The Book of Proverbs

The Ambassador Group

3. Proverbs: A Matter of Life and Death

A Matter of Life and Death 2 brothers were left home alone, but given a strict warning by their mother not to eat the cake that she had just baked.

To make sure that the boys would obey, she added the threat of punishment.

When she left, it took the boys only a few minutes to decide to eat the cake anyway.

This is not a matter of life and death, they reasoned.

For the teacher in Proverbs, though, the issue he speaks about is indeed a matter of life and death.

His language is strong and sometimes graphic.

Of course, Jesus used very strong language himself when talking about matters of eternal life and death.

Listen to this example in Matthew 5, verses 21-30.

Ye have heard that it was said of them of old time, Thou shalt not kill, and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment.

But I say unto you, that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment.

But I say unto you, that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment, and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council.

But whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in the danger of hell-fire.

Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way.

First be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.

Agree with thine adversary quickly, while is thou art in the way with him, lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the Judge, and the Judge deliver thee to the Officer, and thou be cast into prison.

Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.

Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, thou shalt not commit adultery.

But I say unto you, that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.

And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee, for it is profitable for thee that 1 of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.

And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee, for it is profitable for thee that 1 of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.

And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee, for it is profitable for thee that 1 of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell." Jesus used strong language, and no wonder.

In the end, our ultimate destiny, our eternal destiny, And what could be more important than that rests upon the choices that we make here now.

So we should take the urgency of the strong language at face value.

The Law in Our Life Let me read 2 verses for you.

Proverbs 6 verse 21 and Proverbs 7 verse 3.

Bind them continually upon thine heart, and tie them about thy neck.

Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the table of thine heart.

How do you understand the bodily images used in these texts regarding how we should relate to God's law?

Binding or tying God's law to our heart, our neck, and fingers, it's part of us, wherever we go.

As we have already learned, in Proverbs, The heart represents the seat of emotions and thoughts.

By telling us to bind the law upon our hearts, Proverbs 6, verse 21, the teacher means that we should always be in close connection with the law.

There is no moment we may lose contact with the law, because the law is what defines sin, according to Romans 7, verse 7.

The teacher in the book of Proverbs also insists that this law should be even written on the tablets of the heart, Proverbs 7, verse 3, Just as the Decalogue was written by God on the stone tablets.

To speak about the law written on the heart means that the law is not just an external set of rules imposed on us.

The Law should penetrate our motivations, our secret intentions, and so be part of our intimate self.

It's another expression of having the Pauline promise found in Colossians 1, verse 27 of "...Christ in You, the Hope of Glory, the A Reality in Our Lives.

To tie the law around the neck also means that we should keep it close to ourselves.

Ancient people used to tie their precious belongings around their necks.

The neck is a place through which air travels to the lungs, allowing breath and life, an association of thoughts that is attested in the Hebrew word nephesh, which means soul, which refers to life, and is derived from a word meaning throat and breathing.

To bind the law on one's fingers means to bring the law into the domain of actions.

The Teacher focuses on the fingers to suggest the most delicate and intimate actions.

The law should affect not only the grand choices we make, but the smaller ones as well, as Luke 16, verse 10 tells us that Jesus said, He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much, and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much." Although the biblical intention of these images was purely symbolical, it is noteworthy that these symbols have been taken literally in Jewish, Christian, and Muslim traditions.

It is seen through the use of the Jewish tephaline around the head and the fingers, the Christian crosses around the neck, and the Muslim, as well as some Christians, tie rosaries around the fingers.

Symbols can be helpful, but let's be careful not to mistake the symbol for the reality it represents.

Proverbs 6, verse 23 says, LIGHTS AND LIFE Proverbs 6 verse 23 says, According to that verse, how is the law related to light?

Could we say that the commandment, law and reproofs reveal the way to live?

In the Bible, the Word of God or His law has been compared to light.

Psalms 119, verse 105 says, Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

In the Hebrew mind, there is a connection between the idea of law and of light.

Just as the lamp illuminates the path where we walk, the law will help us stay on track.

That is to say, when we face moral choices, it will help us to know what the right choice is, even if at times reason or personal expedience would tempt us to disregard the law.

What examples can you find in the Bible of those who chose to follow God's law despite powerful reasons not to?

Now that you have those examples in mind, let's go 1 step further.

In what cases, if any, did their choice to be faithful seem to be the wrong 1, at least from a human perspective?

We talked about Proverbs 6, verse 23, which again tells of the values of the law in your life.

For the commandment is a lamp, and the law is light, and reproofs of instruction are the way of life.

Let's add to that Proverbs 7, verse 2, which says, Keep my commandments and live, and my law as the apple of thine eye.

Now let's ask the same question, why is the law related to life?

Would you agree that God's law helps us to really live?

Since the fall of humankind, our hope for eternal life cannot be found in the Law, but only through faith in Christ.

However, having acknowledged that, we must also acknowledge that obedience to the Law and the principles it represents continues to play a central part in the life of faith.

Matthew 19, 17 And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good?

But if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.

Revelation 14, verse 12, Here is the patience of the saints.

Here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.

We obey because, as the Lord said to Israel thousands of years ago, I am the Lord your God.

The law of God is related to life, simply because of who God is, the source of our life.

This principle represents true spirituality.

In other words, we trust God and His promises for our present life, just as we trust His promises for eternal life.

He who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.

John 8, verse 12, New King James Version.

Friend, How have you experienced the reality of this promise in your daily walk with the Lord?

Fighting Temptation As we have heard, the author of Proverbs 6 verse 23, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, directly links light and life to God's law.

In the next verse, he gives a solid example of how the law, as light and life, can offer us powerful spiritual protection.

To keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman.

Besides that, what is another subtle warning given?

When a religious person is tempted, the greatest temptation is to find a religious reason to justify the iniquity.

Using God to rationalize bad behavior is not only a terrible form of blasphemy, it's powerfully deceptive.

After all, if someone thinks that God is with me, then what can we say in reply?

This can happen even in cases of adultery.

They might say, God has shown me that this man or woman is the 1 I should be with." If that's what they believe, who or what can trump what God has shown them?

Notice too, it's not just her physical beauty that lures him.

She uses language, flattering words, to draw the victim into her trap.

How often have men and women been led into compromising situations by subtle and seductive words, sometimes even couched in religious language?

The author of the book of Proverbs seeks to warn us against this deception.

The law is the perfect antidote against the flattering tongue of a seductress.

Only the imperative of the law and the duty of obedience will help us resist her alluring words, which can sound so true and beautiful.

2. Proverbs: From Ears to Feet

Welcome to Words of the Wise, an introduction to the Book of Proverbs, by Dr.

Jacques Biducan, brought to you by the Ambassador Group.

A Matter of Life and Death Ponder the path of your feet, and let all your ways be established.

Remove your foot from evil." Proverbs 4, verse 26 and 27, New King James Version.

Science has demonstrated that hearing impacts how we walk, and that even our balance is influenced by how well we hear.

So, instruction, or education, that is, what we hear is crucial to how we live.

Proverbs 4, verse 7 reveals that, Wisdom is the principal thing.

Yet no matter how good the instruction is, the student must pay attention.

Not without some irony, an ancient Egyptian teacher noted that, The ear of the boy is on his back.

In Egyptian art, the student was often represented with big ears on his back.

It's not enough just to know about right and wrong.

We need to know how to choose right and wrong.

Training in wisdom consists in hearing proper instruction and in following and obeying what we have learned so that we don't end up walking in the wrong direction.

As you listen, think of how we will answer these 2 questions.

And, how can you apply this truth to your own life as you seek to live in faithfulness to God.

Proverbs 4 Hear ye, children, the instruction of a father, and attend to no understanding.

For I give you good doctrine, forsake ye not my law.

For I was my father's son, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother.

He taught me also, and said unto me, Let thine heart retain my words, keep my commandments, and live.

Forget it not, neither decline from the words of my mouth.

Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee.

Therefore get wisdom, and with all thy getting get understanding.

She shall bring thee to honor, when thou dost embrace her.

She shall give to thine head an ornament of grace.

A crown of glory shall she deliver to thee.

Hear, O my son, and receive my sayings, and the years of thy life shall be many.

I have taught thee in the way of wisdom, I have led thee in right paths.

When thou goest, thy steps shall not be straightened, and when thou runnest, thou shalt not stumble.

Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men.

Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away.

For they sleep not, except they have done mischief, and their sleep is taken away, unless they cause some to fall.

For they eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of violence.

But the path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.

My son, attend to my words, incline thine ear unto my sayings.

Let them not depart from thine eyes, keep them in the midst of thine heart, for they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.

Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.

Put away from thee a froward mouth, and perverse lips put far from thee.

Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee.

Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established.

Turn not to the right hand, nor to the left.

Remove thy foot from evil." The act of hearing marks the first step in education.

In Hebrew thought, the seat of wisdom or of intelligence is located not in the brain, but in the ears.

This implies that even before we seek to conceptualize or solve a problem, we first need to hear it.

When Solomon asks for wisdom, he specifically asks for a hearing heart.

That's the literal translation of 1 Kings 3 verse 9.

The first act of wisdom, then, is to listen, which suggests that wisdom comes from an external source—in this case, the parents.

The self-made individual is an impossible concept in the domain of biblical wisdom.

Wisdom is first of all something that we receive, not something we shape with our own skills or that we unearth through our own brilliance and reasoning.

The capacity of paying attention, in the Hebrew, to put one's heart, implies the involvement of the heart.

The search for wisdom, then, is not merely a cold, objective enterprise.

The heart, which is the core of the individual and, in Hebrew thought, the seat of emotions, participates in the search for wisdom.

Let's compare Matthew 13, verse 44, and Jeremiah 29, verse 13.

What link can you find between these verses and the search for wisdom as it is expressed in Proverbs 4?

Matthew 13, verse 44 tells us, Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field, the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.

And Jeremiah 29, 13 says, And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye search for me with all your heart.

Emotions play a crucial role in our basic existence as humans, and thus cannot and should not be ignored in our relationship with God.

How do you learn the proper place and value of emotions in regard to your spiritual life?

How have your emotions steered steered you right and wrong?

And what have you learned from these experiences?

Once we determine to walk in the way of wisdom, we still need great caution because we will meet obstacles along that way.

For example, 1 Peter 5, verse 8 instructs us to 1.

Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour." 1 of the greatest dangers we face deals with our families, the most precious, sensitive, and intimate domain of life.

My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding, that thou mayest regard discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge.

For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil.

But her end is bitter and wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.

Her feet go down to death, her steps take hold on hell, lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways are movable, that thou canst not know them.

Hear me now, therefore, O ye children, and depart not from the words of my mouth.

Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house, lest thou give thine honor unto others, and thy years unto the cruel.

Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth, and thy labors be in the house of a stranger.

And thou mourn at last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed, and say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof, and have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ears to them that instructed me?

I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.

Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well.

Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of water in the streets.

Let them be only thine own, and not strangers with thee.

Let thy fountain be blessed, and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.

Let her be as a loving hind and pleasant roe.

Let her breast satisfy thee at all times, and be thou ravished always with her love.

And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger?

For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and he pondereth all his goings.

His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins.

Practical Christian Living

Kameron DeVasher

Muskegon SDA Church

Sabbath 201

If you look at the title of our message today, it is Sabbath 201.

Now this quarter, we of course had our evangelistic series, and we covered many of the principal foundation concepts of the Seventh-day Adventist faith that's found in God's Word, the Sabbath being 1 of them.

And if you've gone through those meetings or if you've been in attendance in the Seventh-day Adventist Church for any good amount of time, odds are you have had, you have listened to a sermon on the Sabbath.

And most likely that sermon has recounted from the scripture the reasons why we keep the seventh-day Sabbath.

We understand that the seventh day or Saturday is the Sabbath of the Lord God, that it was set apart as holy at creation after God rested from all the work of creating he had done on the previous 6 days.

The fourth commandment then tells us to remember the Sabbath to keep it, what?

Our job is to maintain a reverence for that day, its holiness.

And of course you can search high and low and you will not find 1 trace of a Bible text that differs from any prophet or apostle or Jesus himself mentioning any other day that is set apart as holy.

The seventh day thus is still the Sabbath of the Lord your God and in it you shall not do any work." And Pretty much that's the whole sermon.

Odds are you'll go through, and it takes a while to do that study.

You go back to Genesis and you go through Exodus and you go through the life of Christ and you look at the apostles.

Then you look at Isaiah and show how it's gonna be kept through eternity and even God's last day commandment keeping people will keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus and we want to keep those commandments.

That there is a seventh day, it is still in effect, it was instituted before sin and it will be kept throughout eternity And we, according to the commandment, should keep the Sabbath day holy.

But beyond that, questions sometimes arise about Sabbath that those previous messages don't have time to articulate.

Thus we have Sabbath 201 going beyond the basics, what is the Sabbath and when is the Sabbath to what's the purpose of the Sabbath and how do I keep it holy we're gonna be looking at Sabbath 201 today but before we begin let's start with a word of prayer Heavenly Father thank you so much for this day particularly this Sabbath day Thank you for creating such a thing at all and inviting us to join you in its rest.

Lord, help us through the pages of Scripture to understand more about this day, more about your purpose for it, and our role to play as we keep the Sabbath holy, for we pray it in Jesus' name.

Perhaps Jesus' most well-known statement about the Sabbath is found in the book of Mark.

But as I begin to say it, odds are you could quote it along with me, but Jesus simply said, the Sabbath was made for whom?

And of course, man there is the word Anthropos, which means all of humanity, not just a certain race of people or a national identity of people, that all mankind is supposed to benefit from the blessing of Sabbath rest.

The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath.

We're going to see what is the purpose of the Sabbath at all.

Now, contrary to what is often said, and I've heard it said and I think it's well intended, I think it comes from a good place in people's hearts, I just think it's at the best partially true and perhaps even totally wrong.

Contrary to what is often said, the Sabbath was not given to humanities merely because God knew we needed a break from working hard every day.

I've heard it said, oh, the Lord knows we need a Sabbath.

The week is so long, the week is so hard, the work is so toilsome that if we didn't have the Sabbath break, we would just wear ourselves silly and run ourselves ragged and He knows that we need a break from work.

Which is true, of course, we do need a break from work, but is that the original intent of the Sabbath?

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All Teachings

3. Proverbs: A Matter of Life and Death

27m

2. Proverbs: From Ears to Feet

1h

Sabbath 201

50m

The Beauty of Holiness

46m

Practical Prayer

55m

Tithes & Offerings

58m

How to Postpone Your Funeral

51m

Tips On Sharing Your Faith

32m

How to Listen to a Sermon

37m

0. Proverbs: Introduction to the Book of Proverbs

1m

1. Proverbs: The Call of Wisdom

45m

To Be or Not To Be

54m

Sound Doctrine