Prepare
Opening Prayer
Thank God for speaking through his Word and the blessing of learning from him, and ask him to teach, lead, and enable obedience.
Read
Scripture Passage
24:7 Wisdom is too lofty for a fool; He does not open his mouth in the gate.
24:8 He who plots to do evil Will be called a schemer.
24:9 The devising of foolishness is sin, And the scoffer is an abomination to men.
24:10 If you faint in the day of adversity, Your strength is small.
24:11 Deliver those who are drawn toward death, And hold back those stumbling to the slaughter.
24:12 If you say, “Surely we did not know this,” Does not He who weighs the hearts consider it? He who keeps your soul, does He not know it? And will He not render to each man according to his deeds?
24:13 My son, eat honey because it is good, And the honeycomb which is sweet to your taste;
24:14 So shall the knowledge of wisdom be to your soul; If you have found it, there is a prospect, And your hope will not be cut off.
The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982).
A — About
What Is This Passage About?
Wisdom is inaccessible to a fool, and people who scheme evil should be avoided. Genuine strength endures adversity by relying on God, and obedience to the sixth commandment requires preserving people headed toward death rather than ignoring them. Wisdom is sweeter than honey and gives the soul hope that will not be cut off.
B — Best Verse
A Verse That Summarizes the Passage
Proverbs 24:14
Distilled from the devotional exposition; the speaker did not explicitly name a best verse.
Bryan does not state a Best Verse selection. Although the stored range ends at verse 13, the transcript explicitly reads and expounds verse 14 as the concluding comparison: wisdom is sweet to the soul and secures enduring hope.
C — Called or Christ
C — Called to Do & Christ Connection
Avoid schemers, rely on God's strength in adversity, and intervene to preserve people who are moving toward destruction. Seek the wisdom given in God's Word, fear the Lord, and follow wisdom incarnate, Jesus Christ.
Devotional Study
Transcript of the devotion. Minor transcription errors may remain.
Live? Let's see. All right, I think we are ready to go. Okay, well good morning, good morning. Let's make sure that stays on live there. Wonderful. 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, what do we do? We'll make it through all the wisdom literature. That's right, we'll make it through all the wisdom literature. We're at Proverbs chapter 24, verses 7 through 13.
I love when kids decide that they want to come to do devotions with me. So Deborah said this morning, she said, Dad, can I do coffee and devotions with you? Absolutely. Absolutely. Whenever you want. All right, why don't we go ahead and have some coffee?
We'll pray and we'll get into God's word. All right, let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you for your word, and we thank you that you speak to us through your word. We thank you for the blessing it is to just learn from you. God, we pray that we would walk in your words, that you would be our teacher and our leader. In Jesus' name, amen.
All right, here we go. So we're at Proverbs chapter 24, verses 7 through 13. Deborah was looking for her own Bible earlier, and so she went over there to that shelf. I'm not sure if you can... Over there. Oh, right behind Deborah's head. Anyways, there's a whole bunch of books, and you thought they were Bibles, but what did they end up being? History of the Christian Church. Yeah, it's like a seven-volume series by Philip Shaffer. Anyway, so we're going to read from the same Bible, so we're going to start here. verses 7 through 13. You want to read verse 7?
Wisdom is too lofty for a fool. He does not open his mouth in the gate. What do you think that's saying? Do you know what the word lofty means? No. It means like too high. Wisdom is too high up for a fool. It's too big for a fool. It's too inaccessible for a fool. He does not open his mouth in the gate.
The gate is where they would have judgments. That's where the elders would stand. Remember in the book of Ruth? Where did Boaz go to redeem Ruth? She went to the field. But when he went to go redeem the field, he went to the gate, to the elders. Because the elders sit in judgment at the gate. And so a fool, does a fool sit with the elders? No. Not supposed to. I'm going to read verses 8 and 9. You ready?
He who plots to do evil will be called a schemer. The devising of the foolish is sin. And the scoffer is an abomination to men. Alright, so if people plot to do evil, what are they called? Schemer do you know what a somebody who schemes is? Yeah, is that the type of person you wouldn't hang out with no way who is a right stay away from them because they're devising a foolishness is what Yeah, all right. Do you want to be around with people who are plotting evil?
No Let's go ahead and you want to read verse 10 If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small. What do you think that's saying? If you shrink, cower away in the day of adversity. That's like when the day of trials and tribulations happens. What's it say? Your strength is small. Yeah, right. So if I said to you, Deborah, I will be with you till the end of the days and I will always fight for you. But then a little bit of problem happens. I'm like, okay, okay, okay, nevermind, nevermind, nevermind.
Does that mean I'm really strong? No. Who's the really strong one? God. Oh God, right? Yeah. When the day of adversity came for Jesus, did he stand up? Did he endure it? Yep. Did he drink the cup of wrath? So is his strength big or was his strength small? Big. Yeah, Jesus was strong. Do you know what else the Bible talks about? It talks about our hearts. And it says that our hearts can be like four different types of soil. You remember that?
And the soil that's on the rocky soil sprouts up quickly, right? The seed sprouts up quickly, has a lot of joy. But then when trials and tribulations come, it's like the sun coming up and what happens to the plant? withers away. So do we want to be strong in the good days or strong in the hard days? Good days and hard days. Good days and hard days.
That's right. So where do we find strength? In God. In God. That's right. Was this morning a hard day? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. But then when we started thinking about all that God had blessed us, did it get better? Mm-hmm. All right. Let's go ahead and keep reading. I'm gonna read 11 and 12. You ready? deliver those who are drawn towards death, and hold back those stumbling to the slaughter. If you say, surely we did not do this, does not he who weighs the hearts consider it? He who keeps your soul, does he not know it? And he will not render to each man according to his deeds?
So if you see someone and they're walking towards death, what should you do? Should you just be, ah, let them go. No. If you saw, remember when we were hiking in the mountains? Do you remember that? If you saw Ellie walking towards the cliff, what should you do? Tell her to come back. Yeah. And if she doesn't, tell you. Yeah, right. So if she doesn't come back, you come and tell me. But what if you went, she dies, she dies, it's her own fault. Will God judge for that? Oh yeah, he will.
This is the keeping of the the sixth commandment right the sixth commandment is do not murder but that means we also have to preserve life okay let's go ahead and let's read 13 and 14 these will be our last two my son eat honey because it is good and the honeycomb which is sweet to your taste so shall the knowledge of wisdom be to your soul if you have found it it there is a prospect and your hope will not be cut off Alright, so go get honey.
Why would you get honey? Why do you like honey on your toast? Because it's sweet. Because it's sweet, it tastes good, right? But you know what the Prophet says here? What? You know what's even sweeter than honey? What? Wisdom. And you're right that the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. But if you really like honey, if you like sweet things, go get honey. But you know what's even sweeter than honey? Wisdom. So go get wisdom and it will be sweet to your soul.
All right, let's go ahead and pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you for the wisdom that you give us in your word and for wisdom incarnate Jesus Christ. God, we pray that we would follow after you and walk in your ways. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, may the Lord bless you today. May you go get wisdom. May you fear the Lord. May you walk in his path. May you love him with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. And we will see you tomorrow. You wanna say bye? Bye. Bye, see you tomorrow.