Proverbs 19:5-8 says,...

Today's verses are Proverbs 19:5-8, which read,

v.5 - A false witness will not go unpunished, and he who tells lies will not escape.

This proverb is very much like Solomon who keeps our focus on the tongue.  A witness if found to be false would receive the same punishment that was deemed for the guilty of who he was accusing.  If it was a murder trial worthy of death and a witness was falsely giving information then that false witness would receive the same punishment.  This was a very serious charge and Solomon is trying to get the point across to us that using our tongues to tell lies is a great offense before God.

We have played down the weight of our words and we have also minimized anything that God would do about it.  We have painted God with the love "paint brush" so much that we have forgotten to pick up the paint brushes that color in some justice and truth to get a fuller picture of God's love.  It is a big deal that lying would get in other lists of sins in the Bible right alongside of murder and adultery.

v.6 - Many will seek the favor of a generous man, and every man is the friend to him who gives gifts.

Solomon also brings us back to relationships.  Why would you be seeking the favor of a generous man meaning the one who could give you gifts?  In this context it would be to escape what you have gotten yourself into financially.  You are in a jam and you need someone to give you some grace or to bail you out.  Someone who does that is a friend to all and usually is visited often until the generous man who gives gifts realized that the gifts given are not really helping out the situation.

It usually takes that generous man to turn off the spigot of gifts and then usually the fool will not get the hint or change their ways but rather seek out another who will give gifts.  Many times the fool is not interested in the answer or someone to walk alongside of them to see a different result but just another gift to hold them over.  A question here would be, "Do you and I really want the answer and to work for the solution or do you and I just want someone else to solve the problem that we have?"

v.7 - All the brothers of a poor man hate him; how much more do his friends abandon him!  He pursues them with words, but they are gone.

The demands of the poor are always more than what they seem on the surface.  When you dig deeper, you find more that has to be addressed to live differently than now.  Life is like that.  You are poor in a certain area of your life.  You have developed a pattern to stay poor in that area.  To not be poor means you will have to do things differently.  You may need to think differently.  You may need to act differently.  You may need to pick up something you have dropped off and drop off something you have picked up.  Wow, this is work and at this point many will abandon the project.  We don't like to think of people that way but many times we do when we assess if we are going to help or not.

It is one thing for the poor not to want to change or refuse help that would lead to positive change but it is another for the giver be satisfied with not going deeper to help and just abandoning them without a care about seeing if their soul wants more than the gift they are asking for.

v.8 - He who gets wisdom loves his own soul; he who keeps understanding will find good.

We end today with a good proverb.  Wisdom is more than just something to apply to get us out of a jam.  Wisdom is something that feeds our soul.  Wisdom and understanding lead us through life and are not to be on the shelf of life just to pull off when we need them.  I want to walk every day in wisdom and understanding.  I want my soul to be fed "God food" and I want my eyes to see "God good."  

I want to renew my mind every morning with God's words and we have the luxury of viewing many things that display God's words in action to inspire us to do the same.  My soul is fed when I focus on God and do what He says to love Him and others.  The result is something for me from Him while I was focused out rather than in.  Let us pray.

"Lord, the irony again of Your scriptures.  We want to take and take and take to hoard for ourselves but You instruct us to give and give and give so that we can receive something that is more valuable than anything we can take.  You instruct us to live differently.  May we be inspired by what You put in front of our eyes that is good by You.  Amen."

Pastor Adam