps 68:6 The father of orphans, the defender of widows, is God in his holy abode. Jer 49:11 Leave your orphans, I will make them live, and let your widows trust in me!
From all of the above, we note that fearof Jehovah is the discipline of wisdom, and lowering goes before glory. It’s with this admirable sentence that this series of chapters ends. Just as the fear of Jehovah is the beginning of Wisdom (Pr 9:10), it’s also wisdom that teaches us to know it ever more. Staying before God in the full light of His presence is the way to grow in the knowledge of His thoughts. This requires humble hearts, lowered and complacent in a complete dependence on Him. This was the case with Christ the man. Only he lowered himself, while we must learn to be lowered. Much more he annihilates himself until the death of the cross. Except for the Atonement, this path is ours. Like Peter, we were able to “follow him later.” But this path leads us to glory, as he led our Lord and Master to it. “The lowering goes before the glory!” So let’s follow the path of Wisdom without taking a single look back! For us this glory is the heavenly glory, for the sage of the Old Testament, the glory of the Kingdom. In this chapter, thoughts more often offer a connection between them than in previous chapters. There is much talk, of the state of the heart, of the joy that is the consequence, of the influence that this state exerts on thoughts, words and deeds; speak to us of the happiness of being alien to what the world seeks, and to its moral character; of the happiness of intelligence; show us the consequences for the home of pride, iniquity, and dishonest gain; deal with the instruction and reprehension of wisdom, to which the verse 20 had brought us back, and end with the vision of glory, a consequence of the fear of God and our lowering. Our prayers are with you all.
PRAYER OF ACCEPTANCE OF JESUS CHRIST AS LORD AND PERSONAL SAVIOR
I now invite every person who wants to become a new creation by walking in the truth, to pray with me the following prayer:
Lord Jesus, I have long walked in the lusts of the world ignoring your love for humans. I admit to having sinned against you and ask your forgiveness for all my sins, because today I have decided to give you my life by taking you as Lord and personal Savior. I recognize that you died on the cross of Calvary and rose from the dead for me.
I am now saved and born again by the power of the Holy Spirit. Lead me every day to the eternal life that you give to all who obey your Word. Reveal yourself to me and strengthen my heart and faith, so that your light may shine in my life right now.
Thank you, Lord Jesus, for accepting me into your divine family, so that I may also contemplate the wonders of your kingdom.
I will now choose a nearby waterpoint to baptize myself by immersion, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
All adoration, power and glory are yours, now and forever and ever. Amen!
I would be happy to react to any questions and comments you may have, before sharing with you tomorrow “Collections of proverbs on the moral life (Pr 16).
May the Lord Jesus Christ bless you abundantly.
David Feze, Servant of the Almighty God.