Proverbs 30:7-14

Proverbs 30:7-14
​English Standard Version
​
7 Two things I ask of you;
    deny them not to me before I die:
8 Remove far from me falsehood and lying;
    give me neither poverty nor riches;
    feed me with the food that is needful for me,
9 lest I be full and deny you
    and say, “Who is the LORD?”
or lest I be poor and steal
    and profane the name of my God.

10 Do not slander a servant to his master,
    lest he curse you, and you be held guilty.

11 There are those who curse their fathers
    and do not bless their mothers.
12 There are those who are clean in their own eyes
    but are not washed of their filth.
13 There are those—how lofty are their eyes,
    how high their eyelids lift!
14 There are those whose teeth are swords,
    whose fangs are knives,
to devour the poor from off the earth,
    the needy from among mankind.

---

The writer of this proverb wants their children to learn some important lessons from them before they die.  First, lying and falsehood should not be associated with those of us who are children of God.  Really, everyone deserves the truth all the time, whether the person speaking is a child of God or not, but we understand that the children of the one who is the Truth should always be speaking truth and those who are children of the one known as the Father of Lies, that is, the devil, will naturally speak lies as if they are speaking their primary language.  Speaking the truth is as foreign to them as asking someone to speak a foreign language they have never learned.  The speaker asks for others to help keep him honest.

Second, the speaker asks for help being content with what the LORD has given him.  He wants not too much where he wouldn't rely on the LORD, but, also, he doesn't want too little where he would be tempted to steal.  Instead, he prays for just enough for that day so that he will trust the LORD to provide for him the next day and the next (just like Israel walking through the wilderness for 40 years and having manna from heaven they had to collect for each day each morning--save the double portion they collected on Friday for Friday and Saturday since they were forbidden from doing common work on the Sabbath).

We should not engage in slander either of the servant to the master or the master to the servant.  People of the LORD should not engage in character assassination.  Those who speak curses instead of blessings will have those curses come back on them (like we've already seen in the book of Proverbs).

On the subject of blessing and curses, no one is to curse their father or mother.  They are to always honor them.  This is the fifth commandment.  The people who would curse and dishonor their parents may have a self-righteousness where they imagine they are doing what is right in their own eyes, but the LORD is not pleased with them (see Jesus' conversations with the Pharisees).  They imagine themselves clean, but they have "washed" in their own filth like a pig that rolls around in the slop and filth.

Those who are self-righteous have an issue with their pride.  They think too highly of themselves, they rarely think about others, and they do not esteem the LORD highly enough.  Like the devil, they set their eyes on the very throne of God imagining they should counsel the LORD and tell Him how He should be running things, or maybe even fancy that they should be the ones running things themselves and that everyone should be worshiping them.  Such people with a "god-complex" are dangerous tyrants who torture and kill other--especially the weak and poor.  They are selfish and would strip the world of all of its resources that are needed for everyone across the world in all generations for themselves in their current time.  They do not think of others now or in the future.  Their solution to the poor and needy is simply to destroy them, but one day it will be these heartless, ruthless people that will face ultimate destruction.  There will be no army that will be able to defend them from the wrath of God in the Day of the LORD.