Proverbs 17

Catchy title, don't you think? I just finished reading Proverbs 17 the other day. There were a lot of interesting bits in there. Maybe you might benefit as I have.

The Reader's Digest has always had a section entitled, "Laughter is the Best Medicine". In fact, someone beat them to the punch. Solomon did. He wrote, "A joyful heart is good medicine" (Prov 17:22). (Sorry, Reader's Digest, but I think "a joyful heart" is much bigger than mere "laughter".) Yep, God's Word is the source of another famous saying. But that's mere trivia. There is so much more here.

More trivia, of course. Here's an interesting juxtaposition of texts. In verse 8 we read, "A bribe is like a magic stone in the eyes of the one who gives it; wherever he turns he prospers." Just fifteen verses later in verse 23 we read, "The wicked accepts a bribe in secret to pervert the ways of justice." Interesting. So offering a bribe brings prosperity, but taking a bribe perverts justice. (It's even more interesting when you throw in the odd comment from Jesus where He said, "I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings" (Luke 16:9). Hmm?) Still, mostly just trivia. There is better stuff in this chapter.

There are many references in Scripture where it says that God "tests" people. Have you ever wondered how that works? I mean, if He's so Omniscient and all, why would He need to test them? Doesn't He already know? This chapter in Proverbs has the explanation to that question. "The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold, and the LORD tests hearts" (Prov 17:3). Now, remember, this portion of Proverbs is written almost entirely in parallels. "X is like this, but Y is like that." Thus, we can figure out something about X by understanding something about Y. And so it is here. We can read "the LORD tests hearts" and say, "Yeah, that was my question, wasn't it?" But Solomon wrote about a parallel to explain what he meant by "the LORD tests hearts". We commonly use fire to purify gold and silver. We understand that "X". And Solomon says that the trials that we face are God's way of doing the same thing with our hearts. That is, He's not "testing" as "trying to figure out the condition". He's purifying ... by heat. Does that help? (Well, it did me.)

There are lots of Scriptures that seem to describe modern society. Right here in this chapter we find verse 15: "He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous are both alike an abomination to the LORD." How much of that do we see today, even under the guise of "Christians" who disregard plain Scripture, justify that which has always been understood to be sin, and then condemn those who stand on that position?

And one that I personally had to think about. Verse 19 says, "Whoever loves transgression loves strife." So I ask myself, "Do I love strife?" I ask that because I cannot fathom that I would think that "I love transgression." So, understanding that I'm not always a reliable witness for myself, I ask myself if I have the symptom. As it turns out, I hate strife. I'm the kind that would always prefer to avoid it. I have to fight the "peace at all costs" mentality I come by naturally because sometimes the cost is too high. You might ask yourself the same thing. Do you love strife? Is it a pleasure for you to get into arguments? Maybe you classify it as "defending the faith" or something noble. But the question isn't the nobility of the argument. The question is your emotional attachment to argumentation. Are you a "soft answer turns away wrath" kind of person, or do you really like the battle? Something to consider. I had to.