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The spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord, Searching all the innermost parts of his being. Proverbs 20:27
Here is a proverb that wisely reveals to us the workings of the Spirit of God within a man. One might ask how this imparts wisdom to us. We must remember though the definition of wisdom. That definition is seeing things as God sees them - and thus making decisions that are in concert with His will and purposes. With wisdom defined in this way we can easily see why a verse showing us the workings of the Holy Spirit in man is very valuable to grasping wisdom in our lives. Such information allows us to better understand how God imparts and gives us His wisdom. The first thing we learn is that the "spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord." A lamp is something we use to give us light. What is being said to us is that the lamp of God is the spirit of man. When God wants to reveal Himself and make Himself and His wisdom known to man, He does so in and through our spirit. By the working of the Holy Spirit - Who speaks in our spirit - we are made aware of the mind and heart of God. Watchman Nee in his amazing volume on the working of the Holy Spirit, The Spiritual Man, spoke of how the Holy Spirit worked in us through our intuition, our conscience, and through something I'll call "our knower." Let's take a look at these three features of our spirit in concert with God's Spirit. God reveals Himself to us primarily through His Word. As we read and know His revelation of Himself in the Word, the Holy Spirit will speak to our conscience. This might also be referred to as conviction. We are convicted of truth and our conscience speaks to us. This is not some kind of "devil on one shoulder - angel on the other" kind of experience. Instead is it a settled understanding of some things. First is might be that soemthing it true - true about God - true about who we are in Christ - true morally - true in any number of ways. Our conscience speaks to us and we know that it is true (because we see it in God's Word). We also might see that something is sinful. God's Word points out an action, an attitude, a word spoken - and our conscience bothers us as we come to the settled conviction that either we have sinned, or that something is sin. Another way this works is when we are convicted about something as the will of God. Our conscience prods us to act - to speak - to turn away from some temptation or toward an act of obedience - serving in some way - witnessing - and any number of other aspects of walking in obedience with God. The second tool used by the Holy Spirit is our intuition. This really also fits the idea of our "knower." This is when the Spirit of God works in our spirit to help us just 'know' that soemthig is true. This would speak to the working of God to simply through an intuitive knowledge - to bear witness with the truth. One thing about this 'intuitive' aspect of God's working must be said. That is that God's Spirit will NEVER contradict God's Word in what He grants us as intuitive knowledge. Probably the best way I can describe this working is that we have a sense that someting is wrong - or something is warning us that we are about to sin. There is also a way where we just know that something is God's will and that we should act. Again - this is one of the more subjective ways the Spirit of God works - so this must be tested with God's Word - and a working knowledge of it. We need to note how God's lamp works in this proverb. We read that it, "searches all the innermost parts of our being." God's lamp - our spirit as the Holy Spirit reveals truth to us - searches us out. Even to the very innermost parts of our being this lamp lights things up within us. The reason this is needed is at least in part because sin has made it difficult to know our own hearts. Jeremiah 17:9 reminds us that the heart is deceitful above all else and is dsperately wicked. We are told immediately afterward, "I the Lord search the heart." Thus this working by God's lamp is vital to us knowing the truth. It is wise to regularly - even daily or hourly - submit to the teaching, leading, and searching of the Holy Spirit of God. This work that God does is so very important if we want to know the truth. When we surrender to Him and allow Him to teach us - we know the truth. When we surrender to Him and allow Him to lead us - we will walk in the will and ways of God consistently. When we surrender to Him and allow Him to search us - we will be delivered from sin and from deceiving ourselves by following our hearts instead of being led by the Spirit and the Word. Wisdom - yes this proverb gives us great wisdom indeed.
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He who curses his father or his mother, His lamp will go out in time of darkness. Proverbs 20:20
How does your relationship to your dad and mom relate to whether you are filled with the Holy Spirit or not? Some might consider this a strange question, yet from what we read here in Proverbs 20, it is anything but strange. We read here of someone who has decided to curse his father or his mother. There is no love for parents in this person's heart. There is no respect or honor for theim either - even though God's Law states plainly that we are to honor our father and mother. If there is no honor for them - then there will be a very serious grieving of the Holy Spirit. But from reading this particular proverb some may raise their eyebrows thinking, "There is no where in this proverb that mentions the Holy Spirit by name, so how can this refer to the work of the Spirit of God in the believer?" What is the "lamp" in this passage? In order to understand this we need to look at other passages that refer to this "lamp" in the Bible. The lamp, as used here, is the same word as used for the lamp in the Tabernacle and the Temple. It was the only light available in the Holy Place to see. It illumined two things - the altar of incense and the altar of showbread. The altar of incense represents the believer's prayer life - and the altar of showbread represents the Word of God in our lives. Prayer and the Word are wonderful things, in and of themselves but, if we are going to get all we can out of them - need the Holy Spirit to illumine and empower them. There is a light from that lamp that allows us to see through the darkness and makes the Word and prayer powerful and meaningful. This lamp represents the ministry of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We read in Proverbs 20:27 the following, "The spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord, searching all the innermost parts of his being." We learn here that the spirit of man is where the "lamp of the Lord" (i.e. the Holy Spirit) wants to light up our lives and help us to see and pierce the darkness that is around us. When God's lamp is shinig within by the Holy Spirit - we are directed in the Word and granted power to pray effectively. We can see - even in the dark. When the Holy Spirit is grieved or quenched due to our sin - the light diminishes and we are walking in the dark spiritually. As we return to our proverb we see now that the Holy Spirit is grieved when we curse our father of our mother. We are being disobedient to God and to His Word when we do this. Thus the lamp goes out. In time of darkness, we find that we do not have the light of life within us. We see nothing because we are no longer illumined within by the Spirit of God - the lamp of the Lord. Since this speaks of our parents - there is also a warning here for us. Family - especially your father and mother - are the ones who will step up when you are facing the deepest crises of your life. They are the ones who are the last line of defense. If we curse them and disobey God, we are going to have the lights turned out. We will find that there will not be the work of God going on in our hearts to help us see spiritually. The Lord is very serious about this. In the book of Malachi - the last prophecy given is that of the work of God in revival. That work though, is when God turns the hearts of the fathers to the sons - the hearts of the sons to the fathers - lest God smite the land with a curse. Thus we see that the work of the Spirit of God - the illumination of the Word of God - the light of life within the people of God WILL affect the way that we live with our families. We can guarantee that if we disregard family - especially father and mother - we can just about guarantee that we ourselves will be disregarded. The lights will turn off and everything will go dark. That is not something that we want - but if we treat father and mother with disrespect - it is what we will get. Who can say, "I have cleansed my heart, I am pure from my sin"? Proverbs 20:9
Wisdom manifests itself by realizing that man is sinful. That premise is rejected in most of today's society - especially among the elites who rule over the educational establishment and the world of counseling and psychiatry. The fact that they reject that man is by nature a sinner and is selfish and self-centered - dooms much of their efforts to educate and to help people deal with problems in their lives. Now that is a very bold statement - but also very true. One of the problems with modern Christianity is that we no longer feel the need in our postmodern society to have our worldview based upon the clear teaching of the Scriptures. One of the places that this is seen the clearest is in the area of the sinfulness of man and the ramifications of it in government, in education, in counseling, and in how we deal with people in our world. The proverb here asks the simple question, "Who can say, 'I have cleansed my heart, I am pure from my sin?'" There are several assertions that are made here. First is that of the ability to cleanse ourselves from our sin. "I have cleansed my heart." This is the belief that by our own works we can change our own hearts. Unless we begin with the sinful, selfish natural tendencies of mankind, we will think that by our education and by our laws and codes we can change a man's heart. Such an assertion is the height of foolishness and pride. We cannot cleanse our own hearts from our sinfulness. But an educational system based upon humanistic assertions will think that we can change our hearts by being better educated. But honestly, that only produces smarter sinners. The issues of the human heart will only be solved by the gospel of Jesus Christ whereby a heart can be redeemed and men can be regenerated. The second question is whether a man can say he is pure from his sin. Religions around the globe seek to do this through a myriad of different plans. Some want to try to mortify their own evil desires - while others try to abolish the concept of evil and sin altogether. Purifying ourselves assumes impurity though - and thus religious efforts to do this may involve confession and absolution of some kind. Roman Catholicism tries to answer this question through their system of confession and penance, which involves first admitting your sin to a confessor/priest. After your confession they grant forgiveness. The final step is that the priest commands penance in the form of some kind of repeated religious activity, like saying a religious phrase such as the Hail Mary or Rosary. Some times there is also the request to do a good work of some kind, which with the confession earns forgiveness. In the end, whether it is through this system - or through a Hindu or Islamic system of obtaining forgiveness - it all boils down to a works mentality. We can earn our forgiveness through doing something for God. Biblical Christianity paints a much different picture of the process of forgiveness. The Law was give to restrict sin - but more importantly to show us how impossible it is to obey it - because we are rebellious sinners. The very fact that we cannot be made righteous or pure by the Law - sends us running into the arms of Christ. We learn that it is only through what He did in his death, burial, and resurrection that we can be made pure in God's sight. He paid the price for our sin - and now offers to us His own righteousness - so that we can stand before God. Therefore the answer to these two questions here in Proverbs is given by the gospel. First of all - none of us can say that we have cleansed our own hearts. The only cleansing that will matter is the one given when we receive it by faith. That cleansing comes when we look to Jesus Christ - and admit that only He can purify our hearts and change them to be godly. The second question is answered as well by the gospel. No one can say, "I am pure from my sin," without that purity coming as a gift from God as He makes us righteous with the righteousness and purity of His Son. Wisdom rejects a man-centered, works-centered salvation. Only a fool would think that man can solve his own problems with God - without a direct intervention by God Himself. Any education or counseling or governmental system that is based upon that wrong assertion will fail and be crushed under the weight of man's sinfulness. Without checks and balances designed to expose and correct the selfish and self-centered tendencies of the human heart, sin will run rampant in a society that hides its eyes and pretends that sin does not exist. In such a world sin will be redefined again and again to cover-up the real problem - which is a wicked and sinful heart in men. In answer to the question posed by the writer of Proverbs, "No one can say that he has cleansed his own heart, or say that he is pure from his sin." That only happens by the grace and mercy of God as He works in us by the gospel of Jesus Christ. As Jesus said Himself, "No one comes to the Father, except through Me." The way of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD, But He loves one who pursues righteousness. Proverbs 15:9
We need to seriously sit down from time to time and ask ourselves two very pointed questions. The first is this, "What way am I going?" That describes the path that we are walking. There is a way that we are going - a series of choices that is slowly but surely making a way for us. Another way to put it is where is my "lifestyle" going. A choice yields a consequence - a series of choices leads to a habit - and a way of choosing will lead to a lifestyle. Where are our choices leading us? We read here that the way of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord. God looks at the consistent choices of the wicked - and He hates it. He considers it an abomination to Him. The word used here for wicked means the guilty or the transgressor. This is the man who looks at God's law - God's Word - and just walks over it on his way to doing whatever he wants. He is a transgressor - one who steps over the line - who ignores the rules - at least the rules of God. We learn from this proverb that God considers this way of living an abomination. It is a little comforting to see that God says it is the way of the wicked that is an abomination - not the wicked person himself. But God is not at all shy in saying how much He hates the wicked way - the wicked lifestyle. The word abomination means that God sees the lifestyle choices of the wicked and finds them disgusting, abhorent, and abominable. This is something I think we've had a tendency to shy away from in recent years. We don't call sin what it is - an abomination. Sin absolutely disgusts God. He abhors it! There is wrath that is being stored up for the wicked - and we need to see this because too often we tend to want to mollify how God feels about sin. But the cross should solve for us once and for all that God hates sin. If this is how He had to punish His Son for becoming sin - believe the Scriptures when they say that God hates sin! But before this proverb becomes just about how God considers sin an abomination - we need to see the second half of this proverb. It holds great promise and hope for the one who pursues what is right. The Lord loves the one who pursues righteousness. What a great promise this is for us. Note does not say that the Lord only loves the one who achieves righteousness. It says pursue! Thus, we may not always live as righteous as we want - we may not always be the perfect example of godliness and holiness - but when we pursue it (or pursue Him) - God loves it! The word "pursues" here means to chase after or to chase down. This is not just a casual pursuit of righteousness, it is a dedicated and passionate pursuit. God absolutely loves it when we pursue righteousness. He delights in one who says that he wants God's ways - not wicked ways. Since we are talking about a true understanding of righteousness - we also must include that he chases after righteousness the right way. He does not seek it by works - but realizes that faith-based righteousness that is found only in the Lord Jesus Christ is the only way to become righteous. As he embraces this righteousness he also wants to learn how to cooperate with the Holy Spirit as the fruit of the Spirit is produced within him. He cooperates by dying to self and living only to please God in what he does. There are two ways presented before us in this proverb. There is the way of wickedness that rejects God and rejects His holiness and truth - and there is the passionate pursuit of righteousness. This is not a pursuit of our own righteousness obtained by the Law - but a pursuit which is by faith from first to last. This pursuit is eventually set upon the Lord Jesus Christ. We pursue Him - a relationship with Him and a passion to serve and to love Him with all our hearts. The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD, But the prayer of the upright is His delight. Proverbs 15:8
Here we once again have the upright and the wicked contrasted with one another. The scope of this comparison and contrast is in the realm of their religious activities. Thus the focus of the wisdom that God wants to offer to us today is in relation to how we approach Him. Let's take a look and see what we can learn. First thing we read about is the sacrifice of the wicked. There are a couple of things we need to see to understand wisdom in approaching God. First, we see that this man is wicked. Now before you begin to think that I believe we can approach God without sin and wickedness being and issue, know that I believe that man is ruined due to sin. When we approach God to be saved - one of the things we have to know is that we are wicked. We have sinned against God. His commandments should make that clear to us. And it is not just "little slips" of which we are guilty - the 10 commandments alone will convict us of things like adultery, blasphemy, murder, and perjury. That is why we need a Savior! But the wicked in this passage is a wicked man who does not intend to turn from his wickedness. His sacrifice is an abomination to God because it is offered without repentance and a desire to change. It is offered as a religious plattitude - and something to placate God - to have God be satisfied with his little pittance of religion. God considers such religious obligations (without true repentance) to be an abomination. That is why we read in Isaiah chapter one God saying, "What are your multiplied sacrifices to Me?" Says the LORD. "I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams And the fat of fed cattle; And I take no pleasure in the blood of bulls, lambs or goats. "When you come to appear before Me, Who requires of you this trampling of My courts? "Bring your worthless offerings no longer, Incense is an abomination to Me. New moon and sabbath, the calling of assemblies. I cannot endure iniquity and the solemn assembly. "I hate your new moon festivals and your appointed feasts, They have become a burden to Me; I am weary of bearing them. (Isaiah 1:11-14, NASB) If you think that you are tired of dead religious activities, think about how God feels about them. Israel had become a group of people all about their religious observances - and nothing about God. Isaiah later tells them that God wants repentance and a desire to live godly. The sacrifice of the wicked is hated by God because it assumes that our sin means very little. Considering that sin required the death on the cross of the Son of God - the shedding of His blood - the crushing of His body - God does not like it at all when we think lightly about our sin. When we get so religious that we feel that our religious practices done without any heart or repentance whatsoever are sufficient to placate the wrath of God - God is angry. He sees such things as an absolute abomination to Him. Wisdom therefore is seeing the emptiness of mere religious observance. As God taught Samuel, we are not to look at the outward appearance of things. Man judges like that, but God judges by what is in the heart. There is another who approaches God in this proverb. He is the upright man - and he offers the prayer of the upright to God. The Lord God delights in such prayers. But what is the prayer of the upright? In order to understand this we might want to look at a New Testament passage. In the gospels Jesus relayed a story of a Pharisee and a Publican. The Pharisee was of the spirit of the first part of this proverb. His was the prayer of the wicked. He stood before God and prayed to himself. Actually, he was praying to his god - because as a thoroughly wicked man who thought only of himself and loved himself dearly - he was his own god. As he prayed to himself, he mentioned all the great things he had done - religious things. He thanked God in the midst of his long list of righteous acts that he was nothing like the Publican who was near him. He spoke with great disdain of him - and how his own works made him so much better than the poor man who was bowed before God next to him. We learn from Jesus that this Pharisee went home unrighteous - unjustified. He was lost and His prayer was an abomination to God. The Publican had a far different prayer. He had the prayer of the upright. He bowed before God, not even desiring to lift his head. As he tried to formulate words - he could only do so as he beat his own chest. He cried out for God to have mercy upon him - a sinner. Jesus instructs us that this man is the one who had the prayer of the upright in his mouth and heart. Jews in that day would have been horrified by this description. They would cry foul at the thought of a publican being called upright . . . ever. The Pharisee was the religious man of the hour! He was the equivalent to an evangelist or a pastor in our day. The publican . . . well the publican was nothing more than scum - a traitor - a turncoat and a thief! Surely Jesus was mistaken. But it was the Jews who were so mistaken. God is not calling this person upright who is praying. He is calling the prayer of this person upright. It was not the person who prayed being called upright because something in him made the prayer upright. It was the nature of the prayer that made the person upright. There was a brokenness about this prayer - a turning from sin - a coming to God empty and hopeless in self. He was not playing religion. He was crying out to God for help and for hope. He was not faking a prayer as he complimented himself on how many good things he had done. He was praying that someone would make him good! The Lord hates mere religion. If our hearts are not engaged in our singing and praying, and preaching - He wants no part of it. The Lord delights in the prayer of the man who desires to be upright. He desires this upright standing due to what God does in answer to his cry. He knows he cannot be upright except for God's wonderful mercy and grace. The Lord is always listening for that kind of prayer, that kind of call. When He hears it He answers - and He delights in doing so every time. That is why the truly wise will be careful that their religious observances are always done with a heart to know and to love God. They know that anything short of this will receive God's disdain. When a man's ways are pleasing to the LORD, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him. Proverbs 16:7
You mean to say that if my ways please God, I will never have an enemy? That is how too many people view this proverb. But the proverb itself assumes that we will have enemies when we are walking with the Lord. Then what does this proverb mean - and how can we know when God has done this on our behalf. This passage teaches us that when our ways are pleasing to God that God does some wonderful things in our lives. He takes those who are our enemies and makes them to be at peace with us. It does not mean that we don't have enemies, it means that they are at peace with us instead of warring or seeking to destroy us. They may still be our enemy, but they will choose peace rather than to be in open conflict with us. The stories of this are many in our society. J. Vernon McGee speaks of a man who hated him, but who was heard saying to others, "I hate the man, but he preaches the Word of God." That kind of thing is what this proverb is saying to us. The world will continue to hate us - but due to our lives being pleasing to God, they will see godly character in our lives. I know of situations where the ungodly came to the aid of believers not because they agreed with our theology or teaching, but simply because they knew the character of the person and vouched for them. Let me take a moment here and say something about what this points to in the human condition. Why would the world be at peace with us when we choose God's ways? In fact, why should God's ways even be viewed positively? Ever wonder why our world values things like peace and joy and what we call good character? Think about it for a moment. Why, if we are supposed to be the result of survival of the fittest, do we not value a more cut throat kind of existance? Why would we value the weakest - and embrace values that would allow others to take advantage of us? Why shouldn't we value the thief and the one who crushes all others on his climb to the top? These should be things we value and admire if we are simply a process of evolutionary processes. Why shouldn't we admire Adolf Hitler and even thank him for trying to get rid of the more errant DNA in our worldwide gene pool? The truth is that we don't admire these things - we consider them evil and wrong - even among the most ardent evolutionists. Even thsoe who live this way have mighty struggles with their own behavior - somehow just knowing deep within themselves that they are not living right. But I want to ask this incredibly important question, "Who told them this?" The answer, though the world hates it, is in the Bible itself. Romans 2 speaks of the way that our conscience works in either approving and condemning our actions and attitudes. This is the mark of God in our world. It is the hidden proof that we are His workmanship - we are His creation. His original design - though badly marred by sin - still is written on our hearts. We may try to sear it from our memories and ignore it in our actions, but it still remains deeply written within us. When the ungodly are at peace with us due to our choice to act on God's character-transforming Word - it is only a testimony to this very spiritual DNA that is a remnant of His creative work before the fall. God does not promise we won't have enemies. In fact just the opposite is told to us. If we desire to live godly in Christ Jesus, we will suffer persecution. Jesus faced enemies that desired and conspired to put Him to death. To say that God promises a carte blanche freedom from having enemies is to say that Jesus did not please the Father - and evidently His ways were not pleasing to God. Nothing could be further from the truth. God does not promise freedom from enemies - He promises that when we do have them - He will choose to even make our enemies to be at peace with us. This is why we should choose the wisdom of God's ways and walk in them. There is a desirable-ness in how we live. There is an honesty - a joy - a freedom - a peace that will make even our enemies say good things about us. When this happens, we can know that God in His grace has worked in our lives - taking even those who oppose us - and making them testify of His grace that works in us when our ways are pleasing to Him. |
 Proverb a DayEach day, we'll take a look at a verse from the chapter of Proverbs for the day. Our hope is to gain wisdom each day - and from that wisdom - to have understanding to make godly decisions in the throes of everyday life. 
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