Proverbs 10:11-16--The Proverbs of Solomon

Proverbs 10:11-16
English Standard Version
​11 The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life,
    but the mouth of the wicked conceals violence.
12 Hatred stirs up strife,
    but love covers all offenses.
13 On the lips of him who has understanding, wisdom is found,
    but a rod is for the back of him who lacks sense.
14 The wise lay up knowledge,
    but the mouth of a fool brings ruin near.
15 A rich man's wealth is his strong city;
    the poverty of the poor is their ruin.
16 The wage of the righteous leads to life,
    the gain of the wicked to sin.

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The first proverb we will look at today is Solomon telling his son that the words a person says will say a lot about the condition of the heart of that person.  Jesus says this as well, "Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks," and James talks much about the condition of the tongue and how the believer's tongue should be used to speak words of healing, not to do violence like the tongue of the wicked man.  Solomon says the same thing here.  Men will usually use their tongue in a way that is consistent with their identity.  They speak what comes naturally to them, so their words are one of the "fruits" that we can evaluate to see the condition of their hearts.

The words that a righteous man speaks are a fountain of life--they bring healing and refreshing to others.   The words that come from the mouth of the wicked man though are used as weapons of violence to damage and wound others.

Solomon points to the source of the strife between people as hatred (the opposite of love).  God hates the things that cause people to reject Him and choose to go to hell, but He doesn't hate the people.  He loved them so much that Jesus, the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, came as a man to die in our place to put flesh to what Solomon says here, "Love covers a multitude of sins."  It is only by the blood of Jesus that our sins are not only atoned for (covered over), but they are forgiven and taken away.

Wisdom and understanding usually go hand-in-hand as the wise person will be disciplined and will learn from those who teach him.  However, the foolish man is stubborn, selfish and hard to teach.  The foolish man requires much correction which at this time came in the form of a physical beating using a rod of correction.  We may or may not use corporal punishment to correct those who refuse to listen and learn today, or we may use other techniques, but the principle is still the same that it is usually the foolish person who requires much correction, but the wise person needs not be corrected in that setting because they usually love to learn.

The wise man stores up knowledge like the ant stores up food for the winter.  You may not need it right now, but you might need it later.  However, the fool lives in the moment and if he doesn't see a need for it right here and now, he will reject it, forget it, and run off to do something that pleases him in the moment, even if the end of that action is his own destruction.

Solomon makes an assumption here in this next verse that the wise men will have wealth because they know how to plan and save and store, but the fool lives in the moment and spends all that he has (and then some sometimes) on his own pleasure.  Solomon says that the savings that the rich man has saved up for himself are something that he can rely on when difficult times come (and they are also something that he can pass onto his children since wealth stayed in the family), but the poverty of the foolish man is his ruin because difficult times will come and he will have no savings to dip into.  It will also be shameful for him to have spent all his wealth on himself and not to have anything to leave as an inheritance to his children.

Finishing up these proverbs that reference wealth and gain, the wages of the righteous is life.  Truly there is only one who was the Righteous One whose wages were eternal life and that is Jesus Christ.  He earned eternal life that He freely gives to all those who call on His name for salvation and believe by faith that He died in their place to pay the penalty for their sins and was raised on the third day to be declared "not guilty" and secure victory over both sin and death.  Now we who are in Christ have eternal life through Him.  The wicked however have earned their wages of death and hell as the accumulate more and more sin debt that they can never pay off on their own.

We'll come back next time and talk about even more of the proverbs of Solomon.