GOD’S WISDOM FOR YOU
PROVERBS 22:4-5
4 The consequences of humility and the fear of the LORD
are wealth, honor, and life.
Do humility and faith truly lead to wealth, honor and life? To see these things clearly, we must look past our human idea of wealth. Humility and faith certainly lead to life; to eternal life. There is no other means of rising to life forever in heaven except through faith in Christ, who said, “No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). This itself humbles us and teaches us that Christ is at the center of everything we are and everything we do. Unlike the Buddhist who imagines that there is nothing at the center, we realize that God himself is there. He is our rescue from sin and our motive for service.
If we are honored by men but have no faith in God, then our honor is petty and valueless. If we are dishonored by men but honored by God, what greater honor could there be? “As servants of God, we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance, in troubles, hardships and distress…through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as imposters” (2 Corinthians 6:4,8).
Earthly wealth—whether coins or power—are of no value toward eternal life. Better to be a poor man with faith than a wealthy man with no hope. “Better a poor man whose walk is blameless than a rich man whose ways are perverse” (Prov. 28:6). Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! (Romans 11:33). These are the riches of his glorious inheritance (Eph. 1:18), the incomparable riches of his grace (Eph. 2:7), the unsearchable riches of Christ (Eph. 3:8), his glorious riches (Phil. 4:19), the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you (Col. 1:27), the full riches of complete understanding, in order that we might know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Col. 2:2-3).
This is truly wealth, honor, and life—the consequences of humility and the fear of the Lord.
5 Thorns and snares are in the path of the wicked:
whoever guards his soul stays away from them.
A snare here is a pach (פַּח), a flattened out net that springs up to catch birds that land upon it. So Solomon’s warning is that for an unbeliever, the path of life is strewn with things that harm (thorns) and traps meant to capture and kill (snares). We’re not given a direct explanation, so our interpretation of this proverb will be somewhat subjective, and for this I apologize.
I believe that the thorns are the sinful or godless way of life and the false doctrine of the pagan, non-Christian religions and of the cults. These cut away and tire the unbeliever, who knows no better, and these things keep him from seeing Christ. The snares, then, are the pitfalls and the other traps that give him opportunities to cry out to false gods or to his inner emptiness, and there is either no response or a false one. “The arrogant one will stumble and fall and no one will help” (Jeremiah 50:32).
This doesn’t mean that a Christian will never encounter troubles or snares. But someone who “guards his soul” is someone who remembers Christian doctrine. He has learned his Catechism and he is faithful in worship. He is instructed in the truths of the Bible and applies them to himself. Therefore he sees the thorns of false teaching. He is grieved by them, and he is wary of them, but they do not cut into him or disturb his faith. He also sees the snares that are set and avoids them. But even if there is a snare cunningly set that sweeps up to entrap him, he cries out to the right one for help, to the Lord Jesus, who there to show him the truth of God’s will and to set him free.
Having faith doesn’t mean a life free from trouble or cares. Having faith means knowing that the One to whom you turn is faithful and true.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Archives by Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel: http://www.wlchapel.org/worship/daily-devotion/
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota