The Proverbs 31 Project: Commenting January 15th on Proverbs 15:1-5

January 15;  Proverbs 15, Verses 1-5

[Please note: The first two paragraphs below are repeated each day for new readers.  My amateur comments start below the verses from Proverbs.]

Christians looking for a simple way to review the Bible regularly, have long been convenienced by the fact that the book of Proverbs has 31 chapters, the same number as most of our months.  Each chapter includes multiple bite-sized verses (uhm, proverbs) and can be read through simply in one sitting, one appropriately numbered chapter per day through the month.  A person might read through the Proverbs a chapter a day during any month, but why mess with your head (reading an extra chapter on one, two, or three days!) like that when there are 7 months every year perfectly suited for the endeavor?

My idea here is to reprint about 1/7 of the verses from each day's chapter throughout this year, every time a 31 day month pops up, and then offer a few comments from The Barking Owl.  So in January, we will get through the first few verses of every chapter and then in March, the next group, and so on, until December comes around and we can finally get to the last set of verses in each chapter and complete the book's reading.  If you are smarter than I am (is there any doubt?), you will read the whole chapter every day, every 31 day month, and then you will have read the whole book 7 times this year!  By then you are guaranteed to at least be wiser than The Barking Owl , though no one will ever match the wisdom of Solomon!

[All Bible passages are from the NIV, and are copied from www.Biblegateway.com]

Proverbs 15

¹ A gentle answer turns away wrath,
   but a harsh word stirs up anger.

 ² The tongue of the wise adorns knowledge,
   but the mouth of the fool gushes folly.

 ³ The eyes of the LORD are everywhere,
   keeping watch on the wicked and the good.

 ⁴ The soothing tongue is a tree of life,
   but a perverse tongue crushes the spirit.

 ⁵ A fool spurns a parent’s discipline,
   but whoever heeds correction shows prudence.

1) Somewhere in my writings I referred to this verse as one of the most applicable verses around.  So often we find ourselves the object of SOMEBODY'S ire.  Perhaps the clerk you bugged, or the guy you bumped, or another driver you bothered was having a horrible day and decided to let loose on you!  But if you manage to give him Solomon's old "gentle answer" routine instead of firing both barrels right back at him, you get to watch the anger just melt away!  It's like a little miracle, but you will see that Solomon knows what he's talking about.

2) The second half of this verse makes obvious sense.  We have all known people, fools, whose mouths "gush folly".  They say one stupid thing after another; or a series of profane laced sentences fills every paragraph and we get so exhausted from searching through all the ore of useless words that we can never find the nugget of truth that may have been buried within.  

But the first half of verse 2 is more interesting.  The wise tongue adorns knowledge.  Sounds like that means a person may have some knowledge to share, but it can waste away if he does not also have a "wise tongue" to bring it out in an attractive manner.  The word elucidate comes to mind.  Here are its synonyms:  explain, clarify, explicate, expound, illuminate, spell out, interpret  I have often been frustrated in an attempt to clearly 'illuminate' an idea, or an understanding I have on some subject or another verbally.  Personally, I do much better in writing my thoughts (I hope).  Too bad for me Solomon didn't say anything about 'keyboards adorning knowledge'. 

3) I am so glad that "The eyes of the LORD are everywhere".  It makes me feel good to think that nothing gets past Him because when I do what is right, and nobody notices, I know that He might be pleased with me and it pleases me to please Him.  It makes me feel good to think that nothing gets past Him because when I do something wrong, and I know it, and even if nobody else knows about it, I can share the truth of my sin with God.  And He shares the truth of His forgiveness with me. 

1 John 1:9  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

This gladness about His eyes being everywhere was only true for me AFTER I became a Christian.  Before, I preferred to hide with my sin.  Now I have found that being "in Christ" is better than being "in sin".

4) The contrast here is between a soothing tongue and a perverse tongue.  Do these seem like the opposites of each other to you?  I would think soothing/severe, or soothing/inciteful; and maybe correct/perverse, or rational/perverse.  But we should go with the wisest man in the world and try to see what he is getting at.  

I think he started with the two modes of living and worked backwards to the source of those life conditions.  In what kind of soil does the 'tree of life' prosper?  A soil rich with soothing words.  From parents who speak with love, and in peace.  Where strains of joy and a fruitful vocabulary abound.  And what is it that 'crushes a spirit'?   A perverse tongue.  Parents who are insulting and degrading.  Being surrounded by the words of abuse, hateful tones, angry blasts and unfair rants.  Profane and graphic imagery is only crushing for a child or a teen, and does, in fact, no good for anyone of any age.

5) Once again Sol hits on this theme of obedience.  He is not babbling from senility, but emphasizing the main points of his life understanding. His repetition should not bore us, but sober us.  It is vital that a youngster finds the will to submit to his parents' good discipline.

Sixth on my Bucket List: The VAT

 What is a BUCKET LIST?

Well, it means one thing to everyone in the world, and maybe something else to me. I think it means a list of buckets. So with the help of thesaurus.com, I came up with a literal bucket list and now I am trying to wax philosophical about each type of container, somehow relating it to our human condition. This is the list of containers I have empathized with this week:  the brazier, the can, the cask, the hod and the pail   Today's reading about The VAT might make more sense if you click on,  and read those, first.  The last discussion will be about my favorite 'bucket'; The VESSEL.

Ah, the vat!  A vat is a bucket.  It's more like a vat, but let's just say it's a bucket shall we?  I'm thinking that a vat could even be a hole in the ground, as in 'a vat of quicksand'.  But let us say that a vat is any giant unwieldy  form of a container that you might dump a great big load of wild ingredients into, and then slowly stir (not mix!) with a large spoon (no, not a spoon; that would turn the vat into a cauldron and that's not on my list) stick (yeah, a stick!  You always stir what's in a vat with a stick for some reason).  Clear?

Didn't think so.  But what goes into the vat of life?  I'm thinking icky.  Let's say you are standing between a cask and a vat.  Life starts handing you stuff (no, not lemons) and your job is to sort each item into the proper container.  Ready, set, GO!

*Your Mom and Dad gave you a lot of love, and you save that precious commodity in the cask.  A no brainer!

*You take your sister's toys and now she hates you!  This is more complicated. Put the guilt in the vat where it will fester, the repentance in your cask so you don't forget it, dump the hate in the vat so it can be swallowed up for a while, and the forgiveness you should treasure in the cask forever. 

* Someone shows you porn and you get hooked!  Certainly the porn has to go in the vat, but it's not that simple.  Do it now, or the vat will overflow when you can finally toss off (and into the vat) the growing tally of addiction, lust, deceit, waste, lies, vain imaginings and the loss of years.  Is there anything for the cask?  If the rest does go in the vat, then there is overcoming, victory, purity and a newfound understanding that a person is so much more than a body.  These are treasures that one might have gained without adding so much to the vat, but, too late now.

*Your spouse challenges your character every day.  Your love for your spouse, and from your spouse, will only grow as it is cherished in a good cask.  Your selfishness needs to be dumped in the vat along with the laziness, the unfair fighting, the failed investments and the burned meals.  The gift of growing patience, along with humility and sacrifice, will grow and prosper in your cask.

You get the idea.  Some of the stuff of life is vile and base, and should only be rid of, while some is rich in value and must be honored and carefully kept.  By the way; the stick of circumstances is always running through the vat and stirring up trouble.  It always brings the most relevant of the worst sin and temptation right to the top at just the wrong time!

picture from nebraskaharvestore.com

But what can be done about that heaping vat full of sin and guilt and shameful memories? The answer is two-fold, with the first step found here:

If we confess our sins he is faithful and just and will forgive us and purify us from all unrighteousness.    1 John 1:9

The stuff in the vat which is of our own making (probably 90%); our sin, our responses to our own sin, our defending our sin, our justifying our sin, our blaming others for our sin etc., can all be 'purified' when we simply confess it. We are not informing God about what is in our vat when we confess, but we are simply looking in as He points, and agreeing with Him (always a good idea!). Just as a 'confession of faith' is not some kind of guilty admission, but is a statement of agreement. So when we agree with God about what's in the vat, or what should be in the vat, He is 'faithful and just' and then, He drains the vat!  At least of each wrong we recognize and acknowledge as sin.

The second step, now that we are forgiven, is to forgive all those offenses we have been dealt and which might be clinging to the walls of the vat like so much cooked on gristle.

       Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you  

             has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

                                                                           Colossians 3:13

And with these simple steps of confession and forgiveness, we are fit for living in God's presence forever!  But to rephrase 1 John 1:9 above; if we do not confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will not forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.  Why should He?  To cling to our sin is not just negating the cask and all of its good wares, but declaring we prefer to live in the vat itself.

[For more on why pornography, and other crap, should be thrown in the vat sooner rather than later, check out this article I wrote last year.]

First on My Bucket List: THE BRAZIER

There are few things better than a clever turn of phrase.  Well there's pizza, and there's lemonade/hot chocolate, depending on the season, and there's Sam Cooke singing 'Twistin the night away'; but right after those things, there is the clever turn of phrase.  'Bucket List' is one of my favorites.

When this phrase appeared in our common culture not too many years ago it had just the right balance of meaning and mystery.  The two words are perfectly understandable on their own, and even put together could possibly mean the different types or sizes of containers that a farmer needs and has made note of, before heading to town.  But there is another understanding.  The Bucket portion of the phrase is a vague reference to the old mortality idiom that came from who knows where.  When we die, it is claimed that we somehow "kick the bucket", so a 'Bucket List' may also be the compilation of things one wants to accomplish before he so kicks.  A very clever phrase indeed.

Not being able to decide which was intended as this week's blogging theme, I think I'll combine the two possible meanings of the phrase as I described them above.  I will attempt to produce a list of buckets I might be; and describe the special item that I might (or might not) carry to my grave in each.  

A BRAZIER

picture from schelma.com

Need to carry something burning hot?  Put it in a brazier, and quick!  Best understood as a thick metal pot containing live coals with a grill or plate for cooking.  Or else a pot with live coals and a cover that you might bring to another room  for warmth.  So what very hot item might I carry through my life requiring me to be as tough as a brazier?    I certainly tried, but my sin nature was too hot for me to handle.  While I fanned the flames, it was systematically incinerating my spirit until those flames were finally dealt with by the fourth man in the fiery furnace of Daniel 3:

   Then King Nebuchadnezzar leaped to his feet in amazement and asked his advisers, “Weren’t there three men that we tied up and threw into the fire?”

   They replied, “Certainly, Your Majesty.”

  He said, “Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.” 

He, Jesus Christ, can manage the flames.

If you know you have things to confess, but prefer not to; if you are so ashamed, but too ashamed; if you doubt that even our God of mercy would choose to forgive, or maybe your pride forbids you ask; then you are living with ever burning coals inside.  It may seem that they are dying out and soon they will bother you no more, but actually you are getting thicker and ever more insulated, and seemingly more calloused to their direct effect.

If you would rather not carry such a burning burden, repent, and let it be carried away "as far as the east is from the west".  Once the fiery sinful nature is purged, you will no longer need to be as tough as bronze, or suffering as a cast iron brazier smolders within.  The healing, softening work of God can begin a restorative work in your life.



Coming this week: Can you picture me as a.....

brazier, can, cask, hod, pail, vat, or vessel?