23:1 When you sit down to eat with a ruler,
observe carefully what is before you,
2 and put a knife to your throat
if you are given to appetite.
3 Do not desire his delicacies,
for they are deceptive food.
4 Do not toil to acquire wealth;
be discerning enough to desist.
5 When your eyes light on it, it is gone,
for suddenly it sprouts wings,
flying like an eagle toward heaven.
6 Do not eat the bread of a man who is stingy;
do not desire his delicacies,
7 for he is like one who is inwardly calculating.
“Eat and drink!” he says to you,
but his heart is not with you.
8 You will vomit up the morsels that you have eaten,
and waste your pleasant words.
9 Do not speak in the hearing of a fool,
for he will despise the good sense of your words.
10 Do not move an ancient landmark
or enter the fields of the fatherless,
11 for their Redeemer is strong;
he will plead their cause against you.
12 Apply your heart to instruction
and your ear to words of knowledge.
13 Do not withhold discipline from a child;
if you strike him with a rod, he will not die.
14 If you strike him with the rod,
you will save his soul from Sheol.
15 My son, if your heart is wise,
my heart too will be glad.
16 My inmost being will exult
when your lips speak what is right.
17 Let not your heart envy sinners,
but continue in the fear of the Lord all the day.
18 Surely there is a future,
and your hope will not be cut off.
19 Hear, my son, and be wise,
and direct your heart in the way.
20 Be not among drunkards
or among gluttonous eaters of meat,
21 for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty,
and slumber will clothe them with rags.
22 Listen to your father who gave you life,
and do not despise your mother when she is old.
23 Buy truth, and do not sell it;
buy wisdom, instruction, and understanding.
24 The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice;
he who fathers a wise son will be glad in him.
25 Let your father and mother be glad;
let her who bore you rejoice.
26 My son, give me your heart,
and let your eyes observe my ways.
27 For a prostitute is a deep pit;
an adulteress is a narrow well.
28 She lies in wait like a robber
and increases the traitors among mankind.
29 Who has woe? Who has sorrow?
Who has strife? Who has complaining?
Who has wounds without cause?
Who has redness of eyes?
30 Those who tarry long over wine;
those who go to try mixed wine.
31 Do not look at wine when it is red,
when it sparkles in the cup
and goes down smoothly.
32 In the end it bites like a serpent
and stings like an adder.
33 Your eyes will see strange things,
and your heart utter perverse things.
34 You will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea,
like one who lies on the top of a mast.
35 “They struck me,” you will say, “but I was not hurt;
they beat me, but I did not feel it.
When shall I awake?
I must have another drink.”
(ESV)
Pro 23:18 There is surely a future hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off.
All the ‘good works’ listed are responses to our future hope and make for a better life on earth BUT the real value is unity with Christ in heaven! Thank You LORD for grace and mercy and Your commands to us – they are like honey on my tongue and give me life!
17 Do not let your heart envy sinners, but always be zealous for the fear of the LORD.
Sometimes we may see sinners and envy them thinking what they are doing looks really fun. But we should not fall into envying them, but we need always be zealous for the fear of the Lord. This is why we need to spread the word and Christmas time is a great time to do that, so that othersare zealous for the fear of the Lord and not envying the sinner.
5 Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle.
As Christians, our hope must be in the Lord and not in money. What we see happening in our economy right now is a perfect example of this. So many people who put their trust in their bank accounts are devastated right now as the economy is in a recession and much of their savings has vanished. Money will come and go and our back accounts are always fluctuating so it is foolish to trust in them. The Bible is very clear that we are only to trust in God who never fluctuates, but is the same today, tomorrow and forever.
17 Do not let your heart envy sinners, but always be zealous for the fear of the LORD.
I’m with Gabe on this one. Sometimes we might be tempted to want the life of the world. We see people who are in sin and they seem carefree and like they are getting away with it. But let us not be deceived. Let us remember that we will have to give an account for every single thing that we do, say or think! If we keep this in mind we will fear the Lord. It will give us an ardent passion to do what he says all the time. Our joy will come from knowing that he will reward us.
This proverbs was a great encouragement to me this morning! I am ready to have zeal for the fear of the Lord today!
5 Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle.
Our future security should not be in the money we have saved, but we should put our trust completely in the Lord. Those who are worried about their lack of riches should also put there trust completely in the Lord, because he is the great provider. Money and wealth is fleeting and can quickly disappear by a bad year on the stock market. We must put our trust completely in the Lord because he is sovereign and in control of all things!
17 Do not let your heart envy sinners, but always be zealous for the fear of the LORD.
When we find ourselves thinking that what the world has to offer may be better than Christ, the problem usually lies in our focus. As long as we keep our focus on God through prayer and studying His Word, the things of this world will seem less important than the eternal riches we are storing up. But if we lose sight of this and become caught up in the things around us – even if these things are not sinful – it will be much easier for us to think that living for these things is better than living for Christ. The way to ensure that we do not fall into this is to, as the verse says, be zealous for the fear of the Lord. If we are living 100% for Him and not letting anything get in the way of us doing His will, then we will have much less of a problem being in the world but not of it.
17.) Do not let your heart envy sinners, but always be zealous for the fear of the LORD.
Oh man, sometimes the sins of this world seem so fun…but just like Bobby said, we need to remember that one day will have to give an account to the Lord for EVERYTHING we have done; so do not indulge now but store up for yourself treasures in Heaven.
Amen to that Brett!
5 Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle.
I wanted to add to what Beth Lauder said because what she said was very wise. All the things of this world will disappear and won’t matter in the end. It reminded me of what Pastor Mike said this weekend. Don’t worry about the economy and all these wars and earthquakes because it’s all apart of God’s plan and it’s perfect timing. It’s just part of God’s schedule. So if we lose everything in a big earthquake, don’t worry because God will take care of you and it’s just apart of His plan. Nothing in this world matters, but your spiritual relationship with God matters and there will be many riches for you in Heaven. :D
13 Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you punish him with the rod, he will not die. 14 Punish him with the rod and save his soul from death.
We all here people yell the name Jesus a lot. It can either have Praise beofre it, or Christ with an angry “!!” after it. Even those who don’t believe in Him say it all the time when something bad happens to them. What people don’t understand is that punishment, or trials that we go through are God teaches us a lesson. One that we obviously desperatly need.
17 Do not let your heart envy sinners, but always be zealous for the fear of the LORD.
Great comments on this verse :] What the world has, Christians don’t need. We’re satisfied by God and by being zealous for him, we won’t be envious of the world because we’ve got our eyes on Him.
22 Listen to your father, who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old.
Mmmmm good stuff!! I know many high schoolers have a lot of trouble with this one, as do I sometimes! Often, i do forget that God put these beautiful people in my life for a purpose, and the fact that they gave birth to me should be reason enough to listen to their instructions! We should be grateful for the parents God gave us, and always be putting their needs before our own, respecting their opinions and guidance! :D
12 Apply your heart to instruction and your ears to words of knowledge.
I really like this verse and is so true! We need to apply our heart with the instruction of wisdom and knowledge that God gives us in the Bible or what Pastor Bobby preaches to us. We should not find these commands burdensome otherwise it shows that we truely do not love the Lord God. 1 John 5:3
17 Do not let your heart envy sinners, but always be zealous for the fear of the LORD.
18 There is surely a future hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off.
19 Listen, my son, and be wise, and keep your heart on the right path.
This is a verse we need to focus on…sinners have a pleasurable life on this earth, but they will have to face God’s judgment of being thrown into the lake of fire and suffer for eternity and there hope is cut off. But we as Christians go through persecution and many obstacles in life and are hated by the world because of the Lord. Sure this life is not pleasing to our flesh, but our soul rejoices because of the gift that God has given that is salvation, we have hope through Christ of this! Let’s be wise and not lean on the wrong path that leads to death, but to righteousness that leads to salvation and a life that is going to be perfect in New Jerusalem with no more pain and going to be in the presence of God!
24 The father of a righteous man has great joy; he who has a wise son delights in him
I want to be this father, that has a son or daughter that is all for the Lord! I know that if I have that I will have great joy! I would just be so glad to have kids like this. I also know that my dad has great joy of me because I recieved this gift of salvation from my Lord Jesus Christ! I know my grandma is rejoicing and she is all for Christ and it just brings great joy to my heart to see another Christian like her and the people at my church be saved!
30 Those who linger over wine, who go to sample bowls of mixed wine.
31 Do not gaze at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly!
32 In the end it bites like a snake and poisons like a viper.
Okay, I know none of us of drinking age, but this line can be applied to other things also. Never allow anything to dull your senses and make you forget about who you serve. Never forget what GOD says.
17 Do not let your heart envy sinners, but always be zealous for the fear of the LORD.
This verse makes me think of Psalm 73. It is not hard to look at sinners and see that their life seems easier, they always get what they want to, from their own desires with their money and their time. But the Christian life is not about self, but about serving the Lord. Also reminded me of our memory verse from a couple of months ago, Romans 12:11–”Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.” This was a good reminder to me not to get distracted by how other people live, but just to make sure I’m always zealous in fearing and serving the Lord.
13 Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you punish him with the rod, he will not die.
14 Punish him with the rod and save his soul from death.
The world around us is all about not really disciplining their children. Especially when it comes to the rod. They think “spanking” is cruel and unusual punishment. However, the rod will save us from making some terrible mistakes in life and ultimately is for our good. This also applies to our spiritual Father in Heaven. The Lord disciplines those he loves (Revelation 3:19). We should keep this in perspective the next time we get the rod from either our earthly or Heavenly Father.
23 Buy the truth and do not sell it; get wisdom, discipline and understanding.
The Bible talks ALOT about getting wisdom….So this not only means that it is important but it is IMPARITIVE! We need wisdom so we can stay away from wickedness and be able to identify it and not fall into the traps of this world. How do we gain wisdom? By staying in GOD’S WORD!!!! We sometimes take it for granted…but the Bible is really really REALLY IMPORTANT! And staying in the Scriptures is what keeps high school students like you and me, pure.
15 My son, if your heart is wise, then my heart will be glad;
16 my inmost being will rejoice when your lips speak what is right.
So many times in the Bible it talks about how the righteous will rejoice in the truth, or in what it right. We need to be seeking what is right and true in the eyes of God, not of this world. Living in south orange county we can become so desensitized to the evil of certain things that most people accept as “everyday” ordeals. We need to set our standard of good and right where God’s is and be striving to follow it!
17 Do not let your heart envy sinners, but always be zealous for the fear of the LORD.
18 There is surely a future hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off.
Sometimes it is very tempting to wish for something someone else has or to look up to someone who is not living for the Lord. Instead, God commands us to be “zealous” for Him and look up to those who love Him.
20 Do not join those who drink too much wine or gorge themselves on meat,
21 for drunkards and gluttons become poor, and drowsiness clothes them in rags.
These two verses really inspire me not to sin because the verses are saying that sinners do not recieve good things after they sin… they “become poor.”
13 Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you punish him with the rod, he will not die. 14 Punish him with the rod and save his soul from death.
These verses made me really appreciate my parents for their discipline to me. It is so amazing to read through the scriptures and see that my parents are following the commands diligently. I am so blessed to have them! Even though I hated being spanked when I was younger it taught me to not to act up again. It was not only emotional pain because I knew I did something wrong but also physical pain inflicted on me from the paddle or rod. I never knew that was in scriptures until today…coolio! :)
As for me I watch and hope for the Lord!
5 Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle.
It is so important that we don’t put our focus on worldly things. Money can take our Eyes off of the LORD, causing us to wander away, and if we wander away, we will be even more caught up in worldly things, so we will spend it all too fast. Once it is all spent, you will be farther away from God and have as much money as you started out with, so you will be in worse shape than before. you cannot serve both God and money.
5 Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle.
Our main goal in life should not be to get rich. In this verse it says that if we even look at riches for a second they will be taken away. It says they will “sprout wings” and fly away. I don’t think that the riches will actually grow wings, but the will be gone as if they flew away. God doesn’t want us to focus on getting rich, because in the end, having money doesn’t matter. Trying to gain as much money as possible will only make us greedy and unhappy. So we should keep our eyes away from wanting money and riches.
17 Do not let your heart envy sinners, but always be zealous for the fear of the LORD.
We need to be sure that we always remember that the way of the Lord is soooo much better than the ways of the world. Sometimes we see our non-christian friends doing something that looks fun, but we know is wrong. While they are living it up and doing that stuff today, they will eventually suffer for it. We, who are faithful in Christ, will be rewarded and blessed. This is far greater than any earthly thing that we could desire.
We need to have zeal for doing what is right(thats an awesome word by the way), which is defined as great energy or enthusiasm in pursuit of a cause or objective.
4 Do not wear yourself out to get rich; have the wisdom to show restraint.
this verse warns us not to wear ourselves out to get rich, and that we need to shown restraint against doing so. it is such a huge temptation, especially one that is so prevalent in our area, but if we compare a really nice life on this finite earth to heaven which is infinite, heaven blows the best things on this earth away. we need to be living our lives as sacrifices to Him, in the hope of heaven through Jesus Christ. Maranatha!
17 Do not let your heart envy sinners, but always be zealous for the fear of the LORD.
I agree with everyone that commented on this verse! Its so true sometimes the world and the ways of this world seems so fun. But let us not be decieved by the lies of this world, nothing that the world has to offer is worth spending an eternity in hell for. Instead we should live our lives fearing God, and having zeal for the promises He has in store!
13 Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you punish him with the rod, he will not die.
14 Punish him with the rod and save his soul from death.
It is so funny. When I was disciplined as a kid I hated it. I thought my dad or mom just didn’t get it. I had no appreciation for discipline in my youth.
As a father I discipline because I love my children. It takes time, careful thought and effort to discipline. The lazy way out would just be to let my children do what they want. I don’t like seing my child cry but when I know that it is because he need direction then it is something I am proud to do.
I now realize I was disciplined because I was loved. Thank God that I had parents that cared enough to direct my life even when it was hard or I fought back in ignorance.
I challange all youth to embrace your parents teaching and discipline. Look what this same passage has to say about what happens if you grow to be righteous and wise. Make your parents rejoice.
24 The father of a righteous man has great joy; he who has a wise son delights in him.
25 May your father and mother be glad; may she who gave you birth rejoice!
17 Do not let your heart envy sinners, but always be zealous for the fear of the LORD.
Nice comment Gabe, not only do we need to be zealous for fearing God so that we won’t be led away by sin, but also so that others won’t envy sinners and so fall as well. No matter how good people might seem to be living while in sin, in the end it leads to death, but fearing the LORD leads to life in Him forever, where we can glorify Him every single day.
5 Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle.
I thought this was a cool metaphor to describe how money is deceiving and will all pass away. Like we shouldn’t envy sinners, we shouldn’t be seeking wealth because it will leave us empty after wasting a lot of time when we instead could have used that time to seek God.
15 My son, if your heart is wise, then my heart will be glad;
When we love someone, we will do whatever we can to make them happy or go to any extent to please them. Whenever the person we love is sad, we should be sad with them. Same with happiness!This should be the same for God…………. we should strive to make him happy and please him with all we have. Therefore staying away from sin.
17 Do not let your heart envy sinners, but always be zealous for the fear of the LORD.
As Christians we shouldnt be jealous of the ways of sinners……..We should be disgusted by it and want to help them find the amazing happiness that we have!!
5 Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle.
Earthly treasures do not last. This verse focuses on the fact that we should have our minds on heavenly things instead of things on this earth. Money can be ripped, but nothing can destroy anything of God’s kingdom!
17 Do not let your heart envy sinners, but always be zealous for the fear of the LORD.
We should be in total fear of the Lord; he is all powerful and could end our lives in a moments notice if he so pleases.
15 My son, if your heart is wise, then my heart will be glad;
A goal of ours should be to please the Lord and a way to do this is by having a wise heart.
17 Do not let your heart envy sinners, but always be zealous for the fear of the LORD.
We all need to keep our spiritual fervor! Sin is tempting, but we need to remain strong, and not give in. We need to be filling ourselves with the Holy Spirit each and everyday.
17 Do not let your heart envy sinners, but always be zealous for the fear of the LORD.
I agree with all the comments on this verse! It may look like the people of this world have it easy and they can sin and get away with it and seem like they are having a good time, but we do have to give account to God someday for every deed and they will not get away with their sin then. What a great verse and encouragement.
22 Listen to your father, who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old.
God has given us everything. we would of never of had any life without him.we really owe it back to him for all he has done for us.
3 Do not crave his delicacies, for that food is deceptive.
We shouldn’t give in to temptations that are set before us by Satan and the world. Temptations come in all shapes and sizes. But most importantly, they are pleasing to our worldly flesh and desires. It is mostly what we want and that God doesn’t want for us that we are tempted with. We need to always be alert when tempted, because God always provides a way out of temptation. This is a promise that God has given us, and God never fails to keep his promises. Watch out for the things in life that are tempting, because God is always with us and provides a way out, it is us that choose what road to follow.