“Blessed is the man who listens to me, Watching daily at my gates, Waiting at my doorposts.”   Proverbs 8:34

Wisdom had regaled us with tales of creation and what it was like to watch and be a participant in the very creation of all that God has made.  We have seen from Wisdom's statements and from an examination of the world around us, that we can trust Wisdom and what God says to us through His Word.  Now we hear Wisdom calling us to be a listener - to be one who watches and waits for what God has to say to us.  Just as God has been true about His creation of this world - so He is now calling us to listen to what He has to say to us about life itself - and how to live it.

Blessed is the man who listens to me.  This is God's promise of happiness for those who listen - who heed what He has do say.  The word for blessed means one who is happy.  The happiness experienced is not a transitory happiness based on getting our own way and living for what we want to live for day to day.  It is a happiness at a much deeper level - more than happiness.  This is about a deep-seated joy that comes from knowing and walking with God.  It comes from knowing Him - and knowing His blessing in our lives.  But this blessing is conditional - it is for those who listen to Him.  We need to open our ears and more than that, our hearts, to what God desires for us.  There needs to be more than basic hearing.  Let me explain with a less than gracious example from my own experience.

I am a guy - which usually means there are times I have "listening" issues.  My wife is very gracious in spite of my listening disorder.  There are times when she is talking to me (come to think of it - I also have four daughters who struggle with this "lack" of mine as well) that she will pause and ask me if I am listening to her.  My response is to repeat the last sentence she has just said.  This is not amusing to her at all.  She did not ask if I heard words that she was saying to me - she wanted to know if I actually listened to her.  This, my dear fellow males, means was I listening for the purpose of furthering our relationship.  Was I listening so as to hear more than just words - was I hearing her heart.  If I had honestly answered that question I would have had to say no.  I was not listening - I heard some stuff - but I was not really hearing with understanding.  I was not hearing to have a relationship.  To put it in a way that maybe we can understand - I was not truly "getting her."  That would have required listening.  It would have required zeroing in on what she was saying with an intent to know what she said, why she said it, and respond in an intelligent and caring way that expressed that I loved her . . . more than the football game that I was currently watching.  (Wow - that was far more cathartic than I thought.)

God wants us to LISTEN to Him.  He wants us to do two things each day.  First He wants us to be "watching at His gates."  The "gate" was the place where important decisions were made.  This was serious stuff - because it was at the gate that the wisest and most influential men gathered.  God wants us to listen and watch for the really important stuff in life.  We need to watch for Him - because He will give us guidance on the major decisions and major life choices that we face each day.  But he also calls for us to be "waiting at His doorposts."  What a wonderful picture that this is.  The doorposts referred to the opening of the house.  This speaks of two things.  First it speaks of intimacy - of a relationship where we can talk about everything in life.  God tells fathers to talk to their children in this way.  He wants us to speak to our kids when we get up and go to sleep each day.  He wants us to talk to them about Him when we go out and come in.  He also wants us to write on our very doorposts the Word of God - so that is what we see when we go out and come in.  This is every day life - and the wonderful blessing of having a friend with whom we can talk when we are going through our day. 

The second thing this points to is redemption.  We wait for God at the doorposts of our house.  This was the place where every year the Jewish family would put blood for the Passover.  This blood was left on the doorposts overnight.  Over time the obedient Jewish family would wind up with permanent blood stains on their door frame.  But oh what a wonderful picture this is of how we wait for God.  Wisdom reminds us that we are God's people.  We are bought with a price - and we are redeemed.  When we wait for Him here - we experience intimacy - but we also are reminded that we are intimate because we are redeemed.

Wisdom calls us to walk with and know God.  This is done in every area of our lives.  It is in the big stuff - and in the little stuff.  It is in the huge decisions that will direct our lives - but it is also in the little decisions that set the daily course of where we will walk today.  The thing wisdom asks of us is that we listen.  That does not mean being able to quote Bible verses by rote - but not really know what they mean.  Listening means coming before God and hearing Him with a bent to know His heart.  When we do that - we will see that this is the true way to a deep abiding happiness that will last throughout a lifetime.

Do  not envy a man of violence And do not choose any of his ways. For the devious are an abomination to the LORD; But He is intimate with the upright. Proverbs 3:31-32

Ours is a society that is enamored with violence.  We glorify it daily in our entertainment mediums - movies, television, magazines, books, and newspapers.  It is interesting that we also try to sit in judgment on cultures like Rome, saying that they were barbaric in their gladiator games and other forms of public violence.  Yet, if we were to look at what we do and how we consume it - there is little difference in our two cultures. 

God says not to envy a man of violence or to choose any of his ways.  The word for violence is very telling in this passage.  It is the word "hamas" in the Hebrew - and it means to do violence or wrong.  The word implies not just violence - but also cruelty, damage, and injustice as well.  We are to stay away from people who are like this - who are violent - and whose violence is manifested in being cruel, unjust, and in doing damage to that which belongs to others.

The reason some might "envy" this violent man is because of the gain that it brings him in the short term.  Think about the people who in history have gained money, influence, and power because of their violence.  Many of the world's most heinous dictators used violence to their advantage.  But Scripture tells us not to choose ANY of the violent man's ways.  This is because everything these men do is tainted by their violence.  This is why I've included verse 32 with verse 31.  There is another reason to reject the ways of the violent man - which is shown to us in verse 32.

The violent are also "devious."  The word devious here is the Hebrew word "luz" which means to be crooked or perverse.  God is telling us here that when a man is a violent man - he will also be a perverse or crooked man as well.  The idea behind this word is that being crooked and perverse is what a person is trusting in - as a way of walking through life.  This word is used in Scripture to describe those who are wicked, perverse, and who reject God.  They reject His ways - things like righteousness and truth - and choose instead to twist the truth to their advantage. 

When someone wants to trust devious and violent ways - they do not have a heart to seek God - or to learn from His Word.  They do not want to walk with Him.  That is why God says that these devious ones are an abomination to Him.  This is because they utterly reject Him and His ways.  We should also note the word, "for" that begins verse 32.  This links what is said here to the previous verse.  The devious are the violent ones - and the violent ones are those who function with a devious and God-rejecting mindset.  They choose violence and deceit because they do not want to trust God with their plans and purposes.  Since they do not have God's power at their disposal, they have to trust their own thinking (which is fatally flawed due to sin) and their own power. 

The last thing said in this verse is that God is "intimate" with the upright.  What a wonderful thought this is for us - that God is intimate with us when we walk in His ways and choose His paths.  The word "intimate" here actually means intimate counsel - and has the idea of being brought into a kind of inner circle where God shares His wisdom with us.  So God is promising us that if we reject the violence and deceit of this present world's ways - that God will bring us into the inner circle with Himself for the purpose of teaching us. 

This particular proverb is one we should consider - especially when we consider the way our current society is so enamoured with violence.  We see it in just about every form of entertainment we consume daily.  When there is not violence in a movie or television show - it is almost completely ignored.  We are inundated with violence - and the tendency is for this violence to more and more graphic in nature.  This is happening at a time when we are watching a corresponding decline in our desire for intimacy with God.  Is this just a coincidence - or - is it exactly what God is trying to get us to see in this proverb?    The more we embrace violence - the more we will embrace deception and a rejection of God and His ways.  The more we embrace violence - the less we will embrace God Himself - and with this we will also place a lesser value on the counsel of His Word.  May God bring to us a return to Him and a corresponding turn from loving violence.  Remember Jesus' name is the prince of peace - and His Word tells us, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God."  (Matthew 5:9, NASB)