WWUTT 1544 Fools With Luxury (Proverbs 19:1-14)

How do we take these proverbs, this wisdom that we learn from the Bible, and apply it to our lives? Well, the Bible says, if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives generously to all without reproach.

When we understand the text.

Program Introduction and the Aim of Applying Biblical Wisdom

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. Well, being Thursday, we come back to our study in the book of Proverbs. We're up to chapter 19 this week. If you want to open up your Bible and join with me there, this is about 29 verses.

It is 29 verses. I'm going to read about half of them. So let's go through about the first 15 proverbs here out of the Legacy Standard Bible. Proverbs chapter 19. This is the word of the Lord. Better is a poor man who walks in his integrity than he who is crooked in lips and is a fool.

Also, it is not good for a person to be without knowledge, and he who hurries his footsteps sins. The folly of man subverts his way, but his heart rages against Yahweh. Wealth adds many friends, but a poor man is separated from his friend.

A false witness will not go unpunished, and he who breathes out lies will not escape. Many will seek the favor of a noble man, and everyone is a friend to a man who gives gifts. All the brothers of a poor man hate him.

How much more do his friends distance themselves from him? He pursues them with words, but they are no more. He who acquires a heart of wisdom loves his own soul. He who keeps discernment will find good.

A false witness will not go unpunished, and he who breathes out lies will perish. Luxury is not fitting for a fool, much less for a slave to rule over princes. A man's insight makes him slow to anger, and it is his honor to overlook a transgression.

The king's wrath is like a roaring of a lion, but his favor is like dew on the grass. A foolish son is a destruction to his father, and the contentions of a wife are a constant dripping. House and wealth are an inheritance from fathers, but a wife who has insight is from Yahweh.

Laziness casts into a deep sleep, and a slack-handed soul will suffer hunger. Let's come back to the beginning of the chapter, verse 1. Better is a poor man who walks in his integrity than he who is crooked in lips and is a fool.

Integrity, Poverty, and the Folly of Trusting in Riches

Now, the poor man is explicitly mentioned here. The rich man is implied. So you don't have the direct contrast of a poor man and a rich man, but we would understand that he who is crooked in lips and is a fool is somebody who would be rich or puts his trust and his faith in the things that he has in what he possesses rather than what is given to him, which would be integrity.

That's what the poor man has. So this poor man recognizes that he has nothing. There is nothing about him that is great at all. He is humble before the Lord, and he is given a stature of uprightness. He doesn't have his nose in the air.

He is not looking down on others, but rather is humble in his demeanor, and his uprightness is the integrity that is given to him by the Lord. But the man who is crooked in his lips, who continues in fleshly ways, who goes after his own mind and heart instead of trusting in the wisdom of God, he is the foolish person.

There's a parallel passage to this in Proverbs 28, 6, and a little bit more explicit regarding the rich man. It says, We go on to verse 2. It's not good for a person to be without knowledge, and he who hurries his footsteps sins.

So a person who hurries his footsteps doesn't consider his ways. He doesn't stop and think about his next step. He's just scurrying himself along, trying to get on to the next thing. But the person who has knowledge is discerning.

He's thinking about what's coming, what the consequences of this are going to be, even where he's come from and how this has ramifications on his future. The person who is not thinking about the next step that he takes just continues on to the next sin.

Verse 3. So a person who is in his foolishness, he continues about in his own subjective ways, following his own mind and his own heart. He subverts his own way. He's not going to come out good on the end of this at all.

The damage he does is to himself. But ultimately, who he's against is Yahweh. His heart rages against Yahweh. It's interesting to think about this, but when a person goes their own way, they're actually against their way.

When they follow themselves, they're against themselves. Do you understand? Because what's the result of that going to be? Ultimately, in the end, it's going to be their destruction. They'll stand before God and perish in judgment and be cast into hell.

So the person who goes after themselves for their own benefit actually goes to their own destruction. And who they war against is themselves and ultimately against Yahweh. That's really at the heart of this particular principle, at this proverb.

We look at verse 4. Wealth adds many friends, but a poor man is separated from his friend. No one wants to be with him because he's poor. You can't benefit me in any way. And so they kind of leave the poor man in the lurch.

This is a bad thing that's being talked about here in Proverbs 19 .4. And it's exactly for this reason that we have laws such as this in Deuteronomy 15, 7 and 8. If among you one of your brothers should become poor in any of your towns within your land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, but you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be.

So even within the law, there was instruction to care for one another. You should not be separating from the poor man or woman. On the contrary, you should be going after them and helping them and caring for them.

Verse 5. A false witness will not go unpunished, and he who breathes out lies will not escape. We may see liars and false witnesses in the world. Maybe even some of those false witnesses speak against you.

I've certainly had them speak against me. But we should not think to ourselves that the Lord is slow to punish them, because they will receive justice in the end. A false witness will not go unpunished.

And Peter talks about this in 2 Peter 2, verse 1. He says, those who spread lies in the church, they bring swift destruction upon themselves. The Lord knows how. He goes on to say, the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment, and especially those who go after the flesh in its corrupt lust and despise authority.

So though we may not see judgment come upon those who breathe lies in the present, nevertheless, the Lord will bring them into judgment. We should not give in to those lies or speak lies ourselves. We must be devoted to the truth, upholding the truth, and speaking the truth in love with our neighbor.

Do not be as that false witness who will be punished, who will go to judgment if he does not repent. The one who breathes out lies will not escape. Verse 6, many will seek the favor of a noble man, and everyone is a friend to a man who gives gifts.

This sounds similar to what we read in verse 4, wealth adds many friends, right? So many will seek the favor of a noble man, somebody who is upstanding, he's got a certain recognition in the community, somebody who owns a lot of property, maybe has servants and wealth.

Everyone is a friend to a man who gives gifts. But these are not genuine friends that he has. They love him because that person can give them something. We must love one another for more than these superficial ways.

We love others because we see that they're made in the image of God. We even love sinners because we recognize they're going to hell if they do not repent. And so we give them the gospel of Jesus Christ that they may see their sin and put faith in Christ for the forgiveness of their sins and be rescued from their ungodliness and the judgment that would come upon them if they do not repent.

We love our brothers and sisters in the Lord because we know that Christ died for them as he has also died for me. The Apostle John said, if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need and does not help him, my brethren, how can the love of God abide in him?

Let us not love in word only, but in deed and in truth. So we must love each other for more reasons than just because, well, that person can benefit me somehow. We love because this is what Christ has called us to, because we serve the Lord and serve his body.

Continuing on to verse 7, all the brothers of a poor man hate him. How much more do his friends distance themselves from him? Very similar to Proverbs we've read earlier. Back in verse 4, a poor man is separated from his friend.

And this particular section, really going verses 4 through 9, these all go together. So even when we read in verse 5, a false witness will not go unpunished, this is probably somebody who's speaking falsely against the poor.

He who breathes out lies will not escape. It's those who are less fortunate, who don't have any sort of power or influence to benefit themselves. And then yet there are those people of influence and gain who are making life harder for the poor man.

They will not go unpunished. We must associate ourselves with the lowly, as Paul says to the church in Romans chapter 12. To associate yourself with the lowly is to care for those who can't benefit you in return.

Like you don't get anything in return for the love that you show to that person. You love them simply because they're either made in the image of God or because Christ died for that person. We do so to honor the Lord Christ.

Those who are poor, who do not have anything, they need to be after wisdom. To be rich not in the things of this world. You can love money even though you don't have it, right? You can make money an idol though you are poor.

So the poor person needs to not be after the things of this world thinking if I can get that stuff then I would pull myself out of my circumstances. Rather they must be rich in wisdom and knowledge and the things of God that are given to us according to his word.

For look at what we read as we go on here. I didn't read all of 7 I guess. All the brothers of a poor man hate him. How much more do his friends distance themselves from him? He pursues them with words but they are no more.

They don't stick around for the poor man. But then what do we have in verse 8? He who acquires a heart of wisdom loves his own soul. He who keeps discernment will find good. And then we come back to that proverb about false witnessing again.

Verse 9, a false witness will not go unpunished and he who breathes out lies will perish. That's almost exactly like verse 5. A false witness will not go unpunished and he who breathes out lies will not escape.

So you have verses 5 and 9 that are kind of the bookends there and everything that falls in between. Though you might be talking about rich and poor, still go along with those particular proverbs. So even the poor man needs to go after wealth in wisdom.

The wisdom of God that is given to us according to his word. For if even the poor man does not go after the wisdom and knowledge of God, then he likewise becomes one who breathes out lies and will perish.

Just because a person is poor does not mean they are inherently saved. Even the poor need the gospel of Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul, when he talked about receiving his commission as an apostle and he went out to share the gospel, the other apostles said to him to remember the poor.

This is Galatians 2 .10 and he said that's great because that's the very thing that I was eager to do. Paul wanted to go to the poor and share with them the gospel. To hear the good news that we have richness in Christ and riches far beyond anything that we could have in this world.

We have an eternal, imperishable kingdom where thieves cannot break and steal, moth and rust cannot destroy. We will reign with Christ forever in glory. Even the poor need that message because it is only by faith in Jesus Christ that we receive the kingdom of Christ.

Wisdom, Justice, and the Sovereignty of God Over Wealth and Power

We continue on into verse 10 here. Luxury is not fitting for a fool, much less for a slave to rule over princes. If you give a fool luxury, you give him wealth, what's he going to do with it? Well, he's going to squander it.

He's going to spend it all on himself. He's going to be a benefit to no one else and ultimately of no benefit to himself in the long run. In the very end, he's going to perish with nothing. But I really think what this proverb is saying here is that sometimes fortune and misfortune are unfair.

Sometimes the foolish guy is the one that gets all the wealth. Why did that have to go to the fool who spends it all on himself? If the wealth had gone to somebody who was wise, that would have benefited way more people for that man would have known how to bless others with the wealth that he had.

And then you consider much less for a slave to rule over princes. Here in this context, you're talking about a man who's a slave, so he doesn't know how to rule. He's not an educated man. He doesn't actually know how to govern others.

So if you had a situation where a slave rose up to power to rule over princes, he's not going to have any idea how to rule. And so even those rulers who are princes would suffer as a result of being underneath a man who just does not know how to do his job.

So again, this proverb talking about how sometimes fortune and misfortune can just be kind of cruel. We hate to see some of the people that we see rise up to power, how foolish they are, and yet they gain so much power.

Yet the Lord is still sovereign. He is still in control over each and every one of these situations, and he will reign in the end. Even these fools that come to power or gain wealth, they only have it for a time.

The Lord will reign forever, and we will be with him in glory. So hold fast to Christ. Don't put your trust in men or in riches in this world. Put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all the things we need will be added to us as well.

Slow to Anger, Overlooking Transgression, and Peace Under God’s Rule

Verse 11, a man's insight makes him slow to anger, and it is his honor to overlook a transgression. To be insightful makes him slow to anger. A person who has confidence in the knowledge and wisdom that he possesses, in the case of talking about a person who fears the Lord, we're confident in Christ.

We're confident he is sovereign. He is in control over this situation. So how does that make us slow to anger, right? I don't need to fly off the handle. I don't need to feel like I'm out of control of this situation, because Christ is in control, and my reaction to this situation is not going to change it.

Christ has all of these things in his hands. In Proverbs 2, verse 14, we are told to do everything without grumbling and complaining, so that we may be blameless and pure, innocent children of God in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom we shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of truth.

This world is bitter and angry and flies off the handle, holds grudges, is quick to show wrath. We cannot respond in the kind of malice and bitterness that we see in this world. We cannot respond as they do.

We need to show that we trust in something higher than ourselves, something greater than the situation in which we find ourselves. We trust in the Lord our God, for he holds all things in his hand. When we have that kind of insight, it makes us slow to anger, and we do not react in the grumbling and complaining that we see going on daily, second by second, even in this world.

It is an honor to overlook a transgression. There are some times when somebody does something wrong to us, and we do need to confront that situation. A person needs to be held accountable for their actions, but there's other times when we've been wronged, we just overlook it.

We just need to continue on. As Paul said to the Corinthians who were suing one another, taking one another to court, 1 Corinthians 6, he said, why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded?

Instead, brother takes a brother to court to be tried by unbelievers, and already this is a defeat for you, Paul says. So it is better, it is more honorable to overlook the transgression. We continue to verse 12.

The king's wrath is like the roaring of a lion, but his favor is like dew on the grass. You think of a person who's in a ruling position, somebody who does have power and authority, wealth and influence.

What do you think of that man's wrath? It could be dangerous for you. It's dangerous than a person who does not have any kind of influence. If they get mad at you, but his favor is wonderful. It's pleasant.

It's peaceful. It's like the dew on the grass. So you upset the influential man. That could be pretty bad for you. But if you earn his favor, that could go well in your favor. We know our God, our Lord Jesus Christ, is the lion of Judah.

And in his wrath, he roars like a lion. But in his favor, we have the favor of God by faith in Jesus Christ. And we have peace with God. A peace that surpasses all understanding. Verse 13, a foolish son is a destruction to his father.

And the contentions of a wife are a constant dripping. Here we see a house that is in chaos. We have children who are rebelling against their parents. And we have a wife here who is nagging at her husband.

And it's not just something simple here. This constant dripping means you've got a leaky roof. And mildew and rot and all that kind of stuff are getting in there. And it's all going to come crashing down if something is not done about this.

That seems to be the situation of the house described here in verse 13. And how terrible are these things? To have children who rebel against wisdom and knowledge. And a wife who likewise does not respect her husband.

Verse 14, here's the contrast. House and wealth are an inheritance from fathers. But a wife who has insight is from Yahweh. Here we have a house that is ordered. The roof isn't leaking. It's doing good.

House and wealth, an inheritance from fathers. A wife who has insight is from Yahweh. Somebody who has wisdom and knowledge because she has learned it from the Lord. And whose responsibility is it to lead the children in this wisdom?

And that the wife may benefit from the wisdom as well. It's the husband's job, is it not? For a husband is to be sanctifying to his wife. He's to help to sanctify her. As Christ sanctifies the church.

We read this in Ephesians chapter 5. So also the husband must do for his wife. As he gives up himself for his wife. The way that Christ did for the church. Sanctifying her by the washing of water with the word.

So a husband is to do for his family. He raises up his children in the training and the instruction of the Lord. And he even guides his wife in the instruction of the Lord. So when she is being built up by the scriptures.

She has an insight that comes from Yahweh. And how beneficial is that to the husband? See, it is my delight to see the wisdom of God in my wife. And not only is she sanctified. But I am too. And we grow one another in the Lord.

In holiness. Now I had read through verse 15. But that's where I'm going to stop. We'll end right there. Heavenly Father, thank you for the Proverbs. That we've read this wisdom from the Lord. And may we know how to apply these things to our lives.

And live according to your word. That we may be pleasing sons and daughters. To our Father who has shown his love for us. In that while we were yet sinners. Christ died for us.

It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. This has been When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabriel Hughes. For all of our podcasts, episodes, videos, books, and more. Visit our website at www .utt .com.

If you'd like to submit a question to this broadcast. Or just send us a comment, email whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com. And let your friends know about our ministry. Join us again tomorrow as we grow together in the study of God's word.

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