” Wicked rulers cause great trouble to their people when they are in power. We spoke earlier how the ungodly rulers will be overthrown by their people. As we said in
Proverbs 28:12 When the righteous triumph, there is great elation; but when the wicked rise to power, men go into hiding.
The righteous shall rise and take their place
We see in this a spiritual rebuke of a person who is slipping away from God. A backslider who is helped back to God will thank you for it later.
Someone who flatters with the tongue and says everything is okay can do you great harm. Flattery has no value but reproof does, so it leads to gratitude.
Truth is always the best rule.
This man is not only a robber but is a robber of his own flesh and blood. Thieves can think of good excuses, but there is no reason to rob.
To plunder one’s own family is an unthinkable crime, but it is worst yet when denied. This person not only destroys his parents’ living by taking their material goods but breaks their hearts as well. He is not a builder, he is a destroyer.
This is arrogance that satisfies itself at the expense of conflict with others and never knows the prosperity of humble trust in God.
A proud heart has to do with being puffed up with self. He stirs up strife because he feels no one has an opinion worth hearing but his own.
Trust goes farther than faith. It is when we rest in the Lord knowing that all is well. When I say “rest” here, I do not mean we stop working. I mean we have complete confidence in the Lord.
We see in this man with the evil eye, a man who wants what belongs to others, a man who is motivated by greed. He has no regard for how he gets what someone else has just as long as he gets it soon.
Money or wealth gotten from evil ways and in a hurry has a way of leaving just as fast. Poverty is inevitable for this man because God will not bless him.
We see bribery associated with this. (piece of bread). Some judges accept bribes and release someone just because of favors or because of who they are. God expects us to treat all men fairly.
Under Gods Command
Proverbs 28:20 “A faithful man will be richly blessed, but one eager to get rich will not go unpunished.”
Blessings are the product of honest labor. Just as Abraham was rich in gold, silver, and cattle because he was blessed of God, God will bless you abundantly if you have the faith of Abraham. Abraham was saved and blessed by faith. We are blessed and saved by; faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Someone in a hurry to get rich is taking short cuts. His ways are not pleasing to God, because they are not honest. God will hold him responsible for the way he made his money. Wealth in itself is not evil. Our attitude toward the wealth can be very evil.
Under Gods Command
Proverbs 28:22 A stingy man is eager to get rich and is unaware that poverty awaits him.
Greed will distort your vision. You will see temptations other men miss, and you will eye everything as a means for gain. Chasing riches is bad enough, but pursuing them hastily is a recipe for disaster. Ambition, covetousness, and greed are ingredients of financial ruin (Pr 28:20; I Tim 6:7-10). A wise man is content with his wages and lets God make him rich; he will not pursue damning and elusive wealth, either slowly or hastily.
Haste to be rich is the impatient lust for more of a greedy person. He is frustrated by an ordinary job and discontented with ordinary wages. He believes he deserves better; he envies successful men; he covets what they have; he believes others owe him; he allows lustful thoughts. This greed for gain perverts his vision. He measures others by how much he might gain by them rather than how much they could gain from his service to them.
His heart and eyes are obsessed with getting ahead financially. He is constantly thinking of squeezing more money out of every transaction. He wants to buy below market, but he wants to sell above market. He begrudges any activity that does not pay. He hates giving charity, but he loves receiving it. In all his thoughts about money, he overlooks one great consideration – God and good men will take this covetous wretch down to poverty.
Greed for gain corrupts a man’s view of life. He is stingy in giving. He is unthankful in receiving. He is overbearing in transactions. He measures relationships financially. He defrauds his family. He overworks. He underpays. He resents taxes. He may consider bribes. He is angered by acts of God that cost him money. He is easily deceived by get-rich-quick schemes. He despises patient saving. He envies the successful. He is unhappy.
But a wise man scatters his money, knowing it leads to prosperity; he knows miserly thinking leads to poverty and resentment (Pr 11:24-26). A wise man considers the poor and gives quickly (Pr 19:17; Ps 41:1). He knows that a little with fear of God, peace, and righteousness is better than wealth without these things (Pr 15:16-17; 16:8; 17:1; 28:6; Ps 37:16). Generous men have a good eye – they see life’s priorities correctly (Pr 22:9).
Tax collectors and occupying soldiers often have evil eyes – using their jobs for greed, but John the Baptist taught precise accounting and contentment with wages (Lu 3:12-14). Even when buying something, you must hate greed and pay a fair price for it (Pr 20:14).
Heretics, like the mega-church gurus of today, profess gain to be godliness. But they are to be rejected for Jesus Christ’s pure doctrine – godliness with contentment is great gain (I Tim 6:3-10). Wise men despise riches and willingly give to others (I Tim 6:17-19).
Under Gods Command
Proverbs 28:19 He who works his land will have abundant food, but the one who chases fantasies will have his fill of poverty.
Do you want financial success? Then do a basic job well, day after day, obeying the economic wisdom in Proverbs. It will work! God and Solomon guarantee it! Stop going to promotional meetings, hating to work for others, listening to too-good-to-be-true investment ideas, or daydreaming about a better life. Make pleasure and rest your last thoughts (Pr 21:17,20). Consistent hard work at a needed job will work. Following the lying promises of promoters will not work. Learn wisdom: love work: hate distractions!
Men by nature are greedy and lazy. They want more of the good things of life than others have, but they want to exert themselves less than others to get them. Therefore they are tempted by two economic sins – to resent their basic jobs and/or listen to pipe dreams. Learn wisdom: love work: hate greed! Because Solomon had observed these temptations destroying men’s financial lives, he repeated this proverb in similar language (Pr 12:11).
Who in the world wants to be a farmer, when he could be a real estate tycoon driving a sports car and making deals on his cell phone of houses purchased with no money down? Who would choose to be a nurse, when she could be an international photographer for an Internet news magazine? Why be a factory slave, when you could use multilevel marketing of a mineral substitute for Viagra made from sea salt to live on a yacht by 30?
Farming was not the only job in Solomon’s day. But it best illustrated the lesson of this proverb. Farming required hard work, planning, patience, and repetition. It was the most basic of jobs – using the earth to produce food and/or to use the food to raise cattle or other animals for various products. But tilling a field behind oxen became boring and stupid when you heard fantastic rumors of network marketing riches in clothes soap!
The tortoise beats the hare financially. While the tortoise plods forward an inch at a time toward his economic goals, the hare runs at full speed from distraction to distraction, some costing him precious capital, and all costing him valuable time. When they come to the day of reckoning, the faithful labors, sound investments, and patience of the tortoise have given him a comfortable estate. The hare is exhausted, frustrated, and broke!
Solomon despised get-rich-quick schemes. He saw poor men make good income, but foolish ideas wasted it (Pr 13:23). Diligent labor in a basic job brings success (Pr 27:18). Talking about financial fantasies makes men poor (Pr 14:23). Getting distracted from the job at hand is terrible (Pr 27:23-27). Increase is by strength and leverage, not scheming (Pr 14:4). He saw financial exceptions destroying fools looking for a free lunch (Pr 1:32).
Vain persons are everywhere, especially with radio, television, telephones, magazines, newspapers, the Internet, and email. They promote the rich and famous, though they are only 1 out of 10,000. They offer impossible returns to steal your savings for themselves. Governments offer lotteries that are nothing but a tax on the poor and stupid. And liars flaunt the extravagant lifestyle of multilevel marketing “successes,” while ignoring the 98% that bought the overpriced product to pay for the “success.” The net result of these and all other financial “shortcuts” is always negative – you lose! Going down?
Why do any listen to such nonsense? Why would anyone consider lies from a person trying to fleece them of their hard earned money? There are only a few reasons. All of them are sins. Two have been given – discontentment with your job and covetousness for a different life. In addition, some do not like submitting to other men, which is simply pride and rebellion. And last, some through willful ignorance do not examine things with a critical and pessimistic eye to avoid lying snakes (Pr 14:15; 15:22; 27:12; I Thess 5:21).
This generation is obsessed with ease and pleasure – amusement, games, recreation, sports, and relaxation – but these things ruin men financially. If you love pleasure, you are going to be poor (Pr 21:17). If you love sleep, you are going to be poor (Pr 20:4,13). You will learn to despise work, because it is not as much fun to you as riotous living and sleeping in (Pr 19:15). You will waste your money on foolish amusements (Pr 21:20; Luke 15:13). And this childish lifestyle will take you down (Pr 23:21).
Your safety is in God’s word. Hard work works (Pr 10:4; 13:4; 22:29). Haste makes financial waste (Pr 19:2; 28:20,22). Believe nothing without proof, especially testimonials or “results” above market rates (Pr 13:11; 14:15; 22:3). Taking the easy road will ruin you economically (Pr 6:9-11; 24:30-34). Only one document in the world is totally true – the Bible. Everyone and everything else are liars (Rom 3:4). Obey this proverb; love your job; do it well each day; thank God for success. If you scoff at or neglect this proverb, you will wake up poor with a hardworking neighbor ruling over you.
The proverb’s lesson applies to religious pursuits as well. There is no get-spiritual-quick seminar or television offering that can compete with daily prayer and Bible reading and listening carefully to the preaching of God’s word (II Tim 3:6-7; 4:1-4). Do not follow the vain religious personalities that offer their seductive road to God and heaven. They are liars just like the financial hucksters. There is only one door and Shepherd of the sheep, and the abundant life is obtained by obeying Him and His words (John 10:1-18).
Under Gods Command
Proverbs 28:23 He who rebukes a man will in the end gain more favor than he who has a flattering tongue.
True friendship and esteem depend on your contribution to others’ lives. Those who flatter others may have some superficial friends or foolish companions, who enjoy the empty praise. But those who correct and teach others the way of God more perfectly will have devoted and thankful friends for the profit they obtain for their souls and lives.
What does it mean to rebuke? It means to reprove or reprimand another person for some action or trait that is not acceptable. It is telling another person they are wrong and they need to change. It means to point out their errors and express strong dislike of them.
What does it mean to flatter? It means to praise or compliment unduly or insincerely. It is telling another person positive things merely to make them happy and desirous of your friendship. It means to play on a person’s vanity and cheer them without a good basis.
The proverb does not compare two good things and suggest one is better than the other. Rebuke is a very good and holy thing, for it stops sin in others’ lives and directs them to righteousness. Flattery is an evil thing, for it comforts and encourages men to continue in a course of sin merely for a superficial relationship (Pr 20:19; 29:5; Job 17:5; Ps 12:2-3).
True love will rebuke sin in friends. In fact, loving your neighbor requires you to rebuke them for sin. If you do not rebuke them, you hate them (Lev 19:17). If you love someone, you want to help perfect him by pointing out the things that are wrong in his life (Pr 27:5-6; Rom 15:14; I Thes 5:14). You will risk the relationship in order to hopefully help him.
The rebuke under consideration here is the reproof or reprimand of sin, as measured by the word of God. This proverb has nothing to do with matters of liberty, because neither God nor good men care what you think in matters of liberty. No man has any right to judge in matters that God has not judged in the Bible. Personal opinion is just that!
Consider the value of rebuke. There can be no progress without change, and there can be no change without correction, and correction means rebuke for doing something the wrong way. Disciplinarian fathers will be loved more in the long run than pampering fathers; and athletes generally appreciate severe coaches for getting the most out of them.
Flattery, no matter how cheery, positive, or vain, does no one any good. It merely wastes the earth’s oxygen and creates noise pollution. You leave such a person worse for the experience, no matter how pleasant the flattery sounded at the moment. Eventually a righteous person will avoid flatterers, for they truly prefer rebuke (Pr 27:9; Ps 141:5).
Great men and women are trees of life – they nourish others with wisdom (Pr 10:21; 11:30). But most people are quite worthless, because they never contribute to the profit or perfection of others. They are too fearful to help. They are too ignorant to help. They are too selfish to help. Instead of being trees of life, they are merely rotting fence posts!
The value and vitality of a church depends on the practice of this proverb. There are two great benefits. If church members fulfilled their roles of rebuking one another for sin, a church would grow in grace and holiness (Rom 15:14; Eph 4:16; I Thess 5:14; Heb 3:12-13; 10:24-25). And, look again at the proverb. The church would grow in love and true esteem for one another by the benefit gained from the wise and godly rebukes. Glory!
Most churches are little more than superficial social clubs. After a short session of a form of godliness, which they call a worship service, they engage in idle chitchat and inane bantering. Then they go home backbiting and slandering one another. God forbid! They ought to be soberly confessing their faults to one another, exhorting one another to greater godliness, and rebuking any known sins (Gal 6:1; Eph 4:29; Jas 5:16,19-20).
Why do most Christians never correct or rebuke anyone in matters of godliness? Because they reject the truth of this wisdom! They assume the way to obtaining and maintaining friends is flattery, comfortable chitchat, and foolish talking. They fear losing friends and their favour – the very opposite of God’s wisdom – so they never reprove others for sin.
What is the reward for rebuking others? God is pleased you have fulfilled your role and kept His instruction, and the man you rebuked will love you for it (Pr 9:7-9). However, he may not love you at the moment of your rebuke! And for this you must be prepared. Remember the proverb. It says he will love you “afterwards.” Children will obey strict training when they are old, though maybe not that week (Pr 22:15; Heb 12:11)!
The Lord Jesus Christ, the preeminent example, was always correcting, rebuking, and instructing those He met in life, whether disciples or enemies. And Paul did the same thing, spending his life to correct and reprove the sin he found in lives. Righteous men and women loved them both, for they appreciated the holy efforts to perfect their lives.
If a person were properly convicted about the coming Day of Judgment, there would be little time for anything else but perfecting others by wise rebukes and instruction. For once you stand before the King of kings, you will very strongly wish others had rebuked you more, and others will very strongly wish you had rebuked them more. Why make it the great Day of Regret? Gently and wisely rebuke sin where you see it today.
Under Gods command 