Prepare
Opening Prayer
Thank the Father for the blessing of sitting with him and hearing from him, and ask the Holy Spirit to instruct and make his people wise.
Read
Scripture Passage
21 An inheritance gained hastily at the beginning
Will not be blessed at the end.
22 Do not say, “I will recompense evil”;
Wait for the Lord, and He will save you.
23 Diverse weights are an abomination to the Lord,
And dishonest scales are not good.
24 A man’s steps are of the Lord;
How then can a man understand his own way?
25 It is a snare for a man to devote rashly something as holy,
And afterward to reconsider his vows.
26 A wise king sifts out the wicked,
And brings the threshing wheel over them.
27 The spirit of a man is the lamp of the Lord,
Searching all the inner depths of his heart.
28 Mercy and truth preserve the king,
And by lovingkindness he upholds his throne.
29 The glory of young men is their strength,
And the splendor of old men is their gray head.
30 Blows that hurt cleanse away evil,
As do stripes the inner depths of the heart.
The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), Pr 20:21-30
A — About
What Is This Passage About?
Wisdom rejects hasty wealth, personal vengeance, dishonest trade, rash vows, and the illusion of self-rule. The Lord directs steps and searches hearts; good rulers combine discernment, mercy, truth, and faithfulness, while loving discipline cleanses God's children.
B — Best Verse
A Verse That Summarizes the Passage
Proverbs 20:22
Distilled from the devotional exposition; the speaker did not explicitly name a best verse.
Do not say, I will recompense evil. Wait for the Lord and He will save you.
No one explicitly selects a best verse. Verse 22 most directly connects the passage's call to reject retaliation with Bryan's New Testament application: entrust vengeance to God and wait for his saving action.
C — Called or Christ
C — Christ Connection
Do not repay evil for evil; give place to God's wrath and wait for the Lord to save. Make vows carefully, live honestly, receive loving discipline, and rejoice in the peace and instruction of Jesus Christ.
Devotional Study
Transcript of the devotion. Minor transcription errors may remain.
Hey, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This is where every day we get together. We get into God's Word and we grow in our love for the Lord together. And this year, 2021, we will make it through all of the wisdom literature, Lord willing. We are finishing up Proverbs chapter 20. Why don't we go ahead and have some coffee? We'll pray and we'll get into God's Word. Let's pray. Oh Lord, what a blessing it is. to sit with you, to hear from you, our Father. God, we pray that your Holy Spirit would teach us today. Lord, instruct us. Let us be wise in Jesus's name. Amen. Well, why don't we go ahead and turn over to the computer here and we'll get working on our text.
Proverbs chapter 20, verses 21 through the end of the chapter. An inheritance gained hastily at the beginning will not be blessed at the end. Whoa. Slow your horses, buddy. It's better to look at the long game. It's an inheritance gained. hastily at the beginning, will not be blessed at the end." It's better to work for what you need and what you have than have it all come to you at once. Verse 22, do not say, I will recompense evil.
Wait for the Lord and He will save you. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your body as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Brothers, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath, for vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. Romans chapter 12, verses one and 12. You don't have to repay evil for evil, but let each one of us Be slow to anger, swift to listens. Why? Because of the wrath of man does not accomplish the righteousness of God. The Lord will save.
Verse 23, diverse weights are an abomination to the Lord and dishonest scales are not good. The Lord does not like when you go to a store and you put the bananas on a scale and it says they're supposed to be three pounds, but in reality they're only two and a half pounds. Or when you go to the gas pump and they try to rip you off because you say it's the pump says that you put in, you know, 21 gallons, but in reality it only put in 19 and a half. The Lord hates that.
Verse 24, a man's steps are of the Lord. How then can a man understand his own ways? Oh, I think we have a visitor. Hold on. Hey, you wanna do coffee and devotions with me? Do you see everybody? You wanna do coffee and devotions? Okay, here we go. A man's steps are of the Lord. How then can a man understand his own way? Ellie, sometimes are you surprised by what happens in your life? Yeah, sometimes I'm surprised too. Who's in charge? Are you in charge? Am I in charge? Who's in charge of Daddy's though? Mommy's in charge of Daddy. Mommy is married to Daddy. You're right, Mommy's married to Daddy. But who's in charge of Mommy and Daddy?
Rob. The Robs? God is. God's in charge. That's right. You ready for verse 25? It is a snare for a man to be devoted rashly to something as holy and afterward to reconsider his vows. Do you think you should... Oh, there's a bag of candy here. You want a piece of candy? Okay, you can have that. Okay, we'll put that down. Okay, here we go.
Do you think people should be rash, like be really quick to make promises to God? Or should they be slow? Slow, that's right. You should think about it first, shouldn't you? Yeah. Yeah. OK. A wise king sifts out the wicked and brings the threshing wheel over them. Ooh, that's a hard one. Ready? Oh, yeah. Here, you want me to open that Tootsie Roll for you? OK. Oh, this is going to be good. OK.
So do you think a good king knows good people and bad people? No. You think a good king can tell between a good man and a bad man? You don't think a good king can tell which man is good and which man is bad? Um, no. I think so. Um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um There's a mean guy in the movie? The good guy said okay? Oh yeah? That's a really big tootsie roll. Yeah, a good king is able to tell the good guys from the bad guys, right? We want kings who can do that. Okay, here we go, verse 27.
The spirit of a man is a lamp of the Lord, searching all the inner depths of his heart. Can you hide from God something in your heart? No, does God know everything in your heart? Yeah, God knows everything in our hearts, that's right. Mercy and truth preserve the king and by loving kindness he upholds his throne. So what this is saying is that if a king loves mercy and a king loves truth, is that a good thing?
Oh yes, yes. And with, oh no, no, no, you just had a tootsie roll. It's all over your face too. Ooh, dog. Look at that. Yuck. Faithfulness, loving kindness, loyalty. That's what's going to uphold a king. Okay, let's go to the next point. Verse 29, you ready? The glory of young men is their strength. Can you show me your muscles? Show me your muscles. Oh, look at those big muscles. You've got big muscles.
Young men, you know what young boys like to do? Do your brothers like to wrestle? Do your brothers like to wrestle? And do your brothers like to show off their muscles? You know, sometimes they go like this, don't they? They show off their muscles. Yeah. Uh, the glory of young men is their strength and the splendor of old men. You want to know what old men boast about? Their gray head. They show, they show how they show how wise they are and how, how God has been good to them.
Okay, one more verse, you ready? Blows that hurt, cleanse away evil, as do stripes the inner depths of the heart. Oh, oh, oh, here we go, you ready? Sometimes, Ellie, sometimes when you do something bad, do you have to be disciplined for it? Yeah. Sometimes when daddy does something bad, do I have to learn from it? Mm-hmm. And so when we're disciplined, is it because that person hates us or because they want us to do well? Yeah, they want us to do well. That's right. They want us to do well. Does God discipline his children? Okay, you go potty. I'll see you later, sweetie. Thank you for joining us. Well, May you rejoice in Jesus Christ. May you listen to His instruction and His discipline. May you rest in the peace that comes from Him. I'll see you tomorrow. Bye.
Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith in your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue, Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.