Proverbs 17:1-4 says,...

Today's verses are Proverbs 17:1-4, which read,

v.1 - Better is a dry morsel and quietness with it than a house full of feasting with strife.

This verse is a cross reference to Proverbs 15:17 which compares between having vegetables or the fattened ox but really the comparison is between living with love and living with hatred.  Better to be in a place of love and eat vegetables than be in a place of hate and eat fatty meat.  This proverb compares a dry morsel with feasting and quietness with strife.  Better to be in a place of quietness and eat a dry morsel than be in a place of strife and have a feast.

The dry morsel isn't much but the quietness of a peaceful life that is right with God is.  The feasting looks to be much but the strife of not following after God is not worth it.  You may be physically full, feasting, but spiritually empty, strife, where you may be physically empty, dry morsel, but spiritually full, quietness.  God again tells us what is better.  

v.2 - A servant who acts wisely will rule over a son who acts shamefully, and will share in the inheritance among brothers.

This is a favorite plot of many movies.  A servant of the master is more faithful than the master's son.  The master's son is jealous of the one who has nothing in material things but the valuable affection of the master while he has everything materially but squanders the master's morals.  In the movies, sometimes the servant rules over the son and receives what the son would have received.  He is lifted to a position that he would have not imagined but the son is pitied for foolishly rejecting his father's way and finds himself where he thought he would ever be.

Your position in this life is not as important as who you are following after.  The one you are following after will determine your permanent position and placement.  We put such a high premium in our world on who I am when God puts the premium on following after who He is.  God will give those who follow after Him an inheritance thought only for the sons but to anyone who serves Him.

v.3 - The refining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, but the LORD tests hearts.

God's ways are not the world's ways.  The world has a way and thought about how things are and how they should be.  The world has a structure of what is important and what is not.  The world has a system to determine who is better than and who is less than.  God has a way and a structure and a system and it is very different than the world's.

The world has to do some external heating up of the situation to see what you are made of but the Lord can look into you internally, to your heart to know who you are following after.  Many times we try to run God's family and church like the world and it doesn't work.  God's family and church may benefit from some of the world's systems but there are times when we have to set those efficient systems aside to His explicit instructions given in Scripture.  It is hard but sometimes when it doesn't look like it makes sense here it does to Him there and we have to go with Him who can see the heart, the whole picture.   

v.4 - An evildoer listens to wicked lips; a liar pays attention to a destructive tongue.

These two, the evildoer and the liar, are receiving their information and instruction from sources that will never honor God and never get them closer to Him.  Solomon is back to the illustration of the destruction that can be caused by lips and tongues.  The evildoer and the liar are continued to be fueled by more wickedness and more destruction.  They listen when they should be getting out of ear shot of the wicked.  They draw in close when they should be running the way from the destructive.

This takes a serious look at what you and I are listening to and paying attention to.  Does what you are listening to and paying attention to draw you closer to God or further from Him?  Does it promote quietness of a peaceful life in glory of Him or does it promote feasting on whatever for your pleasure?  Does it focus on an inheritance that only He can give as we serve Him or does it focus getting what I can get because of who I am?  Does it value who God is and what He says or does it disregard God's standards for the world's?  It is very easy for our listening and attention to be diverted if we are not purposefully and intentionally keeping our eyes and ears on the Lord.  Let's pray.

 "Lord, a new chapter of Proverbs to live by.  Help us to continue to make the comparison between what the world says and what You say.  May I keep my eyes and ears on You to realize true life in the midst of this temporary one.  Amen."

Pastor Adam