Reading Proverbs 27 today gave me the below difficulties which I hope you'll be able to help me with:
What do v14 'If a man loudly blesses his neighbor early in the morning, it will be taken as a curse.' and v21 'The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but man is tested by the praise he receives.' mean literally (and if appropriate) in light of what we know about Christ?
Also, it will be great if you will share with me how you study biblical passages every day and what you do to ensure that you understand fully what the passage is trying to tell you?
On a side topic, the verses that speak to me today are:
v9: Perfume and incense bring joy to the heart,
and the pleasantness of one's friend springs from his earnest counsel.
v17: As iron sharpens iron,
so one man sharpens another.
'And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.' (Phil 1:9-11)
2 comments:
The crucible and furnance are the ultimate test for silver and gold as regard to whether they can stand up to the heat and tis a refining process too. Similarly, how we react or respond to praises given to us by other ppl acts as a test of our humility and how much we value men's praises as opposed to pleasing God. At least that was what I inferred when I did this verse a few weeks ago. As for v14, drew a blank on me too. Hope what I said made sense. :)
Basically the neigbours are still sleeping.
No, that's a joke. The true meaning is praise cannot be done "hastily or without cause".
The very real example associated with the verse is nepotism within governments whereby friends of friends are appointed to positions without the neccessary credentials to do the job.
If you are not convinced, you must most welcome to do a search.
Amen.
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