Proverbs 15:25, Keeping or Losing Your House!

October 1, Proverbs 15:25

Luke 1:46-55; 1 Timothy 5:1-7 “Is your house built on the Rock or the sand?”

Keeping or Losing Your House!

The house of the proud is the home of a cruel oppressor. The contrast is with the widow who is more vulnerable to abuses by the unscrupulous. It can be extended to include the overbearing boss or tyrant or priest who lords it over his dependents. What horrible stories are coming out of the West concerning the inhuman exploitation of nannies, especially from the Third World! William Plumer rightly observed: “Men may be changed by divine grace, but man is unchanged.”

1. God Rules! What comfort for the oppressed is in this truth? He that keepeth thee shall not slumber (Ps.121). God does not move in fits and starts, but works to His eternal plan. “If a man will make his nest below, God will put a thorn in it; and if that will not do, he will set it on fire” (John Newton). He sees the end from the beginning. His wise and benevolent purposes are unalterable. “God sends clothes when He sends cold,” and God’s own children find it to be so again and again. Though, sometimes, they are not what we would choose, they are better than what we merit, for are not God’s crusts better than the world’s loaves? One who was greatly afflicted, but to whom God brought gracious comfort, testified, “The love of Jesus, what it is, none but His sufferers know.”

2. Pride Ruins! This is what Solomon has been saying all through these proverbs. Those who exalt themselves will be abased. These phony ones, who tower over their underlings, will inevitably crash down (Lu. 1:51-52). He is “a proud oppressor, a usurper of God’s rights” (Bridges). Denying God’s rule, he is a traitor, who ends up destroying both himself and his house. God will grind those who grind the poor. This word destroy is rare, found only in Pr. 2:22, Ps. 52:5, Dt. 28:53. It means to tear down, to root up. These proud ones destroy their houses and their families, as well. The cause of so much of their pride is in their material “possessions.” Like the rich fool, they have left God out of the equation. As happened to Israel, they too are plucked up from the land. This, of course, refers to God’s judgment on those who forsake Him.

3. Humility Raises! The contrast speaks of God’s up-rooting the proud while He will establish the border of the widow. To establish means to set up, to cause to stand. It is a very strong action. It is God causing something or someone to stand firm. In Ps. 2:2 transgressors are rooted out of the earth. Just as God sets down kings who set up themselves against Him, so He sets up widows who are set down by cruel and ruthless oppressors. Here we see the solicitous care of our Heavenly Father for the widows (23:10-11), and all the oppressed. See His loving care for Naomi (Ruth 1). In thee the fatherless find mercy (Ps. 14:2-3). “God, who thinks of sparrows, cares for poor souls.”

Thought: “God’s best comforts are reserved for our worst times.”

Prayer: Thank you, Lord, for the promises of Psalm 121.