The Proverbs 31 Project: Commenting March 16th on Proverbs 16:6-10

                   March 16th?     Read Proverbs 16!

[Please note: The first two paragraphs below are repeated each day for new readers. My amateur comments are offered below each of today's verses from Proverbs.]

Have you ever noticed that, like most months have 31 days, the Book of Proverbs has 31 chapters? Fascinating right? Well, it is at least interesting, and coincidentally beneficial to those who would like to read a portion of thought-provoking scripture every day of the month. You might like to read the calendar coordinated chapter from Proverbs every day this month (I've included the whole chapter below!) and then see if my comments on a few of its verses line up with your own observations. My plan is to go through the year, writing my response to about one seventh of each chapter's verses every day, during each of the 7 months that have 31 days.  Clear as mud? That's what I thought.

I hope you check it out every day, and leave a comment once in a while. Especially if I say something really off base and need to be corrected, because, as we will learn this month on the 27th, Proverbs 27:5 says

                                "Better is open rebuke than hidden love." 

                                    Today's inspired verses, 6-10, are highlighted in red

                                          (and my questionable comments are in blue).

Proverbs 16

1 To humans belong the plans of the heart,
but from the LORD comes the proper answer of the tongue.

2 All a person’s ways seem pure to them,
but motives are weighed by the LORD.

3 Commit to the LORD whatever you do,
and he will establish your plans.

4 The LORD works out everything to its proper end—
even the wicked for a day of disaster.

5 The LORD detests all the proud of heart.
Be sure of this: They will not go unpunished.

6 Through love and faithfulness sin is atoned for;
through the fear of the LORD evil is avoided.


6) Whose 'love and faithfulness' can atone for sin?  Only God's!  I praise God that He IS so loving and faithful, even to his rebellious creation!    Ephesians 2:8 says,
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—

7 When the LORD takes pleasure in anyone’s way,
he causes their enemies to make peace with them.


7) What a gift that is, to those who please the Lord!  May I, always.


8 Better a little with righteousness
than much gain with injustice.


8) I picture a little old man or woman living all alone in a ramshackle house.  There is nothing to show for the long life of labor, but there is always a smile on the face or a happy tune meddling around the spirit as he or she dwells happily with the clean conscience of a righteous life.


And then there is the picture of strife filling a mansion, as warring factions of a fractured family battle through their spites or ignore and hide from each other.  Without justice, all the fighting is unfair and selfish.  I too would prefer the "little" to the "gain". 

9 In their hearts humans plan their course,
but the LORD establishes their steps.


9) I wonder if this means that the LORD establishes the steps He would WANT us to take; the path most fitting and appropriate for each individual, and full of the greatest blessings.  Our free will is an amazing power.  We are even free to disobey or run away or change any of God's good plans into a life long disaster.  Perhaps we should go ahead and make our human plans, but only after consulting with the Master Project Manager.

10 The lips of a king speak as an oracle,
and his mouth does not betray justice.


10) A good King, that is.  The quality of our leadership is so important!  We willingly elect our reps from among our very selves, and we give them great power to wield over us.  How careful would you be in choosing the juggler if he was going to be flipping chainsaws over your front row seat?  We need leaders who will never "betray justice".

11 Honest scales and balances belong to the LORD;
all the weights in the bag are of his making.

12 Kings detest wrongdoing,
for a throne is established through righteousness.

13 Kings take pleasure in honest lips;
they value the one who speaks what is right.

14 A king’s wrath is a messenger of death,
but the wise will appease it.

15 When a king’s face brightens, it means life;
his favor is like a rain cloud in spring.

16 How much better to get wisdom than gold,
to get insight rather than silver!

17 The highway of the upright avoids evil;
those who guard their ways preserve their lives.

18 Pride goes before destruction,
a haughty spirit before a fall.

19 Better to be lowly in spirit along with the oppressed
than to share plunder with the proud.

20 Whoever gives heed to instruction prospers,[a]
and blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD.

21 The wise in heart are called discerning,
and gracious words promote instruction.[b]

22 Prudence is a fountain of life to the prudent,
but folly brings punishment to fools.

23 The hearts of the wise make their mouths prudent,
and their lips promote instruction.[c]

24 Gracious words are a honeycomb,
sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.

25 There is a way that appears to be right,
but in the end it leads to death.

26 The appetite of laborers works for them;
their hunger drives them on.

27 A scoundrel plots evil,
and on their lips it is like a scorching fire.

28 A perverse person stirs up conflict,
and a gossip separates close friends.

29 A violent person entices their neighbor
and leads them down a path that is not good.

30 Whoever winks with their eye is plotting perversity;
whoever purses their lips is bent on evil.

31 Gray hair is a crown of splendor;
it is attained in the way of righteousness.

32 Better a patient person than a warrior,
one with self-control than one who takes a city.

33 The lot is cast into the lap,
but its every decision is from the LORD.
Footnotes:
Proverbs 16:20 Or whoever speaks prudently finds what is good
Proverbs 16:21 Or words make a person persuasive
Proverbs 16:23 Or prudent / and make their lips persuasive

FLASHBACK FRIDAY! My Favorite Favorite Freckle Poem

I noticed that a few people have been looking at this poem I wrote last summer.  So I looked at it again and I enjoyed it again too, so I thought a few of you might as well.  It might be fun sometime to continue picking out some of the more obscure favorites I know and love so well.  As an example; I might pick this out as my favorite rock........

This may not be YOUR favorite rock
But granite stone debris,
Dropped by glacial ice like this
Would be on my marquee!

Third on my Bucket List: The CASK

Not being able to decide which meaning of BUCKET LIST was intended as this week's blogging theme, I have decided to combine the two possible meanings of the phrase.  I have produced a list of buckets (aided by the synonym experts at thesaurus.com), and now I will try to imagine what each 'bucket' would do with the rest of its life.  Here is the list of containers I will be trying to empathize with this week: brazier, can, cask, hod, pail, vat, or vessel.  So far I have talked about the brazier and the can.  You might like this article better if you click on those and read them first.


A cask is a bucket.  At least in the general sense that it is used to contain stuff.  In my mind a cask is like a small barrel, which is kind of like two buckets joined together at the wider end, and with the liquid contents accessible by spout. In the movies we've seen casks of fresh water stored in the hulls of old wooden ships and they were always getting contaminated by seawater during the big storm.  And when land was finally reached, the sailors broke open the casks of rum or beer, which, somehow, were never contaminated by anything!  (If I was the ship's carpenter, or the cooper, I would have been doing a lot of yelling; "Why don't you mugs ever use the spout?  Now I have to fix another cask that you just had to "break into"!  Do you think I have nothing better to do than to go around fixing  casks all day?" And then they'd all say they were sorry and I'd get over it until the next time.)


What comes to mind when you think of a cask?  How about that famous Edgar Allan Poe story about the wine cellar?  The Cask of Amantillado!  I had to look it up, but the key word, cask, made that an easy search.  It was a cask of wine that the 'hero' of the story used as bait to get his revenge on the inaptly named, Fortunato.


Fortunato would have killed for even a broken cask full of water when he found himself chained to a wall, in the back of a wine cellar niche, and in the dark behind a newly laid wall of stone.  


A cask, it seems, is always responsible for providing some essential goods to the table of man.  A barrel is always full of either pickles or crackers and we can all live well enough without those on the menu, but in some countries in the past, wine was the only safe thing to drink.  Fresh water on a ship at sea, of course, is vital for all.


So if a regular old bucket can be used to haul stones to the wall project, slop to the pigs, potatoes from the garden, and soapy water to the floors upstairs, what important product is your cask held in reserve to protect?


God has given us many lists in the Bible.  There are blessings and curses, plagues, commandments, sins, beatitudes, gifts of the Spirit, fruits of the Spirit, faithful saints, tribulations, and ultimate blessings, to name just a few.  But there is a short list of the top three things that God probably keeps in casks, for they will abide forever.


My list of important life factors might be boiled down from the specifics to the more general and include things like health, family well-being, civil freedoms, prosperity, bucket-list plans etc., but God seems to have boiled these down even further to the very very basic and most vital of all: 




And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.                                                                  1 Corinthians 13:13


May we treasure these in our very best cask; the heart of hearts.