Deviation Actions
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Hello. This is Proverbs 24... officially out of intro ideas and I've got a week left in this challenge... Best intro ever.
1 Don’t envy evil people or desire their company.
2 For their hearts plot violence, and their words always stir up trouble.
We've already talked about envying evil people, but what about desiring their company? First off we have to ask, what kind of evil people do we desire to have as company? Surely not the kind of person who goes out and bullies others, or thieves? In my experience it seems that people want the company of someone with confidence. But sadly, confidence can be sadly mistaken for pride at times. I can remember when I was on my old Facebook account, there was a lot of pages I followed that would post quotes like 'I'm a queen with the mouth of a sailor' or something like that. They were basically promoting sass, which shouldn't be promoted at all. Where does sass get you in the end? Aside from disrespecting elders and a tongue of a sailor, you basically look foolish in doing so.
3 A house is built by wisdom and becomes strong through good sense.
4 Through knowledge its rooms are filled with all sorts of precious riches and valuables.
5 The wise are mightier than the strong, and those with knowledge grow stronger and stronger.
I meditated on this for a bit and an idea popped up in my head. If your brain was a house, what would it look like? Would it be sturdy or would it be weak? Would you have nice furniture, or hand me down old furniture? What would the pictures on the walls look like? Would your photographs have nice memories, or regrettable ones? Now while we'll all like to think that a nice home would represent our brains, think about whether or not that is true. I'll admit that my 'house' is not in the condition I want it to be. But now we're left with the question as to how do we fix that? If you build your house with wisdom, then you're house will be sturdy, and nice.
6 So don’t go to war without wise guidance; victory depends on having many advisers.
7 Wisdom is too lofty for fools. Among leaders at the city gate, they have nothing to say.
8 A person who plans evil will get a reputation as a troublemaker.
9 The schemes of a fool are sinful; everyone detests a mocker.
10 If you fail under pressure, your strength is too small.
This seemed odd to me until I had a representation of what this could look like. Say you're a body builder, and you're bench pressing. If you can't lift the weight, then your strength is too small, right? So how is this relatable in our faith? As Christians, we're persecuted on the daily. People will continue to make fun of us. And as humans we can easily be pressured into doing something against God's commands. If you fail, what does that mean? It means your faith is wavering. If you allow society, or the devil for that matter, to pressure you into doing something sinful, you're actually saying that you trust the devil more than you trust God. So what do we do whenever we fail under pressure? Just do what you do for any other sin, repent quickly, and regain some strength.
11 Rescue those who are unjustly sentenced to die; save them as they stagger to their death.
12 Don’t excuse yourself by saying, “Look, we didn’t know.” For God understands all hearts, and he sees you. He who guards your soul knows you knew. He will repay all people as their actions deserve.
13 My child, eat honey, for it is good, and the honeycomb is sweet to the taste.
14 In the same way, wisdom is sweet to your soul. If you find it, you will have a bright future, and your hopes will not be cut short.
15 Don’t wait in ambush at the home of the godly, and don’t raid the house where the godly live.
16 The godly may trip seven times, but they will get up again. But one disaster is enough to overthrow the wicked.
I know that there are a lot of denominations out there, and we all argue different things; You're supposed to pray this way, you're supposed to repent that way, you're doing it completely wrong. I know that a lot of people argue about these things. The first thing I want to ask those people is, why are you arguing with your brothers and sisters? I was just recently in an argument with someone who disagreed with one of my posts. We both posted our opinions, and I ended it the fourth comment. Why? Because if my brother is already saved, why should I be arguing? It's different if you want to comment a better way of doing something and leaving it at that, but if you're arguing with your brother or sister in Christ, you're wasting time that you could use to save someone who's actually lost. And as Christians we're not perfect. We'll fall a million times before the raptures. But it's because we love God that we get back up. If your brother or sister has fallen, offer your assistance and help them back up! Don't ambush them and tell them that they've fallen.
17 Don’t rejoice when your enemies fall; don’t be happy when they stumble.
18 For the Lord will be displeased with you and will turn his anger away from them.
19 Don’t fret because of evildoers; don’t envy the wicked.
20 For evil people have no future; the light of the wicked will be snuffed out.
21 My child, fear the Lord and the king. Don’t associate with rebels,
22 for disaster will hit them suddenly. Who knows what punishment will come from the Lord and the king?
More Sayings of the Wise
23 Here are some further sayings of the wise: It is wrong to show favoritism when passing judgment.
24 A judge who says to the wicked, “You are innocent,” will be cursed by many people and denounced by the nations.
25 But it will go well for those who convict the guilty; rich blessings will be showered on them.
Do you not realize that if you convict someone who is guilty in crime that you're not only doing the world a service, but you're doing this person a service too? Whatever they've done, they did it on the verge of sin. Sin is addictive. When you put someone who's addicted to sin in an enviroment that prevents them from feeding that addiction, you're actually helping them. Not very many people think about it that way considering the conditions that people in prison live in, but when you think about it, you are helping them. If you excuse them, they'll continue to live in that sin. God doesn't want to see them continuing in their sin.
26 An honest answer is like a kiss of friendship.
27 Do your planning and prepare your fields before building your house.
28 Don’t testify against your neighbors without cause; don’t lie about them.
29 And don’t say, “Now I can pay them back for what they’ve done to me! I’ll get even with them!”
30 I walked by the field of a lazy person, the vineyard of one with no common sense.
31 I saw that it was overgrown with nettles. It was covered with weeds, and its walls were broken down.
32 Then, as I looked and thought about it, I learned this lesson:
33 A little extra sleep, a little more slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest—
34 then poverty will pounce on you like a bandit; scarcity will attack you like an armed robber.
I love how blunt these verses are. If I can be honest most people would be offended by verse 31's bluntness, but come on. I don't know if you realize this, but laziness isn't limited to just a little nap. Normally if you're lazy, you're an amazing procrastinator. If you're an amazing procrastinator, you procrastinate taking care of your vineyards. Whether you procrastinate learning how to take care of your vineyards, or going outside and actually taking care of it, in the end you don't take care of your vineyards. When you don't take care of your vineyards, you loose the money you spent on those vineyards. So in the end you lose money, which means poverty. So in other words, being lazy is very risky. Don't be lazy kids.
And that's it for Proverbs 24! If you liked this post please give me a thumbs up and if you have a question or a comment please email me at fire.time.rsmith@gmail.com. Until tomorrow, God bless, and keep your fire for God, blazing!