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Sunday, February 28, 2010

Wisdom Project 2/28



Proverbs 28 - NIV
Proverbs 28 - ESV

Proverbs 28:14 . . .
Blessed is the man who always fears the LORD,
but he who hardens his heart falls into trouble.


Commentary
Not men, but the Lord; there is a fear and reverence due to men, according to the stations in which they are; but a slavish fear of man, and which deters from the worship of God and obedience to him, is criminal, and brings a snare; and a man, under the influence of it, cannot be happy: nor is a servile fear of God intended, a fear of wrath and damnation, or a distrust of his grace, a continual calling in question his love, and an awful apprehension of his displeasure and vengeance; for in such fear is torment, and with it a man can never be happy; but it is a reverence and godly fear, a filial one, a fear of God and his goodness, which he puts into the hearts of his people; a fear, indeed, of offending him, of sinning against him, by which a man departs from evil, and forsakes it, as well as confesses it; but is what arises from a sense of his goodness: and it is well when such a fear of God is always before the eyes and on the hearts of men; in their closets and families, in their trade and commerce, in all companies into which they come, as, well as in the house of God and the assembly of his saints, where he is to be feared; . . .


Blessings
3 John 8
Bill H.
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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.
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11 comments:

Unknown said...

V14 Blessed is the one who fears the LORD always, but whoever hardens his heart will fall into calamity.

“Here is: 1 – The benefit of a holy caution; and 2 – the danger of a sinful presumption.”
“1 - Happy is the man who has and maintains a holy awe and a reverence of God, his glory, goodness, and government.”
“2 – He that hardens his heart, that mocks at fear, and sets God and his judgments at defiance, shall fall into mischief; and whatever sin he falls into it is owing to the hardness of his heart.”
Above from Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible.

Dear LORD, may the choices I make today honor you, please you, and help in some way to increase your kingdom. Bind and remove evil. You alone are holy; you alone are worthy; and you alone deserve all honor, glory, and praise. Thank you Lord, in Jesus' name, Amen.
Mike T.

Melissa Jordan said...

"Happy is the man who has and maintains a holy awe and a reverence of God, His glory, goodness, and government." I love this verse because it is a good reminder that if we keep our focus on what it needs to be on our heart attitude and our outlook on life will be so much better, not that life suddenly becomes simple, but we see that God is in control, and trust and obey Him when we see and accept that He is in control and are in complete awe and reverance of HIM!:)

Krista Harrison said...

Whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool,
but he who walks in wisdom will be delivered.
27 Whoever gives to the poor will not want,
For so long as I was growing up i depending upon my own mind and my own strength. I thought I had things figured out but I guess you could say that i was definitely foolish...maybe because I didn't walk in wisdom but more because I depended on myself and my mind which is foolish. One thing that I was also thinking of when I read this was what Longman said about the rich and how they are expected to be generous. This proverb says that if we give to the needy we won't want and that's because God not only provides for us financially but also we wont want in the aspect of material things because we will understand what's really important. The last thing that caught my eye on this proverb was verse 14 where it says but some harden their hearts... I think as Christians we need to be more aware of how subtly harden our hearts can happen

Mandi said...

14 Blessed is the man who always fears the LORD, but he who hardens his heart falls into trouble. It all starts with a true fear of the Lord. I need to first Fear the Lord and then work on wisdom and everything else. If I don't fear the Lord it will cause me to harden my heart and fall into trouble!

Rachel said...

"Whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom will be delivered."
My pastor spoke this morning about walking in humility before God. The verse preceding this says, "...the one who trusts in the Lord will be enriched." To trust in oneself is pride; to be wholly trusting upon God for all things, to walk in His wisdom, is true humility. Even Christ lived an example of this: He submitted Himself to the will of His Father and conducted Himself in the wisdom of heaven. Even so, we ought also to avoid any false hope, trust, or pride in ourselves or the things of this world. Wisdom comes from a trust in the Lord.

Jessica said...

"Whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool,but he who walks in wisdom will be delivered."
This was a great challenge to me today. So many times i rely on what I know to make decisions but I need to walk in wisdom and through prayer and guidence from other chrisitans make decisions.

Renee K said...

ok.. so much of proverbs, including this chapter, talks about the fool fvs the wise. Doing evil vs. doing good. I've seen so much of the fool vs. the wise playing out in life right now in a situation being dealt with. It's hard to see someone close that has acted foolishly and therefore is now reaping the consequences of that. He didn't take the advice and counsel of those around him. However, he still has sought the Lord it seems. he still reads the words, spends time in prayer, speaks words of encouragement to others. It seems so contradictory that someone exhibit characteristics of both wisdom and foolishness, and yet all of us have the potential to do so. I have to daily keep myself in check. I know this did not have to do directly with any one verse, but some of the verses brought it to mind.

Gabe Vanderstel said...

26. "He who trusts in his own mind is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom will be delivered"

I feel as though this is the theme of proverbs that is repeated over and over again in many different ways. The point that the writer is trying to stress to the reader is that man's wisdom is folly. It is a call for God's wisdom to be obtained by the reader and for him to realize that his own mind is foolish. What I want to take away from the daily reading of proverbs is that I MUST ask for wisdom because I have no ability to live the life that God want for me if I don't apply the wisdom that God gives to those who ask.

SarahK said...

"but the one who chases fantasies will have his fill of poverty" I love/hate this verse. Love it because of how true it is. Hate it because of how convicting is. The writer might not even be meaning this, but I think there is truth in it. I don't know how many times I get caught in a day dream or some sort elaborate fantasy of how I'd like my future to look. But nothing comes from it. Especially if its solely what I want and not what God wants.

Unknown said...

V 13 challenged me to remember to always tell the truth and be up front with people. Especially people that I am accountable to or that care a lot about me to invest time and energy into my life. In my past that is something I failed miserably at. I was always concerned about what people would think of me and I honestly lived in fear of people. V14 touched on that for me basically repeating that same saying about fearing the Lord. And that should be our focus. We should care less about what people think and more about what God thinks and says because that is what matters the most.

Nate said...

Whoever misleads the upright into an evil way will fall into his own pit,
but the blameless s will have a goodly inheritance. That verse really caught me. I like getting into trouble (fun trouble not real trouble) and it is very easy to persuade friends to be goofy and make silly decisions. I need to be very careful not to mislead someone into making a horrible decision with me because this could cause me to fall into my own pit of destruction. It is not worth it to even think about deceiving people into sin!