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 29-31.

    The beginning of today’s passage is more of the short unconnected wise sayings. If you are looking for “fortune cookie” wise sayings, this would be a good source for them. I am going to focus on the last of these because I think it is easy to miss the point it makes.

The righteous despise the unjust;
the wicked despise the godly.

If you just read it casually it might seem to be saying, “Good people don’t like bad people and bad people do not like good people.” However, if you do read it closely you realize that it is saying that the righteous despise the absence of justice, while the wicked despise those who do not do wrong. The righteous despise those who mistreat others because they care about people. The wicked despise those whose actions are blameless because it highlights their own wickedness.

    The Book of Proverbs ends with the sayings of Agur. We do not know anything about Agur other than what is mentioned here and many have speculated on the meaning of the introduction to this section. However, the part I am going to focus on is the request the writer makes of God. Those requests are ones which we all should make. First, we should ask God to help us to never tell a lie. The fact of the matter is that no matter how well-intentioned we are, without God’s help we will tell lies time and again. They may be outright lies, or lies of omission, but they will be lies nonetheless. The second part of his request is more interesting. He requests that God give him just enough to satisfy his needs, not so much that he is wealthy and not so little that he is in poverty. That si my desire as well. If we become wealthy we may begin to think that we do not need God. On the other hand, if we are impoverished we may commit sin in order to have enough to eat.