Proverbs 10:1-5--The Proverbs of Solomon

Proverbs 10
English Standard Version

The Proverbs of Solomon
10 The proverbs of Solomon.

​A wise son makes a glad father,
    but a foolish son is a sorrow to his mother.
2 Treasures gained by wickedness do not profit,
    but righteousness delivers from death.
3 The LORD does not let the righteous go hungry,
    but he thwarts the craving of the wicked.
4 A slack hand causes poverty,
    but the hand of the diligent makes rich.
5 He who gathers in summer is a prudent son,
    but he who sleeps in harvest is a son who brings shame.

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We now enter "The Proverbs of Solomon" that will start to seem like a lot of disconnected statements that are one or two sentences long (usually contained in one or two verses each).  This is one of the only parts of the Bible where it is appropriate to snip that statement and quote it by itself without any surrounding context, because there is no surrounding context for the statement, usually.  Today's passages are all snippets of wisdom (proverbs) that Solomon wants to pass on to his son (the heir to the throne) so that he will govern the people with the wisdom of God when it is his time to lead God's people.  It is also Solomon's hope that the people of Israel and the people of the world will read this and will choose the wisdom of God over the folly of the world's systems.  Because each statement is so deep by itself, I'll probably only take about five statements for each journal entry when it is this kind of a format.  That should lead to journal entries that are similar in length to the ones that I've written on previous days.

Solomon starts by saying that a wise son (or daughter, but Solomon is specifically talking to his son here) makes a father glad, but a son who engages in folly makes his mother sad.  I think it's on purpose that Solomon chooses this order because sons in particular want their father to be pleased and proud of them--it's wired into men to want that (that is one of the reasons why fatherless homes are so bad for children in general, but especially for young boys.  It's not the same to have your mom say that she's proud of you, because you know she's always going to say that.  It is something really special and affirming when a man says that to a young boy, and if they don't find that affirmation at home, they will find it in gangs and other places).  Solmoon also says that a foolish son makes his mother sad.  That's on purpose too because sons don't like it when anyone hurts their mother, and it is supposed to grieve them deeply when they hurt their mother.  The kinds of people who take advantage of and hurt their mothers without any second thought, guilt or shame are dangerous people that live by folly and not by wisdom.

​The next lesson that Solomon wants to teach his son is that your integrity is not for sale.  There should be no price that anyone can pay and make you do something wicked or unjust.  The riches that are acquired through evil deeds will surely not last long, won't make you happy, and will probably lead to your downfall (everyone knows that money had to come from somewhere and probably knows you didn't work to earn it).  Instead, so what is right so that you will not be walking in the path of the wicked, because the wicked quickly turn on each other and they put themselves in situations where they are at risk of death every time that they commit a crime--all these crimes were punishable by death under the Law which governed the nation of Israel and which the king of Israel was responsible to enforce.

Along with this, there will be both natural and divine consequences to sin, and natural and diving blessings for righteousness.  Solomon warns that the wicked man will go hungry, but the LORD can thwart the cravings of the wicked that lead to men wasting their resources on things that do not matter and not having enough to feed themselves and their families.  There's also a spiritual aspect to this as well as Solomon is probably not only talking about physical food here but is probably also talking about how the wicked man is never satisfied and has appetites and lusts that always want more and more.  I think this ties in better with the second half saying that the LORD is able to thwart those cravings and appetites.

The next one rings so true today and is a main theme of Solomon's proverbs.  Laziness brings about poverty.  If you want something, you should work for it.  Work is good (it was part of the original creation before the Fall, and it will be part of the New Creation too).  It gives us purpose, but also it is good for us to be entrusted by God to take care of and have dominion over the things that He's put in our charge.  Those who are lazy are rebelling against the LORD's command to have and exercise dominion and God says there will be natural and divine consequences that men will suffer for their slothfulness and laziness.  A diligent and wise man will know how to make money, not spend more than he makes, and invest some of the money that he makes into savings or other investment vehicles for a "rainy day."  Solomon will use the example of the ant in the book of Proverbs as they have enough food to eat in the winter when it is hard to impossible to find food, because they worked hard to gather enough food and store it up in the summer.  While Solomon doesn't specifically mention the ant here, he uses that same idea in the last verse I'm going to talk about today.  A good son helps gather the harvest when it is ready, even if it is ready in the heat of summer (usually you gather in the Fall, and it's more desirable to gather then because it's a bit cooler, but you have to gather whenever the crops are ready), but the son who is slothful and lazy and won't help with the harvest even when it is the right time for the harvest to come doesn't deserve any part of that harvest to feed himself or his family.  He brings shame to himself and his family as everyone will see that he did not care enough about anyone to make sure they had food to eat.