Dennis Tuuri

# Sermon Transcript – Reformation Covenant Church
Pastor Dennis Tuuri

Today’s sermon text is found in Proverbs chapter 15 verse 30 and we’ll read through 16 verse 15. We’re dealing today with all of chapters 10-22, the third portion of the book of Proverbs, but I’ll focus in to begin with on Proverbs 15:30-16:15. Please stand for the reading of God’s word.

The light of the eyes rejoices the heart, and a good report makes the bones healthy. The ear that hears the rebukes of life will abide among the wise. He who disdains instruction despises his own soul, but he who heeds rebuke gets understanding. The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom, and before honor is humility. The preparations of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord. All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the spirits. Commit your works to the Lord, and your thoughts will be established.

The Lord has made all for himself. Yes, even the wicked for the days of doom. Everyone proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord, though they join forces, none will go unpunished. In mercy and truth, atonement is provided for iniquity, and by the fear of the Lord one departs from evil. When a man’s ways please the Lord, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him. Better is a little with righteousness than vast revenues without justice.

A man’s heart plans his ways, but the Lord directs his steps. Divination is on the lips of the king. His mouth must not transgress in judgment. Honest weights and scales are the Lord’s. All the weights in the bag are his work. It is an abomination for kings to commit wickedness. For a throne is established by righteousness. Righteous lips are the delight of kings and they love him who speaks what is right.

As messengers of death is the king’s wrath, but a wise man will appease it. In the light of the king’s face is life and his favor is like a cloud of the latter rain.

Let’s pray. Father, we thank you for your scriptures. We thank you, Lord God, for telling us here in these proverbs who we are. We thank you that our identity is fixed to the Lord Jesus Christ by your grace and mercy. And we thank you that he is wisdom incarnate.

We thank you, Lord God, for causing us to meditate upon these proverbs as we move ahead after concluding the Gospel of John several weeks ago. Help us, Father, to see the relationship the wisdom we have shown to us here and that our savior demonstrated in his record of his life in those gospel accounts. Help us to see, Lord God, who we are in light of all this truth. We pray, Father, particularly that you would show us the path whereby the kings, the rulers in our country may indeed again speak for the Lord.

In Jesus’ name we ask this. Amen. Please be seated.

The proclamation of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ that occurs every Lord’s day is a declaration of what he has accomplished first and foremost. It does call for response on the part of his people, but it is the assurance to them of his finished work. He has unalterably changed the course of human history. And he has also unalterably changed the course of his people, the people that comprise his body, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ.

When we read in the proverbs, it’s very easy to look at this as a series of moralistic lessons and kind of encouragements to be better. And certainly there is that to it—the encouragement to be better. But what I think we probably should remember is that the Lord Jesus Christ, of course, as we mentioned last week, several texts in the New Testament identify that he is the wisdom of God. What we read here is a record of who Jesus Christ is first and foremost, but secondly, who we are to be as well—who we are in the person and work of Christ.

Who is this new man that we have been created to be? And this ascension portion of our service, the so-called whole burnt offering of the Old Testament, meant a transformation of that cow, representing the worshipper, from old life to new life in the presence of God. It didn’t go away. It ascended. And so we ascend into the holy place today to hear knowledge from Jesus Christ about who we are. What do we have to put off in terms of our associations with the old creation or old man? And what is it that the spirit of God has us put on as we move ahead?

The other aspect of the gospel of Jesus Christ is the declaration that the world has been changed and that all the nations of the world will no longer be allowed to engage in the sort of gross idolatries that God winked at, as Paul says it in the book of Acts, in the Old Testament times, in the times of the creation before the coming of Christ.

Something definitively changed in the world. And Jesus says that from now on his enemies in a heightened way are going to be made his footstool. And so the gospel is also a proclamation not just about who we are individually or what the church is corporately. The gospel is a declaration of what the nations of the world are as well. And in our text today, that’s one of the things we must see—is that what cries out in our heart in this particular part of our nation’s history, I suppose more and more, for justice to come down from the rulers that inhabit the halls of power in our cities, our communities, our counties, our states, and our nation and world.

As we desire to see that reflect more and more the righteousness of Christ, we do so with a confident assurance that this is the way history moves. The Great Commission is that all the nations shall indeed be discipled. So we want to see civil justice.

There’s a man, a famous evangelist named Tony Campolo, who will be in Portland, I think this Wednesday, talking at the invitation of Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon. And they were going in their little religious section had a thing at him yesterday and how he’s going to call the church to be fuller in its proclamation of who Jesus is. And I can I can almost assure you that he will not call the church to speak forth the message that the judges of the earth should stop the awful butchery of abortion. And I’m pretty sure I can tell you that Tony Campolo will not urge the ministers that gather, the so-called ministers that gather this Wednesday under the heading of the Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon, to tell them that it’s time for the church to raise her voice and say that the civil government should not sanction homosexual marriage.

It is an issue of import to Christians. I know some Christians think, “Well, who cares? It’s a civil matter.” But we who understand that the word of God calls on the civil magistrates to reflect the justice of Christ should be very concerned, if for no other reason than to hear our governors, our rulers, and our judges speaking the truth that marriage is to be between man and wife.

Marriage is entered into by two people. The church doesn’t make the marriage. The state doesn’t make the marriage. But the state provides a license that says yes, it is legal for you to marry this person because it’s not your sister, because it’s not your second or third wife you’re having at the same time, and because it’s a person of the opposite sex. The civil government is called upon in Old Testament statutes to punish improper marriages entered into.

And so we have a dog in this fight. And we need—it is time for us to proclaim the truth of God in this arena.

You know, as I said, I don’t think Campolo will talk about that. He may hit a few little truths in terms of empire and the dangers of it in our day and age and to call for a careful consideration of how troops are used on foreign soils. I don’t know. But I can I can almost bet you he will not address these evils that I think it is time for the church to stand up and address in a more steadfast way than she has in the past.

Our declaration is Jesus is king. And as what we just read from the proverb shows us, the Lord and the king are intertwined—and the proverbs. We’ll look at that in a little bit more detail in just a minute.

I love the songs that we sang for the opening songs of praise today—that we want to indeed speak the message of Christ to the earth. The earth is enslaved by sin and death. Our country, as the church, is under attack. I think that the message that we have to bring is one to all of our lives, including the civil arena, and the proverbs certainly encourage us to do that.

As you know, if you were here last week, the whole arc of the proverbs is to go from being a prince to being kings—to going through a proper course to attaining rule and power in the process of time and in the process of God’s maturation and blessings. They begin the book with the son of Solomon being addressed—or at least teenagers. They are the primary recipients of this book. Yes, the wise also will hear and understand more. The man of understanding will increase in his understanding. But it’s really primarily for the simple. It’s for the simple person. It’s for teenagers. Whether you like it or not, teenagers, this is who you are. You’re rather simple yet.

And the providence of God, he’s given you an entire book to train you to do just what you want to do—to be a king at the end of that process, to rule over a particular portion of life that God has given you. And there’s a sense in which the church as well can be seen here in its need to mature into this ruling authority that should have in the land.

There’s a political conference this weekend. The Republican party is meeting. The Dorchester Conference—one of the things they’re going to debate is should the Republican party of the state of Oregon remove the anti-abortion plank. And one of the things that will certainly come up is the idea again of homosexual and lesbian marriage. Our job is to speak the truth of God’s word into every arena of life, including the political. Including the political.

Now, it’s very easy for us though to want to jump forward to that and not see the progression that Proverbs lays out for us in terms of how that is attained. What I want to do today is to help us to see our identity in the person and work of Christ.

This is the first Sunday in Lent and we had an Ash Wednesday service. I mentioned at the Ash Wednesday service, Lent—you know, we associate it with humiliation and fasting. That’s true. But several points we don’t often think about. Lent comes from the word lengthening. It means when the days are lengthening, the sun is not setting, the sun is rising. The purpose of Lent is to bring us the resurrection authority and power. Okay, lengthening.

Secondly, the 40 days of fasting, the Lenten season, is, as you’ll notice if you look at a calendar, longer than 40 days because the entire context for whatever fasting people might enter into, whatever putting off of certain things they might enter into, that is set in the context of a commanded feast day every Lord’s day. And so when the church has established this season from probably at least the 4th century on, it was always set in the context of commanded feasting on the Lord’s day so that the other days you may fast.

There’s a proper sense to understanding the need to suffer for our sins. But that’s set in the context of victory. The days are lengthening. The fasting is put in the context of feasting and everything moves toward resurrection power and ascension in normal time.

And our suffering itself—we often think that the whole purpose of Lent is to suffer for sins. No, it’s really not. If we’re going to enter into the sufferings of the Savior, the passion of Jesus Christ, then what we’re going to do is see that the sort of sufferings that are commended to us in the New Testament are sufferings for truth, sufferings for assuming the cause of Christ or seeking forth that cause.

And if there’s one thing we should set aside, one thing I want to encourage you to give up for Lent, is cowardice. Cowardice. To have the courage to speak up about the issues of our day.

You know, the civil magistrate does no value to the sodomite or to the lesbian when they say yes, “It’s okay, we’ll put a stamp of approval on it,” as we’ll see next week when we look at the words of the wise at the very center of the book of proverbs. Our job is to rescue those who are being led off to the slaughter. And in the immediate context of proverbs, that is foolish men who go about satisfying themselves sexually in the wrong way. We should not think of homosexuals as our enemies. We should think of them who are in the midst of delusion and sin, enslaved by sin and death, and the civil magistrate is failing those people by putting a blanket authority stamp saying, “Yeah, it’s okay.”

In San Francisco and perhaps who knows how quickly here in Oregon, you see, it’s no use to them. We’re the ones who love people enough to tell them, “You’re headed the wrong way. You’re playing in the street. Come out of it. Don’t do it.” So we’re called to assume those mantles, but we can only do it if we leave behind our cowardice.

There was a speech by Zell Miller on the floor of the Senate that one of you forwarded to me and a wonderful conclusion to it. He said, you know, in these days, silence is not golden. It’s yellow. And that’s that’s true of us, folks.

May the Lord God grant his church and the individual members of his church found here at Reformation Covenant today. May he grant us the giving up of cowardice for Lent, that we might enter into the resurrection power, strength, and courage of the Lord Jesus Christ, that we may suffer properly—not because we’re sinning so much, but because we’re doing what’s right. We’re identifying with the risen Christ and his declaration.

So we want to do that. We want to have that voice to the civil authorities. We are commanded to do that in the proverbs. We are commanded to see the movement from immaturity and teenage years to ruling in the home, ruling in the civil state. That is our job. It’s our job.

But you know, frequently in our culture, the way we go about doing that is immediately to look at the political implications. And what I said last week, what I said today, and what we’ll see again tomorrow in the words of the wise is there is a movement in the scriptures, in proverbs specifically. There is a movement through vocation and family, diligence, wisdom expressed in diligence in the family and vocation before one attains to civil rule and authority. So there is a progression that goes here.

And this same progression is seen in Proverbs 10-22, chapter 10-22, 16. This is the third section of the book of Proverbs—the first fruits, right? And then after the words of the wise, the very center of the book, the words of the wise, that’s kind of sum it all up. Then we’ll have the teeming forth, the multiplication of Solomon’s proverbs put together by Hezekiah’s men. And so in these first fruits, we are still given this arc. This arc is seen in every one of these major sections. There is a movement, as we just read in chapter 15 and 16, to kings and interblending that king with—we’ll look at that in a minute.

But that doesn’t happen till late in the book. You don’t get—or in this section of Proverbs, we don’t hear the word king until chapter 14 in this section. Okay? Chapter 10, 11, 12, 13. Then 14 is where the king is first referenced. Why? Because it’s a progression. It’s showing us a dramatic movement here. But there are uses of the terms. On the other side of this, in the fifth slot, in Hezekiah’s collection of Solomon’s proverbs, it immediately starts by addressing the king, right? Interesting.

Look at your—just open your Bibles to Proverbs chapter 10. And I mentioned this last week, but it’s a good exercise for you to do. There’s a movement in Proverbs from relatively simple things to understand and then to becoming more complex. Now, leave your hand in Proverbs chapter 10 and then look over to Proverbs chapter 25. I’m sorry, not to the words of the wise, but to Hezekiah’s collection.

Okay. Now, scan down chapter 10 first and look for the word “but.” Verse one, but. Verse two, but. Verse three, but. But, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but. This goes on for several chapters. These are called contrast proverbs—proverbs of contrast that clearly put this “but” this “but,” this, and occasionally there’s not a “but” in here. Occasionally there’s kind of something else that kind of stands out at us, but these are easy proverbs.

Now go turn to chapter 25 into the section edited by Hezekiah and specifically that begins with the description in verse two that it’s the glory of God to conceal a thing but the honor of kings is to search it out. We’re immediately told this is about kings. And if you look down there, where do you see “but” comparison or contrast ones? No, you don’t see them, do you? They’re basically absent as this section goes along. I don’t see a one. And I’m scanning down. I’m at verse 22. I don’t see any.

Why? Because the dramatic structure of Proverbs, the composition of the book—this isn’t just a bunch of proverbs thrown together willy-nilly. There is movement and structure to this book. And what it does is it begins in this third section with simple stuff, training us in the basics of wisdom, and then when you get around to helping yourself be a king, now things are more complex. It’s not as easy as black and white. A lot of gray stuff going on in chapters 25 through 29 as we’ll see when we get there. There’s a maturation of wisdom.

Now within this section itself, there is chapter 10 through 22. There is a similar maturation. As I said, king does actually come up in chapter 14 and by chapter 16 it’s a fairly dominant theme.

What I want to do here is to look at actually work our outline in reverse. I’m going to start on the bottom by looking at the King and Yahweh proverbs. Then we’re going to go to the second section of chapter 10 and we’ll conclude in verses 1-7 of Proverbs chapter 10. So we’ll kind of go through the outline in reverse.

By the way, I wanted to mention one other thing. Last week I brought up this—came up in question and answer time, so I wanted to qualify it here. There are 375 proverbs in this section, chapter 10 verse 1-22:16, exactly 375 proverbs. The same as the numerical number of Solomon’s name. And when you talk numerology, people think you’re getting into weird stuff. I’m not. My only point in bringing it up—well, number one—is to correct the impression that I left with some last week that was the total number of proverbs. It’s not. It’s in this specific section. But the real reason I bring it up is to begin to help you to see something that I’m going to continue to emphasize for the next four weeks as we finish up this series: that Proverbs has a structure. It has been very carefully edited.

Solomon wrote over 3,000 proverbs. And for the first collection that he decided to put together—to move his son from being a prince to a king and to move Israel from being, you know, kind of teenaged and immature to maturity and ruling—this first collection that Solomon composed and edited together, he edited it to the exact same number of the numerical value of his name. That’s no mistake. It’s not coincidence. It shows us right from the get-go, if we know that truth, that this is a carefully edited book. And so in my approach to Proverbs, I look for these structures. Where is the structure of these particular chapters and books? Is there structure to it? Is it just a set of pearls one strung after the other, or is there structure? And it’s my contention that indeed there is structure to it.

And we’ll see that. As we turn to chapters 15:30-16, the one I just read from, as the sermon text today, I want us to look at that first. And so turn to Proverbs 15:30. Or you could just—yeah, that’s good. Turn to Proverbs 15:30 and then we’ll look at chapter 16 and going on.

All right. And now I began by reading in verse 30 and I chose this section for a particular reason. What we have in the book of Proverbs by way of chapter divisions is not inspired. And there are good reasons to think that this section that deals with the king and Yahweh, found in the latter portions of this section of Proverbs from Solomon, verses 30-33 serve as a “get your attention” device for what he’s going to instruct us on in chapter 16, verses 1 through the verses we read.

So one of the things that you’re going to do, that you’re going to want to do as you read Proverbs, is not to believe the chapter breaks. Sometimes they’re clearly there for a purpose. Sometimes they’re in the right place. Sometimes they’re not. And so you don’t want to be bound by those chapter breaks as you decide which sections to read and meditate on in your personal devotional time or in family worship. And specifically here, I wanted to point that out by looking at Proverbs 15 verse 30-33. And we have these so-called catchwords. “Get ready to learn”—I think that’s what’s going on in 30 through 33. And it is a device used to tell us to get our attention, to pay close attention to what’s going to follow here.

In verse 30, we have a gospel message, right? The light of the eyes rejoices the heart and a gospel, a good report makes the bones healthy. The ear that hears rebuke will abide among the wise. He who disdains instruction despises his own soul. He who heeds rebuke gets understanding. The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom, and before honor is humility. So we’re going to deal with the section now that talks about the honor of the king and Yahweh and how they’re brought together. And before he gives us these proverbs, he wants to get our attention. So he says, “A gospel, a good report is coming. Open up your ears.” He says it several times. Heed this instruction. Don’t close your ears to what’s going on here. This is very important for you to understand.

And then as I read through this section, you probably noticed that I was putting particular emphasis on the words Yahweh and the words king, that kind of blend themselves together in the context of this chapter 16.

Once our attention has been gotten by these catchwords, we then move to a Yahweh section of verses 1 to 9 and then a king section in 10 to 15. And again, if you listen to what I read there, or if you just scan down the verses, it’s quite obvious that Yahweh (usually it’s translated Lord in capital letters in your Bible)—this is what is emphasized in verses 1-9. And then the king section is in 10 to 15.

Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh way through verses 1 to 7. And what surprises us then is that verse 8 leaves out Yahweh, right? Better is a little with righteousness than vast revenues without justice. Now, it leaves out Yahweh. So we go from a section where we’re focusing on Yahweh and then we leave Yahweh out and instead we’re now get the instruction that what we’re going to talk about is justice. Okay.

Then after that kind of interesting point in verse eight, we have verse 9. A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps. So now we’ve got we’re back to Yahweh. And then in the very next verse, in chapter in verse 10, divination is on the lips of the king. His mouth must not transgress in judgment. So see, we’ve been introduced to this Yahweh section. And then Yahweh’s that name is not mentioned, but instead justice is mentioned. Then Yahweh—we’re we’re brought back to Yahweh. So we haven’t left that totally behind. And then we move to the king in terms of what he should do in terms of judgment in the context of the land in verse 9, or verse 10 rather.

And then verse 11 we go back to Yahweh: Honest weights and scales are the Lord’s. All the works in the bag are his works. And then verse 12 begins this section of 12, 13, 14, and 15 with references to the king. It’s an abomination for kings to commit wickedness, for a throne is established by righteousness. Righteous lips are the delight of kings. They love him who speaks what is right. As messengers of death is the king’s wrath but a wise man will appease it. In the light of the king’s face is life and his favor is like a cloud of the latter rain.

What’s going on here? Well, I think what’s going on is we have a clearly delineated section that weaves together Yahweh and the king in the context of a description of justice and judgment.

Now, if we took the time to look at it, what we would find out (and this is probably pretty important for us to recognize) is that one of the things that’s happening in the first seven or eight verses of the Yahweh section is that frequently—as Ecclesiastes tells us—the fools are the ones who are reigning and the wise men aren’t ruling. So part of what’s going on here is mature instruction to us about what to do when the kings really aren’t good guys, aren’t representing Yahweh.

And so this idea that a man plans his thoughts and his way, but Yahweh determines the course—this is really given first and foremost as our wisdom in speaking to civil magistrates. When we get ready to enter the public debate, for instance, about homosexual marriage or abortion or whatever it is, or whether the empire in Iraq is good or bad, etc., you know what it instructs us to do when we get into a discussion with civil justice in mind? It’s to prepare our hearts.

It doesn’t say don’t do it. The purpose of saying “a man thinks through his way,” or “he thinks through what he’s going to say,” and “but Yahweh then determines his path”—the point of that is not to cast away preparation. The point is: do the preparation. Carefully know your material. Don’t just go down to Salem to testify at a hearing, for instance. Don’t just have a meeting with your state representative about this. When you get around to—if you’re going to help circulate a petition to change the Oregon Constitution—don’t just, you know, wait till you talk to your neighbor about what it’s going to say. Prepare your heart, right? Do the necessary steps. Get your ducks in a row. But then understand that Yahweh will actually direct your speech.

See, so right away, and we said last week that one of the most important things of Proverbs is how to be wise in our speech. And we’re wise in our speech by acknowledging two things. One, that we’re to prepare ourselves—the hard work and diligence and the preparation for speaking. But then allowing Yahweh by wisdom to let us know what we should say at a particular time and trusting him that he’ll give us speech as we enter into these matters. That is our courage, right? That’s our courage—that God has called us to speak forth and he’ll direct what we have to say.

So there is that to this. But overall, what I’m trying to point out here is that there is a very deliberate structure that I’ve given to you on the outlines where you’ve got Yahweh, no Yahweh, but the no Yahweh matches after the Yahweh, king, right at the center of this section, to no king, but Yahweh is present. So, you know, we’ve got Yahweh and King, and then in the middle four verses, they’re kind of sewn together, right? They’re kind of stitched together—the beginning and closing section with the close comparison of Yahweh and King at the very middle. Absence of Yahweh, but the presence of Yahweh here. So we don’t just go “King may be a different section.” But now we go back to Yahweh for a minute, showing us that these two sections are stitched together.

You remember we talked last week or two weeks ago about wives submitting to their husbands. That the verb there to submit in Ephesians 5 is implied, brought over from the previous verse which talks about our mutual submission. Now the wife submitting and respecting her husband is a definite section in Ephesians. But that section is not isolated. It’s stitched to the previous section by the implied verb of submit. You need to go back to the previous section to get that. So, you know, when you see these sections, these are definitely stitched together.

The point of all of that is that here, as we move more on into a more mature development of Proverbs, as this third section of Proverbs moves ahead, we do get to stuff that tells us very explicitly that the king is to speak for Yahweh. That whatever we do in terms of civil rule, whether it’s actually occupying civil office or speaking into the civil arena, we have to do it not on the basis of common grace so-called or what’s good for everybody or what will work out good or what’s pragmatic. No, all of that must be contexted in the understanding that we must speak as Yahweh’s commands for the civil magistrate have given us to speak. And so our—we have to be informed about that as we enter into that political debate, which we should enter into.

The king is supposed to reflect Yahweh. But we must understand then that in the public arena we speak as Yahweh speaks. We look for his justice to be manifested in the civil arena. So that’s where we want to end up at after a careful devotion to maturing ourselves in terms of wisdom literature. But we don’t get there first.

What we have first in chapter 10 are some other things. Some basic stuff. Basic stuff starts to happen in chapter 10. And I want to look at the second half of chapter 10 as opposed to the first half. On your outline, Roman numeral II, verses 23-32. And so turn back to chapter 10 if you’re not there now, and we’ll look at that. And then we’ll finally conclude by looking at the first seven verses.

So, beginning in—look at verse 22. And here was the exception to the long line of “buts” to the long list of proverbs that are contrast, right? This is the first place that’s broken. I think verse 22, “The blessing of the Lord makes one rich and he adds no sorrow with it.”

Now, we’ll come back to this in a minute. This is a clear mark, an arc to a culmination, I think, of the first 21 verses of chapter 10. And what we have finally is the absence of the wicked. You know, you go—but you have these contrasts with the wicked going on for 21 verses. And I’ll show you in a minute where I think they kind of climax three times as we go through those. And then at the end of that, in verse 22, we’ve got Yahweh, the first mention of Yahweh in the Proverbs of Solomon.

Okay? And in that first mention, the wicked are no more. They’re gone. There’s no “but” because the wicked are off the face of the earth by this time, so to speak, by way of picture or metaphor, you see. So that’s a that’s a definite conclusion, I think, to the first 21 verses of chapter 10. And now verses 23 and following are our concern.

Now, to do evil is like sport to a fool, but a man of understanding has wisdom. Now we’re back, and this is not the case for most of what’s happened so far. We’re back to what is in proverbs frequently—a header declaration of wisdom and folly. You say, “Well, I thought the whole book was about wisdom and folly.” Well, it is. But almost always what happens is what happens here. Look at verse 24. The fear of the wicked will come upon him. The desire of the righteous will be granted.

You see, Proverbs sets up the categories of wisdom and folly at a header to a section and then immediately goes to talk about wickedness and righteousness. This is a very common pattern throughout the Proverbs. And when you want to see section headers, that’s you kind of look for—is wisdom and folly, not wickedness and righteousness.

Now, that’s important for us because what it—I said this last week—what it immediately tells us is that wisdom according to the scriptures or foolishness is not some abstract intellectual device going on. It’s not Sophia in the sense of philosophy that’s not pegged to life. It immediately is put in the context of actions, wicked and righteous. And in the Proverbs, the righteous man is the one who does right in community. It doesn’t mean primarily being morally pure and upright, you know, in your prayer closet. Wickedness and righteousness are verbs in proverbs—or nouns in proverbs—that have to do with what we do with other people. So it takes wisdom and folly and moves it in terms of actions toward men.

Now, this is the progression. And here’s my take on this, and you know, you can take it or leave it. But for me, when I read these 10 verses (and that’s how many there are after the clear break in 22), but I think the chapter heading in 11 is correct and it’s a separate chapter. I believe that what we have in these 10 proverbs is a meditation by Solomon on the Ten Commandments. And in fact, if we had the time today, I could show you over and over in the proverbs where, in a particular section that goes together, you have these fourth-slot references to diligence.

What do I mean by that? Look down at verse 26. As vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes, so is the lazy man to him who sends him. You see this? Over and over again. We’ll see it again next week. I’ll point out some of the words of the wise, but I could turn to four or five sections of this 10 through 22, where the same thing happens. A series of four proverbs are strung together, and the fourth one talks about diligence or laziness.

Now, we’ve got a king here who’s writing this, folks. This is a king of Israel. And this king was a king who was commanded to study the law of God perpetually. He knew what it was. He knew what the Ten Commandments were all about. He understood how all the different laws of the culture and that God has given to us fit into the context of those 10 basic commandments. And to me it would be what the unusual thing is not to find him meditating on the Ten Commandments in the proverbs. The odd thing would be if this—if King Solomon never did talk about the Ten Commandments. Wouldn’t that be odd?

Wisdom and the law are linked. The law isn’t enough. You have to know how to apply the law. But there is a linkage between the two. And I believe we have that linkage here.

So, you know, when we talk about wisdom and folly, these are the transcendent categories. And then when we move to a consideration of wickedness and righteousness toward other men, it’s moving from the first commandment, you know, to the second commandment—no idols. It’s moving from our obligations in a sense to the father (and we saw in 10:1 references to parents begin the cycle), and wisdom and folly are placed in the context of how we act toward our parents, our father in heaven ultimately, to then how we act to Jesus Christ as he’s present to us in each other. The second commandment moves on a horizontal plane the same way that the first commandment moves on a vertical plane.

And these two proverbs do just that as well. And then verse 25 says, “When the whirlwind passes by, the wicked is no more.” There’s an eschatological truth here to the wind. Well, the whirlwind is a picture in the scriptures of the movement of God’s spirit. And so the third commandment—the commandment not to have an empty witness in the context of the world—is to not sin against the Holy Spirit who empowers a full witness of Jesus as we go about doing what we’re to do. That spirit either, you know, maintains us or not. And so the spirit here is this whirlwind that passes by, removing the wicked. But the righteous has an everlasting foundation.

Verse 26. As vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes, so is the lazy man to those who send him. The fourth commandment—you know, you move through obligations to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. You enter into rest. But remember that the fourth commandment is a commandment to work six days. And so in the fourth slot here, and throughout lots of other places of the proverbs, we see these references to sloth and to diligence being contrasted. The fourth commandment is a command to enter into rest on the seventh day, but it’s a commandment to work diligently six days.

And so it is fear. And then verse 27, the fear of the Lord prolongs days, but the years of the wicked will be shortened. Well, what does the fifth commandment say? You know, after we go through the first four, the fifth commandment is to honor your parents that you might live long on the earth, right? Now, we know that the parents there are—we’re going back to the father. You know, I believe that the Ten Commandments work Father, Son, Holy Spirit, rest. And then the next six go Father, Son, Holy Spirit, Father, Son, Holy Spirit. We’re to honor our parents. The trinity is one God. So we’re always to honor Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But the primary reference in honoring parents is to honor the father, the transcendent Lord. And the blessing attached to that is long life.

And so here in the fifth slot after the fourth slot of diligence, we have the fear of the Lord prolongs days, but the years of the wicked will be shortened. So wisdom, fear of God, is what honoring our parents is all about. And it gives us length of days.

The hopes of the righteous will be gladness, but the expectation of the wicked will perish. The hope of the righteous will be gladness, but the expectation of the wicked will perish. Sixth commandment? Maybe, maybe not.

Verse 29. The way of the Lord is strength for the upright, but destruction will come to the workers of iniquity. And so, you know, again here, iniquity is a term that’s a little different than “wicked.” The workers of iniquity are those who are essentially engaged in the kind of gross idolatry that the world and the Holy Spirit judge. It’s a failure to properly engage in full witness in the world as we go about doing our spirit-empowered work. And so the workers of iniquity—our indication of the contrast of this with the empowerment of the spirit.

The righteous will never be removed, but the wicked will not inhabit the earth. Now, we’re back to, you know, what I think is the honoring of the parents. Adam didn’t honor his father. He stole from the, uh, from God’s fruit tree, so to speak. And so he was cast out of the garden. And the commandment against theft is always said in that context. And so it’s said in the context of being pushed out of the earth or habitation of that earth.

The mouth of the righteous brings forth wisdom, but the perverse tongue will be cut out. So we have speech. Don’t bear false witness against your brother. So a speech commandment here seems to line up with the ninth commandment. And then finally, the lips of the righteous know what is acceptable, but the mouth of the wicked what is perverse. And again, this is kind of an indication of the perversity that leads to idolatry. And it’s the mouth, the lips of the righteous, knowing what’s acceptable—not just in speech, but in what’s brought into our mouth as well. But the mouth of the wicked, what is perverse.

And so, you know, coveting what is not to be ours—idol making, idols, so to speak, out of our neighbor’s wives or husbands or possessions—this kind of wickedness that becomes perversity, I think, is talked about in the 10th slot.

So I kind of think that there’s some rather obvious pointers in these last 10 verses of this section that cause us, as we read the book of Proverbs, to meditate upon the Ten Commandments. The associations aren’t as easy for us. Why is that? Well, for one thing, we’re not that familiar with the Ten Commandments. You know, that’s always a problem. If we’re supposed to be able to understand the relationship of God’s wisdom to his law, then we got to know the law pretty well. And we got to know it. You know, for instance, the fact that I talk about the sins of the father, son, holy spirit, and then leading to Sabbath rest, and then the not honoring your parents is more specifically related to our sins against the father. Murdering, you know, the image of man, you know, in a horizontal way, killing Christ, our fellow man—it has its primary reference against sins against the son. And adultery, the spirit is the one that brings together the church in Christ. Adultery is primarily a sin against the Holy Spirit. And then that same thing works out in the last three.

To steal from the father is to not honor him and to have other gods. And to bear false witness and specifically in a court of law, but to lie about our neighbors, to sow discord among brothers, to speak falsely about our brothers, is like murdering our brother. And it is essentially to have the wrong relationship on the horizontal level of who we are to worship idols or icons and to venerate them as opposed to venerating the image of God who is the Son, Jesus Christ. And then the coveting lines up with adultery and lines up with sins against the Holy Spirit without a full witness of the spirit to it.

But see, we can’t get to—and once you kind of understand that, some of these connections in these 10 verses become a little more obvious to you. So part of our problem is that we don’t know the commandments well enough and we don’t understand them well enough. But another part of our problem is not a problem. These things aren’t supposed to be obvious necessarily.

What does Hezekiah tell us? It’s the glory of God to conceal matters, and the glory of kings to search them out. Now, this is pretty easy to search out. The fourth slot is the clearest picture. Fifth, however, also the long life. You got diligence right next to having long life. Kind of easy to see that in slots four and five and figure it out.

But that’s what God wants us to do. Proverbs is a book that’s supposed to be meditated upon. It’s supposed to be contemplated. It’s like jawbreakers. We’re supposed to meditate on them. And what I’m suggesting is that our meditation of the Proverbs will be improved and become more valuable as we meditate upon sections or chunks of them that seem fairly clearly marked off.

Now, let’s do the same thing with the first 21 proverbs here. Meditate on them a little bit. Sort of see how they flow as opposed to just seeing them as individual proverbs.

So let’s now look at verses 1 to 22. And I’ve sort of already told you that I think 22 provides kind of a capper, and it’s marked off by this absence of the “but.” It’s marked off also by the presence of Yahweh. And it’s marked off by the absence of not just a movement away from contrast proverbs, but it’s marked off by the absence of the wicked.

And just for this next thing, just look at verse 7. The memory of the righteous is blessed, but the name of the wicked will rot. That’s an eschatological statement. This is a verse that’s used fairly frequently in Memorial Day talks. You know, to have a good name after you’ve died as opposed to having a rotten name. So verse 7 kind of brings to a conclusion.

And we’ll look at those seven proverbs in a little more detail in a minute as we kind of move up this outline. But now look down at verse 14. Wise people store up knowledge, but the mouth of the foolish is near destruction. So again, he’s near destruction. Now his name is going to rot, and now he’s near to destruction in verse 14.

And then verse 21, the lips of the righteous feed many, but fools die for lack of wisdom. So we’ve got the fool here—his name is rotten, he’s near to destruction, and he dies. And that sets us up for the next verse, which says he’s gone.

You know, Proverbs, chapter or Psalm 10, deals with the wicked till they are no more. And that’s what history moves in terms of. There’ll come a time when this world, this piece of real estate, whether it’s Oregon City or Clackamas County, Oregon, I don’t know what it would be called—the wicked are going to be no more here. And that progression is given to us here as we go, I think, through a series of sevens, three sets of seven that lead us up to the banishment of the wicked from the presence of Yahweh. And it does it through this kind of progression.

So I think that there is a progression to this section of chapter 10, like waves. You know, name’s going to be rotten, he’s near to destruction, he’s dead, and then he’s gone. That’s the way Proverbs 10 flows as it opens up. And then to get us to meditate upon that, gets our attention, right? I mean, now we know that there are these two paths. And one path leads to a rotten name. It leads to destruction. You’re unto destruction, and it leads to death, and it leads to the removal of who we are totally. That’s one path. And by getting our attention like that, we know that’s not where we want to go.

And what we want to do then to have wisdom is to meditate upon the commandments or law of God as they inform us in the next 10 verses and how to apply that wisdom in the context of differing situations. So I think that chapter 10 is kind of a unity, and what it does is it gets our attention by showing us two paths, two eschatologies, two end points, and then it tells us: now, in light of that, learn what the law means. Meditate on the application of the law in wise ways to situations outside of their given historical context when they were first given to you. So I think that’s what the introduction is.

And what it tells us is that before we can get around—before we can get down to chapter 14 and start talking about the king, before we can get to chapter 16 and start tying together Yahweh and the king and the message—there’s a sense in which we haven’t earned that right until we’ve moved through these simple things where we’re understanding the Ten Commandments, how to approach them wisely. We understand that there’s two eschatologies and what that means in our lives. When we get that stuff down, then we mature, and God begins to give us entree and voice in terms of the civil arena.

So it’s this progression. Now, in closing, let’s look at the first seven verses because they kind of lead off the whole section here. The header we talked about last week, but clearly it’s a good thing here.

A wise son makes a glad father. A foolish son is the grief of the mother. Wisdom of the father. Remember I talked about that a couple of minutes ago. And then we have a movement. And by the way, you know, before we miss the obvious here—young people particularly—what effect are you having on your parents? You don’t know. You know, we can’t know ourselves. He said this over and over again. But here’s an indicator of how we can kind of judge whether we’re being wise or foolish. If you’ve got Christian parents, parents, you know, the covenant parents, well, is your mother grieving? Is your father glad? You see, it immediately lets us evaluate ourselves by looking at something outside of ourselves—the effect we have on our parents.

These two paths that diverge into two eschatologies, right? You know, death and destruction and a rotten name and your absence. You get there when you make your godly parents sad. And you attain to the another path of blessing and peace and establishment when you’re making your dad glad. So, you know, it starts out very simple. This is not rocket science. You know whether your parents are grieved with what you do and you know whether you’re making them glad or not. You see, and if you can’t get past that, how are you going to go and talk to somebody about abortion? You know, how are you going to go talk about gay marriage? You can’t. This is where it starts. But it proceeds on. It moves from wisdom and finally to righteousness and wickedness, and it does it in verse 2.

Treasures of wickedness profit nothing, but righteousness delivers from death. So developing a sense of vocation is implied here. What is treasures of wickedness? Well, it’s stuff. Remember back to—you know, chapters 1 to 9—those bad guys say “Let’s go lie and wait, and we’re going to steal things,” and that’s how we’re going to get money. Our vocation will be thieves. And the godly are supposed to have vocation down to not want to get treasures of wickedness. See, profit absolutely nothing. Righteousness delivers from death. The implication is that if you’ve tried to attain wealth properly, righteously before God in interacting with who you’re called to be and with other people in your community, as opposed to seeking riches through wickedness, if you go about doing it righteously, you see, then you’re delivered from death.

So it moves from a consideration of the home to a consideration of vocation and how we go about seeking wealth.

Verse 3, the Lord will not allow the righteous soul to famish, but he casts away the desire of the wicked. So we move from parents to actions where the treasures of wickedness are paid one way or the other, to now desires. Are we going to desire the right thing? Are we going to desire the wrong thing? If we’re going to desire the wrong thing, he—God casts that away from us.

So then we have in the fourth proverb here, in verse 4, guess what we have in verse 4? Fourth proverb in a sequence. He who has a slack hand becomes poor, but the hand of the diligent makes rich. Okay, not rocket science. But what God has told us here is that this movement between two different paths is accomplished by relationship to family and parents, to relationship to the right way, seeking vocation as opposed to an ungodly way, having the proper desires, and then go about achieving those goals diligently as opposed to with a slack hand.

He who has a slack hand becomes poor, but the hand of the diligent makes rich. And then verse 5, this diligence has to be applied in a timely, seasonal fashion. He who gathers in summer is a wise son. He who sleeps in harvest is a son who causes shame. So the diligence in a timely fashion, again referring primarily to vocation, right?

So we got parents. Now we’ve got this vocational stuff being hammered away at in verse 5. And then in verse 6, blessings are on the head of the righteous, but violence covers the mouth of the wicked. And now we’re bringing, having brought into this, our speech. And I didn’t take the time, but if you read the second two sets of seven, what you’ll see in the rest of chapter 10—this first half of chapter 10—is you’ll see a tremendous emphasis on the tongue and then back to vocation linked to the tongue.

And so here, this theme of what, how we use our tongues comes up in verse 6. And that then leads us to the eschatology of verse 7. The memory of the righteous is blessed, but the name of the wicked will rot.

So these seven proverbs draw out a progression. They draw out a progression of two different paths. The wise path and the foolish path. The one who brings his mother grief, he has improper treasures—treasures of wickedness. He moves in terms of evil desires. He’s lazy. He doesn’t engage in harvest work according to verse 5, and violence comes upon him and those with him in verse 6. And finally, in verse 7, his memory rots. That’s the course of a particular sort of person in our world. The one who causes his mother grief.

But the one who brings his father joy moves in terms of righteousness—not an isolation from community but a right action in the context of community. Unlike the foolish man who has treasures of wickedness, he hungers for the word of God. He has a proper hunger. His desires are really for the things that God will reveal to him, that God will bless him with. And as a result of that, he engages in diligent work and he applies that work in a timely fashion during times of harvest. And the end result of that—verse 6 says—is he has all these blessings upon him. And his memory itself then is blessedness to others.

So these seven proverbs stand out all by themselves. They begin with the son and they end with what happened when he’s planted in the ground, when he goes to meet his maker—what will be the effect on the world of that son? What will be the effect on the world of who you are? Will your name be forgotten? Will your works be of no value? Will your name actually rot, and people will not name their people after you? Nobody names their children Judas. Name rotten. Will your name rot? Or will you have established work, diligent work for the kingdom of Christ, and as a result of that have his blessings and in your name will be remembered by people in a positive way?

We don’t get to becoming kings if we haven’t interacted properly with our parents. And we don’t get to becoming kings unless we’ve entered into vocation diligently. And we’re not married yet. The proverbs places diligence and vocation first. Then it establishes a household. And then finally, it moves into having an impact on the civil arena.

This is the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the man whose lips speak forth good things. The Proverbs tell us, “The wisest of men is the one who speaks forth these wondrous, gracious words that has an effect upon him.” Remember Jesus as John’s gospel came to a close, wise words, right? And he talked to Peter and he drove home Peter’s sense of, you know, of sorrow over his sin. The Lord Jesus asked him three times, “Do you love me?” And after Peter had asserted his love for Christ, Jesus said every time, “Feed my sheep.” He took Peter out of some sort of philosophical personal relationship to Jesus without an effect on his brothers to saying, “If you love me, love my people.”

Jesus used his words and his life to produce people who care for one another, who engage not in a wisdom that’s abstract, philosophical, and Greek, but a wisdom that is active in righteousness in terms of our actions one to the other. Jesus’s words fed Peter, and he gave Peter then the right words to feed those who would follow him. Jesus is the righteousness of God unto us.

Proverbs 10:20 says, “The tongue of the just is as choice silver. The heart of the wicked is little worth. The lips of the righteous feed many, but fools die for want of wisdom.” The words of Jesus Christ have fed many. And he calls us to use those words to speak forth courageously, boldly, wisely to one another and to our communities. He calls us to diligence, to honoring our families, and then to look for opportunities to use our tongues to feed the culture and community around us as well.

Let’s give God thanks for what he’s accomplished for us in Christ. Father, we thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you that his life symbolizes the goodness of you, Lord God, and your wisdom to us. We thank you for the gospel accounts, the way that the words of Jesus fed Peter, and then he called Peter to feed others. Father, we thank you that this is who we are.

Forgive us, Lord God, for accepting another identity of who we are as Christians. Forgive us our sins of cowardice, Lord God. Grant us speech that is wise, that ministers, Lord God, and feeds other people. Grant us that this week. May we accept it, knowing that this is the very purpose for which Christ has redeemed us—to honor and worship you by speaking forth wisely in the context of our homes, our vocation, and our neighborhoods.

In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.

My dear Redeemer and my Lord,
I read my duty in thy word.
But in thy life the law appears
Brought out in living characters.
Such was thy truth and such thy zeal,
Such deference to thy Father’s will,
Such love and meekness so divine—
I would transcribe and make them mine.

Cold mountains and the midnight air
Witness the fervor of thy prayer.
The desert thy temptation,
Thy conflict and thy victory too.
Be thou my pattern—make me bear
More of thy gracious image here.
Then God, the judge, shall own my name
Amongst the followers of my land.

Context for our prayer this morning will be Psalm 15. Let us pray. Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, whose name alone…