The Proverbs 31 Project: Commenting January 10th on Proverbs 10:1-4

January 10;  Proverbs 10, Verses 1-4

[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.  My simple mind balks at the idea of trying this pattern in any month with less than 31 days  (It just does, all right?), but there are 7 months every year that are suitable for the effort.

My idea here is to reprint about 1/7 of the verses of each day's chapter throughout this year, every time a 31 day month pops up, and 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, so that by the time December comes around 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 be wiser than The Barking Owl at least, 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 10

¹ The proverbs of Solomon:

   A wise son brings joy to his father,
   but a foolish son brings grief to his mother.

 ² Ill-gotten treasures have no lasting value,
   but righteousness delivers from death.

 ³ The LORD does not let the righteous go hungry,
   but he thwarts the craving of the wicked.

 ⁴ Lazy hands make for poverty,
   but diligent hands bring wealth.

Ahh!  We finally get to the proverbs!  Isn't this what we came for Solomon?  What took you so long?  Oh well.  Who am I to argue with the wisest man in history?

Now I will address each proverb on its own.

1) A very 'proverbial' way of saying that Dads and Moms want their kids to make good decisions.  We care more about their well being than we do our own.  I would be miffed at a mistake I made, but heartbroken for their sake if my son or daughter did the same thing.

2) We need to think about the treasures we have that might be 'ill gotten'.  Extra change from an errant cashier, kept, not returned, is only the most obvious.  

1 Cor 4:7  is intended to address pride, but I find a meaning related to our verse 2:

"What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?"   

Is everything you have 'received'?  Either as payment or as a gift?  Look through your stuff to see if there is anything not received, but taken.

3) There are certainly righteous people who are hungry, but part of being righteous (wearing the white robe of righteousness provided by Jesus' salvation) is being satisfied.  1 Tim 6:6 tells us that "Godliness with contentment is great gain."  (I wonder if Paul, when he wrote this 'knock-off' proverb to Timothy, had been doing his own 31 day study of Proverbs.)

And there are certainly wicked folk who have everything they can imagine, but their real craving, their soul's true longing for God Himself, is 'thwarted' by God because they have decided to reject God and all He includes.  Once a man does that, his striving for inner peace will be quenched by God, as a way of getting him to turn around, and come back.

4)Let me see if I can rephrase verse four to make it more clear.

Uhm, no.  I can't.