WWUTT 1564 The Spirit is the Lamp of Yahweh (Proverbs 20:21-21:12)

We have read in the Proverbs there's a way that seems right to a man but in the end is the way of death.

We look today at Proverbs 21 to every man's way is right in his own eyes but Yahweh weighs the heart when we understand the text.

This is When We Understand the Text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the

Word. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we feature New Testament study, an Old Testament book on Thursday, and our

Q &A on Friday. Now here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky, and greetings to everyone.

My listeners in the United States of America, happy Thanksgiving as this episode will be airing on Thanksgiving Day.

We look at a book of the Old Testament in our Thursday study and we've been in the book of Proverbs.

I've not yet finished up chapter 20, so I'm going to pick up reading in verse 27 and we'll go through chapter 21, verse 12, see how far we can get today.

This is from the book of Proverbs out of the Legacy Standard Bible. Proverbs 20, beginning in verse 27.

The breath of man is the lamp of Yahweh, searching all the innermost parts of his body.

Loving kindness and truth will guard the king, and he upholds his throne by loving kindness.

The honor of young men is their strength, and the majesty of old men is their gray hair.

Stripes that wound scour away evil, and strokes reach the innermost parts of the body.

Now chapter 21, beginning in verse 1. The king's heart is like channels of water in the hand of Yahweh.

He turns it wherever he pleases. Every man's way is right in his own eyes, but Yahweh weighs the heart.

To do righteousness and justice is chosen by Yahweh over sacrifice.

Haughty eyes and a proud heart, the fallow ground of the wicked, are sin.

The thoughts of the diligent lead surely to profit, but everyone who is hasty comes surely to poverty.

Working for treasures by a lying tongue is a fleeting breath by those who pursue death.

The destruction of the wicked will drag them away, because they refuse to do justice.

The way of a guilty man is perverse, but as for the pure, his work is upright.

It is better to live in a corner of a roof than in a house shared with a contentious woman.

The soul of the wicked craves evil. His neighbor finds no favor in his eyes.

When the scoffer is punished, the simple become wise, and when one considers wisdom, he receives knowledge.

The righteous one considers the house of the wicked, turning the wicked to ruin.

So we come back to chapter 20, beginning in verse 27 here. The breath of a man is the lamp of Yahweh, searching all the innermost parts of his body.

Where did we get our breath from? It came from God. When the Lord created

Adam in the Garden of Eden, well, he created him from the dust and then placed him in the Garden of Eden, according to the way we have the story in Genesis chapter 2.

But when the Lord formed the first man from the dust, he breathed into him the breath of life, really sort of indicating the presence of the soul, the spiritual person that is within even the physical man.

That's kind of what we come to understand by that. But nevertheless, our very life, the breath of life itself, has been granted to us by God, and that breath fills every part of our being.

We would not be alive if it were not for God breathing life into us. So therefore, the breath of man is the lamp of Yahweh, searching all the innermost parts of his body.

There is no thought that we can think that is not known by God.

He searches us out, heart, mind, and spirit. He knows all. As David prays in Psalm 139, you know my thoughts from afar, before a word is even on my tongue.

You know it fully, O God. And Jesus says in Revelation 2 .23,

I am he who searches the minds and hearts, and I will give to each one of you according to your deeds.

So may that be something that puts the fear of the Lord in you, that he knows all. There's nothing that you can hide from him.

People cannot read your minds. They can't even judge your motivations, because they cannot see into the heart.

But God knows the heart. May we have a mind and a heart, fully submitted unto him, transformed by his

Holy Spirit, that we may have the mind of Christ. Now keep this particular proverb in mind here,

Proverbs 20 .27, because though this is at the end of Proverbs chapter 20, we've just got three more verses here, it is a thought, it's a concept that carries into the other

Proverbs that we've read here in chapter 21. So once again 27, and then I'm gonna go on to 28.

The breath of man is the lamp of Yahweh, searching all the innermost parts of his body.

Verse 28 now, loving kindness and truth will guard the king, and he upholds his throne by loving kindness.

What will the Lord do with a wicked king who deals unjustly, who is unmerciful to his subjects?

Well, God will bring judgment down upon him. That king still must answer to God. So as a king must also deal with loving kindness with his people, so we must be loving and kind to each other.

Christ's throne is one of loving kindness. We can come before the throne of God. Remember he knows our hearts, he knows our thoughts, he knows the words that we're gonna say before we even say them, and yet we can come before God and ask for forgiveness and he will give it to us through Jesus Christ.

So as God has shown loving kindness to us, we must also show loving kindness to each other.

Just as an unmerciful king will be brought down by God, so will God do to us if we are unmerciful.

Verse 29, the honor of young men is their strength, and the majesty of old men is their gray hair.

So think of this as being something motivating for a young man. The honor of young men is their strength.

When a young man desires honor, he pursues it. He wants to be seen by others as somebody honorable.

Now connect that with the old man. The majesty of the old men is their gray hair.

Now what does gray hair show? That a person is seasoned, that they have experience by their years.

So when a man gets to old age, if he's not seen by honorable, according to this proverb, that would be his own fault.

Because he did not pursue honor in his youth. He did not build that kind of reputation over his years.

And so then he gets to an old man and he's not seen as a person of honor because that wasn't his pursuit when he was young.

So this is a proverb that's talking about pursuing those things that are reputable with your whole life.

Not to gain recognition for a moment, but you want to live a life of honor, most especially honor before God.

Though there may be men and women in our lives who will never recognize this, never recognize our good character,

God certainly knows it because remember, he searches the innermost parts of all of us.

Verse 30, stripes that wound scour away evil and strokes reach the innermost parts of the body.

This is talking about discipline. So we go back to innermost parts of the body. Verse 27, Yahweh searches us out.

We have the life of loving -kindness lived in 28, the life of honor in 29, and then here we have discipline that helps us strive in loving -kindness and honor.

Stripes that wound scour away evil, that we learn there are consequences for our actions and desire to do what is good.

Strokes reach the innermost parts of the body. On the outside, you can see the strokes of discipline, but it's really on the inside where the change is going to take place.

We go on to chapter 21 here. Verse 1, the king's heart is like channels of water in the hand of Yahweh.

He turns it wherever he pleases. We've talked about a king a moment ago, loving -kindness upholds the throne of a king.

Back in chapter 20, verse 28. So here, the king's heart, what he desires, what he goes after, what he longs for, the way that he governs, how he treats people, the decisions that he makes, his heart is like channels of water in the hand of Yahweh.

Now who can control a river? It's really really difficult to do that. There are things that you can do to try to redirect the course of a river.

You can dig out where you would rather the river go, you can dam it up, you can create different channels for it to flow out of, all these different kinds of things, but it's really really difficult to control the flow of water, is it not?

So just like we as subjects of those who govern over us. Now here in the

United States of America, we live in a constitutional republic, we have laws rather than kings, and the same laws that we're all supposed to abide by govern over those who govern us.

At least that's the way it's supposed to work, it doesn't always go that way. So how can we change laws or things that are happening in our culture?

You can try to do things, the people can try to influence the leaders who are over us, and sometimes it works.

And a leader may change his course because of the will of the people, but it's really really hard to do, right?

You can do it, it's just really difficult. Well here we read that the king's heart, like channels of water, are really in the hand of Yahweh.

So it's less the will of the people that changes this man, and more the will of God.

God turns it wherever he pleases, and sometimes

God will put wicked rulers over us as a judgment upon a wicked people. In fact that's something that John Calvin said,

God judges wicked people by giving them wicked rulers. If we're seeing that happening in our nation right now, whether it's here in the

United States of America where I'm at, or maybe you live in another country, you have leaders that are over you, are they good or are they evil?

Well those evil leaders are positioned there probably as a reflection of the hearts of the people.

The people that they govern over are wicked and have been doing evil things, and so God gives them wicked rulers that the passions of their flesh, what it is that they're after in their mind and their heart, they will receive and therefore come into judgment because they loved wickedness instead of loving kindness.

We go back again to Proverbs 20 27, the breath of man is the lamp of Yahweh searching all the innermost parts of his body, and not just one person but every person, and so God will render to each person according to their works.

Verse 2 Proverbs 21 2, every man's way is right in his own eyes, but Yahweh weighs the hearts.

Are you seeing the theme coming up over and over again here? And in the previous proverb we had the king's heart.

Here we have any man's heart. Every man's way is right in his own eyes.

We're all self -righteous. We think whatever it is that we do is the right thing to do, but Yahweh knows the heart.

He knows what is truly right and truly wrong, and so we must desire to do what

God says is right, not what we feel is right. Proverbs 21 3, to do righteousness and justice is chosen by Yahweh over sacrifice.

Because think about the sacrificial offerings that the Israelites had to make. What did they make those offerings for?

They made those offerings to atone for sins, right? It is by the shedding of blood that sins are atoned for.

Now as we read in the book of Hebrews, the blood of goats had no power to forgive sins.

It is God who forgives sins, but all of this was foreshadowing to that ultimate sacrifice we needed,

Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for our sins. But sticking with the context of Israel here, because that's when this proverb was written, a thousand years before Christ, to do justice and righteousness is chosen by Yahweh over sacrifice.

If you had done justice, if you had done what God had said is just, if you had done what

God had said is right, if you had done that right in the first place, you would not have to sacrifice for your sins, right?

So therefore, doing what is right and doing what is just is what God prefers over the sacrifices that you make.

Verse 4, haughty eyes and a proud heart, the fallow ground of the wicked, are sin.

So we see things that are pride here. Haughty eyes. A man, a wicked man, sees what it is that he wants, a proud heart that goes after that thing, believing that it's okay, believing that it's right.

Because once again, every man's way is right in his own eyes. He goes after what his proud eyes want, what his proud heart desires.

It's the fallow ground of the wicked. It's sin. And all sin comes from this place.

I think I had given this illustration recently where somebody had posted on Twitter, if you could get rid of one sin, what would it be?

And there were people that had posted all different kinds of sins. Well, I'd get rid of rape,

I'd get rid of murder, I'd get rid of sexual immorality, all those kinds of things. It really comes down to pride.

If you eliminate pride, you can eliminate all sin. Now, we can't do that.

We have no power in and of ourselves to eliminate sin, but Christ certainly will.

So may we humble ourselves before him, before his judgment comes upon this world.

Verse 5, the thoughts of the diligent lead surely to profit, but everyone who is hasty comes surely to poverty.

This really kind of speaks toward get -rich -quick schemes, and people buying lottery tickets thinking that they'll get rich quickly.

They go to the casinos, they gamble because they think it will make them get rich quick. Instead, it leads them to poverty.

It's the thoughts of the diligent that lead surely to profit. Those who persevere, those who deal wisely with their money, who work with their hands and pay their bills as they need to be paid, they will come into profit.

Those who give thought and mindfulness to the things that they do, but the person who doesn't think about what they're doing, they're hasty, they go after things quickly, they'll come to poverty.

And though this is something economic that is spelled out here, we can certainly apply this spiritually as well.

We must be diligent in those spiritual things that we pursue, that we may grow up in Christ, for that's what the scriptures tell us to do.

Not to be immature, not to, you know, have that conversion experience, and then that experience carries me through my salvation.

I know I'm gonna get to heaven one day because I was baptized, or I prayed a prayer, or anything like that. That's not what saves you.

Christ saves you. And if you are truly in Christ, you will endure in him, diligent to learn from him, obey him, walk in his ways.

But the one who tries to come into this hastily, or simply, or doesn't grow in their faith, will find that they never had any to begin with.

Verse 6, working for treasures by a lying tongue is a fleeting breath by those who pursue death.

So a person who tries to get rich by lying, it's fleeting. You breathe that breath once, you never get it back again.

And when that breath is gone from you, what happens? Death. So the person who pursues wickedness receives death.

Going back once again to Proverbs 20, 27, the breath of man is the lamp of Yahweh, searching all the innermost parts of his body.

May every breath we take be to the glory of God, even in the thoughts we think, and the things that we desire.

We go on to verse 7, the destruction of the wicked will drag them away because they refuse to do justice.

They refuse to do what God says is just. Destruction is gonna take them away.

You can see that happening in our culture, as you see in the United States of America, a desire for true justice is quickly fleeting from us.

There is this thing of wanting justice to be done according to our feelings, not according to due process, or the rule of law, or through the court system.

We want street justice. I say we in a proverbial sense, not in the sense that I would put myself in that camp, but because the wicked don't want to do justice, destruction is going to come upon this nation.

We'll destroy ourselves. That's the way this is gonna go, and you need to bring this down even to the individual as well.

You will find yourself destroyed if you don't do what God had said is just.

Verse 8, the way of a guilty man is perverse, but as for the pure, his work is upright.

The man who's guilty, who does not do what is just, but before God he is guilty, you look into that man's life, you will find more and more perversity, but the man who is pure, you look into his life, and what you find is that which is good, and upright, and desires to be imitated, and lived according to.

Once again, know the Word of God and keep it. Live according to these things that we read about here.

Verse 9, it is better to live in a corner of a roof than in a house shared with a contentious woman.

Ladies, this is a proverb that speaks directly to you. You see, a lot of these proverbs address to men, especially going back to Proverbs chapter 1, because this is a father who is speaking to his son, right?

But there are some things here that directly address the ladies as well. Women, do not be nags.

Do not be contentious with your husband. Do not be somebody who's constantly disagreeable.

There are some proverbs that speak very harshly to a wife that is not loving and kind to her husband.

It's better for him to live on the corner of his roof, to live not in the house with you at all, than to be down below and hear you nag at him all the time.

Now notice here, the way that this proverb is worded, it's not that he's left the home.

He's as far away from her in the home as he can get, but he doesn't abandon his family, right?

I was speaking to a man once who had abandoned his family and went and lived in a motel, and then after he got done living in that motel, he got himself his own apartment.

And I confronted him once about him leaving his family, and he said, you know that motel that I lived in and now that apartment

I'm living in, that's been the corner of my roof. And I said to him, no it's not. It is not the corner of your roof.

The corner of your roof is at home. I understand that your wife drives you crazy. I knew the woman and I could sympathize with him in that respect, but not to the degree that it was okay for him to leave his home.

That was not all right. And I told him, you're the one that's at fault here, and you have to go home and make it right with your wife and with your children.

So here in this proverb, it's not giving permission for a man to leave his home just because his wife is a contentious nag.

Men understand that plainly, but women, you take this to heart and understand. Your home will be so much better.

Your life will be better. If you speak to your husband with loving kindness instead of constantly breeding conflict.

Verse 10, the soul of the wicked craves evil. His neighbor finds no favor in his eyes.

We'll go back again to the very heart of a person, the very core of their desires. The wicked craves evil.

Everything he does is wicked. His neighbor finds no favor in his eyes. There is no one, even the man who lives next door, that a wicked man can get along with, for he is always looking for ways that will benefit himself and not others.

Verse 11, when the scoffer is punished, the simple becomes wise, and when one considers wisdom, he receives knowledge.

Consider this again. When the scoffer is punished, the simple becomes wise. You see, when justice is done in our society, when it's done rightly, when due process is followed, when justice is done through the court systems, it serves as a testimony to all of the citizens of what justice can bring.

The scoffer is punished, the simple look at that, and even they become wise, recognizing there's consequences for our actions.

When one considers wisdom, he receives knowledge. We learn when we give thoughts to our actions, desiring to do not what we think is right in our own eyes, but what is right in the eyes of Yahweh.

And finally, verse 12, the righteous one considers the house of the wicked, turning the wicked to ruin, still giving thoughts to our actions here.

We see that those who do wickedly, they come to destruction, and we do not want to go their way.

We want to live in the house of God forever. So let us do what is pleasing unto the

Lord, who searches the innermost parts of every one of us. Heavenly Father, thanks for the wisdom that we have gleaned today from these

Proverbs, and may we live according to this, holy and pleasing in your eyes, according to Jesus Christ, our

Savior. It's in his name that we pray. Amen. This has been When We Understand the

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