I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Proverbs 18-21.

    Today’s passage is a continuation of the series of one or two sentence sayings of wisdom. I had a friend who commented on Facebook that he despised certain parts of Proverbs because they blame the poor and the sick for their condition. I know the proverbs to which he was referring, but I believe that reading them as blaming the poor, or the sick, for their condition is a misreading of their intent. While there are many proverbs in this book which talk about how if you do “x” or “y” you will end up poor, or sick in other cases, there are also many, such as Proverbs 21:13, which instruct us to care for the poor and the sick. Based on that fact, that the proverbs which say that poverty results from certain actions and sickness from others are interspersed with proverbs condemning those who fail to care for the poor and the sick, I am convinced that the former are warnings about behaviors which will inevitably lead one to poverty or sickness. One of my favorite authors had one of her characters say, “Actions have consequences. So, if you desire a particular consequence, choose the actions which have that consequence.” I believe that the writer(s) of Proverbs would heartily agree with that statement and included references to consequences which are to be avoided even more fervently than poverty. That is, it seems to me that the writer tells us that sometimes the actions which will lead us to wealth include consequences which are less desirable than poverty. Sometimes the poor, and the sick, are where they are because they have chosen not to take such actions.

    There are many snippets of wisdom in this passage which stand alone and I cannot cover them all. One example is Proverbs 18:10

The name of the Lord is a strong fortress;
the godly run to him and are safe.

Many of them deserve full blog entries on their own (and perhaps one year, I will pick one or two such and make that my post for the day). But one theme which runs through many of these is the importance words, both for good and for evil. If you take them all together you learn that you should be careful to speak words which are beneficial, and avoid listening to those who spend their time saying things which are not. You learn that you should think before you speak, do not become enamored of the sound of your own voice. Being a person of few words will bring greater rewards than talking all of the time.