The Proverbs 31 Project: Commenting January 27th on Proverbs 27: Verses 1-4

January 27;  Proverbs 27  Verses 1-4


[Please note: The first two paragraphs below are repeated each day for new readers.  My amateur comments are offered 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 27


1 Do not boast about tomorrow,
   for you do not know what a day may bring.


1)  This idea is so simple and straightforward, but we all typically assume that another tomorrow will magically appear and make itself ready for our use, just as it has every 24 hours since we were born.  NOT!  One of these days will be our very last in these parts.  Speaking to myself now: Make every day count Miller!


In Luke 18 Jesus told a story that ended thusly:
 “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’


2 Let someone else praise you, and not your own mouth; 
   an outsider, and not your own lips.


2) "But what if they don't say all the right things?"  I can just hear myself!  "Yadda yadda yadda!  Blah blah blah!"  Solomon obviously never heard of blogging.  Isn't it designed for praising oneself?


3 Stone is heavy and sand a burden,
   but a fool's provocation is heavier than both.


3) Funny.  At work in the shipyard today one guy told me that his whole day would be spent shoveling sand!  That's hard on the back, but it's a good thing he wasn't assigned to be provoked by a fool!  What can we do to properly respond?  Even Solomon struggled with this one:  Compare Proverbs 26 verse 4 with 26:5 (which we will get to on March 26)!!

⁴ Do not answer a fool according to his folly, 

   or you yourself will be just like him. 

AND

⁵ Answer a fool according to his folly, 

   or he will be wise in his own eyes. 

4 Anger is cruel and fury overwhelming,
   but who can stand before jealousy?

4) Now this is an issue where Solomon should easily be recognized as the world's expert!  Please understand that while God endowed Sol with a super dose of wisdom, that He did not make him the smartest guy around, or the guy with the greatest character.  God said that a King should only have one wife, but for diplomatic reasons, Solomon gave in to the cultural idea that he should marry a Princess from just about every nation (or neighborhood) around, and he ended up with 700 wives!

1 Kings 11: 3,4 

"He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray.  As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the LORD his God,"

If I may say so, he surely learned something of anger and fury, but that was nothing compared to the jealousy he witnessed and experienced every day!