Plymothian

Wisdom is too high for fools;
    in the assembly at the gate they must not open their mouths.

 God and Local Politics

A person who does not know God is less likely to have something truly constructive to offer local politics.  However, if a person is looking for God’s will for a community they will have something to say.  In ancient Israel a person would openly refernce God and the scriptures in public debates and settlements.  In modern society God has been pushed away from law courts, local city councils, and trade tribunals.  The results are the current seperation of God and state.  The creation, not of a state free from the control of the church, but more than that.  The result is a state increasingly unaware of the voice of God.  It may be that those who oppose current trends are seen as living on the ‘wrong side of history’.  However, when Rome adopted more lacivious paths and pleasure-seeking laws – they momentarily made life easier on themselves, but as they departed from wisdom and acted selfishly toward their slaves and neighbours they became ripe for rebellion and invasion.  The West is trying to link philanthropy with consumerism and the church is playing along in many cases.  We are marketing ourselves as the best option in self-help rather than the only avenue of spiritual life and health.

We need more people to bring a Christian mind to local politics and local discussions.  In such a grass roots approach the fire of God’s truth may be fanned into flame again and burn in hearts of fire that might redeem a nation that embraces moral and ethical decline and calls it progress.

Questions

1. What is too high for whom?
2. What should fools refrain from doing?
3. What, by implication, would the wise be doing at the city gate?
4. The city gate was the location for local politics.  What is the modern equivalent?
5. What could God use you to bring to local politics?

The wise prevail through great power,     and those who have knowledge muster their strength. ⁶ Surely you need guidance to wage war,     and victory is won through many advisers. 

God, The Ultimate Weapon

Wisdom is the pursuit of God and the understanding of the world as he sees it.  From God’s perspective war must sometimes be waged.  The question is not one of whether personal preferences and national interests are upheld.  The question is whether a war is one that upholds righteousness.  If a war is against wicked people and for good reasons, we migfht say that God approves.  If God approves of such wars he will be on the side of the righteous.  This results in power on the battlefield and assured victory.  In theory this is all very nice, but discerning the will of God in such matters is a painstaking and drawn out process.

Questions

1. How does the writer see God’s role in a time of war?
2. What is the connection between wisdom and war?
3. Is the war in Afghanistan justfied?
4. Was the war in Iraq wise?
5. What conflicts could happen in the world right now where a Christian could pray to God for wisdom and God would support the ‘righteous’ army?

³ By wisdom a house is built,     and through understanding it is established; ⁴ through knowledge its rooms are filled     with rare and beautiful treasures. 

Building Houses

Questions

1. What kind of house building do you think the writer had in mind?
2. Do you think that the Windsors have built a strong house?
3. What makes a house strong or weak?
4. Is your house strong?
5. How could your house be strengthened?

Do not envy the wicked,
    do not desire their company;
2 for their hearts plot violence,
    and their lips talk about making trouble.

Envying the Wicked

Drug Dealer’s Mansion

Kim Kardashian’s Money

A Rapper’s Car Collection

Questions

1. What might an ancient Jewish person envy?
2. What is ‘wicked’ by biblical standards?
3. Why would someone envy wicked people?
4. What is attractive about the above pictures?
5. What is powerful enough to be a better option than the above pictures?

Yesterday I wrote a lengthy entry about the heart.  Our small group discussed spanking, and then we focused on why children go astray.  We talked about how often something draws someone in and consumes their life.  I remember those who at age 14 in England started their love affair with alcohol.  By high school they had become incredibly dull individuals whose conversation was about the number of pints of beer they had drunk and were going to drink.  Only mildly more interesting were some former Moody students I met in the States whose new found reedom to drink alcohol resulted in cocktail combinations being an overly frequent topic of conversation.  Pornography was an addiction that we talked about at length.  With sexual images and stories so readily available on the internet and teenage boys and girls having such strong urges, sex is even more of a draw than it was when I was younger.  I meet many students at Moody for whom pornography is a battle.  I am thankful that they at least struggle.  In many quarters of the world pornography is seen as a legitimate entertainment choice.  Proverbs warns of how young men (and women) are led astray when their hearts are captured.  The antidote is to model for youngsters a sold-out addiction to the things of God.  This spiritual zeal must have the same passion as the most torrid affair, the most enthralling sport, or the most delicious cupcake.  If we do not pursue first things first, how can we expect children to grow away from things that ultimately will destroy life.

Questions

1. According to Proverbs, to what must the heart be committed?
2. What other things grab one’s heart?
3. What are the dangers of grabbing foolish things?
4. What secondary things (sex, alcohol, or relationships) have you become obsessed with at some point?
5. Why do you think more girls are using pornography?  What does this show about society?  What would God want to do to offer a more fulfilling option?

Passage

Apply your heart to instruction
    and your ears to words of knowledge.

Saying 13
13 Do not withhold discipline from a child;
    if you punish them with the rod, they will not die.
14 Punish them with the rod
    and save them from death.
Saying 14
15 My son, if your heart is wise,
    then my heart will be glad indeed;
16 my inmost being will rejoice
    when your lips speak what is right.
Saying 15
17 Do not let your heart envy sinners,
    but always be zealous for the fear of the Lord.
18 There is surely a future hope for you,
    and your hope will not be cut off.
Saying 16
19 Listen, my son, and be wise,
    and set your heart on the right path:
20 Do not join those who drink too much wine
    or gorge themselves on meat,
21 for drunkards and gluttons become poor,
    and drowsiness clothes them in rags.

Saying 17
22 Listen to your father, who gave you life,
    and do not despise your mother when she is old.
23 Buy the truth and do not sell it—
    wisdom, instruction and insight as well.
24 The father of a righteous child has great joy;
    a man who fathers a wise son rejoices in him.
25 May your father and mother rejoice;
    may she who gave you birth be joyful!
Saying 18
26 My son, give me your heart
    and let your eyes delight in my ways,
27 for an adulterous woman is a deep pit,
    and a wayward wife is a narrow well.
28 Like a bandit she lies in wait
    and multiplies the unfaithful among men.

Saying 19
29 Who has woe? Who has sorrow?
    Who has strife? Who has complaints?
    Who has needless bruises? Who has bloodshot eyes?
30 Those who linger over wine,
    who go to sample bowls of mixed wine.
31 Do not gaze at wine when it is red,
    when it sparkles in the cup,
    when it goes down smoothly!
32 In the end it bites like a snake
    and poisons like a viper.
33 Your eyes will see strange sights,
    and your mind will imagine confusing things.
34 You will be like one sleeping on the high seas,
    lying on top of the rigging.
35 “They hit me,” you will say, “but I’m not hurt!
    They beat me, but I don’t feel it!
When will I wake up
    so I can find another drink?”

¹³ Do not withhold discipline from a child;     if you punish them with the rod, they will not die. ¹⁴ Punish them with the rod     and save them from death. 

Should Parents Spank?

Parents who spank think they are taking this verse literally.  However, if they were taking it literally they would use a rod.  I would imagine a rod to be a corrective tool, used to beat a Jewish child.  The warning in the verses is to parents who are not correcting their child.  The emphasis is on the fact that discipline is being carried out.  Discipline trains a person or animal to perform appropriate acts at an appropriate time.  To achieve this end a rod could be used, but it doesn’t have to be.  Because the emphasis here is on the principle of discipline and not the use of a rod as a tool, parents do not need to use a rod.  Parents do not have to strike their child.  Parents can use an approach like Love and Logic (http://www.loveandlogic.com/ )which allows, as much as possible, the natural laws that God has built into the world to teach for themselves.

Questions

1. What must a parent be careful to do?
2. What might Jewish parents use to perform this task?
3. Is this verse describing spanking?
4. How might a child be disciplined?
5. Check out Love and Logic and see what you think.

12 Apply your heart to instruction
    and your ears to words of knowledge.

Angry About Improvement

My wife says that I deflect criticism.  The truth is that I don’t welcome it.  I am not that wise.  Today’s criticism was concerning the raising of our son.  Yesterday I talked at length about how passive he is.  He expects things to happen with the minimum of effort on his part.  He will squawk when things don’t go his way without him actively trying to engage the situation.  I was probably just being cathartic in the conversation with our friends, but today it was raised to me that labeling my son as passive (my complaint), or shy (my wife’s complaint) might only validate the behaviours we don’t want.  Secondly, my wife told me that I lecture him too much.  I should just follow through on the consequences of his actions with minimal extra input.  I became defensive and hurt. I was resistant to her input. I was afraid of being dominated and controlled by my wife.  I internalized my fear and anger and became exhausted immediately.  I went back to bed.  Proverbs like the one above started rattling around my head.  “Why couldn’t I listen to instruction from my wife?” “Why was I angry and then exhausted and depressed by correction?”  “Rather than change my actions for the better, why did I want everyone to go away?”

The answer was sin patterns in my life that are deeply rooted.  I have pride and am unable to change easily.  I am afraid of losing control.  I get angry when I associate correction with lack of respect.  I become sad when the goalposts seem to change.  I am sinful.  The proverb above leads once more to the beginning and the end of the road of wisdom.  I have to find more of God so that I am able to listen to correction from whatever source God is able to provide.  I do not need to become wise so that I find God.  I need to find God so that I become wise.

Questions

1. To what should your heart be applied?
2. To what should your ear listen?
3. How can we tell that ‘heart’ is more than emotional?
4. How are we resistant to instruction?
5. From whom do we gain knowledge?

10 Do not move an ancient boundary stone
    or encroach on the fields of the fatherless,
11 for their Defender is strong;
    he will take up their case against you.

Defender

In court cases even the poor are assigned a Public Defender.  The United States judicial system believes it is just that the ‘powerless’ should be empowered in issues of justice.  Behind this principle, what makes it right, is that defending those without a voice reflects the character of God.  God is the Defender of the powerless.  It is easy to exploit people if we really put our minds to it.  Some people are really trusting.  What should cause us to pause is that God, who sees everything, upholds justice on behalf of those we manipulate. 

We may not be in any legal cases right now, but we might have our own agenda affecting other relationships.  We might manipulate our spouse for our own ends;  We might clontrol our brother or sister to get what we want; we might be domineering at work.  In each case, God will ultimately work against us when our case is unjust.  Of course, if we are on the receiving end of domination and manipulation, we can appeal to justice through our Defender and expect him to plead our case.

Questions

1. Who is powerless in these verses?
2. What is God’s role in these verses?
3. How would the powerful have manipulated those around them in Ancient Israel?
4. How do you manipulate others sometimes?  How would God stand against you?
5. How are you wronged?  How would you want God to defend you?

9 Do not speak to fools,
    for they will scorn your prudent words.

In Support of Not Talking It Out

In many cases it is prudent to talk through a problem. It is good to assess why the problem occurred and how to prevent such a thing from happening again.  Also, it can be good to talk about our feelings and why we feel them.  Some people would lean toward this being how we react in all circumstances.  However, there are times when a conversation is not going to go well.  The specific instance in mind here is a conversation with a fool.  This is different from a conversation with an idiot.  An idiot knows nothing.  A fool interprets facts as if there is no God.  A fool, then, has no higher authority than humanity or self to draw upon.  The biblically wise can draw upon the authority of scripture and an appeal to God to form some common basis. Of course, in many issues of great importance the godly and ungodly will come to different conclusions.  It is a waste of time arguing in such circumstances.  Jesus reinforces this when he says, “Do not cast your pearls to swine (Mtt. 7:6).”  Paul reinforces this when he says not to argue with meaningless philosophies which depend upon the authority of men (Col. 2:8).

Questions

1. With whom do wise people not speak?
2. What is a fool biblically?
3. What often happens when a godly person engages in an argument with an ungodly one?
4. How should a Christian detach themselves from discussions?
5. From what kinds of discussions should Christians detach? 
6. Why do people want to win arguments?  What happens to a relationship when someone wins an argument?