The Two Paths of Proverbs

By now, you probably know that the book of Proverbs is one of my favorite books in the Bible. I started reading it when I was a young man of 17, and I'm still reading it today, and I'm still learning from it. So it's a book that just always continues to give. This book on Proverbs I want to share because with the youth, it's one of the most important ones, and God really designed it for young people in particular, but believe me, young and old can profit from it as well. And I keep learning new things, so I return to it time after time.

It's interesting that a professor of business and management, Dr. Michael Sigarelli, uses the book of Proverbs to teach successful management principles. I have his book right here. It's called Management by Proverbs. It gives 19 management principles from the book of Proverbs. He says, quote, Proverbs can point managers from first-time supervisors to CEO, which means chief executive officer, to principles for success in today's world of business.

And of course, God inspired that book for all of us. And there are two paths that are delineated in this book of Proverbs. And there are six different people that God uses, three which follow the path of wisdom, and three which follow the path of folly and wickedness. And so God, as a loving father teaching his children, wants us to follow the path of wisdom and righteousness instead. And so this book is based on sayings that God accepted. Solomon wrote most of these, not totally, but certainly the majority of them.

And we're going to see how applicable this is all in our lives today. I've used the book of Proverbs in some of the most difficult situations in my life just to see what God tells us to do. And certainly it has helped so much. So let's first cover today what makes up the wrong path that Proverbs describes. And then part two, the right way. Because it's something that we can never let go of it and not learn from it.

So how does one begin to follow this wrong path? And why study it? Why study the wrong path? Simple. Still learn to avoid it. I remember a quote from the great U.S. architect Frank Lloyd Wright. And he asked him, why do you study, examine also ugly buildings when you build such beautiful buildings?

And he said, well, I learned how not to do it myself. So sometimes you have to learn how not to do things by the experience of others. And so let's get to it so you can see the beauty of this book and how it applies to all of us. It never gets old. And so let's go to Proverbs chapter 1. Proverbs chapter 1 verses 1 through 4. Here it's the purpose is given right away. The specific purpose statement as we said in Speech Club. Always make sure you have a clear purpose that you express. So in the Book of Proverbs, in chapter 1, we see that there are two paths involved here.

It says in verse 1, the Proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel, who was given so much wisdom. And God inspired him to write most of these. And what is the purpose of this book? To know wisdom and instruction. To perceive the words of understanding. To receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, judgment, and equity. To give prudence to the simple, to the young man, knowledge, and discretion.

A wise man will hear and increase learning, and a man of understanding will attain wise counsel. To understand a proverb and an enigma, the words of the wise and the riddles. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. So here, again, two paths. One, listening to God, following his way, and the other one, despising the wisdom and instruction that God gives. One fascinating thing I discovered in my life is that everything that I will go through in this life, the book of Proverbs and the rest of the Bible, has something to say about it. What decisions I will make.

Every day we have so many decisions to make, and the wiser we make those decisions, the better will be the results. It's that simple. So this path of folly is introduced here, as we read in verse 4, to give prudence to the simple. So that's the first personage that comes out of the book of Proverbs. This is a young man or a young woman. They don't know much. They're inexperienced. And the word here for simple is pethi. P-E-T-H-I, pethi. And from the word study dictionary, we learn it refers to a person who is naive concerning the complexities and challenges of life, inexperienced and lacking insight.

So you start out, of course, with no GPS to guide you, except what you learn from your home. But once you're out there in the world, you're going to have to make decisions all the time. And the lack of experience can cause a lot of mistakes to be made.

The way of the simple is shown in verse 29. It says here in Proverbs 1, It says, Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord, means the deep respect of God, they would have none of my counsel, God says, and despise my every rebuke. Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their own way and be filled to the full with their own fancies. In other words, you're going to reap what you sow. For the turning away of the simple will slay them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them. But whoever listens to me will dwell safely and will be secure without fear of evil.

So the way of the simple is that young person, he's got to decide what kind of road he's going to take. Notice in Proverbs 7 and verse 6, Solomon is talking here what he saw. He says, For at the window of my house I looked through the lattice, and saw among the simple I perceived among the youths, a young man devoid of understanding, passing along the street near her corner. So here's temptation. He's just wandering along, and he took the path to her house, in the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night. So here's a youth left to his own ways, careless, not interested in wisdom, wants to do things his own way, wants to go with the flow. Got his buddies with him, and he falls into one of the most common sins, which is sexual immorality. As a believer's commentary says, the consequence of immorality in the man's body, and it can be a woman's body, too. The young man goes into the harlot like a bird, flies into the net, little realizing what it is going to cost him. Binaural diseases which plague the earth. The World Health Organization says the following. More than one million sexually transmitted infections are acquired every day, worldwide, in people from 15 to 49 years old. And the majority are asymptomatic, which means they don't know they've got it, and so they spread it to others. In 2020, there was an estimated 374 million new infections in people, 15 to 49 years, with these venereal diseases such as chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis, and trichomoniasis. And so you can imagine a million people are infected with this, and of course that's because it's spreading. And so the Bible tells us, be careful. Don't expose yourself to these dangers, because you never know what the consequences will be in the long term. Notice in verse 22, it says, Immediately he went after her, as an ox goes to the slaughter, or as a fool, to the correction of the stocks, till an arrow struck his liver. It means some disease. As a bird hastens to the snare, he did not know it would cost his life. And many people eventually perish because of these things. So again, God is warning the young person to stay away from the wrong type of people, the wrong crowds, which will get you into so much trouble. In Proverbs 14 verse 15, we see this path as it, as the simple goes along it. It says in verse 15, The simple believes every word, but the prudent considers well his steps. So again, the youth is not wary nor careful, things the world does impose a danger. One should experience it for himself with no advice taken. A believer's commentary says, A naive, gullible person is susceptible to every new idea or fad. The prudent man takes a second look and thus preserves his steps from error, thinks twice. Faith demands the surest evidence and finds it in the Word of God. If we study God's Word every day, it's a guide to making the right decisions. That naivete, that what they call credulity, which is a person that just doesn't question, whether it's good or bad. That unquestioning acceptance believes what every passing scientist, philosopher or psychologist has to say. As from the believer's commentary. You have to be careful many times, especially now in the news. Think a little bit. Think through things. Don't believe everything that is being said. Check things out carefully. And so we come to the result, Proverbs 22, 3-5. As the simple is taken farther and farther from God and his ways, more and more being drawn into the world and its wrong values. It says in Proverbs 22, 3, A prudent man foresees evil and hides himself, but the simple pass on and are punished.

It says, By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches and honor and life. That's what God wants. That's the path of righteousness. Humility and the fear of God. Boy, you can't get much better than that to walk humbly before God and man and put God first. Have that deep respect.

And you will receive riches and honor and life. Thorns and snares are in the way of the perverse. He who guards his soul will be far from them. Stay away from those traps. Only way you do that is the type of people you choose to be around. In Proverbs 19, verse 25, There is hope for the simple. How can he correct his path? Proverbs 19, 25. It says, Strike a scoffer. As we're going to see, that's the end result of the simple becoming a fool and eventually a squirner, which is the worst level in this path of foolishness and wickedness. It says, verse 25, Strike a scoffer and the simple will become wary. Rebuke one who has understanding and he will discern knowledge. Again, in the New Living Translation, it says, If you punish a mocker, the simple-minded will learn a lesson. If you correct the wise, they will be all the wiser. So just as a traffic ticket gets you to improve your driving, so does a timely punishment. That's why when society doesn't discipline the wrong type of people and let juvenile delinquents and all kinds of people do what they do, other simple will just follow along because they don't see that person paying the consequences of it. That's very important. So the moral of the story here is that a field left on its own will not remain empty, but it will grow weeds. And so a youth left on his own without seeking God or his word nor listening to his parents will develop bad habits that most likely will plague him for life. We'll see the results. Some people pay a very dear price early in their lives because they didn't listen to God's word. They did not take into respect and take into account that God wants to save us. He does not want us to be destroyed by foolish decisions that we make.

So let's go to the next stage.

From the simple, now the way is hardened. The habits are formed strongly. And so now from a person that doesn't have much experience, now the person's older, but he still is going the wrong way.

Proverbs 14 and verse 18.

What does the simple inherit if they don't change?

Proverbs 14 verse 18. It says, the simple inherit folly.

That's the term for foolishness and wrong decisions. And by the way, in the Bible, we're talking about a fool. It's not just some silly person. It's talking about somebody who's hostile to God, to his way. It also includes moral wickedness as well.

The simple inherits folly, but the prudent are crowned with knowledge.

And so the believer's commentary says, if they refuse to listen to sound teaching, they thereby choose to become more foolish. And there are two words that are the principal translations for the word fool. One is, evel, e-v-i-y-l, evel.

The word study dictionary says, one who hates wisdom and walks in folly, despising wisdom and godly morality. He makes a habit of despising wisdom, choosing his own wicked way and not God's. We see this all over. Look at the world as it is, and it is just full of people that are foolish in the way they are making decisions. And the second word is, Nabal, in the Hebrew. This is an arrogant, offensive person who doesn't listen to correction. And we have a whole story about Nabal in the Bible.

Let's go to 1 Samuel chapter 25. And it's interesting that the hero of this story is not a man. It's a heroine. It's a woman. The woman named Abigail. It says in 1 Samuel chapter 25 verse 2, it says, Now there was a man in Mahon, this is the area of the country, about eight miles south of Hebron, whose business was in Carmel. This is another Carmel. There are two of them in the north. This is in the south. And the man was very rich. He had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats.

And he was shearing his sheep in Carmel. The name of the man was Nabal, and the name of his wife Abigail. And she was a woman of good understanding and beautiful appearance. But the man was harsh and evil in his doings. He was of the house of Caleb, and Caleb was one of his ancestors.

And along with Joshua, Caleb had been faithful to God, and he had received all that territory around Mount Hebron. And so this area was prosperous, and Caleb probably, Nabal came into part of the inheritance, of being part of the descendants of Caleb. Verse 4, And when David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep, he did this twice a year, at the beginning of spring and then at the end in the fall. And the shearing was a time of great festivity, because all those sheeps and goats, they would take the wool and be able to sell it.

So it was kind of a big harvest, just like a big wheat or barley harvest. Well, this was a time of shearing. This is where you cut the wool from the sheep and also the goat hair. And so it was a time of prosperity. And David sent ten young men, and David said to the young men, Go up to Carmel, go to Nabal, and greet him in my name. And thus you shall say to him who lives in prosperity, Peace be to you, peace to your house, and peace to all that you have.

Now I have heard that you have shears, the shepherds were with us, and we did not hurt them, nor was there anything missing from them, all the while they were in Carmel. Remember that David at that time was fleeing from King Saul. He had about 600 men with him, and they made sure that the shepherds were well taken care of.

They were men of war, so any type of predators that came. They took care of killing the wolves and doing everything and leaving the sheep protected. Also any rustlers, they would shoo away. And so he says here, Ask your young men, and they will tell you, Therefore let my young men find favor in your eyes, For we come on a feast day. That was the time of the shearing. Please give whatever comes to your hand to your servants and to your son David.

Now this is a typical type of contract that sometimes people hired, these kind of more armed men to protect their properties, and David and his men had done this. So he thought, okay, now that you're bringing all this prosperity of the shearing and everything, please now provide for the services that we have rendered.

So when David's young men came, they spoke to Nabal according to all these words in the name of David and waited. Then Nabal answered David's servants and said, Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants nowadays who break away each one from his master. So he said, oh, David, he's one of these renegades against King Saul. Shall I then take my bread and my water and my meat?

Notice how many times he says me or I, focusing on him. Shall I then take my bread and my water and my meat that I have killed for my shears and give it to men when I do not know where they are from? So David's young men turned on their heels and went back, and they came and told him all these words. How Nabal had insulted David and his men. And David got very upset. He said to his men, every man gird on his sword.

So every man girded on his sword, and David also girded on his sword. And about four hundred men went with David and two hundred stayed with the supplies. Now one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal's wife, saying, Look, David sent messengers from the wilderness to greet our master, and he reviled them. So again, showing why his name was that way. A foolish man. He says, But the men were very good to us. So this young man is part of the ones taking care of the flocks.

And we were not hurt, nor did we miss anything, as long as we accompanied them when we were in the fields. They were a wall to us both night and day, all the time that we were with them keeping the sheep. So they protected. Now they are for know and consider what you will do.

For harm is determined against our master and against all his household. For he is such a scoundrel that one cannot speak to him. A term here, it's a child of Belial, which is used for a term in Belial in the New Testament, Satan. Just a man that just upset, can't control his temper, just is very much having a temper tantrum here. Then Abigail made haste and took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five sheep already dressed, five sias of roasted grain, one hundred clusters of raisins and two hundred cakes of figs, and loaded them on donkeys.

She realized the danger. What a fool! Her husband was going to bring destruction upon all of them just to be able to save some miserable amount of goods that he could have given to David, and he would have been happy with that. And she said to her servants, go on before me. See, I'm coming after you. But she did not tell her husband, Nabal, because he was going to be upset. And she's trying to save the family and all the possessions.

So it was as she rode on the donkey that she went down under cover of the hill. And there were David and his men coming down toward her, and she met them. So David's on the warpath. And this is why she is the hero here. Her discretion, her diplomacy and tact. David had said, surely in vain I have protected all this fellow has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that belongs to him, and he has repaid me evil for good.

May God do so and more also to the enemies of David, if I leave one male of all who belong to him by morning light. So he was very angry. Now when Abigail saw David, she dismounted quickly from the donkey, fell on her face before David, and bowed down to the ground. So she fell at his feet and said, on me, my Lord, on me, let this iniquity be. So here she did the only thing she could to save the situation was humble herself.

She just completely humbled herself. He says, and please let your maid servant speak in your ears and hear the words of your maid servant. Please let not my Lord regard this scoundrel, Naples. She's talking about her husband. Another term, a child of Belial.

For as his name is, so is he. Naples is his name, and folly is with him. But I, your maid servant, did not see the young men of my Lord whom you sent. So again, she's calming that anger with the right attitude. And remember that here, in these circumstances, marriages were not between two people that immediately loved each other. No, it was arranged marriages. And of course, in that area, Naples, he was a rich person. And so they had the arrangement, and she ended up marrying this man. And boy, she really got a loser of a husband, although he had a lot of money. So remember, what's the difference between a rich fool and a poor fool? Just money, right? So it doesn't change what they are.

And so it says here, verse 26, Now therefore, my Lord, as the Lord lives, and as your soul lives, since the Lord has held you back from coming to bloodshed, and from avenging yourself with your own hand, now then let your enemies and those who seek harm, for my Lord be as navel. So she basically, she admitted it wasn't David's fault, but here now she is saying to David, You are my Lord. You're going to be that future king. And she respected that position. Remember, Samuel the prophet had already anointed him as king, and it was something that God was working out through this circumstance. And now this present which your maidservant has brought to my Lord, let it be given to the young men who follow my Lord. Please forgive the trespass of your maidservant. Here she is. She didn't do anything wrong, but she took it upon herself to amend the foolishness of her husband. For the Lord will certainly make for my Lord, talk about David, an enduring house, because my Lord fights the battles of the Lord, and evil is not found in you throughout your days. So again, the diplomacy. This is what the book of Proverbs is all about, knowing how to handle a situation. She only had a few minutes to save the whole thing, and she did just what it took.

Yet a man has risen to pursue you, talk about King Saul, and seek your life. But the life of my Lord shall be bound in the bundle of the living with the Lord your God, and the lives of your enemies he shall sling out. Reminding David with his sling, he had defeated Goliath. As from the pocket of a sling, and it shall come to pass when the Lord has done for my Lord according to all the good that he has spoken concerning you, and has appointed you ruler over Israel, that this will be no grief to you, nor offense of heart to my Lord, either that you have shed blood without cause, or that my Lord has avenged himself. But when the Lord has dealt well with my Lord, then remember your maidservant. So she's saying, look, I'm a believer. I believe in God and what he's doing through you. Then David said to Abigail, Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me, and blessed is your advice, and blessed are you, because you have kept me this day from coming to bloodshed, and from avenging myself with my own hand. For indeed, as the Lord God Israel lives, who has kept me back from hurting you, unless you had hurried and come to meet me, surely by morning light no males would have been left to enable. So David received from her hand what she had brought him, and said to her, Go up in peace to your house. See, I have heeded your voice and respected your person. And David had that spirit. When he was wrong, he admitted it. He changed his ways, and he shows it here. Now Abigail went to Nabal, and there he was holding a feast in his house like a feast of a king. Didn't know any danger that was going to come.

And Nabal's heart was merry within him, for he was very drunk. Therefore, she told him nothing, little or much, until morning light. Again, the wisdom. This was in the time. Let him sober up, and then I'll let him know how close he was to killing, having us all killed.

So it was in the morning when the wine had gone from Nabal. He was sober now. And his wife had told him these things, that his heart died within him, and he became like a stone.

Most probably, he had a heart attack right there, a stroke, and he just knocked him out. When he realized how close he had been to death. Then it happened, after about 10 days, that the Lord struck Nabal and he died. So God finished him off. So when David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, Blessed be the Lord, who has pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal, and has kept his servant from evil. For the Lord has returned a wickedness of Nabal on his own head. And David sent and proposed to Abigail to take her as his wife. He was so impressed with her. She is now a young widow. And when the servants of David had come to Abigail at Carmel, they spoke to her, saying, David sent us to you to ask you to become his wife. Then she arose, bowed her face to the earth, and said, Here is your maidservant, a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my Lord. Abigail rose and hazed and rode on a donkey, tended by five of her maidens, and she followed the messengers of David and became his wife. And so just from the prudence, the example, a woman who had learned the path of wisdom, even if her husband had learned the path of folly, foolishness, and wickedness. So here, when you hear the word Nabal, now you know how it's related, because it shows what had happened here. So let's go to Psalm 14, verse 1. Back to...we're going to go through Proverbs, but Psalm 14.1 tells us about the path of the fool. It describes it succinctly here.

Psalm 14 and verse 1. Also one of my favorite verses in the Bible, because it shows what's wrong with the fool. It says, verse 1, The fool has said in his heart, There is no God. I can get away with this. They are corrupt. They have done abominable works. There is none who does good. The Lord looks down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there are any who understand, who seek God. And what he's saying is very few do. Very few. They have all turned aside. They have together become corrupt. There is none who does good. No, not one. And so we see here the result of the foolishness of a person. Proverbs 10, verse 14. Let's go to Proverbs chapter 10, verse 14. It says, Wise people store up knowledge, but the mouth of the foolish is near destruction. Person that is indiscreet, loose of tongue, doesn't really fear God.

The mouth of the foolish is near destruction. That's what Nabal had done, ended up being destroyed. In Proverbs 18, verse 12. Oh, Proverbs 18, verse 2 rather. It says, A fool has no delight in understanding, but in expressing his own heart. So again, not learning and correcting, but in expressing his own heart. That's what Nabal did. He was very haughty and proud. People couldn't stand him. He'd received all these blessings, and what did he do about it? No. He just was arrogant and until God has just deserted. So the biblical advice in Proverbs 14, verse 3, what does it tell us about a fool? It says, In the mouth of a fool is a rod of pride, but the lips of the wise will preserve them. Verse 7, it says, Go from the presence of a foolish man when you do not perceive in him the lips of knowledge. The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way, but the folly of fools is to see. So many times I've had to give that advice. Just keep your distance. Don't get too involved because it's not going to end up well. Continuing on in Proverbs 27, 22, there is another reason. Proverbs 27, verse 22, it says, Though you grind a fool in a mortar with a pestle along with crushed grain, yet his foolishness will not depart from him. So you see, from the simple, it just builds up, and now it's very difficult to remove the foolishness. It will not depart from him. He likes to be that way because he thinks he is right, and nobody can convince him otherwise. In Proverbs 18, verse 2, one of the things you learn in Proverbs is categorization. You have types of people. You have all kinds of different varieties of them. It says in Proverbs 18, verse 2, A fool has no delight in understanding but in expressing his own heart. I've brought that up before. And so the moral of the story is the ground with weeds not only hardens the roots, but spreads bad roots and seeds to other fields. And so we come to the next and the worst level, the sconer from the Hebrew, Lutz, L-U-T-Z, which means to make mouths at. You know, open up your mouth. Yeah, what's about it? You know, this type of attitude. This is the way I am and good enough for me. That type of make mouths is the term, Lutz. The ridicule, boast, the ride, be aggressive. Proverbs 21, 24.

It says, A proud and haughty man, scoffer is his name, he acts with arrogant pride. So the roots have deepened now, they've grown into a trunk. A person is proud of his ways, lacks humility. Proverbs 9, verse 7 and 8. Finishing up here, Proverbs 9, verse 7 and 8. It says, He who corrects a scoffer gets shame for himself, and he who rebukes a wicked man only harms himself. Do not correct a scoffer, lest he hate you, rebuke a wise man, and he will love you. Again, how to deal with people? There are times when it's not wise to get too close, because it's not going to appreciate it. It's going to be taken the wrong way. Proverbs 3, verse 33 through 35. This is the eventual fate. It says, The curse of the Lord is on the house of the wicked, but he blesses the home of the just. Surely he scorns the scornful, but gives grace to the humble. The wise shall inherit glory, but shame shall be the legacy of fools. So whoever it is will eventually eat of its own fruits. The moral is God will uproot the contaminated tree and end its spreading poisonous roots and fruits. We all have to be careful. We can all fall into this type of attitude. This is the path of folly. Next time, God willing, we're going to talk about the path of wisdom and righteousness.