Proverbs 20 to 29
8573 words long.
Published on 2024-06-27
This article was originally published as a portion of "Appendix E: The Plan of Proverbs", in Peace, Like Solomon Never Knew. It covers chapters twenty to twenty-nine of Proverbs.
Proverbs 20. 960–1080 AD. A time to search
Theme. When are we not searching for something? Our problem is in searching for the wrong things, or at the wrong time, or in the wrong way, or without perseverance or preparation.
Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler,
and whoever is led astray by it is not wise.
(Searching for empty pleasure?)
The sluggard does not plow in the autumn;
he will seek at harvest and have nothing.
(Laziness is searching without preparation.)
The purpose in a man's heart is like deep water,
but a man of understanding will draw it out.
(Sort out what you are really searching for.)
A king who sits on the throne of judgment
winnows all evil with his eyes.
(Search for obstacles.)
Even a child makes himself known by his acts,
by whether his conduct is pure and upright.
(You are known and defined by what you seek, so seek well.)
The hearing ear and the seeing eye,
the Lord has made them both.
(If he made them, ask him how to use them!)
Love not sleep, lest you come to poverty;
open your eyes, and you will have plenty of bread.
(Seek diligently.)
“Bad, bad,” says the buyer,
but when he goes away, then he boasts.
- (Get a bargain if you can.)
Take a man's garment when he has put up security for a stranger,
and hold it in pledge when he puts up security for foreigners.
- (The search is risky, failure costly.)
Bread gained by deceit is sweet to a man,
but afterward his mouth will be full of gravel.
- (Seek with integrity.)
Plans are established by counsel;
by wise guidance wage war.
- (Don’t search by yourself.)
Whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets;
therefore do not associate with a simple babbler.
- (Search with discretion.)
Do not say, “I will repay evil”;
wait for the Lord, and he will deliver you.
- (God decries the search for vengeance.)
A man's steps are from the Lord;
how then can man understand his way?
- (Faith is required, because many circumstances surrounding our search are under God’s control, not ours.)
The spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord,
searching all his innermost parts.
- (Meditate on this one…)
Steadfast love and faithfulness preserve the king,
and by steadfast love his throne is upheld. (20:28)
Love must guide all our searching.
Prophecy. Over half the verses in this chapter deal with searching for and exploiting opportunities for gain. It is among the two or three chapters in Proverbs that hews most closely to its matching time from Ecclesiastes. The ancient world of classical Rome now lay centuries behind. The Renaissance was not yet a dream. The sought for Lord did not return to mark the the millennium of his ascension. The situation between Islam and Christendom was stalemated, though conquerors from other quarters periodically arose. Thus the prophecy is not what the people did during these years. The prophecy is that they must have searched long and hard and found a path forward, because the world that came after them was like nothing seen before. But while they searched and waited, they spread the faith to Russia, Poland and many other places.
Proverbs 21. 1080–1200 AD. A time to give up
Theme. There are verses aplenty about giving up – about failure – in this chapter, usually the ultimate failure of the wicked or slothful. However, two passages are more interesting. First, righteous people give up, not from failure, but from goodness. They give up what they have so that the poor may be refreshed:
The desire of the sluggard kills him,
for his hands refuse to labor.
All day long he craves and craves,
but the righteous gives and does not hold back.
- Proverbs 21:25-26
Second, sometimes it is someone else that you need to make give up:
A gift in secret averts anger,
and a concealed bribe, strong wrath.
- Proverbs 21:14
Prophecy. Two movements from this era are suggested by proverbs in this chapter. One is the rise of the heretical sect called Catharism. This movement appealed to women. Previous positive mentions of women in Proverbs related to the church, while negative references pointed in another direction. This chapter has the latter.
It is better to live in a corner of the housetop
than in a house shared with a quarrelsome wife. (21:9)
It is better to live in a desert land
than with a quarrelsome and fretful woman. (21:19)
The second movement was the Crusades.
The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance,
but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty. (21:5)
The horse is made ready for the day of battle,
but the victory belongs to the Lord. (21:31)
A wise man scales the city of the mighty
and brings down the stronghold in which they trust. (21:22)
The wicked is a ransom for the righteous,
and the traitor for the upright. (21:18)
These four verses touch on four aspects of the People’s Crusade and the First Crusade. Peter the Hermit led the People’s Crusade. They were crushed by the Turks at Cibotus. Why? They refused counsel by wiser heads to wait for additional forces being mustered to join them. Theirs were not “the plans of the diligent” of verse 5.
The main body of crusaders were better organized. They arrived with cavalry, brought supplies with with to build siege towers, and ultimately captured the stronghold of Jerusalem. The barbaric slaughter of many civilians is a blot on Christian history, but many of the captured paid ransom (as in verse 18) and were set free.
Then a century later, as “a time to give up” came to a close, they had to give Jerusalem up once more.
Proverbs 22. 1200–1320 AD. A time to keep
Theme. What shall you keep and how shall you keep it? Do you have the strength to deter thieves and oppressors? If there is effort in the keeping, how do you decide how to apportion your effort and when to let go?
A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches,
and favor is better than silver or gold. (22:1)
Train up a child in the way he should go;
even when he is old he will not depart from it. (22:6)
Whoever has a bountiful eye will be blessed,
for he shares his bread with the poor. (22:9)
Incline your ear, and hear the words of the wise,
and apply your heart to my knowledge,
for it will be pleasant if you keep them within you,
if all of them are ready on your lips. (22:17-18)
Listed first, a good name tops the list. It seems that the rest of the chapter examines the facets of life that combine to form a person’s reputation in the community. Among these factors are a parent’s diligent instruction and a child’s obedient receptiveness. Another is generosity. Oh, to have a bountiful eye! The bountiful eye sees more than the fullness of its barns, it sees the blessing that produce can be to others. The bountiful eye sees its neighbor.
The chapter has many other sayings and in verse 18 the charge: Keep them! Keeping God’s wisdom by learning, reflection, and practice is the path to a good name.
Prophecy. The bountiful eye was God’s, for this era capped off a period of increased agricultural output in which the population of Europe doubled, as detailed in earlier chapters. The Lord shared his bread with the poor.
Proverbs 23. 1320–1440 AD. A time to throw away
Theme. This chapter would be easier to swallow if it were about deciding what furniture to donate to Goodwill or what clothes to toss in the charity bin behind the Town Hall. Those decisions are voluntary. These proverbs are about involuntary losses.
Do not eat the bread of a man who is stingy;
do not desire his delicacies,
for he is like one who is inwardly calculating.
“Eat and drink!” he says to you,
but his heart is not with you.
You will vomit up the morsels that you have eaten,
and waste your pleasant words.
- Proverbs 23:6-8
Stingy people do not want to give away or throw away anything. The vomiting here is metaphorical. Eating their food is copying their lifestyle and habits of heart. Don’t.
Prophecy. Like all empires, the Byzantine Empire pursued wealth and power instead of the virtues Christ urged us to seek.
Do not toil to acquire wealth;
be discerning enough to desist.
When your eyes light on it, it is gone,
for suddenly it sprouts wings,
flying like an eagle toward heaven.
- Proverbs 23:4-5
This era ended just shy of Byzantium’s final fall in 1453. Its wealth surely sprouted wings and flew away. Why an eagle? The double-headed eagle was the emblem of their empire. After it flew away, God threw away that empire.
This chapter and chapter 22 each make reference to “an ancient landmark”. Other translations call it a boundary marker or boundary stone. It concerns land ownership.
Do not move an ancient landmark or enter the fields of the fatherless, for their Redeemer is strong; he will plead their cause against you.
- Proverbs 23:10-11
This is the rich and powerful “throwing away” the poor by plundering their goods and tossing them off their land. These two eras saw in England the expansive use of the deodand, from the Latin deo dandum, which means “to be given to God”. A guilty person would forfeit their property to the crown. The practice entered England due to the Norman conquest of 1066 AD and continued until its abolition in the 19th century because the railroads were literally using it to get away with murder.
The law of the deodand was tied up in the concept of “corruption of blood”. By committing their offense, the guilty party was deemed to have corrupted their bloodline. Not only they would suffer, but their descendants in perpetuity would lose title to their lands. This principle was considered so odious to the founders of the United States that they prohibited it in the Constitution. However, its stepchild, civil forfeiture, is spreading today, and many innocents are falling victim to its abuses.
God had no intention of throwing away the whole church. In order turn a civilization descending into tyranny and corruption into a “keeper”, the Father disciplined his flock:
Do not withhold discipline from a child;
if you strike him with a rod, he will not die.
If you strike him with the rod,
you will save his soul from Sheol.
- Proverbs 23:13-14
In this case, the rod of correction included severe famine followed by the Black Death. One symptom of the spiritual illness plaguing the church was the Western Schism, which lasted from 1378–1417 AD. Such spiritual division is often likened in Scripture to the action of an adulteress:
My son, give me your heart,
and let your eyes observe my ways.
For a prostitute is a deep pit;
an adulteress is a narrow well.
She lies in wait like a robber
and increases the traitors among mankind.
- Proverbs 23:26-28
What do all the preceding evils have in common? They have their origin in the malevolence of one person:
Who has woe? Who has sorrow?
Who has strife? Who has complaining?
Who has wounds without cause?
Who has redness of eyes?
Those who tarry long over wine;
those who go to try mixed wine.
Do not look at wine when it is red,
when it sparkles in the cup
and goes down smoothly.
In the end it bites like a serpent
and stings like an adder.
Your eyes will see strange things,
and your heart utter perverse things.
You will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea,
like one who lies on the top of a mast.
- Proverbs 23:29-34
The serpent is Satan. In several clocks in this book (such as ones including Ecclesiastes 10:11 or Psalm 58:4–5) the analogy of the snake appears in the same corresponding era. This is the time when Satan was unbound (ca 1380 AD), the end of the millennium following the Edict of Thessalonica, in which the Roman Empire was snatched from his grasp.
How do an adulteress, getting drunk on wine, Satan and the sea tie together? Satan’s final beast, Leviathan, will arise from the sea of mankind. Revelation speaks of this in the context of intoxication:
For all the nations have drunk
the maddening wine of her adulteries.
The kings of the earth committed adultery with her,
and the merchants of the earth grew rich
from her excessive luxuries.”
- Revelation 18:3, NIV
The intoxication is wealth and power. One facet of power is naval power. This era included the first known European naval battle to employ artillery. In 1338 AD, France and England fought the Battle of Arnemuiden, at the start of the Hundred Years’ War. To the people of the time those would be “strange things”. Sadly, not to us. Verse 29 speaks of strife. Does a hundred years of war qualify as strife?
Proverbs 24. 1440–1560 AD. A time to tear
Theme. Tearing is breaking relationships, dissolving partnerships, and splitting into warring factions (24:5-6). Even for this era, which saw the Protestant Reformation, God spoke against tearing up the world order. We didn’t listen.
My son, fear the Lord and the king,
and do not join with those who do otherwise,
for disaster will arise suddenly from them,
and who knows the ruin that will come from them both?
- Proverbs 24:21-22
In tumultuous times, we must not neglect our duty to protect the powerless by tearing the tie that binds us to them and tearing our eyes away from their plight:
Rescue those who are being taken away to death;
hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter.
If you say, “Behold, we did not know this,”
does not he who weighs the heart perceive it?
Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it,
and will he not repay man according to his work?
- Proverbs 24:11-12
Prophecy. The previously cited passage (24:21–22) matches the civil discord that followed in the wake of the Reformation. Other events of the era had a different character:
by knowledge the rooms are filled
with all precious and pleasant riches. (24:4)
This time was the beginning of the conquest of the New World. Spain lead the way by conquering Mexico in 1519 and sacking the Inca City of Cuzco in 1533, plundering it of its riches. Spain completed that conquest in 1572.
A wise man is full of strength,
and a man of knowledge enhances his might,
for by wise guidance you can wage your war,
and in abundance of counselors there is victory.
- Proverbs 24:5-6
Francisco Pizarro conquered an empire of 7–12 million people with an initial force of 168 conquistadors. Surely he possessed martial wisdom, for he was able to enlist many indigenous people to his cause. Beating odds of 100,000 to 1 are as perfect an illustration of this proverb as you could find.
Another proverb here also belongs to this time:
If you faint in the day of adversity,
your strength is small. (24:10)
Consider the words of Jesus:
And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars,
and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity
because of the roaring of the sea and the waves,
people fainting with fear and with foreboding
of what is coming on the world.
For the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
- Luke 21:25-26, ESV
This era fell between the breaking of the first and second seals of Revelation. Millions who died in the hundreds of wars fought in this time and the one to follow did faint with terror, and many feared the world’s end was nigh.
One proverb in this chapter seems to be a warning that the church took to heart.
I passed by the field of a sluggard,
by the vineyard of a man lacking sense,
and behold, it was all overgrown with thorns;
the ground was covered with nettles,
and its stone wall was broken down.
- Proverbs 24:30-31
Was the church lazy? Was the mission field overgrown with thorns? According to the parable of the workers in the vineyard in Matthew, no. This was height of the fourth era of Christian missions. It met with spectacular success.
Some proverbs stick with you. After my mother died and my father nearly joined her in 2016, I prayed to the Lord for greater resilience. As I prayed, I recalled the following parable from memory:
for the righteous falls seven times and rises again,
but the wicked stumble in times of calamity. (24:16)
I asked the Lord who in the Bible would be a good role model for me to imitate that I might become one who could rise every time I fall. The name that came to mind was Job. Because of this verse from Proverbs 24, I studied Job and wrote Job Rises: Thirteen Keys to a Resilient Life. The confirmation that Job was the right book came when I read this parallel verse in Job: “From six calamities he will rescue you; in seven no harm will touch you.” (Job 5:19, NIV)
So this verse started my journey through Job and concludes my journey through Ecclesiastes. Only because it holds such personal meaning to me did I linger over it – and discover that it is a riddle! This chapter matches “a time to tear”. If the righteous fall “seven times”, what times might those be? A time to (1) tear, (2) mend, (3) be silent, (4) speak, (5) love, (6) hate, and a time for (7) war. Then in “a time for peace”, the righteous will “rise again”! Then will be the rapture of the church at the return of our Lord. This proverb is God’s promise to protect His church through the seven calamities: the opening of the seven seals, blowing of the seven trumpets, and pouring out of the seven bowls of judgment.
The pursuit of one proverb, one single proverb, opened up vast treasures of insight to me. I wonder what riches the others conceal?
Proverbs 25. 1560–1680 AD. A time to mend
Theme. A time to mend is also translated “a time to sew”. Sewing stitches pieces of cloth together to make a whole garment. How gloriously does this chapter announce this theme!
These also are proverbs of Solomon which the men of
Hezekiah king of Judah copied. (25:1)
King Hezekiah and his men sewed together the book of Proverbs. When I taught Sunday School years ago, I became enamored with King Hezekiah. In my view, he was Israel’s best king. Having spent a solid six months of 1988 praying through Proverbs alone, I believe I recognized in the accounts of his reign the excellency of his wisdom.
An important relationship to mend is between you and your king. How is it done? “With patience a ruler may be persuaded, and a soft tongue will break a bone.” (25:15)
Before you mend your relationships with others, though, how about mending the walls of your heart? “A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls.” (25:28)
Before you learn to handle the wrath of a king, how about respecting the boundaries of your neighbor? “Let your foot be seldom in your neighbor's house, lest he have his fill of you and hate you.” (25:17) Don’t overstay your welcome.
Displaying tact in the king’s court is vital. Each type of failure calls for a remedy.
Do not put yourself forward in the king's presence
or stand in the place of the great,
for it is better to be told, “Come up here,”
than to be put lower in the presence of a noble.
What your eyes have seen
do not hastily bring into court,
for what will you do in the end,
when your neighbor puts you to shame?
Argue your case with your neighbor himself,
and do not reveal another's secret,
lest he who hears you bring shame upon you,
and your ill repute have no end.
- Proverbs 25:6-10
Prophecy. This chapter holds a verse that underlies the philosophy of this book, that God has hidden prophecies throughout Scripture:
It is the glory of God to conceal things,
but the glory of kings is to search things out. (25:2)
During this era, kings wrestled with what the truest form of Christianity is. Since the second seal of Revelation was opened during this period, the search for the concealed things of God began to produce results. The Age of Reason had arrived.
Finally, how do you deal with an outright enemy?
If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat,
and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink,
for you will heap burning coals on his head,
and the Lord will reward you.
- Proverbs 25:21-22
Jesus told us to love our enemies. Are you surprised to learn that Solomon and Hezekiah did, too? Yet which enemies are being spoken of here? “A time to mend” is devoted to Catholics and Protestants forgiving each other, helping each other, and learning how to work together again. A few noble rulers during this time protected those having a different faith, as earlier chapters explained. During this time the principles of universal human rights began to be worked out. Those are the rights that God demands we guarantee to all people, regardless of what they believe, starting with religious freedom.
One additional note about verse 28. Though it occurred at the very end of the previous era, it bears mentioning here. From 1537 to 1541, the Ottoman Empire rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem at the behest of Suleiman the Magnificent. It was that “city broken into and left without walls”. And it was rebuilt by an enemy whose name is derived from Solomon.
Proverbs 26. 1680–1800 AD. A time to listen
Theme. You will look in vein for anything about listening in this chapter. Once again we are faced with negative philosophy. If a person should be listening but isn’t, what are they doing instead? They could be tuning you out, ghosting you, or watching cute videos about backflipping birds. Proverbs 26 says nothing about that.
Usually a person who isn’t listening is talking instead. Every verse here is about things not to say.
- 12 verses about fools (11 using the word fool)
- 4 verses about lazy sluggards
- 6 verses about quarrelsome people
- 6 verses about malicious speech
Okay, maybe there is something about sluggards watching cute cat videos:
The sluggard says, “There is a lion in the road!
There is a lion in the streets!”
- Proverbs 26:13, ESV
(There are at least five voices to ignore. To the four above you can add one from Proverbs 27:21, the flatterer.)
Proverbs has a lot to say about fools and warns us not to be like them. This chapter spots the most fools. In telling us not to speak like a fool, God is telling us to listen. If you pair each of Solomon’s twenty-eight times with the corresponding verse in this chapter, you will see a pattern. The speech of evil, quarrelsome fools and sluggards produces the opposite of what you desire, often giving evil while pretending to offer good.
For example, consider verses 25–28, matching the times of love, hate, war and peace, respectively. In verse 25, “when he speaks graciously, believe him not, for there are seven abominations in his heart…” you see in “graciously” a pretense of love. Verse 26 straight up mentions hatred. “Whoever digs a pit will fall into it…” in verse 27 sounds like clandestine war. Lastly, in verse 28 we have “A lying tongue hates its victims, and a flattering mouth works ruin.” Flattery is meant to set you at ease and produces the complacent peace that precedes your destruction.
Prophecy. This series of prophecies could be called “The Fool’s Clock”.
A tragic match is verse 2, “Like a sparrow in its flitting, like a swallow in its flying, a curse that is causeless does not alight.” The NIV translation says “undeserved” in place of causeless, which is clearer. This goes with “a time to die”. Tragically, the curse was deserved and it fell on the Northern Kingdom of Israel, leading to destruction by Assyria.
The most colorful match is in verse 9. “Like a thorn that goes up into the hand of a drunkard is a proverb in the mouth of fools.” This matches the ninth time, “a time to weep”, when Jesus was crucified. Jesus wore a crown of thorns, his hands were pierced, and he was offered (but refused) wine mixed with gall.
The Chicken Little emulator in verse 13 always gives me a chuckle. It corresponds to “a time to scatter”. It is like the sluggards is telling everyone to scatter because of an imagined threat. “The sluggard says, ‘There is a lion in the road! There is a lion in the streets!’ ” Guess what – there was! This period included wars between the Byzantine and Sasanian Empires. The latter had a lion on its emblem.
Verse 18 corresponds to “a time to give up” which falls during the time of the First Crusade. O how sarcastic is its assessment of that venture: “Like a madman who throws firebrands, arrows, and death…”
For irony, ponder verse 20, matching “a time to throw away”. It promises, “For lack of wood the fire goes out, and where there is no whisperer, quarreling ceases.” This was when Satan was unbound. I know of no whisperer better at stirring up a quarrel. They should have thrown away the wood.
Verse 21, “a time to tear”, is direct. “As charcoal to hot embers and wood to fire, so is a quarrelsome man for kindling strife.” The Reformation had no shortage of quarrelsome men.
Another verse with prophetic significance is verse 8, for “a time to build”, when Jesus was born. “Like one who binds the stone in the sling is one who gives honor to a fool.” A stone must be placed, not tied, in a sling, or it is useless. Apart from here, the sling is referred to in three other contexts. First, its use by the rebellious Benjamin’s during a civil war in Judges. Their cause was wicked folly and they lost. Second, its most frequent use, is as the weapon David used to defeat Goliath. Third, Job 41 gives it as a weapon that will prove useless against Leviathan. In Proverbs, it is associated with wisdom and folly, depending on how skilled you are in wielding it. The conclusion is that human wisdom will never prevail against Leviathan, only divine wisdom. Since Jesus is the Son of David, he can wield a divine sling with a higher caliber projectile and defeat Satan.
Finally, we have a possible association in verse 6, “Whoever sends a message by the hand of a fool cuts off his own feet and drinks violence.” This matches “a time to heal”, from 360–240 BC. The last prophet in the Old Testament is Malachi, whose name means “messenger”. It is not known when he lived, but the best estimates place him in the preceding time, ca 450 BC. However, during this time, the first part of the Septuagint was written and the dispersed Jews began to send the message of God and His law to the world.
If Proverbs is patterned by chapter after Solomon’s twenty-eight times, and this chapter is itself patterned by verse after those same times, that would make this chapter a focal point of the book. And on what verse in this chapter should our focus be? The first. Seeing the connection to “a time to be born” was not easy.
Like snow in summer or rain in harvest,
so honor is not fitting for a fool.
- Proverbs 26:1, ESV
We all start out simple, but simple is naive. Foolishness is studied and you grow into it. The thing most likely to confirm a fool in their foolishness – and spread that folly to others – is to bestow honor upon them. How do we honor fools? Social media likes. Fawning press coverage. Uninformed adoration. Corporate endorsements. Imitation. Cancel culture aimed at silencing all who expose the folly.
This proverb mentions the harvest, the heart of God’s plan for the church. The honoring of fools is the enemy of the harvest. Since a time to listen preceded a time to speak, the time of the fifth and final wave of Christian missions, silencing fools was uppermost in God’s plan for preparing the church to share the gospel with the world.
What about Satan’s plans? This chapter lays them out, plain as day. Let us revisit the four broad subjects of the proverb in this chapter: fools, sluggards, the quarrelsome, and the malicious. They correspond to four uneven epochs in history.
- Fools (960 BC–480 AD). The attack was on the Word, both to prevent Christ’s birth and to dilute his message with heresies and false philosophies. Also, references to thorn, arrow, and dog suggest violent persecution. In Jesus’ parable of the soils, this encompasses both the beaten path and the rocky soil.
- Sluggards (480–960 AD). The church became enamored of wealth and prestige as a result of its command of first the Roman Empire, then Byzantium. This corresponds to the thorny soil.
- The Quarrelsome (960–1680 AD). The church became divided, then warlike. This begins with the Great Schism, is followed by the First Crusade, then the Reformation and wars of religion. Satan was unbound midway through this period.
- The Malicious (1680–2280 AD). Satan now manifests every form of evil in order to overthrow the Kingdom of God. The final harvest will occur during this time.
Praise God! In the Fool’s Clock He has set before us the enemy’s long range strategy. Satan continues to use all four means of attack, but the fourth now predominates. Know your savior, know your enemy, and be prepared.
From this chapter we learned another lesson – about God’s Word. Every verse in this seemingly random assortment of proverbs was carefully ordered to describe (in code) a larger purpose. I have not been able to do the same for every chapter of Proverbs, but surely each chapter exhibits the same care and complexity. Only when the design of every chapter has been unearthed shall we be able to say we really understand wisdom.
Proverbs 27. 1800–1920 AD. A time to speak
Theme. The previous chapter of Proverbs called for us to listen to God. In it he explained the devil’s plan, thus preparing His church for the battle ahead: speaking the gospel to all the nations of the world. This chapter is filled with advice about how to speak wisely.
The twenty-seven verses may be categorized according to the Trinity:
- The Son: Speaking (12 verses). Some proverbs are prescriptive (9,11,17), some proscriptive (1,3,14,15-16), and some balanced (2,5,6,21), saying what to do and what not to do.
- The Spirit: Heart Attitude (6 verses). These relate to desire (4,7,8,19,20,22) or loyalty (10,13,18).
- The Father: Action (6 verses). These relate to diligence at work (23-27) and spotting trouble to keep safe (12).
The majority are about speaking, and of them five verses (2,5,6,14,21) explore how to handle praise and criticism.
The crucible is for silver,
and the furnace is for gold,
and a man is tested by his praise.
- Proverbs 27:21
Counter to how this world operates, God tells us that the greater danger is praise. People are abuzz with “trigger warnings” and are affronted by every hint of criticism, but never think twice about the damage of lauding fools and elevating flashy liars with endless encomiums. Flattery is the rope and loyalty to the wicked the noose.
Prophecy. This chapter announces a great harvest, the missionary era from 1800–1920 AD. The first nugget of wisdom is that no amount of planning based on human wisdom could prepare people for the day of upheaval to come:
Do not boast about tomorrow,
for you do not know what a day may bring.
- Proverbs 27:1
What did that day bring? Concrete! In The History of Concrete, Gromicko and Shepard shed light on the uneven progress and regress attending the development of this vital building material. Whether used for dams, bridges, roads, skyscrapers or homes, concrete forms the bones of our civilization. It is composed of four components: stone, sand, cement and steel reinforcement. It was revolutionized in this era.
Ancient Nabatean bedouins used crude cement to harden the walls of cisterns. The Chinese added glutinous rice to the mix. Egyptians and Greeks made their advances, but the pinnacle of ancient cement manufacture occurred in Rome. They developed artificial pozzolans, materials which when finely ground and combined with water and calcium carbonate acquired cementing properties. The Pantheon, largest unreinforced concrete dome ever built, still stands today, having inexplicably survived two thousand years of settling, erosion, and earthquakes. Then Rome fell in 476 AD and its secret cement recipe was lost for a thousand years.
The recipe was rediscovered among ancient manuscripts in 1414, allowing civil engineering advancement to resume. Progress was slow until 1793, when John Smeaton discovered a better method for producing hydraulic lime for cement and used it to rebuild the Eddystone Lighthouse. The crucial advancements awaited this era:
Finally, in 1824, an Englishman named Joseph Aspdin
invented Portland cement by burning finely ground chalk
and clay in a kiln until the carbon dioxide was removed.
It was named “Portland” cement because it resembled the
high-quality building stones found in Portland, England…
Aspdin was the first to heat alumina and silica materials
to the point of vitrification, resulting in fusion.
During vitrification, materials become glass-like.
Aspdin refined his method by carefully proportioning
limestone and clay, pulverizing them, and then burning
the mixture into clinker… ground into finished cement.
- Gromicko and Shepard
Progress accelerated. In the mid 19th century, the use of steel reinforced concrete was pioneered by Francois Coignet (France, 1850–1880), William B. Wilkinson (England, 1854), and in the 1870’s, William Ward (America), G.A. Wayss (Germany), Francois Hennebique (France), and Ernest L. Ransome (America). George Bartholomew built the first concrete street (1891). The first concrete high-rise graced Cincinnati in 1904. Edison patented the long kiln in 1909. Ready-mix cement appeared in 1913. Finally, the US Government standardized the cement formula in 1917.
For a thousand years, the world forgot how to make cement. Then in a flash it got good at it. Who could predict this?
A stone is heavy, and sand is weighty,
but a fool's provocation is heavier than both.
- Proverbs 27:3, ESV
Several translations use anger in place of provocation. The Bible speaks of angry people as hot-tempered, so anger has the connotation of heat. It also refers to the provocation as “heavier than both” stone and sand. Search a list of the relative weights of materials. Remove those that ancient people did not know or could not yet purify, or are lighter than stone, or malleable (like lead, gold, silver, copper, bronze and platinum), or brittle (like zinc). You are left with iron, steel and brass. Given other Bible statements that attribute personality to materials, iron and steel are likeliest. Thus this proverb has stone, sand, heat and steel, key ingredients in the formation of concrete.
If the above association seems a stretch to you, it did also to me, until I read the verses that followed. The “continual dripping on a rainy day” of verse 15 is the water needed to drive the chemical reaction in the cement. Then when “iron sharpens iron” in verse 17, that is both the iron needed for the rebar and the competition and collaboration among scientists and engineers that led to such rapid advancement in knowledge.
According to a 1972 statistic about US industry, three- quarters of all material used in our economy consist of sand, stone or cement. Perhaps we are the provocative fools, because our world has a heart of stone.
Or maybe all that stone does not represent our heart, but our bones. Ezekiel 37 is a prophecy about a valley of dry bones. “Son of man, can these bones live?” asks the Lord (in Ezekiel 37:3). By stages, the bones are tied by sinews, encased in flesh, then covered in skin, before the breath of life enters them and they live. The pouring of concrete was the fashioning of the bones of a new civilization. Daniel spoke of the toes of the statue being like iron mixed with clay. Those toes were the European colonial empires, the toes of old Rome. Iron mixed with clay is a good description of steel-reinforced concrete. The years since have tied the world together into a single global civilization with sinews of automobiles, airplanes, rail, telephone, and internet and added the flesh of many novel industries. Who knows if the skin has been applied, though we have learned how to grow skin to apply to burns and also grow replacement organs for a few parts of our body. This leaves the spirit. When the spirit of life is breathed into this new body, this new civilization, will if be the Holy Spirit, or the animating demons of Leviathan?
Another proverb uses language suggesting a prophecy:
Whoever blesses his neighbor with a loud voice,
rising early in the morning,
will be counted as cursing.
- Proverbs 27:14, ESV
The phrase “early in the morning” is like sayings from Ecclesiastes and elsewhere that predict an event early in a time period, which here would be roughly 1800–1850 AD. I can’t figure this one out decisively. It seems to refer to neighboring countries whose relations suddenly turn sour, but which two is uncertain. One word that offers a clue is “rising”. Based on growth data from Vincent Geloso, prior to 1800, it took the British Empire 150 years to double its territory. From 1800-1860 (60 years) it doubled in size again. From then to 1914 it grew to its largest size, but did not accomplish a redoubling. Thus in the morning of this age, the British Empire truly was rising at its fastest rate.
Britain is certainly an example of a “blesser” with mixed motives whose early patronage later came to be resented. Britain initially propped up the Ottoman Empire in its wars against Russia and even praised the Sublime Porte’s free trade policies. However, in the end, it seized control of Egypt and the Suez Canal, and eventually Jerusalem itself. Likewise, despite losing the Revolutionary War, the British spoke favorably of the liberal democratic advances in the United States and added muscle to help implement the United States’ Monroe Doctrine in Latin and South America. That didn’t stop them from selling munitions and ships to the Confederacy and prolonging our Civil War. With the Great Game in Asia, the Eastern Question, Monroe Doctrine, Scramble for Africa and other constantly shifting alliances unfolding, a tipped hat by an emissary from the Empire was something to be wary of. Their blessing, their “white man’s burden” was a burden they made their subject peoples bear.
Proverbs chapter 27 ends with five verses about the harvest laden with meaning:
Know well the condition of your flocks,
and give attention to your herds,
for riches do not last forever;
and does a crown endure to all generations?
When the grass is gone and the new growth appears
and the vegetation of the mountains is gathered,
the lambs will provide your clothing,
and the goats the price of a field.
There will be enough goats' milk for your food,
for the food of your household
and maintenance for your girls.
- Proverbs 27:23-27, ESV
Much of the missionary activity was carried out by European kingdoms. This predicts that their crowns would not endure. Some fell during this era. Most would fall during the next. One cause of the fall of many kingdoms was the jealousy and envy that the poor had for the rich.
Wrath is cruel, anger is overwhelming,
but who can stand before jealousy? (27:4)
As Winston Churchill said in 1948, “Socialism is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy.” The gospel of communism began in this era with the writings of Marx and Engels, following hard on the excesses of the French Revolution and Napoleon’s conquests. It would prove to be cruel, angry and jealous, and many nations could not stand before the purveyors of this Satanic creed, including Russia, Eastern Europe and China.
On a brighter note, God did provide for his servant girls in two ways. Materially, this era saw a great agricultural revolution. The availability of food and other goods multiplied rapidly, blessing rich and poor. Socially, this era saw women gain property rights and ended when they gained the right to vote in America, in 1920 AD.
There is also a hint of a second harvest, for it says in verse 18, “Whoever tends a fig tree will eat its fruit, and he who guards his master will be honored.” The fig tree is symbolic for the nation of Israel. In the 19th century, Jews did not own Palestine, but they tended to its fields and orchards. When the Ottoman Empire reformed their land policies, they permitted anyone – including the Jews – to purchase and gain title to the land. This era was when the modern Zionist movement began. So the Jews who tended the land were rewarded, and in the next generation they would be able to eat its fruit, a sovereign people once more.
The fig has another connection to Proverbs. When King Hezekiah took ill, he was told to put a poultice of figs on the boils and he would be healed (2 Kings 20:7). Hezekiah was a contributor to the construction of Proverbs and those figs brought him healing. Israel of the 19th century also had an untreatable wound that needed a cure. God’s prophetic wisdom was again that balm.
The work of the harvest would be compromised by continued division within the church:
A continual dripping on a rainy day
and a quarrelsome wife are alike;
to restrain her is to restrain the wind
or to grasp oil in one's right hand.
- Proverbs 27:15-16
Throughout Proverbs, Satan is the wayward woman, but the church is the quarrelsome wife, who only in the end, after being perfected through suffering, becomes the wife of noble character. And what shall that good wife do?
Better is open rebuke than hidden love. (27:5)
She shall reveal to the world what once was hidden – the dying love of Christ.
Proverbs 28. 1920–2040 AD. A time to love
Prophecy. God arranged for Proverbs to be so arranged that this chapter should shout love and whisper peace. Peace is the twenty-eighth time so a foretaste of that peace is hidden here.
The wicked flee when no one pursues,
but the righteous are bold as a lion. (28:1)
The twentieth century had two lions. The first was Winston Churchill. A photo taken of a scowling Churchill in 1941 is titled “The Roaring Lion”. Britain itself is symbolized as a lion, and Churchill’s bold actions in World War II opposing Hitler’s evil make him that century’s greatest man.
The second lion is the lion of Judah, the modern state of Israel, which has survived numerous wars and risen from nothing to the ranks of the greatest nations on earth. The next proverb shows what happened to that second lion along the way:
Whoever misleads the upright
into an evil way
will fall into his own pit,
but the blameless will have a goodly inheritance.
- Proverbs 28:10
Hitler mislead the people and dug pits to bury his innocent victims. He died by his own hand in his bunker – his pit – but the blameless Jewish people inherited their ancient land. Before that could happen, they – and many Christians and others living under totalitarian regimes – would need to go into hiding:
When the righteous triumph, there is great glory,
but when the wicked rise, people hide themselves.
- Proverbs 28:12
When the wicked rise, people hide themselves,
but when they perish, the righteous increase.
- Proverbs 28:28, ESV
This sentiment is stated twice. That means we must be ever vigilant. The lust of the wicked for power never ceases. Lions do not always stand for the good.
Like a roaring lion or a charging bear
is a wicked ruler over a poor people.
- Proverbs 28:15
It is not clear which wicked ruler is here represented by the lion, but King Leopold II of Belgium (symbolized by a lion) fits the bill. His great atrocity against the people of the Congo occurred between 1885 and 1908 (at the tail end of the time to speak), but its effects persisted for decades after his death, into the current time. Fifteen million souls murdered, many others disciplined by having limbs amputated, or villages reduced to ash. The horror is magnified when you consider how the king obtained his charter from the other European nations at the Berlin Conference of 1884–1885 to claim sovereignty over the Congo. He promised to provide humanitarian aid to the Congolese people. He promised love. He delivered death.
The charging bear is unmistakable: Russia’s Stalin. His ruthlessness murdered tens of millions. He promised equity between rich and poor in a communist paradise. They received the equity of a common grave.
As a result of the Holocaust, international treaties were ratified to promote the capture and extradition of people who participate in genocide, lining up with this proverb:
If one is burdened with the blood of another,
he will be a fugitive until death;
let no one help him. (28:17)
A final prophetic warning is about the dangers of blindly following science and making that your God:
Whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool,
but he who walks in wisdom will be delivered. (28:26)
Has there ever been a time in history when people trusted human intellect more than today?
Theme. This time, the theme follows the prophecies, because they are about the darkness in humanity, but this time is about the light of God’s love that shines through. Many of the proverbs take a good news, bad news approach. Let us look at the good news, the light.
- righteous people are acting bold (28:1)
- Men of understanding and knowledge are bringing stability (28:2)
- People who keep the law are striving against the wicked (28:4)
- seekers of the Lord are understanding justice completely (28:5)
- poor men are walking in integrity (28:6)
- sons with understanding are keeping the law (28:7)
- the blameless are receiving a goodly inheritance (28:10)
- the righteous are triumphing with great glory (28:12)
- People are confessing and forsaking their transgressions and obtaining mercy (28:13)
- People who fear the Lord always are being blessed (28:14)
- People hating unjust gain are seeing their days prolonged (28:16)
- People walking in integrity are being delivered (28:18)
- People working their land have plenty of bread (28:19)
- faithful men are abounding with blessings (28:20)
- People who trust in the Lord are being enriched (28:25)
- People who walk in wisdom are being delivered (28:26)
- People are giving to the poor yet want for nothing (28:27)
- the righteous are increasing (28:28)
What? You are not seeing that? Now you know what to pray for. Now you know what to live for. God has done his part to make this a time of love. Abundant food, improved medicine, universal education, unparalleled prosperity, fairer justice systems, … God showed the world that he loves humankind. Now we must show that love to each other.
Proverbs 29. 2040–2160 AD. A time to hate
Theme & Prophecy. Hatred is about choosing sides. The two sides of Proverbs are the wicked and the righteous. There is a symmetry in the “go into hiding” passages of chapter 28 that continues into this chapter. In verses 12 & 28 of chapter 28, there were two transitions: righteous rule to wicked rule (the rise of the Nazis and Communists), then wicked rule to righteous rule (their defeat). Now we have another:
When the righteous increase, the people rejoice,
but when the wicked rule, the people groan.
- Proverbs 29:2, ESV
This means that at the start of this period the righteous will stop increasing, as predicted also in Psalm 107:39–40. (See Psalm 107: Where is the Love?”.) Large parts of the world will return to the rule of the wicked and tyranny and oppression will thrive. We are already seeing its rise with the riots that tear apart our cities:
Scoffers set a city aflame,
but the wise turn away wrath. (29:8)
The hatred in this chapter manifests in many ways. There is flattery (29:5), siding with or against the poor (29:7), loving or hating God’s law (29:18), or direct, undisguised malice, as in this:
Bloodthirsty men hate one who is blameless
and seek the life of the upright. (29:10)
The tragic result of this is that the wicked end up directing the force of their hatred against themselves:
The partner of a thief hates his own life;
he hears the curse, but discloses nothing. (29:24)
The above is a fancy way of saying: criminals can’t testify in court because they will incriminate themselves, so suffer harm without legal remedy at the hands of their partners in crime.
The metaphor that likens a fowler trapping a bird with a net or snare to the wicked trying to ensnare the innocent is a recurring one in Scripture. It pops up in Psalm 91:3, Proverbs 1:16-19, and here, in 29:5 (pertaining to flattery) and 29:25 (related to fear). In a peculiar inversion, we have the parable of the eavesdropping bird in Ecclesiastes 10:20. According to Solomon’s Grand Father Clock, this falls in the era of Privacy, corresponding to this “time to hate”. Instead of being the bird that is trapped, we may become the victim of a bird who destroys us using our words. This makes the bird the trapper, not the victim. In such a situation, perhaps training to be a fowler might be a good idea! Praise the Lord! This era should also see another reversal, when the wicked fall again:
When the wicked increase, transgression increases,
but the righteous will look upon their downfall.
- Proverbs 29:16
The last verse in the chapter drives home the strength of the opposition between wicked and righteous.
An unjust man is
an abomination to the righteous,
but one whose way is straight is
an abomination to the wicked.
- Proverbs 29:27
Abomination is the highest degree of hatred imaginable. In our day, many people waver between opinions, because they have friends of all sorts and are trying to maintain peace between them all. All pretense will soon be removed as people are forced to choose a side. This will create seismic rifts in society as millions are displaced from jobs, homes, schools and even nations because of their choices.
Conclude reading about the prophecies in Proverbs with Proverbs 30 and 31.
