Twitter
RSS
Facebook
ClickBank1

12/1/12. Proverbs 6:20-35. This Command Is A Lamp-my devotional

12/1/12. Proverbs 6:20-35. This Command Is A Lamp-my devotional

Proverbs 6: 20-35                              Kevin Jesmer NIU UBF

Key verse 6:23                                           December 1, 2012

For this command is a lamp, this teaching is a light, and correction

and instruction are the way to life,

     Dear Lord God, thank you for your great love and mercy on humanity. Thank you for your love and mercy on my life. Help me to know you more. Help me to seek your face in this world filled with distractions. I thank you that I could again begin writing daily devotionals now that my daily bread publication is done. Help me to meditate on the things of God. I thank you for providing the words of God in the Bible. To me they are the most satisfying words to think about, reflect on and write about. Nothing else compares. Please help me to accept one word of God from this passage.  In doing so, help me to prepare for James’ Bible study. I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen!

Part 1: The Way of Life (20-23)

    The author teachers us here about the way to true life. Verses 20-24 read, “My son, keep your father’s command and do not forsake your mother’s teaching. 21 Bind them always on your heart; fasten them around your neck. 22 When you walk, they will guide you; when you sleep, they will watch over you; when you awake, they will speak to you. 23 For this command is a lamp, this teaching is a light, and correction and instruction are the way to life,

The wise writer of Proverbs tells us again that to discipline our wayward hearts and walk in the way of God’s commands is the way of life (23). It is not easy to keep the commands of God, that is why the verses tell us to “keep the command” and “no forsake the teaching” and “bind them on your heart” and “fasten them around our neck.” We need to hold onto the word of God when we walk, when we sleep, when we awake. How easy it is for us to forsake the word of God in the name of our busy-ness and our distractions. We think that the bare minimum is enough. We are satisfied with a tiny snack of the word of God when we should be feasting in a delicious, healthy meal. Godly wisdom guides us when we walk, watches us when we sleep, and speaks to us when we are awake. It leads us to life.

I love meditating on the word of God. Every vacation of journey I make it a point to write daily bread devotionals. In my journals I include my daily devotional meditations. I like writing and posting and categorizing devotionals on my web site. I truly believe that these meditations strengthen my inner person and help me to embrace the roles God wants me to embrace in life. But still it is easy to get distracted and forsake the top priority. Matthew 6:33 tells us to seek first God’s kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to us as well. Seeking first, means to make seek Christ the top priority in daily life. When we do, we are truly blessed. Doing ministry can also distract us from giving our hearts to the word of God. We can get caught up in so many activities that we don’t have time, nor the strength to focus on the word of God anymore. I need to be careful about this.

Verse 23 reads, “23 For this command is a lamp, this teaching is a light, and correction and instruction are the way to life,”  The wisdom in the Bible is a lamp, a light and a way of to life. This is true. The way to life is not just to enjoy endless things in this world. It is not to go here and there on vacations. It is not found in the latest media. It is not to get the latest cell phone and having 1,000 friends on Facebook and posting the latest photos. These are OK, but they are not everything. If we think that they will lead us to true life, we are deceived. They can’t. We have souls. We have a great, innate capacity to comprehend eternal true given by the creator himself. We are meant to meditate on such things and mull them over in our hearts and our minds and to talk about them and share them and apply them in meaningful ways. Doing anything less with our hearts and our minds is like having a Ferrari and only driving it on side streets at 30 mph. I pray that our our young people of this nation may truly find out the way to true life…that is the way of Christ; the narrow way that leads to eternal life.

Part 2:     The Light of God’s Word Protects Our Hearts (24-35)

Verse 24-35 read, “24 keeping you from your neighbor’s wife, from the smooth talk of a wayward woman.”25 Do not lust in your heart after her beauty or let her captivate you with her eyes. 26 For a prostitute can be had for a loaf of bread, but another man’s wife preys on your very life. 27 Can a man scoop fire into his lap without his clothes being burned? 28 Can a man walk on hot coals without his feet being scorched? 29 So is he who sleeps with another man’s wife; no one who touches her will go unpunished.30 People do not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy his hunger when he is starving. 31 Yet if he is caught, he must pay sevenfold, though it costs him all the wealth of his house. 32 But a man who commits adultery has no sense; whoever does so destroys himself. 33 Blows and disgrace are his lot, and his shame will never be wiped away. 34 For jealousy arouses a husband’s fury, and he will show no mercy when he takes revenge. 35 He will not accept any compensation; he will refuse a bribe, however great it is.”

Finding the way to life in the Bible and allowing those teachings to be lamp unto our path is especially helpful in heeding the author’s warnings against adultery. In verse 27 adultery is compared to playing with fire.  To allow lust to capture our hearts and lives is the sure way to destruction. Jesus said that adultery begins in the heart. Matthew 5:28, But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”    There is no way that one can pursue a life of adultery without being burned. It is also dangerous. Most fights in a bar are over a woman.  Many murders are over a woman. You will suffer, in some way, if you choose the way of adultery.

     This teaching is very clear, we must not commit adultery in our hearts and in our lives. It is a deception. We think that we will be happy, and we may for a very short time, but it leads us into a trap. Think about the calamity that General Petraius is feeling after the scandal he is facing. I am 48 years old. I can not imagine the pain of losing all that God has granted me simply because my heart was lured away to pursue adultery. How could I ever start again? Also it would ruin my Christian witness. It would also not be pleasing to God. Adultery is like drinking salt water when you are floating in the sea in a rubber life boat. You may be delicious for thirst and at some point the ocean water looks so delicious. You drink it, but it is salt water and only make you more thirsty and in need. Adultery is a trap.

We must be satisfied with the wife of our youth. Malachi 2:15, “Has not the one God made you? You belong to him in body and spirit. And what does the one God seek? Godly offspring.So be on your guard, and do not be unfaithful to the wife of your youth.” We will be blessed when we do. We will live longer, have peace in our hearts, have a great Christian witness, bear lots of fruit, enjoy things like the kids’ graduations, marriages, the grandkids and family reunions. It will make compiling genealogy a lot easier and less complicated. Lord, help us to not give into the adulterous temptations that our culture offers. Help us instead to follow the way of life and light and the lamp that your word is to us.

 




Interact with us using Facebook

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.