WWUTT 1574 Yahweh is Creator of All (Proverbs 22:1-13)

Yahweh is the maker of all things, and because God has made all things, and reigns over all things, we can trust in Him and there's nothing of any man or circumstance that we have to fear 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 Gate.

Thank you, Becky. Well-being Thursday, and we're doing our Old Testament study today. We continue with our study in the book of Proverbs, up to chapter 22. And this chapter has 29 verses in it, so if we split it in half between this week and the next, we'll see if we can get through the first 16 verses today.

Yahweh as Maker of All and the Value of a Good Name

Reading to you from Proverbs 22 out of the Legacy Standard Bible, this is the Word of the Lord. A good name is to be chosen over great wealth, favor is better than silver and gold. The rich and the poor meet together in this, Yahweh is the maker of them all.

A prudent man sees evil and hides, but the simple pass on and are punished. The reward of humility, the fear of Yahweh, are riches, glory, and life. Thorns and snares are in the way of the crooked, he who keeps his soul will be far from them.

Train up a child according to his way, even when he is old he will not depart from it. The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is slave of the lender. He who sows unrighteousness will reap iniquity, and the rod of his fury will end.

He who is generous will be blessed, for he gives from his food to the poor. Drive out the scoffer, and strife will go out, even contention and disgrace will cease. He who loves purity of heart and grace on his lips, the king is his friend.

The eyes of Yahweh guard knowledge, but he subverts the words of the treacherous one. The sluggard says, there is a lion outside, I will be killed in the streets. The mouth of strange women is a deep pit, he who is cursed of Yahweh will fall into it.

Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, the rod of discipline will remove it far from him. He who oppresses the poor to make more for himself, or who gives to the rich will only come to lack. And there you go, there's 16 verses of Proverbs 22.

The Good Name of Christ Over Wealth and Fame

So last week we were looking at Proverbs 21, and the theme throughout Proverbs 21 is that salvation belongs to Yahweh. If we're looking for a particular theme here in Proverbs 22, it would be that Yahweh is maker of all, and we saw that in the second verse there.

The rich and the poor meet together in this. Yahweh is the maker of them all. And because Yahweh, our Lord, has made all things, all things are in his hand. We begin with verse 1, a good name is to be chosen over great wealth.

Favor is better than silver and gold. So it is better to have a reputation for doing righteousness, rather than having a reputation for just being famous, or powerful, or rich. Think about it, what's the greatest name that you can possibly have?

If you wear the name of Christ, right? If you are a son or a daughter of God, how might we know that we are the children of God when we do as he has commanded? As it says in 1 John, so if you pursue the righteousness of Christ that we have by faith in him, you have eternal reward, glory forever with God above.

As it says in Titus 3, 5, we are fellow heirs with Christ of his eternal kingdom. That is much greater than possessing anything on this earth which is transient, which is passing away, which you cannot take with you when you die, right?

So therefore, a good name, the name of Jesus, which is the greatest name, is to be chosen over great wealth. Favor, the favor of God, better than silver and gold. There was an interview not long ago with Kim Kardashian, one of the richest women on earth.

This was a 60 minutes interview, I believe, and the interviewer asked Kim Kardashian, what is your talent? And she replied, it is a talent to build a brand and sell yourself and get people to like you for you.

And that's precisely what she's done. She's made herself into a brand and is worth over $100 million. But no matter what it is that she has created for herself on earth, a day is coming in which she will stand before the Lord in judgment.

And unless she turns from her sin to the Lord Jesus Christ, then she will perish on that day and no amount of wealth or fame that she has created for herself will be able to save.

Her.

She will spend an eternity in hell unless she comes to the Lord Jesus Christ. And so if somebody this rich and powerful cannot save themselves, then neither can you save yourself unless you wear the name that is above every name, the name of Jesus Christ.

It is only by faith in Jesus are we forgiven our sins and we have eternal life, a good name. The name of Christ is to be chosen over great wealth, the favor of God, better than silver and gold. We go on to verse two, the rich and the poor meet together in this.

The Rich, the Poor, and the Image of God

So you have a statement about the rich here. Where is it that the rich and the poor are alike? Yahweh is maker of them all. We have been made in the image of God, everyone, male and female made in the image of God.

But we have all sinned against God. So we've all taken that which was made in God's image, which was meant to glorify him. And what we have done is we glorified ourselves. Instead, we took that which was made in God's image and did what was unholy with it.

We spoke words that were unpleasant to God. We committed our bodies to things that were filthy, that that God would not associate himself with. And so because people made in the image of God have committed themselves to these sins, what we deserve is to be destroyed.

The wrath of God poured out upon us. But praise God that he did not leave us dead in our sins. He sent his son to die on the cross for our sins. Whoever believes in Jesus will not perish, but will have everlasting life.

So turn from your sin to Jesus Christ. Doesn't matter whether you're rich or whether you're poor. Everyone has sinned and everyone needs a savior. And Jesus is that savior. Yahweh is the maker of all.

And Yahweh has given a savior so that all who believe in him will be saved. Verse three, a prudent man sees evil and hides, but the simple pass on and are punished. Remember, the prudent is the person who gives thought to his actions.

He thinks about future consequences. He gives thought to his steps, to his way, to the decisions that he makes. So as he's walking this road of life, he sees evil coming. And what does he do? He hides.

But the simple, it says, pass on. They continue toward the direction of the evil they see coming. And what is their result? Well, they are punished. That's the outcome of the one who does evil. They fall into judgment.

They fall into wrath. The simple who does not give thought to his ways or to the consequences of his actions, he will fall into evil because he wasn't mindful of it. And he is punished. In order to do good, we must constantly be in pursuit of good.

And what is the greatest good? It is God. It is what he has said is good and right. That's what it is that we must do. You cannot just go haphazardly through life and expect that you're accidentally going to do what is good.

You must know what the right thing is and go after that. But those who don't give thought to their actions, who are not mindful of of their decisions, they're simple. They're not in pursuit of good. And evil quickly overtakes them.

They find themselves doing evil when they did not even realize what they were doing was wrong and they were not in pursuit of right. And what is the result? They are punished. Eternal punishment is the way Jesus puts it in Matthew 25.

So we must always give thought to what is good and help to guide one another along in what is right and true, according to what the word of God says. Verse four, the reward of humility, the fear of Yahweh, our riches, glory and life sounds very similar to what we read in the very first verse.

The reward of humility and humility is defined here as the fear of Yahweh. That's humility. The Lord said through the prophet Isaiah, this is the one to whom I will look. He who is humble and contrite in spirit and who trembles at my words, he who's humble before the Lord, who trembles before the word of the Lord, that he may do and keep the word of the Lord.

This reward of humility is riches, glory and life. And we have that forevermore in Christ, not material possessions that we have here on this earth, but the promise of eternity as being fellow heirs of the kingdom of God in glory.

Humility, Discipline, and the Way of the Crooked

Verse five, thorns and snares are in the way of the crooked. He who keeps his soul will be far from them. Thorns and snares, that which grabs on, latches, keeps you from doing the thing that you ought to do.

He who keeps his soul will be far from them. One of the things that this speaks to is that a person who is who is consistently not given thought to his way. He's that simple minded guy. He's not prudent.

He does not think about the consequences for actions. He's not in constant pursuit of good. He finds out that he's been doing evil for a long time and there's nothing that he can do to get out of it. Or perhaps he is so ensnared by it.

He never even really wakes up to the reality of it. He just continues to do what is wrong. So that's the picture here of the thorns and snares. That's what's in the way of the crooked. But he who keeps his soul does not walk in that path, is not being held back by evil schemes, ways, ideas, a mind that has been turned over to depravity rather than desiring.

What is good.

Verse seven, the rich rules over the poor and the borrower is the slave of the lender. It's that second part of the proverb there. That's really the point. So if you do not have much and you decide that you need to take out a loan, you need to borrow money in order to purchase a house or a car or pay off debts or whatever it is.

Yeah.

You borrow money to pay off debts and then you are still in debt and you have to have to pay that off. Well, if you have borrowed from somebody else, then you are slave to that person that you have borrowed from.

You must pay them back. You must continue to make money that you give back to the lender. So therefore, in this case, the rich, though the one who has the money and is given to that who does not have, he rules over the poor.

The rich rules over the poor. The borrower is slave to the lender. So as much as we are able, we must keep ourselves free from these things. As we've been studying in First Corinthians, Paul says, do not become slaves of men.

So don't take out loans. Don't borrow from money. Sorry, don't borrow money from people if you don't have to be as free and as independent as you can so that you may give unto the Lord. Nothing is holding you back from giving to Yahweh.

We continue with verse. I skipped verse six. How did I do that? So I went from thorns and snares are in the way of the crooked. That was verse five. And I skipped verse six to seven. The rich rules over the poor.

The borrower is slave to the lender. OK, here's verse six. Train up a child according to his way. Even when he is old, he will not depart from it. Now I'm reading from the legacy standard Bible. The version of this verse that you're probably used to hearing is train up a child in the way he should go.

And when he is old, he will not depart from it. Right now. Keep in mind, proverbs are general wisdom. There are many that take that proverb. It's not even in the context of absolutes. But the but there are people who take that proverb out of context and they make it an absolute rule that if you train up your child in the way of God, you you teach him catechism.

You teach him the word of God. He memorizes scripture. You discipline your child. You use the the rod of correction when needed. That's that's talked about here in the proverbs that we looked at today.

And yet when your child gets old, then they rebel. They go they go far from their faith. They deconstruct their faith is kind of the the word that gets used a lot now. So they become apostate. They walk away from faith in Jesus Christ and they do as the world instead of what you train them to do.

So then you come back to this proverb ago. Was it wrong? Did I do something wrong? What happened here? Now, maybe you did. Maybe there was some neglect on your part. Maybe you went after your own way instead of put the needs and the priorities of caring for your children, disciplining them and training them up in the in the in the instruction of the Lord, as it says in Ephesians six, four.

Maybe you did not do that. That's going to be between you and the Lord. But this is not a proverb. That means that every every person who has properly trained up their children in memorizing scripture, knowing who Jesus is doing catechism, so on and so forth, it doesn't mean that they are certainly going to become Christians, that you've somehow saved your child because your child is not saved by your works.

Now, it's generally going to be true that if you train up your child according to what we have in scripture, teaching them the way of the Lord, disciplining them when they do wrong and showing them what it is that is right, then more often than not, they're going to know the right way to go and they themselves will become Christians because they've been taught the faith.

They will put their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and so be saved by work that God does in their heart, not because of works that you have done. But this is, again, general wisdom. So it doesn't mean that every single time that you raise up a child in exactly this way, you have guaranteed that they will never rebel.

The Lord raised up Israel exactly as a father should raise up his child, right? As God called Israel his son. And yet what happened with Israel? Israel rebelled against God. You have the story of the prodigal son in Luke chapter 15, the the parable that Jesus gives is the father wicked because the son ran away, the the prodigal son who rebelled.

Of course, he came back, but was the father wicked because the son rebelled? Of course not. That's not the point of the story at all. So there are occasions in which a rebellious son will leave the way that he had been taught and he's going to have to stand before God for that.

You will also have to stand before God and give an account for how you taught your children. Make sure it is according to the word of God. And more often than not, a child that is raised in the understanding of what God's word says to put their trust in Jesus Christ and so be saved.

They will turn from their sin and believe in Jesus, train up a child according to his.

Way.

Even when he is old, he will not depart from it. Verse seven, we did out of order. Now, verse eight, he who sows unrighteousness will reap iniquity and the rod of his fury will end. The apostle Paul said in Galatians chapter six, beginning in verse seven, do not be deceived.

God is not mocked for whatever a man sows. This he will also reap for the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption. But the one who sows to the spirit will from the spirit reap eternal life.

So the person who sows righteousness, what are they going to get? They'll receive righteousness. They'll receive the reward of righteousness, which is eternal life with God. But the one who sows unrighteousness reaps iniquity, more sin that leads to death.

The rod of his fury will end. James says in James one, 14 and 15. Each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin. And when sin is fully matured, it brings forth death.

Do not be deceived. My beloved brothers turn from sin to Christ. Go in the way that the Lord is marked out for us according to his word. Verse nine, he who is generous will be blessed for he gives from his food to the poor.

Don't cling so tightly to those things that the Lord has blessed you with. Bless others with what God has given to you. Verse 10, drive out the scoffer and strife will go out. Even contention and disgrace will cease.

Don't let there continue to be a scoffer in your midst. Think of this in terms of the church. Those who scoff at the word of God, they don't listen to it. They do not obey it. They must be disciplined according to the process of church discipline that we've been given in the scriptures.

Jesus speaking in Matthew chapter 18, Paul in first Corinthians five or in Titus chapter three. Drive out the scoffer. Strife, the division that is caused by that will go out. We've been talking about that a little bit even this week as we've been in first Corinthians chapter 11.

The divisions that have risen up in the church in Corinth because of their misuse of the Lord's table. They scoff at the right way to practice the Lord's table. Even contention and disgrace will cease when you take care of the one who mocks, who scoffs, who stirs up division.

Think about this in a practical application in your own life as well. Do not keep company with scoffers, but keep company with those who love the word of God and desire to obey it. Verse 11, he who loves purity of heart and grace on his lips, the king is his friend.

Because where does this pure heart comes from? It is the blessing of God to the person who loves his word and desires to obey it. Verse 12, the eyes of Yahweh guard knowledge, but he subverts the words of the treacherous one.

Those who do evil will not get their way in the end. God will undo their plans, their evil schemes. And what is truly knowledge, what can truly be known about God, what is good and right and pure, the Lord will guard.

Consider Philippians 4, 6 through 8. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is dignified, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable. If there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, consider these things.

Whatever is pure, the Lord will guard. We go on to verse 13. The sluggard says, there's a lion outside. I will be killed in the streets. So a person who's lazy sees danger around every corner and won't go out and ends up becoming a lazy man as a result.

Now, where can we find some modern application that goes with this particular proverb? Maybe fear over a virus that is really not that deadly, as deadly as people say that it is. And so you don't go out, you don't go to church, you don't go to work, you don't accomplish the things that you need to do.

And so you end up being lazy. And what's especially happening among Christians is that they're not going to church. So many Christians have stopped going to church. The numbers are way down since the whole COVID panic began.

It's as though everybody's going, there's a lion outside. I'll be killed if I go outside. You're a lazy person. You've become lazy in your faith, in growing in Christ and in his body, growing each other up in love.

Go outside, go to church, be with Christians, with other believers, be trained in the ways of the Lord. And we'll stop there for this week. We'll pick up then verse 14 here in Proverbs 22 next week. Heavenly Father, thank you for your good word.

You who are maker of all things. And may we understand that safety is in Christ. Peace is by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, that you would uphold us and protect us and guide us in the right way to go to the praise of your glorious grace.

It's in Jesus' name that we pray.

Amen.