(Proverbs) ch.21:9 - 22:11 — Zac Poonen

Proverbs 21:9–13—Contention, Mercy, and Public Rebuke

Proverbs 21. We turn today to Proverbs 21 and verse 9. It is better to live in a corner of a roof than in a house shared with a contentious woman. Or, as the Good News Bible says, better to live on the roof than share the house with a nagging wife.

Even though it's not comfortable to live on the roof, particularly when it rains, yet the Word of God says even that is preferable to living inside that house if there is a wife there who is constantly nagging.

And that's the verse which should be a challenge to all sisters who are married in the church, that they should never allow their home to be like that. We've seen in another chapter in Proverbs how it's a wise woman who builds her house.

And since it's the woman who is in the house more than any other member in a normal family, more than the husband, more than the children, and therefore it's the woman who has a very important part in the building of the atmosphere of a house.

And that is to ensure that it is a place where wisdom is found. And nagging is the very opposite of wisdom. Verse 10 reads in the Good News Bible like this, wicked people are always hungry for evil, and one mark of them is they have mercy on no one.

They have no mercy on anyone. And basically what that means is that if you want to find fault, you can find fault with anyone in the whole world. We know that the Pharisees found plenty of fault even with Jesus.

There was one person who walked on this earth who was absolutely perfect. Even God Almighty could find no fault with him. He said, I'm well pleased. But the Pharisees were always finding fault even with that person with whom Almighty God found no fault.

So you can imagine what religion does to people that it can make a person so cockeyed and crooked in his thinking that even when God is happy with a man, a Pharisee can find fault with him. It's easy to find fault if we want to.

And that indicates that basically within us, there is an unmerciful attitude. When we find ourselves picking faults in others easily, that is a pretty good test, an indication of the fact that we are basically unmerciful in our attitude.

Wicked people are always hungry for evil to find fault. They have mercy on no one. Verse 11 in the Living Bible it reads, The wise man learns by listening, whereas the foolish man or the simpleton can only learn by seeing scorners punished.

There are two ways to learn. One is by hearing what God has to say. And here it says another is by seeing scorners punished. And this is why the Word of God says that there is a place for public rebuke in the church.

We read in 1 Timothy 5 .20 where it says that if anyone sins, continues to sin, he should be rebuked publicly so that others also may fear. There is a place for public rebuke so that the others also, they should be rebuked in the presence of everyone it says, so that others also may be fearful of sinning.

There is a place for private counsel, but if private counsel is not received by a person and he continues in sin or rebellion, then there is a need for public rebuke so that others will fear to sin in the church.

And this verse is also referring to that, that some people learn only when they see others punished. Verse 12 reads like this in the Good News Bible, The righteous one, God, the righteous one, knows what goes on in the homes of the wicked and he will bring the wicked down to ruin.

The righteous one referred to there is obviously God himself because he is the only one who understands what goes on inside the house of a wicked person. And that teaches us that God knows what goes on in everybody's home.

That's what it says there. God, the righteous one, knows what goes on in the different homes and he brings the wicked down to ruin. That shows that he is interested to see what goes on in our homes. God's not deceived by the impression people give to others.

He knows what goes on in the different people's homes. Verse 13, He who shuts his ear to the cry of the poor will also cry himself and not be answered. That we read in many portions of scripture. Blessed are the merciful for they shall find mercy.

And he who has not shown mercy will not find mercy from God. In the same measure in which we treat others, in the same measure God treats us. That's one of those verses that tells us that God treats us in the same way that we treat other people in need who come across our path.

And that's something we have to bear in mind. When we find that God's treating us in a particular way, it's good for us to examine ourselves and see whether we've treated some other human being in that same way.

And perhaps we're just reaping in the same measure, God's using the same measure to measure it out to us. And these are verses that should put a fear in our hearts, in our relationships with other human beings in general.

Not just with believers, but with human beings in general. Verse 14 reads in the Good News Bible like this,. If someone is angry with you, a gift given secretly will calm him down. That's really a very practical exhortation.

That can happen even in our relationship with different people, that you find that someone has sort of cooled off towards you for some reason or the other. Obviously when somebody cools off, he's carnal or soulish, he's not spiritual.

No spiritual person cools off towards any other brother, that's clear. But carnal people, babies who don't have victory, can sometimes cool off in their relationship towards us. Even in the church, because there are babies in the church, there are carnal people in the church and they can tend to cool off in various ways.

And then it says here a practical way if you really want to overcome evil with good is a gift. Given secretly means not publicly. Of course the person knows that you gave it, but you don't embarrass him by giving it to him publicly.

In fact all gifts should be given secretly. But a gift given in secret can calm him down, can change his attitude. Because all people love gifts, particularly worldly people and carnal Christians and babies, all love gifts.

So when such people receive a gift, they tend to change their attitude. This is one of those instances of using the mammon of unrighteousness to make friends for ourselves, so that we can have someone in those eternal habitations.

Proverbs 21:15–19—Justice, Wisdom, and the Consequences of Evil

Verse 15, the execution of justice is joy for the righteous, but is terror to the workers of iniquity. A righteous person is always happy when justice is done, because he loves righteousness and he loves justice.

And this verse is really just referring to that. But the execution of justice is a terror to the workers of iniquity. Verse 16, a man who wanders from the way of understanding in the assembly of the dead.

And so there is an assembly called the assembly of the dead. And that's obviously Babylon, spiritual Babylon. And when a person wanders away from the way of understanding, means the way of wisdom, which is called by many names in the word of God, it's called the path of the righteous.

It's called the way of holiness in Isaiah 35. It's called the new and living way in Hebrews chapter 10. And it's called here the way of understanding, the way of wisdom in the book of Job. Many titles, but it's all the same way.

And a man who wanders from this way, who does not take heed to the voice of the spirit that tells him when he drifts to the left or right, he will end up in the assembly of the dead. Verse 17, he who loves pleasure will become a poor man.

And he who loves wine and oil will not become rich. And that refers to becoming a slave to material things and to food and drink and to a comfortable, easy life that involves no self-denial. We can apply that spiritually and say that it means that self-denial is the way to spiritual wealth, that it is one who denies himself that he becomes spiritually.

And it also teaches us that these things which God has created are things to be used, but not to be mastered by. There are many pleasures we can enjoy, but here it speaks about those who love pleasure, not those who have pleasure.

God gives us pleasure in many, many things in life. He has given us richly all things to enjoy, but it's a question of loving it. It says in the last days men will be lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.

And it speaks about loving good food. It's not a question of eating good food, but loving good food. That means the person has been mastered by it. Paul said, all things are lawful, but I will not be mastered by anything.

1 Corinthians 6 .12. So that's what it's referring to here, that we must not allow any of these things on the earth to master us if we want to be spiritually rich. Verse 18 reads like this in the Good News Bible, the wicked bring on themselves the suffering that they've tried to cause to godly people, to good people.

In other words, what we considered in an earlier study, that what the wicked does, verse 7 in the Living Bible, boomerangs on him. In other words, it's like the Old Testament story of Haman. He prepared a gallows to hang Mordecai, and God turned the tables in such a way that finally Haman himself hung on it.

And we can apply that to ourselves, that when we seek to do something which is not good to another, you may find later on in life, sometimes years later, that very thing comes back upon us. For example, here's a young person who in his zeal and lack of wisdom, criticizes an older brother or even a servant of God for something he sees.

And he doesn't agree with it. He says it's all, maybe he criticized them for being lukewarm or carnal or something like that. And God's made a record of that. And maybe five years later, that person will find himself in exactly the same situation which he criticized somebody five or ten years ago.

And then, if he has years to hear, he will hear the Spirit saying, now you are reaping what you have sown. We bring on ourselves the suffering that they try to cause to good people. And criticism of another person can be included here.

That's why it's always safest not to be a busybody in other people's matters. To leave them to themselves, let God take care of them. Why do we want to criticize or find fault with someone in something?

One day, it'll come back on us. A young person can criticize, for example, the way someone else brings up his children. Ten years later, when this man himself is married and he's got a whole lot of children, you may find that his children are much worse than the children he criticized in some other family.

That's just a reaping of what he sowed in his younger years. It's very important that we don't sow such stupid things in our younger years and reap a harvest of sorrow and misfortune ten years later. Because these are laws of God, that the suffering we cause to good people, in any way, maybe you hurt someone by words you speak, and the person's a good person.

God can't overlook it. One day, it'll take its course, this boomerang, and ten years later, it comes back. It's really true. And that's why we need to radically repent of these things. And I've come to see more and more that the proof of repentance is that I don't do it again.

If I do it again, that proves that I didn't really repent. I just said words to God. And very often we have found, we hear a message on something like this, and we say, Yeah, Lord, I'm sorry for all that I've done in the past.

And the next year, I go and do the same thing all over again, which shows that I didn't really repent. I just felt sorry that this boomerang may hit me five years later. But I wasn't really convicted of the guilt of causing suffering to some good person by something I said or did.

We have to be very careful that we don't cause any suffering to others by the words we speak. They'll boomerang on us one day or the other. Verse 19. Here is a further step from verse 9. We commenced in verse 9 with this man running off to the roof.

But now we find that the wife has chased him to the roof as well. And now he's left the house altogether. And he's gone out to the desert. It's better to live out in the desert than with a nagging, complaining wife.

I mean, that's a sad thing that the poor man didn't get peace on the roof either, and had to go off even from there. That's really something which a sister should take seriously. It's not that we're against women, or that Solomon was against women, or Paul was against women.

A lot of people have got these ideas. The Holy Spirit speaks about a nagging wife, and it's interesting. He never speaks about a nagging husband. There may be a few exceptions like that. But generally speaking, it's a nagging wife who is referred to more, you know, a drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, drip.

It's spoken of in another chapter. This possibility of making life difficult for your husband at home. And the poor man seeks for peace somewhere. And in some corner of the house, or it may not be a desert, because there are no deserts nearby, but it may be that he goes off to some other place, or wants, dreads to come back home, or something like that.

It must never be like that. Dear sisters, when you're married, you must, you've got the responsibility to make your home such a place that your husband just longs to shoot back home, and your children just long to shoot back there, because that is the most wonderful place they can ever be in.

Think of building a house like that. And it is by words, spoken of, a nagging, complaining wife, it says in the Good News Bible. And nagging means to constantly be after your husband for some little thing here, and some little thing there, and it's not a big, major thing.

Usually something here, something there, and complaining about this, complaining about that. Now, it's a peculiar temptation that comes to sisters, to married women, and therefore you need to ask God for grace to overcome it.

Say, Lord, make me that wise woman who can build my house, so that it can be a place of peace. You know, Jesus said, when you enter a house, he told his disciples, first of all say, peace be to this house.

That is the fruit of wisdom. And that's a tremendous responsibility, and the Book of Proverbs has much to say about women. In fact, the Book of Proverbs closes with a whole, almost a whole chapter on the virtuous woman, chapter 31.

And there is something there that sisters can take very seriously, that you never turn your home into a place where people don't feel happy to be in, not even for one day of your life. Take that seriously.

Proverbs 21:20–23—Wisdom in Finances, Speech, and Relationships

Verse 20, it says in the Living Bible, the wise man saves for the future, but the foolish man spends whatever he gets. And we can apply that in two ways. We can apply that in relation to earthly things.

The wise man saves for the future, but the foolish man spends whatever he gets. The wise man thinks, I'm not God. It says in the Book of James, chapter 4, that I don't even know what's going to happen tomorrow.

It says, you can't even say, tomorrow I will go to that city, and I will do this business and come back. It says, you must say, if the Lord wills, for we do not know what one day can bring forth, even for believers.

And therefore, a wise man thinks, yeah, I may have some need tomorrow. Now, either I must have faith that God will provide my need, or if my faith is not that high, because God has allotted to each person a different measure of faith, and He may not have allotted to you and me the measure of faith that He allotted to George Muller or Hudson Taylor, we got to humble ourselves and say, Lord, well, I don't have that measure of faith.

Well, maybe I need to save a little so that when my time of need next month, I don't have to rush to the brothers and sisters for help, or go to some money lender to borrow, or sit there expecting somebody to come to me with a gift.

All of these things are unworthy of a Christian. That's because he's being foolish, because when he got something, he spent it all. That can be a foolish thing to do, when I don't have any forethought about the future, that I spend whatever I get, I spend it all.

Then I have to depend on gifts and become a sort of a dignified beggar after some time, because I'm foolish. I don't know how to manage my expense within my income. Maybe I'm foolish in the sense that I compare myself with other people.

It says that in 2 Corinthians 10, 12, those who compare themselves with others are foolish. And I say, I want to live like that person, and the end result is I can't manage it, and I am in debt. But the wise man saves for the future.

And so we can say that wisdom is to be frugal, that is not to waste unnecessarily anything. That is wisdom. So that we can have something in our time of need. And also we can apply that spiritually. Of course we understand the meaning of that, like the wise virgins had reserves of oil that kept them ready to meet the bridegroom when he came.

Verse 21, here it says, he who pursues righteousness and loyalty finds life, righteousness and honor. That is very similar to what Jesus said in Matthew 6 .33. Seek the kingdom of God first and His righteousness, and all these other things will be added to you.

Those who hunger and thirst after righteousness will be satisfied. In other words, it's those who pursue after it who get it. If you don't pursue after it, it's not going to come to anyone who sits back in an easy chair expecting God to give it to him.

Verse 22, a wise man scales the city of the mighty and brings down the stronghold in which they trust. And that basically means what it says elsewhere in the book of Ecclesiastes, that wisdom is better than strength.

And that has an application to many, many areas in life. Wisdom is able to overcome mighty walls that people have built. You know there's a verse in scripture which says that a brother offended is harder to be won than a city.

But a man of wisdom knows how to scale the walls of that city, how to win this offended brother back. But very few people have wisdom. They usually try to hammer against the walls and it only ends up in that brother making the walls a little stronger.

It's not by strength, it's not necessarily by rebuke, but by goodness. And there we see what a need there is for wisdom in all of us to be able to scale the city of the mighty. It is by good that we overcome evil.

Wisdom is better than strength. If you have a wife who is offended, what's the solution to that? She's not going to talk to you. Well, you can handle strength with strength, tackle strength with strength, and say all right, I won't talk to you either.

Fine, we'll see how long it lasts. What is that? That is only folly. The woman's a fool there and the man's a greater fool. No, what he needs there is wisdom to scale this wall that his wife has built between him and her.

How can I scale this with wisdom? Strength won't do it. Wisdom is better than strength. Or it can be the other way. Think of a wise woman who can scale the wall that her husband builds. That has many applications.

A wise man can scale the city of the mighty and bring down the stronghold. Wonderful. And build a relationship. Verse 23 reads like this in the living bible, keep your mouth closed and you'll stay out of trouble.

That's really true. A lot of people get into trouble just because they open their mouth. Keep your mouth shut and you'll stay out of a lot of trouble. So much trouble. I mean just think of all of us can look back in our past life and I think all of us have experience in this area.

Think of the different situations where if he had just kept our mouth shut some problem would never have arisen. But because we went ahead and opened our mouth it caused more trouble. And there particularly when we are young and there we need to see even a fool can be wise if he just keeps his mouth shut.

What a lot of problems we cause just because we cannot keep our mouth shut. We lose our testimony, we mess up things, we spoil things, we do make a mess of things just because we don't keep our mouth shut.

Keep your mouth shut and you can stay out of a lot of trouble. Now the thing is we can hear this but we have to be gripped by it. Otherwise we'll still go ahead and do the same old thing. God's intention is at least that we learn from our past follies so that we know in future when we are particularly when we are in unrest about something.

My dear brothers and sisters we don't make laws in the church but I'll give you one simple principle to live by. When you are in unrest keep your mouth shut old or young until you have come to rest even if it takes one week.

Keep your mouth shut particularly when you are in the presence of somebody who is causing that unrest to you. Very important. It's a simple principle but we haven't followed it in the past and gotten a lot of trouble and ruined our life.

At least we can do that in the future. 24 reads like this in the good news bible. Show me a conceited person and I will show you someone who is arrogant and inconsiderate. A conceited person is a person who thinks too much of himself who's got higher thoughts about his own spirituality and about his own worth than is really the case which is the case with most people and that conceit is what makes him inconsiderate about the feelings and needs of other people.

One of the most important laws or principles for good relationships in the church and for wisdom in learning how to live with one another and get along with one another is the simple principle of consideration.

Consideration for others. Consider the feelings of that person when you speak like that. Why did we find it so difficult to be considerate? It's because of conceit. That's what this verse says. It's conceit that makes us inconsiderate towards the feelings of other people.

There's a certain pride in us and that's why we don't have light on being considerate about others. For example when a few people are sitting together and one person dominates the conversation and he speaks the most.

Usually you can find that that is the conceited person in that group because he has no consideration for others and that's a folly that all young people should get rid of. It's one thing if it's someone who's got wisdom.

Very often you find that there's a tremendous amount of lack of consideration. That's just a small area but there can be many other areas where we can be inconsiderate towards the conveniences of other people.

We can think only in terms of our own convenience and that can be purely a result of conceit. I think I'm so important that other people's convenience must be secondary to mine. That is conceit. It's good to have small thoughts about ourselves where we think more about the other person's convenience than mine.

That is humility. Verse 25 and 26 we can read that together. The desire of the sluggard or as the good news bible says a lazy man who refuses to work is only killing himself. All he does is think about what he would like to have.

A righteous man however can give and give generously. Now it is the will of God that all of us become righteous. We may not begin there. We may begin without being righteous. We do not know how to give.

We are dependent on other people giving us. But we should never think that we should live there all our life. We are to move out of that. Move out of that. Think for example of this verse in Ephesians 4 .28 which says Ephesians 4 .28 it speaks about a thief who's converted.

Honest Work and the Christian’s Responsibility to Give

When a thief gets converted and comes into the church what should he do? Now usually thieves are poor people. I mean there are some rich thieves but most of the thieves are poor people who are stealing because of their poverty.

And it says here let him who steals Ephesians 4 .28 steal no longer but rather let him work. Working with his own hands what is good? Not only so that he can meet his own need but that he may have something to share with someone else who has need.

In other words when a person comes into the church even if he started off as a thief his aim should be not only to give up stealing but to so take care of his own financial needs but go beyond that to be able to also give to someone else who has less than him.

That should always be our goal. And if we say Lord that is what scripture says I want to make that my goal in my life then we will find that we experience that blessing which Jesus said in Acts 20 .35 it's more blessed to give than to receive.

Speaking also in this verse about diligence necessary for that verse 27 the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination how much more when he brings it with an evil intent. In other words when there is the Lord hates it when wicked men offer him sacrifices especially if they are doing it from evil motives.

In other words it's a hypocritical sacrifice the Lord hates the sacrifices of wicked people in any case but particularly when it's come with an evil motive. When we do something with a wrong motive even if there's a sacrifice in it you see I can do something for example in the church which is a sacrifice and yet I can do the whole thing with some selfish motive of my own gain in the whole thing and the Lord hates it.

It looks like a sacrifice that I've made the other brothers and sisters see what I'm doing and they really think I've sacrificed but the Lord who sees the inner motive and all the hidden things sees that there's some corrupt motive even in that sacrifice which has gained the esteem of so many other brothers and sisters.

The Lord hates it when people offer him such sacrifices with wrong motives. Verse 28 the Good News Bible says the testimony of a liar is not believed but the word of someone who thinks matters through is accepted.

We must not get a testimony that we are not truthful. I just want to say it's very easy to get that testimony if we don't hate lying in every form in our lives. The word of God says in Colossians chapter 3 don't tell lies to one another.

In other words it's possible to tell a lie to a brother in the church because I want to give him the impression that I'm spiritual. In some particular situation I say something which is not 100 true.

I've given him a wrong impression because I want him to think I'm spiritual and if I tell him the real truth it'll put me in a bad light. It's so easy to tell a lie so easy and that shows that I don't love the truth.

It's far better that I become small in that brother's eyes and love the truth rather than that I remain big in his eyes and God sees me as a liar. Now that happens a lot and if we really are honest we will see what a fantastic amount of lying there is even in our conduct with one another.

If you haven't seen that yet brother and sister I just say you're not judging yourself sufficiently. Maybe that's why you haven't seen it but when we judge ourselves we discover what a fantastic amount of lying there can be in our conduct and in the words that we say to one another in the church and here is where we need a radical cleansing from all lying because the testimony of a liar is not believed.

Whatever testimony I give cannot have power if I have not cleansed myself from lying. But the word of someone who thinks matters through is accepted. The man who listens to the truth, his word will be accepted.

Who loves the truth. Verse 29 reads like this in the living bible an evil man is stubborn but a godly man will reconsider and that's a good verse to think of. That it to be stubborn about some decision we have taken or some thing we have done to say that is right can sometimes be the mark of an evil man but a godly man is one who is humble enough to say I'm not god.

I may have been mistaken like Paul says in 1 corinthians 13 verse 12 I don't know myself fully. I don't know everything perfectly. Now brother I think about what you say maybe I shouldn't have said that.

Maybe I shouldn't have done that. That must always be the attitude. A godly man is willing to reconsider. He makes his way sure it says here. That means he tries to find out which is the perfect way and every man who is not perfect is willing to reconsider his way and none of us are perfect.

To press on to perfection means to find that perfect middle path and to say yeah I may be drifting maybe half a degree only but maybe a little off from the center and I just want to think about what that person said.

Sometimes maybe you got a hard letter from someone who hates you. Yeah take it before the lord because sometimes our enemies tell more truths about us than our friends. You know that even those who speak straight to us.

Our enemies can sometimes tell us more truths about us than our friends and it's good to think. Is there some truth in that? Let me think about it before god. Verse 30 good news bible reads like this human wisdom and brilliance and insight they are all of no help if the lord is against you.

Think of that all our human wisdom all our brilliance and all our insight all of it is of absolutely no use if the lord is against us and we know that according to the word of god god is basically against the proud.

God is against the proud it says in 1 peter 5 5 and then if I am proud then all my brilliance and cleverness and wisdom and everything even spiritual wisdom and brilliance is just no use if god is against me.

It's far better to have god on my side than all this human cleverness and everything else. Verse 31 here it speaks about our dependence on god. The horse is prepared for the day of battle but victory belongs to the lord.

Says here you can get the horses ready for battle but it's the lord alone who can give you the victory and that's related to what we see in verse 29. If you turn to 2nd chronicles chapter 14 2nd chronicles 14 verse 9 to 11 it's a very beautiful story there that can be an encouragement to us.

There was a king in the old testament called Asa and Asa was a man who started off very well but he did not end very well. When he started off he trusted in the lord. We read in 2nd chronicles 14 and verse 9 that against Asa the Ethiopian army came out against him with an army of 1 million men.

Think of that 10 lakhs people came to fight against him 300 chariots and Asa went out to meet him. Verse 11 Asa called to the lord is god and said lord there is no one besides thee to help in the battle so help us oh lord for we trust in thee and it says here in verse 12 the lord routed these 1 million Ethiopians.

These things are written for our encouragement that 1 million people may come against us if we humble ourselves at that time and say lord I don't trust in my horses, I don't trust in my chariots, I don't trust in my influence or my power or my ability.

I trust only in you. I ask you lord to help me. The god who helped Asa will help us too but the same man Asa a little later in chapter 16 we read that when the king of Israel came against him chapter 16 Asa did this this man didn't have 1 million people it was much less than 1 million but this time Asa did not seek the lord for help it says he went and asked for help from the king of Syria and then there was a prophet who came to the king in verse 7 and said because you relied on the king of Syria and you did not rely on the lord therefore you will not be able to overcome this army.

Were not the Ethiopians that's the one we saw in chapter 14 an immense army 1 million people and yet because you relied on the lord he delivered them into your hand and here is that verse which we are all familiar with it comes in this context because the eyes of the lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to strongly support those whose heart is completely his.

And when you read the context you understand what it means to have our heart completely his. That means those whose hearts are completely relying on his help alone and who are not depending on human help but who depend on the lord.

But then here you have acted foolishly and so from now on you'll have wars. And Asa became more stupid it says he was angry with the prophet and just put him in prison. That doesn't solve the problem that you get angry with the man who tells you the truth.