Talk of JESUS .com

Category: Good advice – Proverbs & wisdom

Proverbs 22:6 = saying to teach your children part of the books of wisdom of the Old Testament which also includes Ecclesiastes by Solomon written with the wisdom and experience of old age
Train up a child in the way he should go,
Even when he grows older he will not abandon it.

Wisdom from Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon / Song of Songs. Please SHARE a Proverb or other Biblical quote of advice for today. How does this talk of Jesus in the 21st century? What’s Jesus’ advise for you and me IF He were to use this proverb for our worldly friends and application to our Christian lives in witness to our Lord?

  • A Word to the Cunning – 2

    Cunning Defined

    NOUN

    1[MASS NOUN] Skill in achieving one’s ends by deceit.

    Thesaurus:

    [Nouns] cunning, craft; cunningness, craftiness; subtlety, artificiality; maneuvering; temporization; circumvention.
    chicane, chicanery; sharp practice, knavery, jugglery; concealment [more]; guile, doubling, duplicity (falsehood) [more]; foul play.
    diplomacy, politics; Machiavelism; jobbery, backstairs influence.
    art, artifice; device, machination; plot (plan) [more]; maneuver, stratagem, dodge, artful dodge, wile; trick, trickery (deception) [more]; ruse, ruse de guerre; finesse, side blow, thin end of the wedge, shift, go by, subterfuge, evasion; white lie (untruth) [more]; juggle, tour de force; tricks of the trade, tricks upon travelers; espieglerie; net, trap [more].
    Ulysses, Machiavel, sly boots, sly dog, fox, reynard; dodger, Artful Dodger [Dickens], smooth operator, sweet talker; Yankee; intriguer, intrigant; spin doctor, schemer [more].

    Cunning in Scripture

    You will be hard-pressed to find cunning as an adjective, verb or even a noun (such as the synonyms above), but the Bible puts forth many examples of cunning described by other more familiar words.

    Let me ask you this: look at the list above and what comes to mind? Do you see a face of someone in the news or a cunning person in your workplace? Perhaps you imagine the cunning cohort in politics who would just as soon stab someone in the back as tell the truth to the people.

    Sometimes cunning in the Bible is used to describe a specialized understanding of craftsmanship. After all, who today understands the complexity of the US elections or the craft of passing legislation no one understands? We look to the cunning businessman or woman of the world with both envy and disdain. How could they have become so cunning as to achieve their high success? What lies have they sold to millions who will elect them?

    The Hebrew word for cunning may be somewhat familiar, for it has many contexts.

    יָדַע yâdaʻ

    We find it from near the beginning: to know, learn to know, to perceive, to perceive and see, find out and discern,
    to discriminate, distinguish 2.

    The pivotal questions are: Who is the source of the knowledge? Is their word true or a well-crafted lie?

    “Consider the source’ was once a common-sense evaluation now given up to a retractable headline truism.

    Genesis 3:5-6

    For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.

    • What is the source?

    You will find the cunning one in verse 1:

    Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”

    Satan is darkness in the guise of light. The serpent seems to be for us, even an advocate for us against God. He fits as needed all the descriptions of cunning or crafty: subtle, shrewd, crafty, sly, sensible, prudent…

    ‘Did God actually say…?” Satan asks us time and time again?

    • Is the word truth or a well-crafted lie?

    For God knows that when you eat of it… you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw … that the tree was to be desired to make one wise…

    The command is questioned. Truth is suppressed and twisted into untruth. So how like God do you feel now? Is our knowledge of good and evil the answer to our eternal life? For satan claimed: ‘But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.”‘ – Gen 3:4

    The question of proverbial wisdom is appropriately about the source:

    • Is it from God?
    • Is this Truth?
    • Or has Satan twisted fact into lies that may seem like truth?

    Proverbs include warnings of the cunning

    Solomon reminds us here of God as the source of truth.

    Proverbs 2:

    6 For the Lord gives wisdom;
        from his mouth come knowledge and understanding;
    7 he stores up sound wisdom for the upright;
        he is a shield to those who walk in integrity,
    8 guarding the paths of justice
        and watching over the way of his saints.

    …

    11 discretion will watch over you,
        understanding will guard you,
    12 delivering you from the way of evil,
        from men of perverted speech,
    13 who forsake the paths of uprightness
        to walk in the ways of darkness,
    14 who rejoice in doing evil
        and delight in the perverseness of evil,
    15 men whose paths are crooked,
        and who are devious in their ways.

    Why the warning against those cunning men and women who plan evil?

    I can think of several examples of those who sought to trap or use righteous men to achieve their goals. Among these are Ahab, king of Samaria making a pact with Jehoshaphat of Judah. 2 Chronicles 18 has a complex and cunning plot of two leaders described as doing what was evil in the sight of the Lord. 1 Kings 21 describes a plot of Jezebel, evil wife of evil King Ahab, cunningly taking the land of another man by a carefully laid out plan of deceit. Their purpose to rule puts them against God’s greatest Prophet of the Old Testament, Elijah.

    Another example of cunning appears in the early days of the New Testament church, one of another powerful leader of sorts, one of whom his disciples said, “This man is the power of God that is called Great.”

    More about his choice when confronted by the power of the Holy Spirit in our next word to the cunning.

    To be continued…

     

     

  • A Word to the Cunning

    A Word to the Wise

    We would typically think of the Proverbs of Solomon, or perhaps anyone else as being a ‘word to the wise.’ Although my introductory focus looks to the early thoughtful expressions of this oft’ quoted book, I direct your attention to those leaders of this day who seemingly ignore these time-tested nuggets of wisdom, candidates of cunning, men and women of questionable wisdom and little affinity for the guidance of God.

    Solomon was handed everything a leader could ask for from God or his own father, the conquering King David of Israel in this case. Solomon’s wisdom was sought out by other leaders during his reign in about 970–931 BC. We read his Proverbs and ought to heed his advice of Ecclesiastes written in his old age near to the time when Israel fell into division and ruin after the time of his death.

    Proverbs 1:

    The proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel:

    2 To know wisdom and instruction,
        to understand words of insight,
    3 to receive instruction in wise dealing…

    A word to the wise:

    Note the description of words lacking in this 21st c. AD environment of political upheaval and note that Solomon’s own country would experience a division of purpose led by those who repeatedly would do ‘what is evil in the sight of the LORD.’

    …   in righteousness, justice, and equity;
    4 to give prudence to the simple…

    Wisdom eludes the unrighteous, prudence is hidden from the cunning.

    Roger Harned

    Justice and equity become perverted in the eyes of evildoers.

    Roger Harned

    Let the reader understand the proverbs of my own understanding, as instructed in the Lord from the wisdom of the Bible. Although Solomon’s Proverbs are directed toward “.. knowledge and discretion to the youth—” understanding is reward to those seeking the Lord’s will at any age.

    5 Let the wise hear and increase in learning,
        and the one who understands obtain guidance,
    6 to understand a proverb and a saying,
        the words of the wise and their riddles.

    7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge;
    fools despise wisdom and instruction.

    Proverbs 1 – excerpts

    22 “How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple?
    How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing
        and fools hate knowledge?

    24 Because I have called and you refused to listen,
        have stretched out my hand and no one has heeded,
    25 because you have ignored all my counsel
        and would have none of my reproof,
    26 I also will laugh at your calamity;
        I will mock when terror strikes you,
    27 when terror strikes you like a storm
        and your calamity comes like a whirlwind,
        when distress and anguish come upon you.
    28 Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer;
        they will seek me diligently but will not find me.
    29 Because they hated knowledge
        and did not choose the fear of the Lord,
    30 would have none of my counsel
        and despised all my reproof…

    Where is God?

    The fools ask too late; for we did not listen to the wisdom of the LORD when we walked in our own paths. We did not lead the people to worship the Lord with gratitude for our freedom nor did we acknowledge our blessings. We turned from the Lord and from righteousness, led astray by cunning leaders. Fools have followed fools and ignored the wisdom of the godly.

    When calamity falls upon us and we finally ask God ‘Why did this happen?’ will the silence of the Lord not be appropriate to a people with ears that will not hear the wisdom of the Lord?

    Are you open to receiving the wisdom of the Lord or do you rely on your own cunning?

    To be continued…

  • Blessings and Woes – 1

    Blessings and Woes – 1

    If I am wicked, woe to me;
    Even if I am righteous, I cannot lift up my head.
    I am full of disgrace;
    See my misery!

    Job 10:15 NKJV

    Jesus taught the crowds blessings. (We all like that.) Yet Jesus also warned of the flip-side of the coin – the curse or the woe of suffering because of evil.

    We are most familiar with the Beatitudes in Matthew’s gospel, but here we are going to examine a briefer list from the Gospel of Luke.

    (Don’t relate to lists of blessed are you if… and woe to you if?  Listen to this.)

    Listen to Blessings & Woes from the Beatbox Bible

    Jesus did not teach like the other teachers of Job, teachers of the Law and the Prophets, teachers of the Psalms and Proverbs. Here is an example of what Jesus would have had in His Bible (Old Testament).

    Deuteronomy 28

    2  And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the LORD your God.

    3  Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field.

    [list continues]

    15 “But if you will not obey the voice of the LORD your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you.

    16 Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the field.

    [etc.]

    Get the idea? Obey God; therefore blessings. Disobey God; therefore curses.

    Blessing is reinforced throughout the Bible, especially in Psalms. Curses and woes mentioned, but not so much.

    Proverbs presents contrasts, as does Jesus in the beatitudes.

    Whoever despises his neighbor is a sinner,
    but blessed is he who is generous to the poor. – Proverbs 14:21

    Blessed is the one who fears the LORD always,
    but whoever hardens his heart will fall into calamity. – Proverbs 24:18

    +

    Woe is not exactly like curse, but you will find it in the same places as the evils which bring curse (of the Law) or just immoral, sinful behavior.

    +

    Who has woe? Who has sorrow?
    Who has strife? Who has complaining?
    Who has wounds without cause?
    Who has redness of eyes? – Proverbs 23:29

    [Do you know the answer; have you guessed?]

    Those who tarry long over wine;
    those who go to try mixed wine. – v.30

    +

    Surly excess of wine, liqueur, mixed drinks, drugs, beer and other escapes from reality –  temporary escapes of fading pleasures of the flesh – all bring woe, sorrow, strife, complaining, wounds (even fights and murder). You sometimes don’t even have to leave the bar or the club or the casino to see these.

    The Prophets spoke also of woe. It is a great cry of despair.

    Woe to the wicked! It shall be ill with him,
    for what his hands have dealt out shall be done to him. – Isaiah 3:11

    I have seen your abominations,mosque and temple through arch
    your adulteries and neighings, your lewd whorings,
    on the hills in the field.
    Woe to you, O Jerusalem!
    How long will it be before you are made clean?” – Jeremiah 13:27

    +

    To be continued…