Proverbs 15:22-25 says,...

Today's verses are Proverbs 15:22-25, which read,

v.22 - Without consultation, plans are frustrated, but with many counselors they succeed.

The Proverbs tell us in other places that many counselors are a good thing.  This is in stark contrast to our world that stresses so much independence and doing it all on our own.  I am very guilty of striking out on my own when it would have been better to involve others in the process.  When plans go awry, then I stand there frustrated and have no one to share the burden with me or help me to figure out a solution.  If I would have sought instruction from many counselors then I would have support to figure out the bumps in the road that come with any plans implemented.

Sometimes we don't ask for counsel because of pride and sometimes because we don't want interaction with others.  We can get it done quicker on our own and our own way to satisfy ourselves.  What a very selfish statement.  There is no "otherness" in the process but be reminded that the two greatest commandments include our interaction with others.  Know that I am speaking to myself here that I need to slow down my plans to include this consultation of counselors as God given instruction.

v.23 - A man has joy in an apt answer, and how delightful is a timely word!

Good instruction and sound advice are so precious today in our fast paced, plug and play, quick start guide world.  When you have the opportunity to sit down with someone who has been down your road before with personal experience it is so valuable.  Put on top of that someone who is following after the Lord and resting on His word as the truth to be heard and implemented and you have a great combination.  

Saying the right thing at the right time is a God thing.  On the flip side is listening for God's timely word from His word and also from His children who He has placed around us as counselors to us.  Make sure to thank those who were used by God to give you those timely words for the joy and delight that they brought to your life.  You don't get joy and delight if you are leaving those God appointed counselors out of the process of your plans.

v.24 - The path of life leads upward for the wise, that he may keep away from Sheol below.

Heaven or hell?  Upward or below?  The Proverbs comes back to the reality of an afterlife that is for the wise and for those who are not wise.  The wise are following after God and have an awe of who He is and the unwise are those who have rejected God and following after their own words and ways.  You can see in this proverb where we get the idea of heaven above and hell below.  Again, Sheol is a bible term for hell which literally means underworld or pit.

The obvious question is what path are you on today?  Is it the path of life that leads upward to our heavenly Father in heaven or the another path of our own devising that leads downward to the scheming devil and Sheol? 

v.25 - The LORD will tear down the house of the proud, but He will establish the boundary of the widow.

The widows were the most vulnerable in Bible times and also sometimes today.  Widows are typically older and were part of a unit that now is absence of a crucial one who maybe took care of things that they did not.  Widows have to learn a lot in a very short period of time to protect themselves.  There were people then as there are people now who prey on those in this position and the promise from God is that He will erect a wall around those widows to keep the predators out.  It is a great responsibility of the church, God's hands and feet, to take care of its widows in this way.  

While the Lord is establishing this protective boundary for the widows, He is also tearing down the walls of the proud.  Those who think they are all-sufficient are actually more deficient than the vulnerable widows under God's protection.  The proud are receiving another type of provision from the Lord.  The proud need those walls taken down that they have erected so they can see that they humbly need the Lord and His provisions.  Those provisions of His love, His word, and His family are so needed but not received by the proud because of the wall that they are erecting to be secure while God is tearing it down so they can be secure.

Who is building the wall around your life?  Is it you or is it God?  Does God need to take down your wall so that He can erect a new one that is better and includes within the wall what is best for us by His standards and not our own?  Let's pray.

"Lord, thank You for these proverbs today.  May we seek out the godly counselors that You have put around us.  May we listen to that timely word and be used of You to give one.  May the path we trod be the one You have laid before us that ends upward with You.  May we allow the wall building to be done by Your master hands instead of our own.  Amen."

Pastor Adam