WWUTT 1479 The Righteous are Satisfied, the Wicked Suffer Want (Proverbs 13:23-14:4)

God has given us all that we need for life. He's given us an abundance that we may pass it on to others, but the man who is not willing to work, even what he has will be taken from him when we understand the text.

This is when we understand the text, a daily Bible study in the word of Christ that men and women of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. Tell your friends about our ministry at www .utt .com.

Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe.

Proverbs 13:23-25 and the Context of Parenting and Food

Thank you, Becky. We're back to our study in the book of Proverbs today. I have a few verses I need to finish in chapter 13. We didn't quite get all the way through that chapter last week, and then we'll get into a little bit of chapter 14 here.

So let me start in Proverbs 13, verse 23. This is in the Legacy Standard Bible. Abundant food is in the fallow ground of the poor, but it is swept away by injustice. He who holds back his rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him diligently.

The righteous eats to the satisfaction of his soul, but the stomach of the wicked lacks. This is chapter 14 now, starting in verse one. The wise woman builds her house, but the woman of folly tears it down with her own hands.

He who walks in his uprightness fears Yahweh, but he who is devious in his ways despises him. In the mouth of the ignorant fool is a rod of lofty pride, but the lips of the wise will keep them. Where no oxen are, the manger is clean, but much revenue comes by the strength of the ox.

And we'll stop there for now. So back to verse 23. Abundant food is in the fallow ground of the poor, but it is swept away by injustice. We're talking here about a man who knows how to work for his bread.

This is not a man who is poor because he is lazy. Seems to be what is being inferred by the proverb here is that he's poor because he's unjustly treated. The rich, the ones who are powerful, they take away what the poor man has.

Abundant food is in the fallow ground of the poor. He's able to come up with enough to sustain himself and probably even care for his family, but even that is swept away by injustice, it goes on to say.

Now, I'll be honest here, I'm not really quite sure the meaning of this particular proverb or what it might be instructing if there is advice or some sort of exhortation that is being given. I needed some help, so I looked at a couple commentaries.

I'll come to that here in just a moment. First, let's examine the context. So last week, the last verse we looked at was in verse 22. A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children and the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous.

Then we have verse 23, which I'm a little confused about, and then look at verse 24. He who holds back his rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him diligently. So this proverb 23 comes right between two proverbs that are about parenting.

A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children, and then he who holds back his rod hates his son, but the one who disciplines him is the one who loves him. In both of these things, you have prudence.

You have some sort of consideration for the future. You have the man who stores up treasure that his children may benefit from it, and then you have a man who also disciplines his children because they will be better for it.

They will grow in an understanding and knowledge of what is right and what is wrong based on the discipline that was given them by their father. So there's prudence here. There's a consideration for the future.

Then you've got this proverb that falls right in between. Abundant food is in the fallow ground of the poor, fallow ground of the poor, but it is swept away by injustice. Then look at verse 25. Okay, so that's verse 23.

Look at verse 25. The righteous eats to the satisfaction of his soul, but the stomach of the wicked lacks. Hmm. So verses 22 and 24 are about parenting. Verses 23 and 25 are about food. I said at the start of this study in Proverbs that there's always a context.

It may not be easy or as easy to discern what the context is, especially when you're talking about how each one of these verses could be their own proverb, their own standalone proverb, but there's a reason why these proverbs were put in the order that they were in.

So there is a context. It just may take a little bit more work to recognize the context, and that's the situation here. So let's come back to verse 22 again. A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children, and the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous.

Verse 23, abundant food is in the fallow ground of the poor, but it is swept away by injustice. So look back at verse 22 again. You have the good man who leaves an inheritance to his children's children.

Verse 23, abundant food is in the fallow ground of the poor. The poor has enough means given to himself that he may acquire what it is that he needs, what it is that he may be able to provide for his family.

Okay? Now look at the last half of verse 22. The wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous. Look at the last half of verse 23. But it is swept away by injustice. So in the first proverb in verse 22, the good man stores up wealth, and it remains within his family.

But of the wicked man, he stores up wealth, and it doesn't remain with his family. Eventually it comes into the possession of the righteous. And we talked about this last week, considering the Beatitudes, where Jesus says, blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.

So those who are humble, those who wait upon the Lord, what we receive is the whole world. All that will be taken away from the wicked will ultimately be given to those who are the children of God by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

So the wealth of the sinner, though he may enjoy it in this life, ultimately it comes back to the righteous. It becomes the treasure of the righteous. So in verse 23, abundant food is in the fallow ground of the poor.

Again, there's enough there, even for a poor man, to be able to make what he needs and be able to provide for himself and for his family. But it is swept away by injustice. Another word for that, or another word that's interchangeable with injustice is unrighteousness.

So it could be that the poor man dealt unjustly, or he did unrighteously, and lost what he possessed. He had enough. He had enough means that he could provide for himself and even store up to pass on something else to his children.

But he did unrighteously and lost what he had. Or it could be that somebody else came along and dealt unjustly with him. And so what he did possess, he ended up losing to the unrighteous man who did unjustly.

So in either case, someone has enough to be able to provide for himself and pass on to a next generation. In the case of the good man in verse 22, this is not some man who's just inherently rich. So you're not reading Proverbs 13, 22 and going, well, of course he had something to pass on to his kids.

He was a wealthy man. Because as it says in verse 23, even the poor man has enough. There's fallow ground there for the poor that he might be able to provide abundant food. He's got enough for himself in the present and he can pass it on to somebody in the future.

So this is not just something that is the benefit of the rich. It's something that even the poor is able to prosper in. Why does he lose it? Because either somebody did unjustly toward him or he lived in an unjust manner and lost all that he could have passed on to his children, to the next generation.

Does that make sense? Did we work through the context of that well that you were able to come to an understanding of what's meant there in Proverbs 13, 23? Let me read to you here what is said in one commentary.

I did not catch who the author of this commentary was, but here's what I got out of this commentary. On Proverbs 13, 23, rich men are often brought to ruin by their disregard of right and justice. Some poor men are amply supplied by honest labor.

Others who are rich lose all by wrong dealing. So I don't know, does that help? Did my explanation work better or maybe that particular commentary helped out? I don't know. I checked a couple of other commentaries and none of which were terribly clear on Proverbs 13, 23, but maybe in that exercise there of working through the context, it helped you come to an understanding and maybe put some tools in place also that you might examine context with some other passages.

Loving Discipline for Children and the Gospel

Let's look next at verse 24, which I've already read. He who holds back his rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him diligently. And yes, what we're talking about here is what's called corporal punishment or spanking very specifically.

And there are other verses in Proverbs that talk about using the rod to punish or discipline or train a child. As it says in Proverbs 22, 15, folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline drives it far from him.

Now, what are we talking about when we talk about spanking with a rod or spanking with a paddle? You know, whatever it is, you might happen to use a switch to discipline your child. What are we talking about here?

Well, we're talking about a spanking across the backside. Now, understand the motivation behind this form of punishment. It's not in anger, but it is in love. You desire to show right, to show goodness, to train up your child in the right way to go.

He who loves his son will discipline him. Spanking should not ever be something that a parent uses to vent their anger. It is to lovingly teach their children. So make sure your child understands why they are being punished.

I had to do this just the other day as a matter of fact. I mean, it's every week. We're punishing or spanking one of our children for something. When I spanked my youngest, who is four, before spanking her, I got down on a knee so I'm closer to being face-to-face with her.

And I said to her, why are you getting a spanking? Why are you getting punished for this? And she's in tears because she knows what's coming, but she did not understand. She did not know why she was being spanked, or at least the answer that she gave me was not the reason why I was about to punish her.

So it was necessary for me to explain, here's what you did wrong, and here's why you're gonna experience some pain for that. Because I want to guide you in the right way to go, that you will realize there's consequences for wrong behavior, and you will not do this again.

And so I'm afflicting you with a little bit of pain so that you'll know there's consequences for this kind of behavior. And instead, you will go the right way next time, remembering, hey, the last time I chose this decision, it was kind of painful for me.

There were consequences for this behavior. I want to save my child from death so she does not go to her own destruction, but will know the righteous path by which to walk according to what God's word says.

So make sure your child understands why they're being punished. And this will help to bring them to an awareness of their sin, and then use that to point them toward the saving power of the gospel. You can use even punishing your child as an opportunity to share the gospel with them.

We've all sinned, we've all done wrong. All of us deserve greater punishment than this. Even death itself, hell, eternal separation from God, or judgment under his wrath, separation from his grace. But God is forgiving to us.

He has sent his son who died on the cross for our sins. He took that incredible punishment that would be ours for eternity, if not for what Jesus Christ did for us with his sacrifice on the cross. So that whoever believes in him, we will not perish under the judgment of God, but we will have everlasting life.

Now, there is still consequences for sin, but when God punishes us, he does it because he loves us. As is talked about in Hebrews chapter 12. You can go to Hebrews 12, read that for yourself, maybe pass that on to your children as well.

But as we read there, so I'll read a portion of it. My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him, for the Lord disciplines the one he loves and chastises every son whom he receives.

And if not for his discipline, we would be illegitimate children. All discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, it goes on to say there, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

Now, there's a lot of people in the world who are gonna say that spanking is a terrible, awful thing. In fact, I just saw something a few days ago that was calling it child abuse and saying that it was even ineffective.

It doesn't do anything to actually correct a child's behavior. Well, yeah, if it was nothing but just grabbing a paddle and venting your anger, you would not change that child's behavior. You would just teach them that this is how you react whenever you're mad.

That's what you would be passing on to your kids. So it's necessary to use that to teach them what they've done wrong and to guide them in the right way that they should go. As it says in Proverbs 23, verse 13, do not withhold discipline from a child.

If you strike him with a rod, he will not die. Verse 14, if you strike him with the rod, you will save his soul from Sheol, from the grave, save him from death, from eternal punishment. So it is a good thing to follow the Lord's instruction here and spank your children, lovingly disciplining them.

He who loves him, disciplines him diligently. Verse 25, the righteous eats to the satisfaction of his soul, but the stomach of the wicked lacks. Consider again the Beatitudes, going back to what Jesus said in Matthew chapter five, blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for the goodness of God, for those things that God has said is right, according to his word, the Bible, whoever hungers and thirst to do the righteous thing will be satisfied.

He will find satisfaction for his soul, but the stomach of the wicked lacks. He's never satisfied. He looks around at this world and he craves what the world has, and he's never quite satisfied with it, is he?

You see worldly people all the time go after the things of this world and they just never have enough. They always need more. But if we go after the righteousness of God, we will have more than we can ever need.

We'll be satisfied with it and still go after more because we are after Christ. Now tie this in with the previous proverb, he who holds back his rod hates his son. If you don't discipline your kids, it's because you hate your kids.

But he who loves his child will discipline him diligently to lead him in righteousness, that he may hunger after those things of God that fully satisfy and will not go after the things of this world that do not satisfy, but rather lead to destruction.

You see the wonderful relationship with all these proverbs here? Let's go to chapter 14 now. We just have a few verses we're gonna look at here. Chapter 14, verse one, the wise woman builds her house, but the woman of folly tears it down with her own hands.

Consider the instructions that Paul gave to Titus for the church in Titus chapter two, starting in verse three here. He says, older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine.

They are to teach what is good. And so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.

So a woman who desires to honor the Lord will build her house, will work diligently to care for her home, but the woman of folly tears it down with her own hands. Now, does the woman of folly tear down the wise woman's home or does she tear down her own home?

I think you could apply it both ways. So if the wise woman leaves wisdom, she's built her house, but she goes after folly, then the folly is gonna come and tear down the wise woman's home. Or you could even look at this as the folly or the foolish woman being something of an invader.

The wise woman is caring diligently for her home, but here comes this foolish woman to tear down what even the wise woman has done. And we see this happening in the culture right now. You've got the feminist movement.

Feminists want to tear down that which God has said is good in the home. A woman who is a wife, who is a mother, who is working at home and is fully satisfied with that work, but here comes the feminist movement to take all of that away.

They wanna snatch up your children. They wanna indoctrinate them with worldliness and with the culture. They will tear down what the wise have built up. Beware that woman folly. Stay away from foolishness, but continue to seek after the wisdom of God according to his word.

The house that is built on this foundation will always stand and never fall. Verse two, he who walks in his uprightness fears Yahweh, but he who is devious in his ways despises him. Remember what we've read in Proverbs from the very beginning, Proverbs 1 .7.

It is the fear of the Lord that is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. He who is devious despises God's way and will not listen to his wisdom, will not listen to his word, the Bible.

Verse three, in the mouth of the ignorant, fool is a rod of lofty pride, but the lips of the wise will keep them. The lips of the wise men will keep his words. He will not be muttering along with his words.

He will not be loose with his lips. He will not be slandering others, spreading gossip, doing things that would cause harm to other people. The mouth of the ignorant fool, however, is a rod of lofty pride.

He just goes around beating other people with his words. Verse four, where no oxen are, the manger is clean, but much revenue comes by the strength of the ox. So where there is no oxen, where there's no animal to work the ground, the manger is clean.

There's no food in it, right? But where there are abundant crops, it comes by the strength of the ox. Then there's food in the manger. So it really comes down to hard work is what's being talked about here.

If you work hard, well, then you have an abundance, but if you do nothing, then you have nothing. You don't even have animals to help you do the work and the labor that needs to get done. There's no one to help the diligent man work.

Let us all be diligent workers in the house of God, doing that which God has instructed us to do. Remember the great commission that was made in Matthew 28, verses 18 to 20. Jesus said, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Therefore go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always to the very end of the age.

Jesus was addressing his disciples. That applies to the whole church. We are his disciples. And so we must do this work for the fields are ripe and ready for harvest. We're ready to go out as good workers.

Remember what we were talking about in first Corinthians yesterday. We are workers in the field. We are builders of the building. We are good stewards of the house of God. And there's a lot of us to do this work together.

We're not meant to do this on our own. So where there is somebody who is willigant, who is, who, willigant. Willigant is a diligent, willing person. I just put those two words together. They're willigant.

Where there is a person who is diligent to do the work, willing to do the work, there's gonna be others who will be willing to help him do that work. But where there is a person who is lazy, there's no one, nor will there be any harvest to speak of.

Let us be found working faithfully for the Lord when he comes. Heavenly Father, we thank you for these good words that we've read today. May we apply them to our lives. We know how they apply. We know what the practical application is for these things as we live our lives in faithfulness unto the Lord, our God, who gave himself for us and redeemed us by his sacrifice.

It is in Jesus' name that 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.

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