Proverb of the Day – December 03 2009
Written by William
My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments: For length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to thee. (Proverbs 3:1-2)
I have chosen to do two verses today, mainly as they flow so well together and I think it would have been cruel to mention the first part without the second (it may also have made less sense!)
You see, verse one is a command, it is what you should be doing and the second part is the reward. If you will, the result of your actions.
It kind of got me thinking recently about God. (Not unusual that in the slightest) and about sin, you see God has given us free will to make the same choices that Adam did. We can either chose to follow God or to not follow God.
When we do not follow God we are in sin, thankfully we serve a forgiving God but not all sin is without consequences. So just because God has forgiven a sin may not mean that the after effects of that sin have been removed also!
This third chapter of Proverbs is a great instructional part of the Bible. It takes the Christian life back down to basics and breaks it down to a fundamental level. (It could be why I like it so much!)
So what is it saying, as we learned yesterday my son (ben) is talking also about children, descendents. Forget simply means to forget, to ignore or wither (shakach) Law is as you would expect (towrah) the heart (leb) refers to he inner man, mind, will, heart or understanding, keep (natsar) means to guard over, to watch and commandments are again mitzvah.
So to expand verse one
My son, my descendents, my children, no not forget, no not ignore, no not allow my law to wither in your hearts; but guard over, watch over it in your heart, your inner man, your mind, your will and your understanding and keep my commandments
Interestingly enough, verse two is as you would read it and cannot me expanded that much upon.
In a nutshell God wants us to sincerely observe his commandments, his divine instructions, in this he promises life and all the blessings that come with it. And when God says he will add something to you, you can guarantee that God is not stingy with what he adds, he will abound it unto you.
I pray this was a blessing and I pray that your day goes well today
God bless
William
