May 31 ▪ Day 151

Scripture Readings

Psalms 5:3
Amos 6–7
John 14
Proverbs 1

Verse Focus (Psalms 5:3)

In the morning, LORD, you hear my voice;
      in the morning I lay my requests before you
      and wait expectantly.

Meditation

Our verse focus today comes from the Psalms, rather than the book of Proverbs. This is because we will actually be reading Proverbs for the next month. But I didn’t want you to miss the Psalms! So while we are reading Proverbs, our focus verses will be drawn from among my favorite verses from the Psalter.

Today, we are looking at Psalms 5:3. “In the morning, LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly.” The verse is a morning prayer. It teaches how we might interact with God at the start of a new day. We pray. More importantly, we look at what the day holds for us and ask for God’s help. And then, most importantly, we wait on God.

I have to confess: I’m not good at morning prayer. I do try to have a quiet time as my first priority after getting up, but it rarely occurs to me to pray when I first get out of bed. So as I meditate on this verse, I am preaching to myself as well as to you.

Does this verse hint that maybe some of our prayers should be out loud? Perhaps a “Good morning, Lord!” is in order? Of course, it’s fine to take “voice” as a metaphor for the thoughts and desires that we present to God. And it’s good to know that God does hear us.

So what does it mean to “wait expectantly” upon God within the context of morning prayers? Usually, when we talk about waiting on God, we are speaking of things that may take months or years before we hear from the LORD. We struggle to learn patience with God’s timing. And we wait. But that’s not what the psalmist is talking about in this verse. No, we “wait expectantly.” I think this means we should expect to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit each morning. We open ourselves to hear God’s direction. We ask for help — and perhaps some of that help comes via the Spirit’s promptings in our prayer time.

Basically, though, I think the biggest takeaway from this verse is that we should expect our prayer time with God to be a two-way conversation. I know I’m often guilty of talking but not listening in prayer. Lord, help me to do better. May I pattern my mornings after this verse!

Amos chapter 6 addresses the rich — “Woe to those who are at ease in Zion (v. 1).” They live comfortable, indulgent lives, enjoying music and fine dining. Yet they “are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph (v. 6).” In verse 12, the prophet repeats the charge from chapter 5, verse 7, “But you have turned justice into poison and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood.”

Beginning in chapter 7, Amos records five symbolic visions of God’s judgment upon Israel. In the first vision, Amos sees a plague of locusts. But the prophet is appalled. “O Lord GOD, please forgive! How can Jacob stand? He is so small!” cries Amos. And so the LORD relents from sending this judgment.

Next, Amos sees a vision of judgment by fire. Again, Amos intercedes for the people. And the LORD relents. As Amos pleads for Jacob because “he is so small,” I am reminded of how Ezekiel also cried out to God on behalf of the remnant of Judah in the visions he was shown (Ezekiel 9:8 and Ezekiel 11:13).

In a third vision, Amos sees the vision of a wall built by a plumb line, with the LORD standing nearby also holding a plumb line. The wall, of course, represents the nation of Israel, and it had been carefully constructed, with the stones fitting closely and accurately. But now the LORD holds a plumb line to show that Israel is no longer perfectly crafted, no longer tall and straight and true. The LORD will not ignore Israel’s faults any longer: as He says in verse 9, “The high places of Isaac shall be made desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste, and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.”

The second half of chapter 7 records the story of Amos running afoul of Amaziah, the priest at Bethel (one of the two centers of idolatry set up by the first king of Israel — see 1 Kings 12:28–30). Amaziah reported to the king of Israel, Jeroboam II, that Amos was a conspirator. “The land is not able to bear all his words,” he says in verse 10. Amaziah tells Amos to go back to Judah.

Amos replies to the priest of Bethel that he was a simple herdsman and a dresser of sycamore fig trees, but God directed him to come to Israel and proclaim His words. And then Amos has a prophecy specifically for Amaziah: his wife will become a prostitute, his children will die by the sword, his land will be divided, and he himself will die in a foreign land (v. 17). It is a pattern we saw with Jeremiah: when confronted by a hostile priest or a false prophet, God would often give Jeremiah a personal message for the heckler.

As we read these prophecies by Amos, I see a picture of our own nation in the way he describes Israel. It is a wealthy nation. People are rich, leading comfortable lives — enjoying the arts, enjoying the good life. So, maybe there’s a lot of violence, and a lot of very poor people, and a ton of injustice — but life is still good. They are secure in their strength as a nation and secure in their belief that God is protecting them. There is a kind of peace based on financial prosperity, but there is also a huge disparity between the rich and the poor. And there is no concern for social justice. See what I mean? Does this not sound like most of our “first world” countries?

In John 14, Jesus speaks to his disciples in the evening before he is betrayed. There are only a few hours left for Jesus to teach and communicate the things he feels are most important. And so we get the sixth “I am” statement. In verse 6, Jesus says, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” This seems about as black-and-white as Jesus can be. How can he be any clearer about who he is and what his role is supposed to be?

You might argue that if Jesus said, “I am the Messiah,” that would be clearer. But I think it would actually be less clear. The people had certain expectations of what they thought the Christ was supposed to be. First and foremost, they thought of the Messiah as an earthly ruler, as someone who was going to overthrow the Roman overlords and set the Jews up as an independent kingdom. They believed that the Messiah was just for the people of Israel. And, I think, they assumed — how could they not? — that the Messiah would live and die, and then his descendants would rule. But God’s vision for His Messiah was much grander than anything the Jews ever imagined. And so for Jesus to say, “I am the Messiah,” would be to communicate something less than what he really is.

In this chapter, Jesus teaches his disciples about the Holy Spirit. He is the Helper (v. 16). He is the Spirit of truth (v. 17). He is a Teacher — and one of his jobs is to remind us of all that the Word has to say (v. 26). The Holy Spirit dwells with us and within us (v. 17).

The Holy Spirit is one fulfillment of Jesus’ promise in verse 18, “I will not leave you as orphans.” Don’t you just love that verse? Jesus promises never to abandon us. We will never be without help, or without resources. Jesus also promises that the Father will love those who love Jesus — even more, Jesus and the Father both will come to dwell with those who love Jesus. It will be “home (v. 23).”

Just so that there is no confusion, Jesus also defines what it means to love him. Those who love Jesus will obey his commands. They will love one another. They will keep Jesus’ other words, too — to repent; to follow Jesus; to seek righteousness; to lay up treasure in heaven; to ask, seek, and knock; to honor the law; to pray and not give up; to feed his sheep; and more. As Jesus says in verse 24, “Whoever does not love me does not keep my words.”

John 14:27 is a verse gem, and one of my favorite Bible verses ever. For me, this ranks right up there with John 3:16. The verse reads, in the NIV, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” Just reading these words is enough to bring a sigh of relief. It loosens a small knot of worry in my heart. I hadn’t even realized I was carrying some anxiety until I felt the renewed ease at remembering that Jesus is with me. Hallelujah!

I also love the promise that Jesus gives to us in a completely different way than how the world gives to us. For the world, “peace” is just a greeting. Lip-service. A fervent hope, yes, but not something that we can truly give to one another. Jesus’ peace is permanent, springing from how he reconciles us to God. As Jesus prepares to return to the Father, he leaves us an inheritance of peace.

We have been reading individual proverbs for nearly five months now. But today we begin reading the entire Book of Proverbs. It is one of my favorite books in the Bible — although I confess I didn’t care for it much the first few times I read it. I’m a book-lover. I grew up reading stories. I love fiction novels, and I love a good plot with great characters. But the Book of Proverbs doesn’t have a traditional narrative, except for in the first nine chapters. After that, it’s all little gems. Verses that are collated and collected, but they don’t necessarily relate to one another. So I struggled with Proverbs in the beginning.

As you’ll know from the verses we’ve studied, there are a number of repeating themes that run throughout the book of Proverbs. Wise behavior is contrasted against foolish behavior. The book contains the principles for living a godly life. As we’ve discussed before, proverbs contain truth about how things work in God’s universe. But proverbs are not magic. Nor are they promises that guarantee a particular outcome for a particular individual’s life. But if we pattern our life after the proverbs, then we can expect that we will generally see the same kinds of results in our lives. Certainly, it honors God when we pray Scripture back to him — so many of these proverbs may form the basis of our petitions to God — but we cannot charge God with wrongdoing should a particular proverb not come true in our life.

So, proverbs contains principles and specific things that should guide the way we live our lives. However, wisdom is also a process. We grow and mature throughout our lives. As we read Proverbs, it should transform our thinking. We learn to approach life differently. But life won’t actually be different until we start doing what the Scripture says.

Most people will tell you that the book of Proverbs was written by Solomon. And that’s mostly true — the bulk of the book was written by Solomon. But not the entire book. It is actually an anthology of instructions and sayings by several different authors. Solomon wrote the first section, and the proverbs in the second section were also composed (or collected by him). There are other collections of sayings that are not attributed to any particular author, and then there are more proverbs of Solomon that were collected by King Hezekiah. There are also very short collections by Agur and by King Lemuel.

The first nine chapters present an overview of wisdom. The central tenet of Proverbs comes early on in the first chapter — the fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge (v. 7). Solomon encourages his son to learn wisdom and to make wise choices in life. Wisdom is personified as a woman who calls and invites us to come to her. We will see two banquets — one hosted by Wisdom, and one hosted by Folly. Choosing one over the other is the essential choice we must all make in life. It is a choice we get to make repeatedly, although the more we choose the wrong path, the less we are able to choose the right one. After this first section, we move — beginning in chapter 10 — to the actual proverbs of Solomon. In God’s plan of symmetry, there are 375 proverbs in this section — which “just happens” to reflect the numerical value of Solomon’s name in the Hebrew. (Since Hebrew letters were also used as numbers, words would have a value resulting from the sum of their letters.) After the “sayings of the wise” section comes a section of proverbs of Solomon compiled by Hezekiah, one of the kings of Judah. There are 130 proverbs in this section, which also “just happens” to equal the value of Hezekiah’s name. The book ends with proverbs of Agur, and proverbs of Lemuel, followed by an acrostic poem on the wife of noble character — here, each of the 22 verses begins with the consecutive letters of the Hebrew alphabet.

As chapter 1 begins, we are told that these proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king in Israel are for “learning wisdom and discipline (v. 2),” and “for receiving prudent instruction in righteousness, justice, and integrity (v. 3).” As noted earlier, the central thesis of Proverbs comes in verse 7:

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge;
      fools despise wisdom and discipline.

After laying the foundation for wisdom, Solomon’s next bit of advice for his son — and for all of us — is to listen to and honor the wisdom you get from your parents. Next, Solomon speaks about avoiding sinners. Sinners may be quite enticing and appealing — there is a sense of community; they share purpose and a common purse. But “their feet run toward evil and they hurry to shed blood (v. 16).” It is not just violence that is a problem, however; those who profit dishonestly “set an ambush for their own lives (v. 18).” Death is the inevitable result for those who seek unjust gain.

In verse 20, we meet Wisdom. She calls in the open market; she invites the fools, mockers, and the simple to hear her reproof and learn from her. She promises to pour out her spirit on all those who seek her. But those who refuse to heed wisdom’s call now will regret it later. Calamity will strike, and wisdom will not be able to be found. Those who hated knowledge and who chose not fear the LORD will reap the consequences of their choices — destruction and death.

We will get to learn more of Wisdom in the coming days, but for now it’s important to recognize that Wisdom symbolizes Jesus Christ. Jesus calls us to learn from him and to let him pour out His spirit within us. In the male-dominated culture of the ancient Hebrews, it’s refreshing to see God portrayed with a feminine persona.

Proverbs is very familiar to me these days, but as I read chapter 1 today, I was particularly struck by verse 21. Wisdom calls “at the head of the noisy streets.” And it seems that this is always the problem for us when wisdom calls. It is noisy. We are distracted. Things get in the way and make it difficult for us to hear wisdom calling. Not just the noise of the street, or the clamor of life and civilization. But also noise as a metaphor for all the different thoughts, ideas, problems, worries, cares, emotions, obligations, expectations, things to do and things to be that characterize our daily life. We are drowning in a plethora of competing and conflicting values. Noise.

Verse 32 also caught my attention. “For the simple are killed by their turning away, and the complacency of fools destroys them.” Complacency is a large part of what Amos has been prophesying about — it is one of the evils of our modern society. And, just like Jesus tells us to walk in the light while we have the light, we need to respond to Wisdom when we hear her call. Immediately. Turning away is what will lead to death.

Father God, please help us to respond to your call of wisdom. Give us hearts that desire you. Give us knowledge of you and your ways. I want to learn righteousness, justice, and integrity. Thank you that you sent Jesus to us, and that we have the Holy Spirit living inside us — as Wisdom promises, you freely give of your spirit. Thank you. In Jesus’ name, Amen.