Reflections on Proverbs Chapter 16

1. The plans of the mind belong to mortals, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord. 2. All one’s way is pure in one’s own eyes, but the Lord weighs the spirit. 3. Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established. 4. The Lord has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble. 5. All those who are arrogant are an abomination to the Lord. 6. By loyalty and faithfulness iniquity is atoned for, and by the fear of the Lord one avoids evil. 7. When the ways of people please the Lord, he causes even their enemies to be at peace with them. 8. Better a little with righteousness, than large income with injustices. 9. The human mind plans the way, but the Lord directs the steps. 10. Inspired decisions are on the lips of a king, his mouth does not sin in judgment. 11. Honest balances and scales are the Lord’s, all the weights in the bag are his works. 12. It is an abomination to kings to do evil, for the throne is established by righteousness. 13. Righteous lips are the delight of a king, and he loves those who speak what is right. 14. A kings wrath is a messenger of death, and whoever is wise will appease it. 15. In the light of the kings face there is life, and his favor is like the clouds that bring the spring rain. 16. How much better it is to get wisdom than gold, to get understanding is to be chosen rather than silver. 17. The highway of the upright avoids evil, those who guard there way preserve their lives. 18. Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. 19. It is better to be of lowly spirit among the poor than to divide the spoils with the proud. 20. Those who are attentive to a matter will prosper, and happy are those who trust the Lord. 21. The wise of heart is called perceptive and pleasant speech increases persuasiveness. 22. Wisdom is the fountain of life to one who has it, but folly is the punishment of fools. 23. The mind of the wise makes their speech judicious, and adds persuasiveness to their speech. 24. Pleasant words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body. 25. Sometimes there is a way that seems to be right, but in the end it is the way to death. 26. The appetite for the workers works for them, their hunger urges them on. 27. Scoundrels concoct evil, and their speech is like a scorching fire, 28. A perverse person spreads strife, and a whisperer separates close friends. 29. The violent entice their neighbors, and lead them in a way that is not good. 30. One who winks the eyes plans perverse things, one who presses the lips brings evil to pass. 31. Gray hair is a crown of glory and it is gained in a righteous life. 32. One who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and one whose temper is controlled than one who captures a city. 33. The lot is cast into the lap, but the decision is the Lord’s alone.

Verse 1- Plans are made, the actual answer comes from outside the realm of your plans, so things may not line up with the plans you a making and since the Lord has his say, stay in touch with him right from the get go. This verse indicates that the Lord speaks through others.

Verse 2- your ways may seem unadulterated and unimpeded, but that doesn’t mean that that this is judgment proper.

Verse 3-Run your plans through the Lord, if you have hopes they will actually be established.

Verse 4- the Lord has his purposes and this is something to look into and inquire about in the prayer process. At least within the ongoing discussion of prayer, ask the Lord for his purposes within that which you are praying about.

Verse 5- the arrogant will most surely be punished and one should be careful and mindful not to approach, partnership, and get side by side with the type of thinking, behavior and actions that qualify as falling under the retribution of the Lord.

Verse 6- still go to church and seek the Lord even if you have residing and difficult sins as the process of being faithful can result in atonement and the grace to overcome. Don’t slide away further and try to be faithful in the ways you can still be faithful.

Verse 7-the Lord will even quell the voices of the enemies, if your ways please him and this verse shows how the Lord will work in the distant outer world for your favor as well as within your immediate surroundings. That maybe a city or country if within the confines of relative peace may be the Lord’s doing for a single person.

Verse 8- the large income isn’t worth it if you have to involve yourself in injustices. It is better to draw back and avoid it, even if this involves widespread downscale of your finances. Injustices can involve lucrative pursuits, but stay away if you are required to go that route.

Verse 9-Even as you make plans, you still need to seek direction from the Lord on all the specific steps. You can have plans yes, but direction can’t be found for them outside of the presence of the Lord.

Verse 10-The verse speaks of the inspiring leader, who has the words and inspiration yet avoids sin, this is an ideal for the leader of the land. This verse speaks of correct decisions from leaders, that there is such a thing., and that it can actually be seen and heard at the source.

Verse 11- the Lord is the source for a proper size up of the situation, this is why recourse to the Lord in prayer is the way to go for perspective, proportionality and an understanding of how much weight and importance should be applied to surrounding issues and circumstances of concern. . The reference to all the weights in the bag, shows that the Lord has certain designs, this includes even the physicality of a person, some are taller, bigger and so on. In instances involving discernment, what is the Lord holding in his bag and seek to understand this and find it out and add lucidity and light to it.

Verse 12- kings can be capable of evil like all others, and evil by the king is particularly troublesome since they are in many ways the keeper of the gate and the holder of the keys. The reference to all the weights in the bag, shows that the Lord has certain designs, this includes even the physicality of a person, some are taller , bigger and so on. In instances involving discernment, what is the Lord holding in his bag and seek to understand this and find it out and add lucidity and light to it.

Verse 13- from the point of view of Kings, it is particularly good to have advisors that give the right course.

Verse 14-those within the path of the Kings wrath is particularly bad news for them and it is wise to seek appeasement rather than contest.

Verse 15- this speaks of real favor, in this case from the King, involving light, life and the ability to spread forth into the future like the clouds bringing the needed rain. A corollary to this is when someone is asking for the Lord’s favor in prayer, part of asking for favor can involve asking for life giving force, emanating light from the Lord, and a spreading forth of his favor so it will cover the landscape of your concerns like the farmer seeking the rain clouds over the all of his land. The idea of favor here indicates that there is real, significant and widespread effect to this favor in the realm of power. In the case of Elijah, he had the power to bring about rain thru his prayer.

Verse 16-Wisdom and understanding are something to try and pick from the cherry tree of possibilities before even lauded silver and gold. The author of proverbs actually did this himself, he put the obtaining of wisdom first but he still got the gold as well, but this was a secondary consideration to him. .

Verse 17- the upright protect themselves by choosing safer highways, and the ability to guard yourself from dangerous traps is particularly important. They are known risks and they take measures to avoid these risks and guard themselves from them. At the same time, those who want trouble will find it.

Verse 18- the irony is that the proud don’t believe this and their haughtiness may bring them to only greater heights of destruction, but those high up can be brought all the way down rather swiftly like a river that suddenly rages downstream,

Verse 19- it is best not to be involved with the wrong group, even if this means foregoing spoils or riches that otherwise would have been obtainable had you stayed with them.

Verse 20- if you have a good way that can be found, pay extra attention to it and the combination of the way being good and you cultivating that path with attention, will results in prosperity. Also, it is important to keep alert as well, and correlate this with trusting the Lord as you pay attention to the things, combining your attentiveness with an ongoing trust in the Lord’s helping hand and guidance.

Verse 21- part of wisdom is a keenness of perception and if you have it, don’t discount it as something that is valuable. Recognize this keenness of perception in yourself and use it even further. The pleasant speaker, in small one on one forums, or larger forums, has advantages towards persuasiveness and talking someone into something, this is another thing that if you have, you should recognize and tap into it as a resource you can go to and with even further. There is a perceptiveness and keenness that isn’t really a matter of the mind but of the heart and is at a level of feeling and speaks of a discerning heart. Something might be heartfelt.

Verse 22-Wisdom is like a flowing well to the one who has this wisdom and the well of wisdom can have larger uses including for others. It isn’t like lousy discolored water will be coming out of the fountain either, it is reliable. Folly punishes the fool in their foolishness. It is interesting that this verse it talking about the possessor of wisdom in the singular and the fools in the plural, does this indicate that wisdom can be a rarer find in a person?

Verse 23- a good mind is the actual source of judicious speech and you could in part derive that you or others have a good mind from their speech. And their ability to speak well results in additional persuasion and this of course can be used to craft good prayers for others.

Verse 24-Pleasant words have a favorable effect on the soul and the body, and verse speaks of soul to soul communication with words. It is advantageous to be around pleasant words for a combination of reasons.

Verse 25-a path can be seen as right in the beginning but its endpoint is in the throes of danger, threats and destruction. An example might be entering woods that seem charming at first but there are lurking dangers if you go further in and further on, like in one of those Harry Potter forests. Also the content of this way will begin to reveal that there is a deadening aspect to it and it should serve as a warning to find the escape route before this culminates even further.

Verse 26-thinking of his pay for a good meal, the worker is spurred on and works harder. There are motivators that become operative and get people going.

Verse 27- evil unfortunately can spread like a fire; we have seen this is wars that just ignite from a small dispute.

Verse 28-part of the perversity of the one with evil designs is being inflammatory and whispering lies to further the sowing of discord. That the intended mark is close friends may indicate jealousy and rivalry.

Verse 29- the violent can contain seductive powers towards their neighbors and maybe convince them to join up. Those who gather up means towards violence should seem to be repellent, but this is not the case and they can seduce those who had been stand bys only.

Verse 30- continues the theme of verse 29, the ways of the evil doer can involve arts of seduction, and you can’t trust that seductiveness is always innocent or their aren’t ulterior motives and designs involve that will manifest when the truth of the situation is further revealed. Look at the way even animals are lured into traps.

Verse 31-There are reasons to look up to wisdom found in those who are older and more experience and this wisdom is something they carry around and can be of recourse to others. This verse also alludes to overall gains to a righteous life that have a visible glory to them in the here and now, the righteous is visibly blessed in some ways like a king, even though they aren’t a king they might have similar and parallel blessings.

Verse 32- it is good to be able to contain anger in critical moments rather than just automatically unleash it and there might be no recall on the consequences of doing this. Also, it is tactical and you might get better results by keeping a tactical stance rather than blowing your cover. This verse implies that even the mighty have lots of ddifficulity controlling anger and their temper and one who can do this is surpassing them in this area.

Verse 33-even if the finger of fate seems to be pointing to you, the real checkpoint is the Lord. This indicates that the Lord is operating at the level of individuals as well as grand designs for the universe, the planet and big plans. He is the holder of little keys as well as big keys. Even if you are on an assumed track the Lord may decide otherwise and it is the decision is only his.

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