Plymothian

An unfriendly person pursues selfish ends
    and against all sound judgment starts quarrels.

⁸ The words of a gossip are like choice morsels;
    they go down to the inmost parts.

Deep

My father prided himself in being shallow.  He would say some profound things, but often he would just retreat into shallow sarcasm or silence.  My soul was parched.  I wanted my father to talk to me about existential questions of life and death.  I wanted him to connect with me on a deep level.  He was resolutely shallow in his communication, but it covered over deep issues of insecurity, self-doubt, and disorientation. 

To follow God clears a way to deep pools of living water.  There is a depth that is not dull.  God is interested in the day-to-day world but he shows us the connection of each moment to the cosmos.  Jesus is with us and Jesus is the Word through whom the universe was created.  Jesus shows us how God is with us and transecnds us at all times.  We live in a physical world of busyness and materialism, but our speech should reflect insight that there are ultimate questions of meaning to be asked.  The answers are all found in God.

Questions

1. What is satisfying about deep speech?
2. Where does shallow speech take us?
3. How deeply does gossip satisfy?
4. What does the modern love of gossip show about the depths of the modern heart?
5. How do we have conversations with God that are truly satisfying?

One who has no sense shakes hands in pledge
    and puts up security for a neighbor.

²⁸ Even fools are thought wise if they keep silent,
    and discerning if they hold their tongues

Restraint

Last night I was glad that my children did not come to my soccer game.  During the game the players were yelling obsceneties at each other.  One player, who has headbutted members of our team before, headbutted someone while the ref wasn’t looking.  Another player from the other team shouted obsceneties about one of our player’s mother.  The game ended when one of our players broke free in injury time and scored a fantastic winner.

That’s when one of The Assyrian Stars (the opposing team) came over to our bench and kicked our best player between the legs.  He responded with a headshot that caused the Assyrian’s mouth to bleed.  In no time seven Assyrians had surrounded our player and were kicking him on the ground.  One even jumped on him and bit him hard on the back.  The police arrived and the instigator was separated from our players and the Assyrian Stars and our team stopped brawling.

I looked at the instigator, blood dripping from his mouth.  I looked at the man next to him cussing the police with no respect.  He had a cross around his neck.  However, he lacked the understanding that comes from God.  He had shown no restraint.  I was deeply grieved when I saw his cross and knew it meant nothing to him.

Questions

1. What do the wicked pervert?
2. How does a wise person use words?
3. Why is it better to hold your tongue in intense situations rather than vent?
4. Why do sporting situations frequently lead to intense language and sometimes brawls?
5. What could be done to develop good sportspeople whose language is pure?

¹⁷ A friend loves at all times,
    and a brother is born for a time of adversity.

Friends Love

Friends don’t always agree.  Friends don’t always do what the other wants.  Friends are sometimes miles away – even across the oceans.  However, the one constant is that a friend loves.  This is not an emotion.  We do not need to maintain a false emotional high.  Of course, a friend will often feel wonderful and enraptured in the company of a friend, but in need not always be that way.

I sometimes find people who say that they have no friends.  In fact I might say this is increasingly common.  As we are encouraged to keep busy and perform tasks to satisfy our cravings for recognition, worth, and pleasure, we find it harder to maintain relationships.  The best way to obtain meaningful friendships is to be a friend.  It means that we approach people that God has laid on our heart and we reach out to them:  We offer to do chores that they don’t have time for;  We take interest in their interests;  We share experiences;  We take initiative in seeking the other out and listening. 

A successful marriage is rooted in sound friendship.  Lust and self-serving dating can skip the step of becoming friends.  However, if a couple skillfully develop a friendship in courtship, their marriage will be all the stronger. 

If we are ‘stuck’ with someone unlike us in a dorm situation, or in a church situation, we can be a friend to them and stop moaning about how unlike us they are.  Friends love. 

Siblings should be the closest of friends.  Cain and Able let us know that sin is in the heart of the family.  However, when things around the family go wrong often healthy families will form stronger bonds.  It should be like this in friendship.  If someone is struggling, we should take the initiative to reach out.  When Kelli and I got back from China with our new daughter recently, our friends in our small group, Carrie and Jonna, offered to do something for us.  We didn’t take them up on it, but the offer itself was profoundly uplifting.  I hope that my wife and I can be the same for others.  If you have our number and something is troubling you, give one of us a call.  Send us an e-mail.  We can be family to each other in times of adversity if we know that adversity is going on. 

Questions

1. What do friends do?
2. How are friends like family?
3. How do you think Jewish friendships in ancient times were both similar and different from our friendships?
4. Who are your closest friends?  How do you love each other?
5. Who do you find it difficult to befriend but realise God might want you to love?  How does knowing God make the difference?

Fine speech is not becoming to a fool;
    still less is false speech to a prince.
⁸  A bribe is like a magic stone in the eyes of the one who gives it;
    wherever he turns he prospers.
⁹ Whoever covers an offense seeks love,
    but he who repeats a matter separates close friends.
¹⁰ A rebuke goes deeper into a man of understanding
    than a hundred blows into a fool.
¹¹ An evil man seeks only rebellion,
    and a cruel messenger will be sent against him.
¹² Let a man meet a she-bear robbed of her cubs
     rather than a fool in his folly.
¹³ If anyone returns evil for good,
     evil will not depart from his house.
¹⁴ The beginning of strife is like letting out water,
    so quit before the quarrel breaks out.
¹⁵ He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous
    are both alike an abomination to the Lord.
¹⁶ Why should a fool have money in his hand to buy wisdom
    when he has no sense?

Consequences

The consequences of foolishness are deep.  The foolishness of our movies, our politics, and our churches might seem like so much good fun, but it will all end in ruin.  If we stand like prophets in Jerusalem and warn the culture, who will listen?  Aren’t we just killjoys, naysayers, and bigots?  Haven’t we just pumped ourselves up with self-righteousness and this arrogant notion that we know the truth? 

We are the prophets called by God to speak an eternal and ancient truth revealed in him.  Wisdom is the way the world should be.  There is no existential road trip needed to explore the complexities of our own navels.  The complexities of the universe have been revealed by one complex enough to be its primary cause.  The design of the earth has been revealed by the designer.  We laugh, we sleep around, we drink, we see no further than the end of our noses.  The insanity of Freudian psychology is evidenced by the isolation and lack of intimacy.  Rather than count what has been lost, we recast the home and church as a stifling and harsh environment.  Having burned our bridges to a life of hearth and home, we wander the world looking for solace.  We look for ourselves, and rather than accept ourselves with our depravity and sin – we embrace depravity and sin themselves.  Pastors think it is edgy to add a little sin in the mix; Christian teens want to be like Twilight’s Edward and cultivate a little dark side;  We are intoxicated with ruining Eden.  We sail headlong into the seas of Chaos experiencing the ride.  Screaming in the storm, “I am alive!”  When the good ship Folly arrives at its destination we don’t find the verdant vallies of self-actualization – we find the gnarled bones in the wasteland of Abaddon and Sheol.

Questions

1. Who covers an offence?
2. Who seeks rebellion?
3. What will the fool get when he tries to purchase an education?
4. What is the ideal person who is a product of public education?
5. How does Proverbs help us create prophets who will speak truth to a world that rejects the possibility of knowing truth?

Going Deeper

http://www.reclaimingthemind.org/blog/2010/01/the-scandal-of-the-evangelical-mind-sixteen-years-later/

Better a dry crust with peace and quiet
    than a house full of feasting, with strife.

⁶ Children’s children are a crown to the aged,
    and parents are the pride of their children.

Crucibles

God allows us to be in situations that push us for a reason.  The situations that try us the most potentially give us the chance to show our character more completely.  God, I believe has designed marriage for this purpose.  The home should be a crucible where the value and worth of each individual is shown through trials and self-sacrifice.  When we get married we often focus on what we have in common.  We see what is the same, but we focus less on what is different.  The differences themselves often seem endearing.   Add the pressure of children, pressure on finances, pressure from in-laws and the marriage seems a little different.  Some say the love dies at this point, but it is the narcissistic infatuation that ends.  At this point the road is clear to selflessly love someone who has always been different from us.  This does not mean that we pressure others into change for their own good.  It means that we see how God is testing us and come to God to be changed to make us more unconditional in our love.

Question

1. What does the house with peace and quiet lack?
2. What does God test like a crucible tests gold and silver?
3. How should a family view each other?
4. What do the people that you work with think they need in their house to be happy?
5. Why do we keep moving and consuming things we don’t need rather than stopping and learning to be grateful?

There is a way that appears to be right,^(AM)
    but in the end it leads to death.^(AN)

³³ The lot is cast^(AV) into the lap,
    but its every decision^(AW) is from the Lord.

Brain Over Brawn

In Julia Donaldson’s book, the Gruffalo, a powerful theme is revisited.  The idea is that a small mouse can outwit the powerful Gruffalo and other predators who wish to eat him.  Proverbs reinforces this idea.  Of course, physical fitness is a benefit and shows good stewardship of what God has given.  However, if there is a choice between brawn and brains Proverbs chooses brains.  The FBI reads body language to be able to tell what powerful enemies are thnking and then can use that against them.  Many times in history a mighty army has been stalled by superior strategy on the part of an inferior force. 

Questions

1. What does this passage say about intelligence compared to a warrior’s skill?
2. How did people in the Bible use strategy to defeat overwhelming odds?
3. To whom does God reveal superior strategy?
4. In the lives of regular people in the West when do they fight when they could think?
5. How does taking time to consult God rule out chance in conflict?

Better to be lowly in spirit along with the oppressed
    than to share plunder with the proud.

²⁴ Gracious words are a honeycomb,^(AK)
    sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.

Words

If one is to acquire wisdom one must engage with words.  Words carry the meaning imagined in the mind.  Ideas.  Ideas are powerful and they change the world.  They are often misunderstood, and all too often misused.  However, a great idea in the mouth of a powerful communicator can change the world.  The converse is also true.  Hitler worked with words, images and power.  He mastered the delivery of words to crush the will of his ‘feeble’ opponents.  Gandhi motivated millions with a few well chosen, quotable words.  His life was an exercise in reflective, meditative communication. 

What are we hearing?  Many times it is shallow chatter which reinforces a sad idea that the material world is all.  We are ‘superflat’ as the Japanese might say.  We have our aural senses overloaded with colour, contrast and consumerism.  If we stop for a while and wait for a whisper, it will come to us.  A still small voice beckons us to the transcendent, beyond the imminent, and we can live through listening.  Sssh.

Questions

1. What kind of words are helpful?
2. Why are some words more helpful than others?
3. What is the source of worthwhile words?
4. What kinds of words are we overloaded  with?
5. How can one focus one’s intake of words today to hear the few that are truly helpful?  (Do it)

^(M)Better is a little with righteousness
    than great revenues with injustice.
^9 (N)The heart of man plans his way,
    but ^(O)the Lord establishes his steps.
^10 (P)An oracle is on the lips of a king;
    his mouth does not sin in judgement.
^11 (Q)A just balance and scales are the Lord’s;
    all the weights in the bag are his work.
¹² It is an abomination to kings to do evil,
    for ^(R)the throne is established by righteousness.
^13 (S)Righteous lips are the delight of a king,
    and he loves him who speaks what is right.
^14 (T)A king’s wrath is a messenger of death,
    and a wise man will ^(U)appease it.
^15 (V)In the light of a king’s face there is life,
    and his ^(W)favour is like ^(X)the clouds that bring the spring rain.
^16 (Y)How much better to get wisdom than ^(Z)gold!
    To get understanding is to be chosen rather than ^(AA)silver.
¹⁷ The highway of the upright ^(AB)turns aside from evil;
    whoever guards his way preserves his life.
^18 (AC)Pride goes before destruction,
    and a haughty spirit before a fall.

Kings and Presidents

The Bible knew very little about representative republics.  By the time Rome really became an influence, Julius Caesar had changed the republic into an empire.  The nations of the Bible, therefore had kings or emperors:  Absolute rulers who believed God or gods had appointed them to rule without political opposition.  In fact, Proverbs 16:10 talks of the appointed king speaking with God’s authority and without error.  Such an idea finds limited application in western democracies.  All rulers need to be established in righteousness.  They need to do what is right and God defines those standards.

Barak Obama has compassion for the poor, he has made laws to protect them.  He wants universal healthcare for those who lack it.  Yesterday he declared that he was in support of same-sex marriage.  God loves people who are attracted to their own sex.  He loves them completely and wants what is best for them.  Just like a heterosexual who is not in a monogamous relationship, God wants abstinence.  To deny the design in the fabric of creation is to walk the path of the fool according to biblical Proverbs.  So Barak has made a misstep.  Both sides of the political fence make both good and poor choices.  We should not be too harsh on them, though.  They reflect the voters and take their stances to woo significant sections of society.  Those on the right who care little for those on welfare or rush quickly to judgement, walk the path of the fool.  Those on the left who support same-sex marriage undermine the fabric of society.  Those on the right who uphold the rights of the unborn walk a wise path.  Those on the left who think twice before ripping apart God’s Creation to mine its resources, walk the path of the wise.

Although Barak has taken a stance that is not grounded in righteousness, is he any less righteous than his upcoming opponent?  It’s a hard one to call.

Questions

1. How should one act in the presence of authority?
2. Upon what is true government (kingship) established?
3. Do the verses about kings apply to Israel in a way that they cannot apply to us?
4. What righteous positions do Democrats hold?  How are they fools by God’s standards?
5. What righteous positions do Republicans hold?  How are they fools by God’s standards?

Going Deeper

Marcus LeShock of WGN news took a neutral tone when he asked what people think of Barak Obama’s announcement in favour of Gay Marriage.  What would you say?

http://twitter.com/#!/marcusleshock

To humans belong the plans of the heart,
    but from the Lord comes the proper answer of the tongue.^(A)

Folly brings joy to one who has no sense,
    but whoever has understanding keeps a straight course.

³³ Wisdom’s instruction is to fear the Lord,
    and humility comes before honor.

Gushing

These images emphasize the mouth of the fool.  A mouth that gushes without thinking is not wise.  The solution then is to somehow find more of God.  Seek God and your mouth is less likely to embarrass you.

Questions

1. How does the mouth of the fool gush?
2. What illustrations would you use for a wise mouth?
3. How do you think that Jewish people would speak foolishly that would be similar to people today?
4. Why do some people start spewing flattery?
5. How could people stop speaking so much?  What might success look like after just a week or so?