Wisdom Truck 44

 

I had a real wrestling match with two verses in Proverbs 17 that I could see went together...

Pro 17:16  Why should a fool have money in his hand to buy wisdom when he has no sense? 

Pro 17:24  The discerning sets his face toward wisdom, but the eyes of a fool are on the ends of the earth. 

My problems were the verses between.  Another chiasm? Possibly, but the 'math wasn't mathing."  But the Lord God in His own Wisdom, asked me a question that began my understanding: What defines a fool?  THAT does lie in between.  So lets do like an oreo- open the cookie, lick out the center, then eat the outsides!

When I asked myself that question, I began to look at the 'creme-y middle' as what defined a fool.

Pro 17:17  A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity. 

Pro 17:18  One who lacks sense gives a pledge and puts up security in the presence of his neighbor. 

Here we see the two sides of people.  One who knows how to truly love, loves through thick and thin; the commentators are united in that adversity makes a true friend into a brother.  On the other hand, the fool thinks his money shows love- and if you look at the MANY refences in Proverbs about what we call co-signing, it only brings ruin to both and ends the friendship.

Pro 17:19  Whoever loves transgression loves strife; he who makes his door high seeks destruction. 

"Whoever loves transgression" is our fool; remember, "the fool says in his heart, 'there is no God' " is our core definition.  He loves his transgression- his sin- more than God or man.  Strife tells us he's a 'typical Martin'- he loves to argue.  He takes his pride from flaunting his own opinion- another characterization found throughout Proverbs- and is headed for a fall.  Putting it here means he intends to use the wisdom he seeks to 'argue better', and exalt himself.

Pro 17:20  A man of crooked heart does not discover good, and one with a dishonest tongue falls into calamity. 

Much like the last one:  His MOTIVE behind the acquiring of wisdom is selfish;  He seeks ways to pervert the truth.  Wisdom, to him, is just getting good enough at lacing lies with just enough truth to manipulate those around him.  Jesus's temptations from the Devil are one good example.  A great majority of the fools on X are another.

Pro 17:21  He who sires a fool gets himself sorrow, and the father of a fool has no joy. 

Pro 17:22  A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones. 

The ultimate end is disappointment;  Where the wise can find joy even in adversity, the fool's soul is withered, incapable of joy.  If you ever wondered why none of the far left can find humor in a joke, tell a good joke, or even accept something actually funny, now you know.

Pro 17:23  The wicked accepts a bribe in secret to pervert the ways of justice. 

The fool has given up caring about honesty; truth to him is whatever he chooses to believe.  If accepting an easily discovered lie profits him, so much the better.

Now, the cookie.

Pro 17:16  Why should a fool have money in his hand to buy wisdom when he has no sense? 

Solomon tells us earlier, "The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom, and whatever you get, get insight." (Prov. 4:7).  The difference between this one and the fool in v16 is, "Getting" refers to ANY means of acquiring: Listening, learning, praying, etc.  Price/buying is solely focused on money or riches on earth.  Even if he bought his way into a scholarly school that taught true wisdom, it would do him no good.  As many a pastor has said, "It has to travel that 18 inches from the head to the heart", and his heart, we see in v22, is withered.  It no longer has the capacity to take on a change in life.  True wisdom is more precious than any purchase price.  But he wants to 'rent it' to profit himself.  Reminds me of this incident:

Act 8:18  Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money, 

Act 8:19  saying, “Give me this power also, so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.” 

Act 8:20  But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money! 

And the other cookie:

Pro 17:24  The discerning sets his face toward wisdom, but the eyes of a fool are on the ends of the earth. 

The literal translation of this is that the discerning (AKA understanding) has wisdom constantly BEFORE THEIR FACE; True wisdom teaches with every step.  The fool, on the other hand, who refuses to see its value, who rejects the heavenly for the earthly, and couldn't internalize it even if it was sold, is looking in every place he can peer into, and cannot see it.  The phrase "the ends " is meaning the extreme; without a right heart, it will never be visible to him.

Crunch.

One day at church...

 I came into this Sunday morning distracted, not thinking very far ahead or afield, as church started and I told God, "I thank You that You love me even like this." And a funny thing happened- He heard that prayer.  And He answered it 3 ways.

The first was in a line from a song the worship team presented, that set me to thinking of three Josephs.  The first brought the family of Jacob to Egypt; and in accordance with his last commands, they brought out his bones for burial when they left.  A second Joseph, a foster father, helped to bring our Savior, Jesus, into this world.  Yet a third laid His dead body to rest.  The symmetry of all God does struck me.

The second was right before the sermon.  Pastor Denny, our retired former lead pastor, was preaching today, but before he began, he gave a special and obviously heartfelt tribute.  Now Denny is very special to us; I remember the first time he came back at our new pastor's request, he got a round of applause when the lights came up on him.  It is always great to see him again.  But what he brought up was how HE felt so blessed that Pastor Josh gave him the honor of coming back to preach now and then.  He said, "I hope you all know what a special young man he is."  That there struck me as one of the greatest and most sincere acts of humility I'd ever seen.

The third was during the sermon, another example of God's symmetry.  Denny spoke about the removing of flesh and bone- not just the 'rib' we often mention- from Adam to make Eve.  "She is flesh of my flesh, and bone of my bone".

Denny then mentioned a commentator who once compared this and Christ's death on the Cross, specifically when the centurion pierced His side with a spear.  "Adam got his bride from a wound to his side; and Christ got His bride (the Church) from a wound in His side."

Right before Church, I get a weekly e-mail from another pastor I connected with on X, with a message and then prayer requests in the comments.  This week, the first comment was a long, imprecatory prayer- and as such a prayer, in parts it seems a bit harsh.  As I pondered it, I realized I had just prayed the same thing in simpler form at the bark park with Misty when we got up- "Protect us from the weight of the sins in our lives, which You washed away with your blood; and protect us from the weight of the evil that those who don't believe bring onto us."

This morning has been all about God showing the wonderful symmetry with which He built all things.  I share this in praise to Him who made it so.

Friday pics

 But of course, a couple stories first.  This week at work was better than last- but not by much.  8 hr Monday, then 10, 8, and 5.5, as inventory closes in.Though seeings as our company twice in a week proved it can't tell the difference between a 7 and an 8, I don't know I'm all that inclined to bother.  I've got to say, though, it isn't all the company; a couple of pallets of fabric we haven't used in 4 years, and just copied the old inventory tag for 3, I am lobbying to get rid of, so I checked said tag for accuracy.  Not only was it 100 yards MORE than it was supposed to be- but a mysterious second partial roll that had never been accounted for had showed up.  Go figure. (and no, it was 100 more without that roll.)

Anyway, here's a couple of leftovers from Halloween:

How'd that get in there?

Believe it or not, this was the first pictures I took on October 30th in 11 years!  Next day, a rather large beer-or-treater stopped in...

"Rooby rooby roo!"

At last that brings us to our rather melancholy Friday afternoon walk...

Uh-oh... looks a little ominous, but I promised...

On the other hand, we are back to 'cut through into the woods' time...

Successful entry! (AKA I didn't trip on anything...)

Sea of yellow

Life is short and cliffs are high
I don't have to close my eyes
to see us in flight...

Mod tree

Misty's least favorite time- they shut the dam upstream

Nobody on the road
nobody on the beach
a feeling in the air

summer's out of reach

And at the Swamp, it rained... for a few yards

Last flower of the year...

IDK why they moved the mammoth (sorry sports fans, this is NOT a mastodon), but I'll bet he's miffed at getting discs thrown at him

This looked like a cloud "waterfall"

Wisdom Truck 43

 

I had to ask some hard questions to gain wisdom here- not because wisdom is lacking, but needing to put it into context.  To help you understand, let me put up 2 translations of the same verse:

Pro 17:2  A wise servant shall have rule over a son who causes shame, and shall have part of the inheritance among the brothers. (Modern KJV)

Pro 17:2  A wise servant ruleth over a son causing shame, And in the midst of brethren He apportioneth an inheritance. (Young's Literal Translation)

The first thing I found I did not know is- MOST translations made it sound like the wise servant would get, as it were, a 'piece of the pie'.  But the RIGHT way to look at this, based on the culture in which it was written, is the Young's version- the wise servant divvies out the inheritance to the sons.  You see, in those days, it was like the Prodigal son split- older got 2 portions, each remaining brother got one.So what is actually being said here, is that if there was a son that caused shame, the wise servant determined who got the double portion, who got single portions- and who got left out.  So I want to look at this 3 ways- what constituted 'shame', who decided when the servant stepped in, and what it means to us.

1- Shame

Proverbs is very good at deliniatinghow a son causes shame.  But basically, it boiled down to three things.

a- The emotional and physical well-being of the parent. I got the point of this from 19:26:

Pro 19:26  The one who robs his father and chases away his mother is a son who brings shame and disgrace. 

The word translated here "robs" is technically "wastes"- devastates, by draining away the family livelihood.  Which, in turn, damages the reputataion of the father among the people. "Chases away his mother" was a harder nut to crack, but observe:
-His rebellion was breaking her heart;

-his rebellion was rejecting everything she tried to teach him;

his rebellion, unchecked, would leave her destitute if it came down to her widowhood and onle he was left to care for her.

b- The removal of physical substenance

This might seem obvious from 19:26, but it's more than just wasting what they had; observe 10:5:

Pro 10:5  The one who gathers crops in the summer is a wise son, but the one who sleeps during harvest is a shameful son. 

He wasn't CONTRIBUTING, either,  Why? Laziness, apathy.. either way, he was both actively and passively contributing to their ruin.

c- Rejecting wisdom.

From my AI helper:

Mothers were the primary early teachers of wisdom and moral restraint in the home (as seen elsewhere in Proverbs, e.g., the "teaching of a mother" in Proverbs 1:8 or 31:1). When a son plunges headfirst into foolishness, he violently rejects his mother's rebukes, warnings, and presence, treating her with such contempt that she can no longer reach him.

He has become the very definition of scoffer.  He knows what's right; he just doesn't care. Or, as 29:15 says:

Pro 29:15  A rod and reproof impart wisdom, but a child who is unrestrained brings shame to his mother. 

Now here, we bring into question- why didn't the parents restrain him?  Maybe it was on them; just maybe, like with the Prodigal, he had been given every chance, and simply rejected it.

2- The servant comes in.

This was, as my AI helper brought up many times, no 'coup d'etat.'  This required either 1) the declaration of the father that the sons were not fit to be trusted; 2) the other sons, who could find no way to do it amongst themselves, or 3) the community, who could not stand by idly and watch the shameful proceedings.  But basically, at the core, this was the FATHER'S decision.  The servant did nothing on his own, but carried out the father's will.

Now, where have we heard THAT before?

3- Where it hits us

Joh 5:19  So Jesus answered them, “I tell you the solemn truth, the Son can do nothing on his own initiative, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise. 

Isa 42:1  “Here is my servant whom I support, my chosen one in whom I take pleasure. I have placed my Spirit on him; he will make just decrees for the nations. 

Isa 42:2  He will not cry out or shout; he will not publicize himself in the streets. 

Isa 42:3  A crushed reed he will not break, a dim wick he will not extinguish; he will faithfully make just decrees. 

Jesus is the servant, God is the Father.  The Jews were to be a beacon, whom the Gentiles would look on and rejoice at the Wise God they had.  Instead, they became so corrupt:

Mat 23:13  “But woe to you, experts in the law and you Pharisees, hypocrites! You keep locking people out of the kingdom of heaven! For you neither enter nor permit those trying to enter to go in. 

Mat 23:15  “Woe to you, experts in the law and you Pharisees, hypocrites! You cross land and sea to make one convert, and when you get one, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves! 

So Jesus, the servant, split the inheritance between the wise sons- Jews and Gentile alike.  Moses warned them it would be thus:

Deu 32:21  They have made me jealous with false gods, enraging me with their worthless gods; so I will make them jealous with a people they do not recognize, with a nation slow to learn I will enrage them. 

So this one verse- Proverbs 17:2- is like Romans 9-11 condensed to atomic form.

Crash

 When I first saw the clip, I hoped it was AI.  Quickly found out it was not.

Trying to find out what there was to find out, saw hundreds of "conspiracy theory" junkies posting about it.  That was no plane.  Where is the debris? It was brought down by AI- perhaps run by Hillary Clinton to hit Mar-a-Lago.

I responded to just one of them.

Some of you people who think this isn't a plane need to watch you some Air Disasters.  Smithsonian channel.  Educate yourselves.

I've seen it all to many times there.  Ice the controls, overcorrect.  Always remember She-Hulk in an Avengers comic saying, "Without power assists, this thing flies just like a brick."

Saw a quote from a pilot: "Without that horizontal stabilizer, it's a lawn dart."

Oh, but "A plane crashing wouldn't leave a crater!" Really, at that speed, from that height, an anvil would leave a crater.  Ask Wile E Coyote.

A lot of still photos from just before it hits: "Look, no wings!" I ran the video 3-4 frames from that stopping point.  I saw what looked to me like wings...

Just proving these whackjobs will do whatever to prove a non-existant point.

Then came out the cockpit radio to ATC.  "OMG, it was a girl, she was panicking!  Must have been a DEI hire!" A girl who'd been flying for years, with a qualified main pilot by her side, sounded panicked because she was 15 seconds from a death her brain would never even register.  How dare she panic!

Never mind that 9 people died.  Never mind that God, in His mercy, had it land between a highway with cars on it and a trailer park full of people, and no one else died.  The important thing is, "Hillary did it with an AI controller!"  "No, it was the Chinese, or the Iranians!"  "A plane wouldn't have went up in a fireball like that!" (It might with 2-3,000 lbs of jet fuel on board...)

"The wages of sin is death."  That doesn't mean that there were 9 desperate sinners on this plane.  It means, because MAN sinned, DEATH entered a world it wasn't meant for.

Luk 13:1  There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 

Luk 13:2  And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? 

Luk 13:3  No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. 

Luk 13:4  Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? 

Luk 13:5  No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” 

I said... um... uh...

 Today I ran into a link on mispronounced words.  Apparently the writer of the article (featured on USA Today) used the tactic of looking up the requests for pronunciation that were requested online the most.  Of their top 15 most mispronounced words:

- 7 I knew for sure.  Another I knew once I knew they meant the gyro SANDWICH, and not the gyro-SCOPE.

-3 I was mispronouncing- because EVRYBODY says it the other way. Sorry, but GIF is an animated picture, JIF is a peanut butter.

-3 of them I never heard of before, and long odds say I would have messed them up if I did.

- and the one I will admit I had wrong with no defense- whow woulda thought acai was pronounced "ah-sigh-EE"?

Here is the list, with proper pronunciations:

Worcestershire sauce − WUUS-ter-sheer saws

Gyro − YEE-roh

Dachshund − DAKS-hund

Niche − NEESH

Porsche − POR-shuh

Qatar − kuh-TAR

Gif − JIF

Curacao − KYUR-uh-sow

Saoirse − SEER-shuh

Pho − FUH

Salmon − SAM-un

Nguyen − WIN

Aoife − EE-fuh

Acai − ah-sigh-EE

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious − soo-per-kal-ih-FRAJ-ih-lis-tik-ek-spee-al-ih-DOH-shus

I really have a hard time believing that anyone who's even seen that last one can't pronounce it.  That's kind of the point.

The article went on to list the most mispronounced word in each state.  Here's where it really got baffling for me:

-Not surprisingly, 12 had words that were on the list.  Many times, that one was dachshund.

- 5 times, it was that state's name.

-7 times, it was a city in that state.

-3 times, it was Iran; twice each it was "data" and "water" .  WATER?

-Once it was a rock star (Hozier).

-And there were three I had to shake my head and say, how the heck did you get there from here?:

Montana − Xochitl (SOH-cheel)- an Aztec girl's name meaning 'flower'.  Why do they care in Montana?  Xóchitl Cocina & Tequila, a modern Mexican restaurant located in Great Falls, Montana.

Tennessee − Sevierville (sev-uh-VEER-ul)- which is actually an 8th "city in that state", sounds like severe-full.

Wisconsin − Paczki (POONCH-kee)-apparently a Polish yeast donut.

Finally, I was intrigued by the IQ implications of the mispronounced words in the states surrounding my beloved Indiana...

Indiana- Gyro... I can kinda get that.  But...

Michigan- gauche.  Again, I can kinda get...

Ohio- Spaghetti. Seriously?

Kentucky- Louisville.  Now I get that out of staters might question it, but I thought it was an executable offense in state to not know "LOO-uh-vul".

Illinois- CHICAGO.  CHI. CAG. O. Over a fifth of the population of the state live in a city that they cannot pronounce.

And just to shame all the rest, here are the complete lists of states residents can't pronounce, and cities they can't pronounce:

States

Colorado, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Nevada, Oregon

Cities

Juneau (Alaska), Chicago (Illinois), Louisville (Kentucky), Bangor (Maine), Raliegh (North Carolina), Sevierville (Tennessee), Montpelier (Vermont).

Wisdom Truck 42

 

It started out so simple.  Two verses that sounded about the same.  But it became so much more...

Pro 16:21  The wise in heart shall be called prudent, and the sweetness of the lips increases learning. 

Pro 16:23  The heart of the wise teaches his mouth, and adds learning to his lips. 

Oh, but it got complicated in a hurry,  First, v 21 is like the headline over a 'wisdom sandwich'- usually called a chiasm-

Pro 16:21  The wise in heart shall be called prudent, and the sweetness of the lips increases learning. 

Pro 16:22  Understanding is a fountain of life to him who has it, but the instruction of fools is folly. 

Pro 16:23  The heart of the wise teaches his mouth, and adds learning to his lips. 

Pro 16:24  Pleasant words are like a honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones. 

Pro 16:25  There is a way that seems right to a man, but the end of it is the ways of death. 

Let me add some things, to make it make sense:

Pro 16:21  The wise in heart shall be called prudent, and the sweetness of the lips increases learning. 

 (A1) Pro 16:22  Understanding is a fountain of life to him who has it, but the instruction of fools is folly. 

(B1) Pro 16:23  The heart of the wise teaches his mouth, and adds learning to his lips. 

(B2) Pro 16:24  Pleasant words are like a honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones. 

(A2) Pro 16:25  There is a way that seems right to a man, but the end of it is the ways of death. 

The chiasm is that vv 22-25 are an outer contrast and the inner pair, vv 23 and 24,  are an inner comparative- both of them enhancing the first verse underlined. So lets put aside a bunch of technical stuff and understand this.

First- what is it to be wise of heart? with a little help from my research assistant AI ( which can understand Keil and Delitsch far better than I can), To be wise in heart- to the Hebrew mind, the 'control center' of a person- is to have "Wisdom that has shaped a person's CHARACTER, MOTIVE, and CHOICES."  How has it changed the character? V21 tells us- it has made one Prudent- to an extent where everyone sees it.  Not only sees it, but when this person speaks from their motives- and of course, the main motive is Fear of the Lord- it brings wisdom TO others through his words.

And these aren't just ANY words- he's not beating you over the head with it. (Some of you at this juncture might be wondering if this left ME out! Well, I am sharing what I am learning...) The word in v21 for sweetness can be boiled down, surprisingly, to SUCK- as in, you relish the sweetness of these words so much, you want to suck them in!  No wonder you learn from them.

One way you can seperate the two similar verses- the 21st verse deals with reputation (character) and effect (the relishing of the wisdom by others); the 23rd highlights the source of those words ( a wise, controlled heart) and the control (acting based on motive, motive taking you back to Fear of the Lord).  This is when my AI assistant reminded (actually, pointed out) about the chiasm.  So let's look at this, and how it fleshes out the 21st verse.  

A1-A2

Understanding as a well of life?  Booklearning? Of course not.  Here is where you clearly see Jesus= Understanding.  For example:

Joh 4:13  Jesus answered and said to her, Whoever drinks of this water shall thirst again, 

Joh 4:14  but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. 

and:

Joh 7:37  And in the last day of the great feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. 

Joh 7:38  He who believes on Me, as the Scripture has said, "Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." 

Joh 7:39  (But He spoke this about the Spirit, which they who believed on Him should receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.) 

One thing you need to get here- you cannot seperate the salvation function of Jesus from the life giving function of the Spirit!  Remember back in chapter 8:

Pro 8:14  Counsel and sound wisdom are mine; I am understanding; I have strength. 

On the other hand, without this wisdom, you have folly.  Any wisdom that leads you AWAY from Christ is folly.  No matter how 'wise' the idea is in secular terms- I should be tolerant, I should let them 'live' their lives' and just pray they figure it out before they burn in hell.  " ...but the end of it is the ways of death. "

B1-B2

This is where motive, control, choice all work together. Or, as my AI assistant said, "V21 is the claim;, v 23 is the mechanism by which it works.  Let me bring them back down again:

(B1) Pro 16:23  The heart of the wise teaches his mouth, and adds learning to his lips. 

(B2) Pro 16:24  Pleasant words are like a honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones. 

The wise heart controls his words, making them pleasant and full of the wisdom he has.  This wisdom is, physically AND spiritually, like a piece of honeycomb.  you find your soul sweetended, and hopefully saved.  And, they can be refreshing, too, for example: 

Pro 25:13  Like the cold of snow in the time of harvest is a faithful messenger to those who send him; he refreshes the soul of his masters. 

And:

1Sa 14:27  But Jonathan had not heard his father charge the people with the oath, so he put out the tip of the staff that was in his hand and dipped it in the honeycomb and put his hand to his mouth, and his eyes became bright. 

1Sa 14:28  Then one of the people said, “Your father strictly charged the people with an oath, saying, ‘Cursed be the man who eats food this day.’” And the people were faint. 

1Sa 14:29  Then Jonathan said, “My father has troubled the land. See how my eyes have become bright because I tasted a little of this honey. 

We need the Spirit to build our character, structure our motives, guide our choices.  Fo all the complexity, it really does become simple at the end.