Proverbs 19:16-25
16Whoever keeps commandments keeps their life,
but whoever shows contempt for their ways will die.
A double contrast: Whoever keeps commandments vs. shows contempt for their ways and keeps their life vs. will die. One who is obedient to God is careful about his ways, and God blesses him with the salvation of his soul, but one who is disobedient to God is careless about his ways, and the wages of sin is and has always been death (Gen:17; Isa. 1:19,20; Rom. 6:21,23; 8:6; Phil. 3:19; Jas. 1:15.)
17 Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord,
and he will reward them for what they have done.
The wording implies “giving to the poor”. To “be kind” is to feel for, to make their burden your burden, to be touched enough about their situation to stop what you are doing and help them. This we are taught to do: Luke 11:41‘; i2:’33; Gal. 6:lO; I John 3:17; Jas. 1:27; Matt. 25:35-36. Cornelius (Acts 10:2,4; and Dorcas (Acts 9:36) were alms givers. Give to the poor, and God has promised to pick up the debt (Luke 14:12-14). Notice the message of Prov. 28:27.
18 Discipline your children, for in that there is hope;
do not be a willing party to their death.
Correction administered in time without which the child’s mischief becomes meanness, and the character becomes set in wickedness. Other passages teaching parental correction: Prov. 13:24; 23:13,14; 29:17. A German saying: “It is better that the child weep than the father.”
19 A hot-tempered person must pay the penalty;
rescue them, and you will have to do it again.
A man given to anger always turns to it when things don’t go his way. It is a sign of a character-weakness: the inability to cope with either one’s situation or one’s limitations. A person who loses their temper is like an addict: it won’t be the last time.
20 Listen to advice and accept discipline,
and at the end you will be counted among the wise.
One’s wisdom is constituted of what one gains on his own and of what others seek to share. The more one has, the more apt he is to listen to what others would impart to him, and the less wisdom one has, the less apt he is to regard the good advice of others.
21 Many are the plans in a person’s heart,
but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.
It is not what we want that always comes to pass but what God desires (or allows). See Psa. 33:10,11; Prov. 16:1,2; Isa. 14:26,27; 46: 10; Heb. 6: 17. Men in a human council meeting thought they could stop Christianity (Acts 4:17), but they passed away, and the Word of God is still living, active, and powerful. Herod of Acts 12 took up against the church, killed James, and intended to kill Peter, but before the chapter was ended, he was dead, and in contrast to him Acts 12:24 says, “But the word of God grew and multiplied.”
22 What a person desires is unfailing love;
better to be poor than a liar.
This verse states that which we desire in people, and heading the list is love. We like people who are kind; we like to be around them; their influence upon us is good. We appreciate their thoughtfulness; we appreciate their willingness to be helpful. We are comfortable and at home in their presence. An unkind person is just the opposite. The Bible says, “Be ye kind” (Eph. 4:32); “Love … is kind” (I Cor. 13:4). Concerning the second statement of the verse, this chapter has already shown that people go from and do not want to claim close connections with the extremely poor (vs. 4,7), yet they prefer a poor man to a liar (compare v. 1). A man who will lie to others will lie to you. He is one you cannot trust, for he is not conscientious before God and with men. He makes a poor friend.
23 The fear of the Lord leads to life;
then one rests content, untouched by trouble.
This verse departs from Proverbs’ customary two-line verses. Notice the three lines here. “Leads to” shows the usual or general results of fearing God. It means, other things being equal, that one who fears God will live longer-not only longer, but he will reap more satisfaction from living than those who lack it, the reason being that he will have fewer hardships because of not being visited with evil. The “fear of God” takes us back to the first real saying in Proverbs: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge” (1:7)
24 A sluggard buries his hand in the dish;
he will not even bring it back to his mouth!
Proverbs has much to say about lazy people: they spend much time sleeping (6:9; 24:30-34; 20:4; 26:13). ,This verse “out-lazies” the others as it pictures a man putting his hand into the dish to get something to eat and then being too lazy to lift it to his mouth (Prov. 26:16). When one is too lazy to feed himself, he is as lazy as he can get. Yet all of life becomes a burden to the ambitionless person, the person with no purpose, no motivation. There is an Arabic proverb: “He dies of hunger under the date tree.”
25 Flog a mocker, and the simple will learn prudence;
rebuke the discerning, and they will gain knowledge.
A scoffer is out of order whether he scoff at God or is plagued with the spirit of scoffing at people. He should be dealt with (the younger the better). The verse implies that even if he doesn’t profit by it, the onlooking who might have taken up his ways will be affected for good (compare Deut. 13:10,11). Reproving a wise person definitely aids him, for he wishes to increase his learning, and he is wise enough to see the rightness of the rebuke (last part of Prov. 9:9). Prov. 21:ll is very similar to this verse in both of its statements: “When the scoffer is punished, the simple is made wise; And when the wise is instructed, he gains knowledge.”
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