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Wednesday 07/23/25
Thru the Bible: Proverbs
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Don’t clog the Spout where the Life comes out!
Proverb 4:1-27,
“(1) Listen, children, to a father’s instruction, and pay attention SO THAT you may gain discernment. (2) Because I hereby give you good instruction, do not forsake my teaching.
(3) When I was a son to my father, a tender only child before my mother, (4) he taught me, and he said to me:
“Let your heart lay hold of my words; keep my commands so that you will live.
(5) Acquire wisdom, acquire understanding; do not forget and do not turn aside from the words I speak.
(6) Do not forsakewisdom, and she will protect you; love her, and she will guard you.
(7) Wisdom is supreme – so acquire wisdom, and whatever you acquire, acquire understanding!
(8) Esteem her highly and she will exalt you; she will honor you if you embrace her. (9) She will place a fair garland on your head; she will bestow a beautiful crown on you.”
(10) Listen, my child, and accept my words, so that the years of your life will be many.
(11) I hereby guide you in the way of wisdom and I lead you in upright paths.
(12) When you walk, your steps will not be hampered, and when you run, you will not stumble.
(13) Hold on to instruction, do not let it go; protect it, because it is your life.
(14) Do not enter the path of the wicked or walk in the way of those who are evil. (15) Avoid it, do not go on it; turn away from it, and go on.
(16) For they cannot sleep unless they cause harm; they are robbed of sleep until they make someone stumble.
(17) Indeed they have eaten bread gained from wickedness and drink wine obtained from violence. (18) But the path of the righteous is like the bright morning light, growing brighter and brighter until full day.
(19) The way of the wicked is like gloomy darkness; they do not know what they stumble over.
(20) My child, pay attention to my words; listen attentively to my sayings.
(21) Do not let them depart from your sight, guard them within your heart; (22) for they are life to those who find them and healing to one’s entire body.
(23) Guard your heart with all vigilance, for from it are the sources of life.”
“heart” – Anatomically the Hebrew word לֵב (lev) refers to the “heart.” But abstractly it can refer to one’s inner self, will, understanding, or mind. The Hebrews did not see the heart and mind in opposition, so the advice here includes both one’s thinking and feelings.
“Vigilance” – “more than any guard” – the goal is protection that is not lagging in diligence.
This is a tricky phrase and one upon which doctrines can AND HAVE BEEN built, so they need to be clearly understood.
An easy way of conveying its meaning is to say that “From the heart go forth issues of life”. This would be consistent with Jesus’ words regarding the heart which we just covered last Sunday.
Now this is really, really important so we are going to look at that passage and it will allow me to clarify something I said on Sunday which I feel may leave people with a wrong impression.
So let’s turn to Matthew 12:33-37. We will read it through one time, then go back through it carefully.
“(33) Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or
make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad,
FOR a tree is known by its fruit.”
“(34) Offspring of vipers! How are you able to say anything good, since you are evil? For the mouth speaks from what fills the heart.
(35) The good person brings good things out of his good treasury, and the evil person brings evil things out of his evil treasury.
(36) I tell you that on the day of judgment, people will give an account for every WORTHLESS WORD they speak. (37) For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”
Just a quick preview – these words “worthless words” mean, empty, producing no works and insincere.
“(33) Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or
make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad,
FOR a tree is known by its fruit.”
Almost immediately you will see a difference between the KJV/NKJV and the New English Translation. I am not in any way against the KJV or NKJV, they are time tested and very reliable works, but they do in fact have some weak points and this verse is a clear example of poor word choices. It not only leaves you with the wrong impression, but it makes the impossible seem possible.
Several translations say, “MAKE the tree good AND the fruit good…”.
This wording implies that it could be some other way.
It implies, you “could have” a good tree with bad fruit. Making this injunction a command to somehow make the tree and the fruit the same.
This would turn nearly all major theology in scripture on its ear!
The proper rendering is “Make the tree good and its fruit WILL BE good”. This teaches a timeless truth and leaves no room for misunderstanding!
To the naive this may seem like a minor point, but I tell you the truth, if words mean anything at all, the former sentence alters the very concept and workings of redemption.
“(34) Offspring of vipers! How are you able to say anything good, since you are evil? For the mouth speaks from what fills the heart.”
Now this is where I failed to be clear on Sunday and it really stood out in the recording when I listened to it. I pointed out that Jesus acted with astonishment that these religious leaders were able to say good things from a bad heart. My next words were, “but we understand, that they were in fact speaking consistent with their evil hearts, because in saying good things, they were lying.”
The way I worded this inadvertently made it sound like “Well poor Jesus didn’t understand this, but we do”.
Of course I would never say such a thing! Jesus, though having taken on humanity, was spiritually mature and therefore discerned all things even as 1 Corinthians 2:15 says. He was in no danger of misunderstanding so I deeply apologize for the way I worded that on the fly.
The wonderful and redemptive bit is that here we are just 3 days later on Wednesday and without me having planned it, we are correcting that error out of necessity due to the passage we are studying in Proverbs 4.
Isn’t God good!?
Furthermore, it affords me the privilege to not only clarify what I meant, but failed to say on Sunday, by showing from the very passage that Jesus in fact did understand this truth!
Let’s keep reading…
“(35) The good person brings good things out of his good treasury,
and the evil person brings evil things out of his evil treasury.”
Wow that says a LOT in an economy of words and verified through scripture something I taught you on Sunday!
Jesus is clearly stating that what comes out the mouth is not only what is in the heart, but especially what is treasured, valued and stored up in the heart.
This means an evil person could “hear” God’s word, but it will not proceed out of their mouths in a way which is producing “work” since they do not value it and do not truly believe it.
When a good person speaks good things, what they have taken the time and effort to store up in their hearts due to its value to them, is what is coming out. The same is true for the wicked or evil person.
On Sunday I said, regarding the passage in James 3: 9-12 that the key word was “produce”, which is in keeping with what Jesus said here!
James 3:9-12 says regarding the words of our mouths,
“(9) With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse people made in God’s image. (10) From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. These things should not be so, my brothers and sisters.”
Which is essentially saying, if the tree is good it will produce good fruit, but if good and evil pour forth from the same mouth, that heart MUST be evil since the words which “appear” good, are actually “unemployed” words. Words which do no work since they are not truly believed. They are not a “PRODUCT” of the heart (tree) from which they came, but are deceptive in nature.
Verses 11-12 go on to say.
“(11) A spring does not pour out fresh water and bitter water from the same opening, does it?
(12) Can a fig tree produce olives, my brothers and sisters, or a vine produce figs?
Neither can a salt water spring produce fresh water.”
Now here is the part where Jesus addresses the duplicity which He knew was in their hearts and sets straight the doctrine so that it is in line with the rest of scripture.
Matthew 12:36-37,
“(36) I tell you that on the day of judgment, people will give an account for every WORTHLESS WORD they speak. (37) For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”
Man is this redemptive!
The words, “worthless word” does not quite capture the meaning. However, I think the meaning becomes clear when we take the whole thought of Jesus as it develops from beginning to end.
Most literally these words mean “idle words” – meaning words without work. In this case it would be words which are empty because they are not backed by a life lived. So these words of Jesus, are a near perfect fit for the words of James we looked at 2 Sunday’s ago which he called “dead faith”.
This is all coming together so perfectly you’d think I planned it, but finding this little treasure here in Proverbs 4 was quite the surprise treat for me as well!
In the end, the idea of “worthless” or “idle word,” means insincere language. It is when a person speaks one thing and means another – a.k.a. a lie!
So this passage is saying,
“Guard your thoughts and feelings with more security that even a well trained guard could supply, because out of your heart spring forth words of life.”
For us, being Christians, we are well programmed by our Lord to view life and death as conditions of existence relative to our intimacy with God. Light cannot fellowship with darkness, so to the degree that we allow darkness real estate in our hearts, we cut ourselves off from the One Whose words ARE spirit and life.
God’s words reconcile us to Himself IF valued, stored up and treasured – like the ‘The Good Heart’ in the ‘Parable of the heart soils’.
Now let’s just take this to the next level which is what makes this passage have power for living.
You remember how back in our ‘Word of Faith’ days, we made much of faith and confession. The difficulty was that there was so much truth there, that the errors were not immediately apparent – though they should have been.
The key passages used in that movement as prima facie proof of this are the ones we have covered tonight with the addition of the one found in Matthew 21 & Mark 11. So turn with me to, and we will examine these truths in the light of all we have covered in Proverbs 4.
You will remember that Jesus had seen a fig tree which in season should have had figs on it, but did not – so He cursed it. (Are your spiritual eyes good enough to see the immediate application to what we have been covering tonight?)
Our passage in Mark 11 has them passing by that same fig tree as they were on their daily walks from Bethsadia to Jerusalem the next morning during Jesus’ week of Passion. [See – Entering the week of Passion with Him]
Mark 11:20-25,
“(20) In the morning as they passed by, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. (21) Peter remembered and said to Him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree You cursed has withered.”
(22) Jesus said to them, “Have faith in God.
(23) I tell you the truth, if someone says to this mountain,
‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him.
(24) For this reason I tell you, whatever you pray and ask for, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
(25) Whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven will also forgive you your sins.”
So here we see speaking, faith and the abundance of the heart all coming together in one example from Jesus’ earthly life and teachings.
Notice the faith is both in God AND in your words.
The natural way in which these two coincide are for the words of God to BE your words. For God’s words to be was you valued, stored up and treasure in abundance in your heart. Because faith is not something you conjure up, it is something that germinates naturally in the surrendered heart making our prayers to God effective.
Finally Solomon sums all this up by telling us –
“(24) Remove perverse speech from your mouth; keep devious talk far from your lips. (25) Let your eyes look directly in front of you and let your gaze look straight before you.
(26) Make the path for your feet level, so that all your ways may be established. (27) Do not turn to the right or to the left; turn yourself away from evil.”
The word “path” also can be rendered “journey”.
Blessings!
Tri
