October 2, 2018: Day 52 – Proverbs 10

Here is a classic Proverbs line…: “Like vinegar to the teeth, and smoke to the eyes, so are the lazy to their employers.”  He really doesn’t hold many punches, especially since we know that he as king probably hired a lot of people.  Once again we see this logic and this appeal for wisdom as right living: righteousness, is contrasted with wrong living: lying lips.  Listen to this line:  Whoever winks the eye causes trouble, but the one who rebukes boldly makes peace.  Now that is counter intuitive.   

We live in a place where silence is part of the culture so if something is wrong or if something should not be so we are trained to keep silent because the person will figure it out or someone else will let them know  that it needs to be corrected.  But often no one does anything about it and the culture of silence wins out again and a wrong goes unaddressed.  This proverb tells us again to make sure that we are aware of what is wrong and what is right and to stick to that which is right.  It is moralizing, no getting around that, but it is a moralizing that we find in Scripture which allows us to recognize that God is calling us to a higher standard as His children.