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TH1126: On-Line

Teaching Notes

PROVERBS

Please turn in your Bibles to Proverbs chapter 17, as we continue our study through the Word of God.

PROVERBS 17

VERSE 1

1. This goes along with Proverbs 15:17, which says "Better is a dinner of herbs [vegetables] where love is, Than a fatted calf with hatred." In other words, a home filled with love, peace, is more valuable than any earthly treasure, be it food, money or any material possessions.

VERSE 2

1. A servant was given the responsibility of caring for the children, and a servant who trains up a child, even a rebellious child, in the way he should go, will be blessed when they mature and are out on their own doing those things they are suppose to. They, in a sense, are a reflection of the person raising them.

VERSE 3

1. The refining pot or the furnace was used to remove any impurities from the silver or gold. God also uses a refining-like fire upon our hearts causing any impurities to be exposed and purged out, removed. He is purifying us, making us more like Him. It is as Job said in Job 23:10, "But He knows the way that I take; When He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold."

VERSE 4

1. If you love gossip, God says that you are an evildoer and a liar. Why is God so harsh with gossip? Because these characteristics are only destructive and do not reflect the character of God. In Psalm 119:104 David says "Through Your precepts I get understanding; Therefore I hate every false way."

VERSE 5

1. I don't know why, but some people love to mock, make fun of the poor. Maybe it makes them feel better than the poor. The reality is we have all been created in the image of God and God is not a respector of persons. Why some go through harder times than others I have to leave in God's hands, for He not only made us all, but has placed us in various situations for His purpose.

VERSE 6

1. Solomon is saying how precious grandchildren are and for those of you who have grandchildren, you know how true that is. He also is saying that children are a reflection of their father, so men, take that to heart and understand your children watch you more than you think.

VERSE 7

1. It doesn't matter how good your speech is, it doesn't matter how important of a person you are, for if you are a fool, then your speech will be foolishness.

VERSE 8

1. This is a little clearer in the Amplified Bible. It says "A bribe is like a bright, precious stone that dazzles the eyes and affects the mind of him who gives it, [as if by magic] he prospers, whichever way he turns." No Solomon is not condoning taking bribes, he is just stating a fact!

VERSE 9

1. This is not saying to ignore sin but to forgive the person who may have done you wrong. What happens when we don't forgive is we allow bitterness and anger to build up inside of us, and that will eventually cause the breakup of relationships. One person put it this way, "When we learn to love we also learn to cover, to forget, and to overlook many faults in others." It is as Peter said back in I Peter 4:8 "And above all things have fervent love for one another, for love will cover a multitude of sins." That word "fervent" speaks of a muscle that has been stretched to its limit, that is the kind of love we are to have towards others. We need to have a forgiving spirit.

VERSE 10

1. A wise person will receive instruction, he will receive correction. But the fool refuses to learn, you can beat him 100 times and it will do no good.

VERSE 11

1. God will not be mocked. If you chose to fight against Him, He will deal with your actions. It is as Hebrews says "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." Hebrews 10:31. Also, in Galatians 6:7-8 Paul tells us "Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life."

VERSE 12

1. Solomon is saying that it is better to meet a bear robbed of her cubs, than it is to listen to foolish ideas of fools. You stand a better chance with the bear than you do with a fool. In Isaiah 32:6 we read "For the foolish person will speak foolishness, And his heart will work iniquity: To practice ungodliness, To utter error against the LORD, To keep the hungry unsatisfied, And he will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail." A fool is in rebellion against God and his words are not satisfying to our lives, they don't quench the thirst we have for their words are empty and dry. Not like the Word of God which is living and powerful. It is refreshing and satisfying.

VERSE 13

1. As I have said before, repaying evil for good is satanic. Repaying good for good or evil for evil is human. That is not how God wants us to respond. He wants us to repay evil with good for that is truly a godly characteristic, it shows AGAPE love! Now what should we do when evil comes upon us? I like what David says in Psalm 109:4-5. We read "In return for my love they are my accusers, But I give myself to prayer. Thus they have rewarded me evil for good, And hatred for my love." Our flesh would love to give them what they deserve, but David is asking God to help him, he is praying about they situation he finds himself in. I think that is what we must do as others return our love with evil, give it over to God. It is as God works in us that our actions will reflect His actions and mercy and grace will be extended instead of anger and retaliation.

VERSE 14

1. When water is spilt it is very hard to pick it back up. When a crack in a dam begins to open and water begins to trickle through, soon that trickle will be a gusher and before long the water will be flowing so quickly that it is destroying everything in its path. The same is true for contentions, stop them before the cause destruction!

VERSE 15

1. It seems like the wicked are justified in their actions and the righteous are the ones who are guilty. We are a society that calls good evil and evil good. Just recently the pro-rights group lost in court, they were convicted under a law, I believe it is called the RICO law, that was used to convict racketeering. The reason it was used was because they were blocking the entrance to these abortion clinics. Whatever happened to free speech? What ever happened to peaceful protests? Think about how far we have come since the 1960's. Martin Luther King would not be able to protest for equal rights according to this law. But homosexuals can cause all kinds of disturbances at churches, business that are against homosexuality and they would never have this law applied to them. But when someone stands up against the murder of unborn children, they get this law slapped on them. To God, that is an abomination!

VERSE 16

1. In other words, why spend the money to purchase something you are not going to use! It is not only that they are not going to use it but they have no desire to learn. When I was in college, Arizona State University was known as one of the top party schools in the country, and many kids went there not for an education, but to party, and their parents ended up paying for a very expensive party for them. Why pay all that tuition when you aren't going to learn anything is the idea.

VERSE 17

1. D. L. Moody put it this way regarding this verse. He said "A true friend is like ivy - the greater the ruin, the closer he clings." You see, a true friend will always be there for you, in the good times and in the hard times. A true friend will love you in spite of what they know of you.

VERSE 18

1. Another warning about not co-signing for another person's debts.

VERSE 19

1. There are those that are power hungry and will do anything and everything to gain as much of it as they can. The "gate" was a term or word used to speak of authority and this person wants to exalt his authority above those around him. But God says if you exalt yourself, He will bring you down. It is as Proverbs 16:18 says, "Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before a fall." I would rather follow what James said in James 4:10 "Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up."

VERSE 20

1. They find no good because they are not looking for good. And what flows from their lips comes from their heart. It is as James 3:8 says "But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison." Yes, no man can, but God can. And as we allow His Spirit to work in our lives, our speech should no longer be filled with deadly poison but with life, it should be refreshing!

VERSE 21

1. There is no joy in a child that is a fool. It is truly sad to see the destructive path some people are on and refusing to get off. On the other hand, a child that is walking in wisdom, following after God, there is great joy. It is as John said "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth." III John 4.

VERSE 22

1. There is something about laughter that changes our whole countenance. In fact, many times it is like a medicine to the body. On the other end of the spectrum, a person who is not full of joy, not full of laughter, one who is of a broken spirit, dries up, there is no life in him. Laughter is a great medicine.

VERSE 23

1. Not only in Solomon's day but even today people are trying to buy their way out of situations. In Chicago they have had several scandals where judges were caught taking bribes to reduce or altar a case. They changed the right judgment they were to issue to a perverted one. And of course, this is not only in Chicago, but happens all around the world. Money talks, look at what happened to O.J. Simpson, he got away with murder! We must also understand that people are not going to get away with anything, they will have to appear before the one Righteous Judge who can't be bought off, and that is God!

VERSE 24

1. A fool can't find wisdom no matter where he looks. But a person with understanding, he knows where to look.

VERSES 25-26

1. A warning about treating people unfairly.

VERSE 27

1. I don't know about you, but to me it is such a comfort to know the truth and because of that it doesn't matter what others might say or think. Now don't think I am being self-righteous, or that I am so intelligent, because I am not. What I am saying is that I know the wisdom of God through His Word and I believe what He has said, and that makes me very smart.

VERSE 28

1. We have a proverb that is very similar to this one, one we have gone over before, and it goes like this. "It is better to keep your mouth closed and have people think you are a fool, than to open it and remove any doubts!"

PROVERBS 18

VERSE 1

1. This isolation is not only from man but God. You see, when we begin to do things against God, we are pushing Him away and we isolate ourselves from the body of Christ because we don't want our sin to be exposed or hear any words of correction. We then are moving away from sound wisdom into folly. You see, we are attempting to satisfy our fleshly desires and that is done alone, in the dark, you might say.

VERSE 2

1. A fool does not want to gain knowledge, only to share his own ideas, his own views on things.

VERSE 3

1. The wicked don't want to hear the truth and if someone is speaking the truth they will come against it, try to bring dishonor to it. What happens many times as they speak against the truth of God is they expose their own foolishness.

VERSE 4

1. Our words, the words of the righteous should be refreshing to peoples lives.

VERSE 5

1. We are not to be respectors of people but to judge fairly. The problem today is we have ungodly people seated in many courts today and we expect them to judge fairly, righteously, and that is difficult if not impossible outside of God and His Word.

VERSE 6

1. A fool gets himself into trouble, into fights with the words he speaks.

VERSE 7

1. Our tongue is such a small member of our body and yet it gets us into so much trouble!

VERSE 8

1. Someone who loves gossip devours them just as a person who is eating food and both are assimilated into the body -food to build up and gossip to tear down. The National Enquirer advertises its paper by saying "Inquiring minds want to know!" What they want to know is gossip, not even truths many times, information that destroys peoples lives. That is not an inquiring mind but a foolish one!

VERSE 9

1. A lazy person goes hand-in-hand with those that destroy. Griffiths puts it this way when he says "We know today that it is shoddy workmanship in cars, airplanes, buildings, and the like which is the cause of fatal accidents. This is also true in some offices and leadership in the church, where negligence of responsibility may lead to a breakdown of fellowship. A church may be disintegrated through foolish negligence and laziness as well as by Satanic attack."

VERSE 10

1. For the righteous the Lord is our place of refuge, He is like a strong tower that we can run to for safety, comfort. For the unrighteous, verse 11 tells us what they trust in.

VERSE 11

1. The unrighteous truly believe that their money will protect them, that is where he places his trust. But when that is gone or that can't buy them what they want, what they need, what will they do, who can they trust in? No one but the Lord!

VERSE 12

1. It seems that the wicked are having a grand old time, even though judgment is close at hand. We can see this truth played out in history. Just before the flood people were living normal lives even though wickedness permeated the land. The only sign of judgment was this big boat that this man Noah was building, but it didn't stop their evilness one bit. Just before Sodom and Gomorrah fell in judgment, people were still eating, drinking and being merry even though judgment was close at hand. And we look at today and we see the same foolish mentality!

VERSE 13

1. We must be slow to speak, to listen to what a person is saying before we respond.

VERSE 14

1. This verse was played out during the NBA finals last year when Michael Jordan played with a high fever and a very bad case of the flu. And yet he was able to come through and win the game for the Chicago Bull's, expending every ounce of energy he could and by the end of the game he was helped off the court, hardly able to walk. If you saw that game you saw how incredible it was, the job he did. He played better than anyone else because he had such a strong spirit, a strong resolve to play and to win. When we give up, lose the fight, there is not much we can do.

2. Listen to these two other stories regarding a broken spirit and what can happen. These are from Dr. Paul Adolph, and he says there was "...an elderly patient who was recovering satisfactorily in the hospital from a broken hip. At her release, she was transferred to an old people's home. Within a few hours, the patient showed general physical deterioration and she died in less than a day - 'not of a broken hip but of a broken heart.'"

Also, "A man who had faced the horrors of concentration camp with gallantry discovered after his release that it was his own son who had informed on him. 'The discovery beat him to his knees and he died. He could bear the attack of an enemy, but the attack of one whom he loved killed him.'"

VERSE 15

1. The greatest knowledge we can gain is what God has spoken to us.

VERSE 16

1. Some feel that this is speaking of a bribe, how that opens doors. I lean more towards the idea of the gifts that God has given to each of us and has opened doors of opportunity for us to minister to people, even influential people.

VERSE 17

1. I have been caught by this on occasion and maybe so have you. When someone comes to you, telling you what someone has done to them, and I would think "That dirty dog, how could they do such a think to this nice person." That is UNTIL I heard the other side of the story and found out there was more to it than the first person had said. Be very careful, get all the information before you speak.

VERSE 18

1. Don't argue over silly things, flip a coin instead of arguing. I am of course speaking of things like where to go out for dinner and-so-on. Don't make such a big deal on these issues, enjoy going out!

VERSE 19

1. It is very hard to break down those walls after they have been built. Be careful how you treat people.

VERSE 20

1. In other words, don't say the wrong thing to your boss or you will suffer the consequences of your words, your stomach will go empty!

VERSE 21

1. The tongue, as I have said, can be very destructive to those around us. It could bring them death or it can bring them life. As one person said "Keep your words warm and sweet for you might have to eat them!"

VERSE 22

1. A husband and a wife should compliment each other - they are complete when they are together.

VERSE 23

1. The rich don't have to talk nice to people to influence them, their money does the talking for them. The poor, on the other hand, have to be careful what they say, how they talk. It is not the way it should be, but it is the way it is for now.

VERSE 24

1. Here the Hebrew implies that a person who is always looking for friends is going to do so to his destruction. They will seek friends at any cost. But, we have a friend who will stick close by us at all times, we don't have to do anything but receive Him, and that friend is Jesus. In John 15:15 we are told "No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you." Also, in Hebrews 13:5 we read "Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, 'I will never leave you nor forsake you.'" In Matthew 28:20 we read "'teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.' Amen." And in John 14:3 we read "And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also." What a friend we have in Jesus!