Pages

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Wisdom Project 2/11


......... Proverbs 11:22 ...........

Proverbs 11 - NIV
Proverbs 11 - ESV

Proverbs 11:2 . . .
When pride comes, then comes disgrace,
but with humility comes wisdom.


Commentary:

Observe, 1. How he that exalts himself is here abased, and contempt put upon him. When pride comes then comes shame. Pride is a sin which men have reason to be themselves ashamed of; it is a shame to a man who springs out of the earth, who lives upon alms, depends upon God, and has forfeited all he has, to be proud. It is a sin which others cry out shame on and look upon with disdain; he that is haughty makes himself contemptible; it is a sin for which God often brings men down, as he did Nebuchadnezzar and Herod, whose ignominy immediately attended their vain-glory; for God resists the proud, contradicts them, and counterworks them, in the thing they are proud of, Isa. 2:11, etc. 2. How he that humbles himself is here exalted, and a high character is given him. As with the proud there is folly, and will be shame, so with the lowly there is wisdom, and will be honour, for a man’s wisdom gains him respect and makes his face to shine before men; or, if any be so base as to trample upon the humble, God will give them grace which will be their glory. Considering how safe, and quiet, and easy, those are that are of a humble spirit, what communion they have with God and comfort in themselves, we will say, With the lowly is wisdom.

From:
Matthew Henry Complete Commentary, at Bible Study Tools

Blessings
3 John 8
Bill H.
_________

WISDOM PROJECT: For this month, I will supply links to both the NIV and ESV versions of the chapter each day (Feb. 1 = Proverbs 1, etc.) in the post—both of which contain the audio.

And in the month of February a unique feature for the WP will be Commentaries on selected passages/verses from within the chapter for the day. And for the most part, these comments will be from links in the Online Bible Study Resources feature here on the 3 John 8 blog (scroll down in the column to the right to find the links).

Note to Proverbs class participants: this is the place where you should post your application comments for the Daily Proverbs Reading Assignment.

28 comments:

Bill H said...

My apologies ladies for the picture, but it's so cute, I couldn't resist. :-)

BH

Jim Morrison said...

Verse 4 - I am reminded that no material or monetary wealth will mean anything when we stand before God, only righteousness will matter. Only the righteousness that comes through Christ.

Verse 24 - This verse brings me back to the Hands and Feet Project. These men realized that they needed to do something about the poverty and the needs that they saw around them. Keeping their wealth was not going to help them but look what God can do with their faithfulness to give freely what is God's in the first place.

Unknown said...

With the admonition in v20, the LORD delights in the blameless, and detests those with a perverse heart. The condition of the heart - mine especially, requires one to be “blameless” before God; then we can properly be concerned for the heart condition of others. As we condition our hearts to be acceptable to the LORD, so he finds favor, delights in, desires, and finds good pleasure in it then we will be in the proper position to led, guide, and direct others with a genuine motive and help them get their hearts in the place that the LORD will also be delighted for them. Even today it matters – He cares, and the lives of others depend on the condition of our hearts.
...and the pic of the pig, it helped as I will now always remember that Prov 11 has the verse (22) referencing the gold ring...
Mike T.

Anonymous said...

Proverbs 11:2 . . .
When pride comes, then comes disgrace,
but with humility comes wisdom.
This verse reminds me of [1Pe 5:5-6 Likewise ye younger, be subject to the elder, and all of you bind on humility towards one another; for God sets himself against the proud, but to the humble gives grace. (6) Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in the due time; ]
God hates pride. It is the exact opposite from the personality of Christ. God wants us to be transformed into his image.

John Erbentraut

Unknown said...

Verse 7: "When a wicked man dies, his hope perishes; all he expected from his power comes to nothing."
I cannot help but think of my grandfather when I see this verse. He was a WWII vet, and he lived through some horrific things, including the depression. He hoarded a lot of things and he loved saving his money. He hated the thought of another depression. Not that saving money is bad, but he never seemed to posses any joy during his life. I don't know if He was a believer; his life definitely showed no fruit, but he lived for this world. He had no vision for the future things to come. He worked so hard to make a name for himself, he was a local barber, and yet, what did he take to the grave? This is such a great eye opener for me. I need to be pursuing the eternal kingdom that awaits me. I get so caught up in the things of this world, that I forget this is not my real home.

Unknown said...

What a challenging passage for us. This chapter much like the last, begs us to evaluate ourselves and who we truly serve. If we are serving self, we will only reap disaster and devastation (v. 28). However, if we serve God and strive for righteousness we will reap all the blessing and find a reward that will last forever (v. 18). This is a great passage to consider each day as we wake and begin the day, "who are you serving today Chris?"

Tim K. said...

Verses 12 and 13 remind me that it is better to hold your toungue (something I have been working on and continue to need work on). In stead of mocking and critical words I need to evaluate uninteneded damage that my words may be causing.

Carrie L. said...

This chapter is full of contrasts. It says one thing about the righteous and then comes back and says something about the wicked(antithetical parallelism).

The last verse of this chapter stood out to me today. 30 "If the righteous receive their due on earth, how much more the ungodly and the sinner". This reminded me of a similar passage in James 1:7-8 "That a man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does".
This verses refers to the good and the bad. Whether we are righteous receiving our due or the ungodly we will all be judged by God. "Since we have these promoses, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates our body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God" (2 Corithians 7:1)

Unknown said...

Verse 28 - "He who trusts in his riches will fall, But the righteous will flourish like the green leaf." We cannot rely on ourselves or material possessions, we must fully rely on God & His provision.

Sarah said...

Verse 29 was a good eye opener. A man who brings trouble to his family inherits the wind. I think this means when a person cause trouble within a family means that he will inherit nothing.
It reminds me that my family is precious and that family is important and we need to love each other.

TWash said...

Well, this again goes back to my last comment. Humility brings wisdom! When we humble ourselves we are saying that we do not know better. Which, whether we think it or not, we do not know better. Therefore when we remain humble we remain teachable. The arrogance that pride brings comes with destruction soon after!

Unknown said...

Proverbs 11:2
"When pride comes, then comes disgrace,but with the humble is wisdom."
- This hits home for me as I can be a very prideful person. I knowing the truth that this holds of how disgrace later follows such actions is a good reminder to strive to be more humble even if it means that I don't have to prove that I may be right or defend myself. This is one of the hardest lessons in life, and if I can get a head start on it it will save me a lot of grief.

Jessica said...

Vs. 28-29 "Whoever trusts in his riches will fall, but the righteous will flourish like a green leaf. Whoever troubles his own household will inherit the wind, and the fool will be servant to the wise of heart."
There were a couple of reminders for me in these verses. "whoever trust in his riches will fall" we should not place our trust in what we have. We should only rely on God. "Whoever troubles his family will inherit the wind" This is just a reminder of how much we should value family and how they are important to us.

Danielle Cummings said...

Its so important for people to be aware of whats going on aound them in the sense that we're affected by other people naturally. Verse 14 puts alot into perspective for us.."Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety." This means that whoever we surround ourselves with is who we will most likely become like. People who hangout foolish people, are obviously going to stuggle with their walk with Christ. Its comforting to read the second part of verse 14 where is talks about surrounding ourselves with wise people and we'll be safe.

SarahK said...

This chapter goes back and forth about good gets this and evil gets this... Its interesting. At the beginning of the reading I was thinking, 'yeah but it doesn't tell us when we are rewarded for good'. I know sometimes (and it so often seems like most times)we don't get rewarded right away, sometimes we ourselves don't even see the reward. By the end of the chapter I thought 'why should God tell us WHEN?' If he said we will always be rewarded right away there would be a lot people claiming Christianity for what they can get. If He told us it we won't always get a reward right now, I think a lot more people would give up on their faith, find it worthless.

Renee K said...

v.11- By the blessing of the upright a city is exalted,
but by the mouth of the wicked it is overthrown.
This reminds me so much of what we've been talking about with missions conference this week. Today in our session we were talked to about how if people would go to the cities and seek to truly reach the cities, so many more people would be reached. As I listened to that, I thought of the opposite of this. The fact is, our culture and society respond to what goes on in the CITY! Fashion, movies, literature, news, etc... it all starts in the city. Just like this verse talks about... By the blessing of the upright a city is exalted,
but by the mouth of the wicked it is overthrown....our world is controlled by the cities right now who are controlled by ungodly people. It makes me wonder... what would our world look like if Christians went into the cities and began winning more and more people to Christ so taht the cities truly were blessed by the upright and therefore exalted?

Lisa Griffiths said...

Where there is no guidance, a people falls,
but in an abundance of counselors there is safety.
This reminds me so much about the type of leader I need to be. I need to be a leader that pushes people to safety in Christ. I need to be a leader that has followers that want to follow. Having wisdom is one of the ways I can pursue knowledge and people are going to begin to see that and follow.

Nate said...

Verse 14 hit me the most especially with recent circumstances. It says this "Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety." The last few days I have just had some tough news about my dad who is not healthy and I have truly fighting with God about the suffering he goes through. And I have THE BEST friends in the world who watch out for me and care and are willing to listen and even encourage me when I am struggling with such things. I could not imagine what I would do without counsel...well I would probably be falling often!

Danyelle Steckiel said...

Vs. 7 is a reminder to me that this world and all that is in it will not last. "When a wicked man dies, his hope perishes." We have to be careful and make sure that we are putting our hope in the right things. When we put our hope in God and the salvation that He brings, we are being wise. He is the only thing that we should be putting our hope in because He is the only thing/One that will last!

Renee said...

Through the blessing of the upright a city is exalted, but by the mouth of the wicked it is destroyed.

Our words effect not only ourselves but others also and not only our words but our actions as well. The power of what we say has a wide range of influence on other people and our actions are not usually acted out without effect. There are always some one watching and that person may be influenced to do wrong or good based on what we are doing and saying.

Ashlie said...

Verse 30 really hit me the most. It is talking about how the fruit of the righteous comes from the tree of life. It reminded my of Psalms one where it is talking about how righteous man is like a tree planted by the streams of water and yields his fruits in its season.

Krista Harrison said...

But in abundance of counselors there is victory. I liked this verse because I try have as many godly people in my life as possible. I have godly people in my life because it's important to have that wisdom in my life. I also liked the verse that said with he who conceals a matter can be trusted. There is something to be said about knowing and playing dumb. I'm a firm believer in never regretting what you don't say.

Krista Harrison said...

But in abundance of counselors there is victory. I liked this verse because I try have as many godly people in my life as possible. I have godly people in my life because it's important to have that wisdom in my life. I also liked the verse that said with he who conceals a matter can be trusted. There is something to be said about knowing and playing dumb. I'm a firm believer in never regretting what you don't say.

Rachel said...

"When the wicked dies, his hope will perish..."
This brief line make me contemplate the fact that, no matter what happens to the unregenerate man in this life [whether he is a wealthy man who lives a life of lavish ease or an impoverished girl who has been sold into prostitution], it is far better than what eternity will bring for their souls. This life is the best it gets for them, without Christ. Any hope they may have dies with them because it is not eternal.

Gabe Vanderstel said...

vs1. "Dishonest Scales are detestable to the Lord,but an accurate weight is His delight"

My car broke down a few weeks ago and a guy from my church wanted to be a blessing by letting me buy his car for a good price. Since I have been looking for employment for a few months, i have very little money to pay him. He wanted to help, so he offered to let me pay as I can and would say that he gave it as a gift so that i wouldn't have to pay taxes. I had the decision to make. At first I tried to make myself think that it was God's way of providing, but after praying i had to tell him that if i was going to buy if for a specific price, i would need to pay the full amount in taxes to be honest. This was an example of having to make a decision in a real life situation. God loves integrity....I MUST be a man of integrity

Melissa Jordan said...

Wow, it really makes me stop and think, what are my motives? Who am I really living for? It is so easy to get in the rut of living for ourselves and get caught up in numerous things that may not be bad in and of them selves but its the love of them that causes us to stumble or to take our eyes off of the one they should be on. It makes me think of a saying my uncle says quite a lot in his messages if it ties in, " You never see a hurse pulling a u haul"... meaning you don't take stuff with you when you die.

Bill H said...

From Josh Howard

Proverbs 11 Response:
Verse 2 was shows us that when someone is proud they will eventually be brought to a place of humbleness but not in a pleasant way. When someone is humble they will gain wisdom. This tells me that I need to listen to others that are in authority over me that know and and have gone through life to know more than I do to be able to give me sound wisdom in situations. There are many times I feel so proud that I tell myself, as I am receiving good advice, that they don't know what they're talking about and I know what I need to do. Thats prideful of me and frankly most of the times I have done that, things have never really gone well. Verse 3 was interesting to me, I read it in the ESV as well and it reads "The integrity of the upright guides them, but the crookedness of the treacherous destroys them." What does that exactly mean? I am guided by me being honest and real with people? I guess that because I am writing to you through email that you could answer that question personally for me coach lol. Verse 5 and 6 go hand in hand for me. It was challenging to read the second part of verse 5. That the wicked falls by his own wickedness. Not by any other reason but for his own stubbornness and disobedience a fool will fall. I have spent much time wasted on blaming others for my wrong doing. When I think about that now I realize that was so selfish and ignorant of me. I should have taken responsibility for my actions and learned from them not look for the easy way out or look to blame others. Verse 14 reminds me of the importance of seeking counsel. When one is not guided, they fall. There is no reason for me to question the importance of seeking wisdom in situations or circumstances instead of making rash decisions on my own.

Unknown said...

(I accidentally wrote this one on the "hands and Feet" post at 11:06)

verse 17caught my attention to day about being kind "a man who is kind benefits himself…" this verse was a great reminder to me of whether i have been a kind hearted man. I looked at the day and unfortunately there were many moments were i was not kind. This was a god reminder to watch carefully what i say to others and watching out for my selfishness.