The Bible Recap - Day 155 (Proverbs 4-6) - Year 5

Episode Date: June 4, 2023

SHOW NOTES:  - All the info you need to START is on our website! Seriously, go there. - Join our PATREON community for bonus perks! - Get your TBR merch - Show credits - Check out Way Nation’s Prayer Study!   FROM TODAY’S PODCAST:  - Romans 11:36    SOCIALS: The Bible Recap: Instagram | Facebook | Twitter D-Group: Instagram | Facebook | Twitter TLC: Instagram | Facebook | Twitter   D-GROUP: The Bible Recap is brought to you by D-Group - an international network of discipleship and accountability groups that meet weekly in homes and churches: Find or start one near you today!   DISCLAIMER:  The Bible Recap, Tara-Leigh Cobble, and affiliates are not a church, pastor, spiritual authority, or counseling service. Listeners and viewers consume this content on a voluntary basis and assume all responsibility for the resulting consequences and impact.

Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for the Bible recap. Today we continue in Proverbs with the Father's instructions to his Son. He's telling him general truths for what it looks like to live and walk in the fear of the Lord, in ways that engage with God on a level of delight and awe. Proverbs 4.7 always makes me laugh. It says, the beginning of wisdom is this, get wisdom, which is kind of like saying, the way to be taller is this. Grow. But it does go to show how circular this can actually feel sometimes. We talked about this yesterday. To recognize that you need wisdom is wise. The new pursue wisdom and you get wiser and you realize To recognize that you need wisdom is wise. The new pursue

wisdom and you get wiser and you realize how much more you still have to learn. I've heard a relationship with God described in much the same way that the closer you get to him, the further you realize you are from him. Maybe you feel that. It's interesting how being closer to the light of God will illuminate the dark places in us all the more. We feel conviction about sins that never bother us before. We see positive changes in negative attitudes that we use to pride ourselves on. He really does work such a change in us that we can't access on our own. He does the doing. Romans 1136 addresses this kind of circular spiritual mystery.

It says, from him, through repeats the way to handle the past. He is the source, supply, and goal. He initiates, sustains, and fulfills all of this wisdom business in us. So here we are, mid-cycle, learning and growing because of his work in us. In verses 14-15, the dad really doubles down on his advice. Actually, he sextuples down on it six times. He repeats the way to handle the path of the wicked. He says, do not enter, do not walk, avoid it, do not go on it, turn away from it, pass on. Okay, God at dad. Then we move on to verse 23, which is a popular verse that people like to apply to dating relationships. It says, Keep your heart with all vigilance,

or from it, flow the springs of life. There's definitely wisdom in having good boundaries, but this is not a verse about disengaging from your emotions, or trying not to get your hopes up that things might work out with your love interest. When we look at the context of this verse, we see that it's surrounded by verses about clinging to wisdom and about keeping your tongue from lies and your eyes from evil and your feet from wicked paths. This verse about guarding our hearts seems to be more concerned with eradicating bitterness and

malice from our hearts, not romantic feelings, though romantic feelings certainly can lead to bitterness and malice, so maybe this isn't an entirely different subject. But you get the point. Proverbs 5, on the other hand, has a lot to say about relationships. The dad is emphatic about avoiding adultery and the adulterous. He describes her as a simpleton, someone who doesn't ponder the path she's taking. She doesn't weigh consequences and outcomes, because if she did, she'd never make the decision to commit adultery.

The father is basically saying, she's not thinking, so you'd better be the one thinking. And when you think, remember what I'm telling you right now. Don't do it, it's not worth it. He encourages his son to be faithful to his wife and he prays a blessing over their marriage and their love. In chapter 6, we see some interesting advice from the Father to the Son. He basically says, don't loan people money.

Again, this isn't a law. And in fact, scripture marks out that we should be generous to those in need. And God even forbids Israelites from charging interest to other Israelites they loan money to. So we know this isn't against God's laws. This is a Father passing down his experiential wisdom to his son.

He also encourages his son to develop a strong work ethic and to deal honestly with others. Then the dad decides he has more to say about adultery, so he circles back around with, oh, and another thing. He says that if his son walks in wisdom, he will naturally avoid the adulterous. But if he happens to find himself tempted, he should remember that you can't heat coals into your lap without being burned. And a lot of other consequences he list out as a deterrent.

Because again, walking in wisdom and nearness with God ushers in peace. But walking outside of his ways ushers in destruction. What was your God shot today? I'm always trying to look for a few different things when I read scripture. What does this say about who God is? About what He loves, what He hates,

and what motivates Him to do what He does. Well, today in 616-19, the author unpacked one of those things directly. He listed out seven things that are in abomination to God and six things He hates. Here they are. Hottie eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who soes discord among brothers.

I don't know about you, but a lot of that applies to me. It makes me all the more grateful that Jesus paid the price for my sins and that I can see God's spirit working those things out of me. I see how generous God is that he adopted a sinner like me into his family when I do so many things that he hates and that are an abomination to him.

I also just wanna take a second to flip all these things on their head because if these are the things God hates, then it's because they defile something that he loves. So what does this list teach us about what God loves? He loves humility, honesty, innocence and justice, purity, righteousness, truth, peacemaking and unity. Those things are so beautiful, and they definitely demonstrate who we've seen him to be as we've been reading through Scripture. I want to be more like him, like that list, and less like me, like the first list, because

he's where the joy is. If you're listening to an episode and you think, terribly reel it in, you're talking too fast, girl. I have good news for you. You are the boss of my speech speed. Most pod catchers offer a variety of speed options, faster or slower. So if you're listening at 1x and that's too fast for you, you can slow it down. You can also speed me up.

I listen to most podcasts at 1.5x. To find out how to adjust the speed on your particular pod catcher, just do a web search for how to adjust the speed of the podcast on whatever app you use. So have at it. Speed me up, or slimme down. Prayer can be challenging. It can be easy to feel like we're not praying the quote-unquote right way. Wayne Nation has a new prayer study that will help you look to the Bible to learn how

to pray with confidence. Growing in prayer is going to help you as you grow closer to God. To join, just text the word grow to 67101 or click the link in the show notes.