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 22-24.

    Chapter 22 concludes the section of short one or two sentence sayings of wisdom. I will highlight a few of these that represent important points (although most of them make good points we should take to heart). One of the points which the writer makes is that no matter who we are, rich or poor, we were created by God, in His image. No person is more valuable than another and each and everyone of us was made in God’s image, according to His intention. If we understand this we will naturally understand that practicing injustice can only lead to disaster. Those who commit injustices against others will, in due time, suffer themselves. On the other hand, those who are generous and provide for those in need will be blessed beyond measure. When we remember that we are all equally God’s creatures, most of the rest of the wisdom contained in this Book follow.

    In the next section the writer fleshes out the wise advice with a little more explanation of their meaning. Once again the writer emphasizes a few points by coming back to them and addressing them in different ways. He warns against gluttony, drinking too much alcohol, and greed. He points out the ways in which such things will result in unhappiness. There are three points I want to look at more closely. The writer advises us that we will start to imitate the behaviors of those we spend our time with. If we spend our time with people who readily lose their temper, we will increasingly find it hard to control our temper. If we spend our time with those who do wrong, we will find ourselves justifying doing wrong ourselves. On the other hand, if we spend our time with the godly, we will behave in a more godly manner. Closely related to that is his warning against envying those who do wrong. IF we begin to wish that we had the things they have or lived their life, we will find ourselves imitating their worst behaviors to our detriment. What they have may seem appealing, but the price is more than it seems. The writer warns us against taking advantage of others, particularly the poor and powerless. God will act as their defender and hold us accountable for their loss. Finally the author tells us an important point (I know I said there were three points and this is a fourth…deal with it). God will not excuse us for looking the other way while evil is being performed. All too often, we choose to look the other way and no know when something evil is happening so that we will not have to stand up against it. God will not let us off that easily. Saying “I didn’t know” is not good enough when we should have known. If the reason we did not know that evil was going on was because we did not want to know, God will repay us for our failure to act.