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Ring of Truth provides 366 daily ‘proofs’ that the Bible is consistent throughout from Genesis to Revelation, and relevant for our lives today!
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Proverbs 30:10
“Do not slander a servant to his master or he will curse you, and you will pay for it.”
If you do, you put yourself ‘under the curse and its authority.’
We now turn to the sayings of Agur.
Why did I pick this verse? Because we do it all the time. It is a terrible truth that so much gossip and slander goes on within the Church. We should be concentrating on fighting the enemy without and setting captives free, whereas so often what we find is that we are fighting those within – each other.
Listen – if God is your Father – you are my brother or sister. If you are a servant of Jesus, God is your Master. But God is also the Master of every servant of Jesus. You ‘touch’ one of them and you better watch out. God will not only become angry but He will be against you.
But, “God loves me,” you cry. Yes, He does, but not what you do, and not more than the one you slandered, so don’t do it. Rather seek forgiveness and see your shackles fall off. God takes this seriously. As John reminds us – you cannot love God and hate your brother (see 1 John 4:20) – it’s impossible.
Before you want to worship God, go and settle your dispute with that other Christian. Otherwise, you are just a hypocrite and your worship is hollow and meaningless (see Matthew 5:23–24).
The rest of the chapter is also very interesting. There are some classic groups here.
A profound prayer. “Two things I ask of you, O Lord; do not refuse me before I die: Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’ Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonour the name of my God” (v 7–9). Not a bad prayer, is it? He had learnt the secret of being content with what he had. (See also Hebrews 13:5.)
“The leech has two daughters. ‘Give! Give!’ they cry. There are three things that are never satisfied, four that never say, ‘Enough!’: the grave, the barren womb, land, which is never satisfied with water, and fire, which never says ‘Enough!’ ” (v 15). Think about that for a minute. It’s true, isn’t it?
“There are three things that are too amazing for me, four that I do not understand: the way of an eagle in the sky, the way of a snake on a rock, the way of a ship on the high seas, and the way of a man with a maiden” (v 18–19). The eagle is the only bird that can soar directly into the brilliance of the sun and its eyes remain unharmed. We are the ones who are invited to look directly into the face of THE SON in all His brilliant splendour, and live. Sin stops us doing it. But we are designed to soar. Try doing it today.
“Under three things the earth trembles, under four it cannot bear up: a servant who becomes king, a fool who is full of food, an unloved woman who is married, and a maidservant who displaces her mistress” (v 21–23). All these are dangerous (see Genesis 16). But today, the last two are probably the most common. (For “maidservant”, we can read subsequent wife/partner/lover or mistress.)
“Four things on earth are small, yet they are extremely wise: Ants are creatures of little strength, yet they store up their food in the summer; conies are creatures of little power, yet they make their home in the crags; locusts have no king, yet they advance together in ranks; a lizard can be caught in the hand, yet is found in kings’ palaces” (v 24–28).
It’s not until we spend time thinking about the nature around us, which God created, that we begin to understand who we really are and how much God loves us; so much more than the rest of His creation.
It’s worth reading the whole chapter.
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