WWUTT 1609 The Glory of Kings to Seek Wisdom (Proverbs 25:1-28)

Proverbs 25: Royal Wisdom, Hidden Matters, and the Glory of Kings

We get to Proverbs 25 today, reading more wisdom proverbs from Solomon. But we recall these are the words of the Lord. And if we follow God's word, it leads to everlasting life when we understand the text.

This is When We Understand the Text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the Word. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we feature New Testament Study, an Old Testament book on Thursday, and our Q &A on Friday.

Now here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky.

We come back to our study of the book of Proverbs today, starting a brand new chapter. This is Chapter 25. If you want to open up your Bible and join with me there, I'm going to try to get through this whole chapter today.

In the Legacy Standard Bible, Proverbs 25 starts like this. These also are Proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah, king of Judah, transcribed. It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter.

As the heavens for height and the earth for depth, so the heart of kings is unsearchable. Take away the dross from the silver, and there comes out a vessel for the smith. Take away the wicked before the king, and his throne will be established in righteousness.

Do not promote your majesty in the presence of the king, and in the place of great men do not stand. For it is better that it be said to you, come up here, than for you to be placed lower in the presence of a noble whom your eyes have seen.

Do not go out hastily to plead your case, lest what will you do in the end when your neighbor humiliates you? Plead your case with your neighbor, and do not reveal the secret of another, lest he who hears it bring disgrace upon you, and the bad report about you will not turn away.

Like apples of gold in settings of silver is a word spoken in right circumstances. Like an earring of gold and an ornament of fine gold is a wise reprover to a listening ear. Like the cold of snow in the time of harvest is a faithful envoy to those who send him, for he refreshes the soul of his masters.

Like clouds and wind without rain is a man who boasts of his gifts falsely. When one is slow to anger, a ruler may be persuaded, and a soft tongue breaks the bone. Have you found honey? Eat only enough for you, lest you have more than your fill and vomit it.

Let your foot rarely be in your neighbor's house, lest he have more than his fill of you and hate you. Like a club and a sword and a sharp arrow is a man who bears false witness against his neighbor. Like an aching tooth and a slipping foot is trust in a treacherous man in a day of distress.

Like one who takes off a garment on a cold day, or like vinegar on soda, is he who sings songs to an aching heart. If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat, and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink, for you will heap burning coals on his head, and Yahweh will repay you.

The north wind brings forth rain, and a tongue of secrets an indignant face. It is better to live in a corner of the roof than in a house shared with a contentious woman. Like cold water to a weary soul, so is a good report from a distant land.

Like a muddied spring and a corrupted well is a righteous man shaking before the wicked. To eat too much honey is not good, nor is it glory to search out one's own glory. Like a city that is broken into, and without a wall, is a man without restraint over his spirit.

The Hiddenness of God and the Royal Search for Wisdom

So through the first half of this chapter, we see a connectedness in what's being said, and then we fall back into that pattern of an individual proverb per each verse, like we've been seeing over the course of the Book of Proverbs.

At the very beginning, we have this introduction. These also are proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah, king of Judah, transcribed. Now Hezekiah would have reigned about 300 years after Solomon, but these still would have been regular proverbs, things that people would have known that Solomon had said, they just had not been compiled in this order before.

So this was done during the reign of Hezekiah, that this wisdom would be preserved. So in verse 2 we have, it is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter.

So God knows it, we don't, and it's part of the curse that we don't get to know the mind of God. Like God being so hard for us to see, that's a result of our sin against God. So he has concealed himself because he is holy and we are not, and even the ways in which he does things are going to be concealed from us.

Now that was certainly more so during an Old Testament time than in the New Testament. The apostle Paul talks about in Ephesians, that it's in the present we have come to know the mystery of Christ that has been revealed to us through his word, through Jesus Christ.

We know what God's plan was for redemption through his son on this side of the cross. How the cross was going to accomplish that and how people are even coming to faith in Jesus Christ today through the power of the gospel.

These are mysteries that have since been revealed. So where things were more mysterious on the Old Testament side, they're more revealed to us on this side. Nevertheless, 1 Timothy 6 .16 says that he alone has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light whom no one has ever seen or can see.

To him be honor and eternal dominion. And it is said at the beginning of the gospel of John that Jesus has seen the father and therefore reveals the father to us. Also stated in Matthew chapter 11. So there are things of course that God does that are concealed from us that we don't get to know.

1 John 3 .2 says that when we see him, we will see him as he is because we will be made to be like him. But for now, there's a lot of those things that remain hidden to us until we enter into glory and we see God in his very presence and even look back on all of human history and see how God was working all things ultimately for our good and for his glory.

So it is the glory of God to conceal these matters. It is the glory of kings to search out a matter. What a royal thing that we would seek to understand the oracles of God that have been given to us in his word.

And we become kings. We are a royal priesthood as stated in 1 Peter 2 when we become followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. The glory of kings to be able to search these things out. Verse 3 is the heavens for height and the earth for depth.

So the heart of kings is unsearchable. There are many responsibilities a king has. Somebody who is in charge of that many people, someone who is making that many decisions that affect that many lives.

We who go about our regular daily lives and, you know, we basically just have to care for our families, our church, some of those people that are around us. We will not know the kind of pressures that are upon a king.

We can ridicule the president of the United States for making ridiculous decisions. And most certainly he does talking about especially the current president. But we really, as much as we can criticize some of those moral decisions as being immoral, we simply don't know the kind of responsibility that is required of a person that is in a position of that great authority.

And we need to be humble in that way. We're not the president and he is. God is working in the hearts of those who are rulers in respective contexts around the world in order to accomplish something that God ultimately is going to fulfill.

And again, that might be mysterious to us now, but a day will come when we will see these things clearly. Verse four, take away the dross from the silver and there comes out a vessel for the Smith. Take away the wicked before the king and his throne will be established in righteousness.

So you see how one proverb goes to the next. The first one is kind of the illustration that sets it up. And then verse five explains it. Take away the wicked from before the king. Remove wickedness from his kingdom and his throne is established in righteousness.

How do you have a good kingdom? Well, when judgment is issued against those who do wickedly and then people live according to the justice in the land instead of doing unjustly. Now, that is going to be practical wisdom for any kind of kingdom or nation or people or even a local magistrate.

But but consider this in terms of Jesus Christ reigning as king. When he returns, he's going to judge the living and the dead and establish his perfect kingdom forever. And to do that means he will judge the wicked.

They will be removed far from him and cast into eternal punishment, according to what we have in Matthew chapter twenty five verse six. Do not promote your majesty in the presence of the king and in the place of great men do not stand.

In other words, don't position yourself as someone great among those who have proved themselves great. For it is better that it be said, do you come up here like you're invited to become part of them?

You you labor and through work and perseverance and accomplishment that you might be able to stand in that particular place. It's better for you to be invited to be there than for you to be placed lower in the presence of a noble.

Like if you try to ascend to that spot in the presence of those who are great, they're going to go, what are you doing here? Get down there. And then you're humiliated before everybody. So it's better to accomplish that and be invited there than for you to be placed lower in the presence of a noble whom your eyes have seen.

So likewise, the call upon us in scripture is to humble ourselves before the Lord and at the proper time he will exalt us. James says that we see it also in first Peter chapter five. So you see the practical wisdom that's given there and then the spiritual wisdom that applies to that as well.

Verse eight, do not go out hastily to plead your case, lest what will you do in the end when your neighbor humiliates you? Now before continuing on with this, when I was pastor, when I was senior pastor at my previous church in Kansas, there were sometimes, you know, certain controversies would come up and there were people that wondered why I wasn't doing something about this right now.

And I would explain to them, I want to see how things are going to go here. I don't really want to make a response until I see how this person's going to response and we all get together and talk and then through wisdom, then we'll address the congregation and inform them as to the matter that's going on.

So I always tried to be slow in responding to things. I didn't want to respond quickly and then make too much of a matter than it really was. So do not go out hastily to plead your case, lest what you do in the end when your neighbor humiliates you, it turns out he was the right one.

And you were the person that had this wrong. Instead, what do we have in verses nine and 10, plead your case with your neighbor and do not reveal the secret of another, lest he who hears it bring disgrace upon you and the bad report about you will not turn away.

So settle the matter between the two of you before making it public, if you can. And this is similar to instruction that Jesus has for us. Of course, we have the proper order of church discipline that's given in Matthew 18.

If your brother sins against you, go and talk to your brother just between the two of you. And if you have won your brother and he repents, then good, then it doesn't have to. You don't have to bring other people into that and it doesn't have to be a bigger deal.

But if he will not listen to you, then it starts to kind of grow in the witnesses that come against him to say, yes, he's wrong and he needs to repent. And we can testify that he hasn't. But you also think about what Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew, Chapter five, verse twenty five, he says, make friends quickly with your opponent at law while you are with him on the way so that your opponent may not hand you over to the judge and the judge to the officer and you be thrown into prison.

I I think that Jesus had this proverb in mind when he said that there in Matthew, Chapter five. So we go on to let's see, verse eleven here. And this is where we start now, that succession of rapid fire proverbs.

But even these first few proverbs are connected. You'll you'll kind of see the similarities like apples of gold in settings of silver is a word spoken in right circumstances, like an earring of gold and an ornament of fine gold is a wise reprover to a listening ear.

So you see how things are kind of following the same theme here, a word spoken in right circumstances is is rich. It's good. It is pleasing and it is encouraging to other people. We've been talking about that as we've been going through First Corinthians, 14, that you speak words of sense in the presence of the congregation so that they may lift others up, that it may benefit the entire body of Christ, like an earring of gold and an ornament of fine gold.

So you see those things as being in the ear, right, is a wise reprover to a listening ear. So an ear that is receptive to the words of wisdom that are given by a trustworthy counselor, that's a rich ear that is able to receive good counsel and then live according to that.

Verse 13, like the cold of snow in the time of harvest, is a faithful envoy to those who send him, for he refreshes the soul of his masters. So you think of the snow as being a covering on the ground that is therefore going to water the ground and it enriches the ground for the day that the sowing comes and then produces a harvest.

So the faithful envoy of those who send him, when you have faithful counselors that come to you and either have to correct you or give you wise wisdom, there is soil that has been richly provided for and it's going to grow up and produce a great harvest.

It's kind of the picture that's being painted for us in verse 14, like clouds and wind without rain is a man who boasts of his gifts falsely. What we've been talking about as we've been going through 1 Corinthians 12, 13 and 14, we've been talking about spiritual gifts and how the Corinthians were boasting in those gifts falsely, not using them for the reason the Holy Spirit gave them.

And that is for the benefit and the edification of the church. And so and so they are they would be like clouds and wind without rain, clouds without water, wind without rain is it doesn't do anything.

It covers the sun and the wind doesn't accomplish anything. It does nothing but make the ground thirst does not actually satisfy the other person. Verse 15, when one is slow to anger, a ruler may be persuaded and a soft tongue breaks the bone.

I think we can understand the practical wisdom in that. You just start yelling at somebody. Well, they're not going to listen to what it is that you have to say. Even rulers can be persuaded by kindness and respectfulness when a matter is brought before them.

A soft tongue or one that speaks gently breaks the bone, breaks even the most hardened person to be able to hear with gentle words, with a good tone that which is being said. Verse 16. Have you found honey eat only enough for you lest you have more than your fill and vomited?

Honey is good stuff, is it not? It's kind of like a natural medicine. I love honey. I eat it all the time. I'll just get a piece of bread out and put some honey on it. But what happens if you eat too much honey?

Yeah, even even a good thing. You can get too much of a good thing and it be bad for you. So all things in moderation. That's the practical wisdom that's given there. Verse 17. Let your foot rarely be in your neighbor's house lest he have more than his fill of you and hate you.

I think that's pretty straightforward. Don't become a nuisance. And sometimes, though, that can be difficult for us to gauge. So this is another one of those places where somebody else's advice might be helpful to you.

If somebody says to you, hey, maybe back off of that person a little bit. Don't be too much to them. Sometimes with our own relatives, we need to be this way, right? Be a little more thoughtful as to how much time we're spending over there.

Maybe we need to let them have some time to themselves. Like a club and a sword and a sharp arrow is a man who bears false witness against his neighbor. All of those things are deadly and harmful. And so is a person who lies about another.

He brings harm against his neighbor. Verse 19. Like an aching tooth and a slipping foot is trust in a treacherous man in a day of distress. Don't trust in the treacherous. Don't trust in those who are not trustworthy or what they do.

The betrayal that you will experience is just like an ongoing pain, an aching tooth, a foot that is constantly slipping, which is a reference to pain, pain in the foot. Verse 20. Like one who takes off a garment on a cold day or like vinegar on soda is he who sings songs to an aching heart.

Now, this is not saying that it's wrong to try to cheer up a friend, but rather our response needs to be according to the circumstance. For example, if you have a friend who's lost a loved one and they're mourning, they have a genuine reason to mourn.

It's not it's not an unreasonable like I'm being blue. I just want to be in a bad mood today. It's nothing like that. They're mourning over the loss of somebody they're not going to see again until they get to heaven or worse.

It's somebody that they've lost who was not a Christian. What should be the response in that kind of a situation? The apostle Paul said in Romans 12, 15, to weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice.

So when a person's heart is is feeling very mournful in a situation like that, we should mourn with them. But if somebody's heart is joyful and they want to be glad and be merry, yeah, then sing songs with them.

So we're responding in a right kind of a situation. There is the advice that particular proverb is giving verse 21. If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat. And if he is thirsty, give him water to drink, for you will keep burning coals on his head and Yahweh will repay you.

Where do we see those verses in the New Testament? Same place. It's in Romans chapter 12, where the apostle Paul says, don't take vengeance out on somebody who has wronged you, but rather vengeance is mine, says the Lord.

On the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat. And then he quotes from Proverbs 25 verses 21 and 22. And just like Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount, you have heard that it was said, love your neighbor and hate your enemy.

But I say to you, love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you. God's judgment will come upon those who do wickedly. May we submit to the Lord and trust in his sovereignty. And in his will, even in situations where we've been wronged by another.

Verse 23, the north wind brings forth rain and a tongue of secrets, an indignant face. What kind of rain does north wind bring? A cold, biting rain, right? And so the same as as a backbiting tongue. That's kind of the reference here.

What what sort of facial expression do you have when somebody is backbiting, when they're they're snapping at you or even gossiping? You're you kind of screw up your face, right? And it kind of wince at that.

Well, it's the same way with with the north wind. That kind of facial reaction you have to the north wind rain is the reaction you have to somebody with a backbiting tongue. Verse 24, it is better to live in a corner of the roof than in a house shared with a contentious woman.

We've read similar Proverbs to this wives. Those of you who argue and bicker frequently with your husband. The Book of Proverbs has some very harsh words for you. It would be better for him to just go live on a corner in his house than down in the house with you.

So be a woman who is comforting, encouraging, rebuking if needing to be, but doing so in love and that you give grace to all who hear, especially your spouse and your children in the home. Verse 25, like cold water to a weary soul.

So is a good report from a distant land. Cold drink is refreshing. So is good news. And there's nothing more refreshing than the greatest news. The gospel of Jesus Christ. Verse 26, like a muddied spring in a corrupted well, is a righteous man shaking before the wicked one who is intimidated by the wicked to the point that he would give up his principles.

What good was his righteousness if through a little bit of intimidation he would be willing to give it up to them? So you consider these two proverbs back to back, like cold water to a weary soul. So is a good report from a distant land.

It is refreshing to the soul when we hear good news. But like a muddied spring and a corrupted well is a righteous man shaking before the wicked. He has no good thing to offer because he's given up his principles when intimidated by wicked or evil people.

Verse 27, to eat too much honey is not good, nor is it glory to search out one's own glory. Now, this is kind of like verse 16 earlier. Have you found honey? Eat only enough for you lest you have more than your fill and vomited out.

So we have here at the start of 27 to eat too much honey is not good, nor is it glory to search out one's own glory. That's that's too much. It's good to do noble things, but if you're doing it for your benefit and not for the benefit of others, then it's it's like you take something good and turn it into something bitter.

Later on, we're going to see in Proverbs 27 to let a stranger praise you and not your own mouth, a foreigner and not your own lips. Finally, our last verse here in Proverbs 25, verse 28, like a city that is broken into and without a wall is a man without restraint over his spirit.

We need to be disciplined. We need to protect ourselves from evil things that attempt to, well, attempt to tempt us and lead us astray into the way of destruction, but rather walk the path of life after the righteousness that we have been given in Christ Jesus, our Lord, turning not to the left or to the right.

But as it says in Hebrews 12, we remain fixed on Jesus, the author and the perfecter of our faith. Set your eyes upon Christ, walk in his ways all your days, and everlasting life will be your reward.

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 when we understand the text.