PROFITING FROM PROVERBS

“A continual dropping in a very rainy day and a contentious woman are alike. Whosoever hideth her hideth the wind, and the ointment of his right hand, which bewrayeth itself. Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend . . . As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man” (Proverbs 27:15-17, 19).

Poor ladies. “Contentious woman,” she’ll wear you down. That will just drip, drip, drip, drip. I guess that's what they do you when they torture you. You know, they just drive you out of your mind. Well, I guess that is what the contentious woman is doing, driving you out of your mind. In defense of ladies, I'm sure some laddies do the same thing

Verse 16 goes along with verse 15. “Whosoever hideth her,” good luck with that! “Hideth the wind.” You can’t do it! Some guy trying to cover up for the contentious woman, his wife. You just can't do it. If you’ve got a bad woman, you're in bad shape. You can't hide her. Best to pray for her and get her under some good preaching. Just don't try to hide her.

“Whosoever hideth her hideth the wind, and the ointment of his right hand, which bewrayeth itself,” it’s a bad odor, we can smell it a mile off. We know you got trouble.

“Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.”

This is a great verse! “Iron sharpeneth iron,” you don’t sharpen a knife with wood. You’ll dull it with wood. You sharpen iron with iron. “So a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend,” you talk about a man and you say, “He’s sharp!” If you want to be sharp, hang around sharp people. Do You want to be a sharp leader? get around other leaders that are sharp. They will sharpen you. You want to be a good Christian? Get around sharp Christians. Would you be a good, sharp soul winner? You will if you hang around good soulwinners.

“Iron sharpeneth iron.” Do you want to be a Good Wife? Get around good wives. Do you want to be a good husband? Get around good husbands. You get around dull husbands, they will dull you. You get around dull Christians, they'll dull you.

“Iron sharpeneth iron,” that is was one of the popular expressions used for camp meeting, as an iron sharpens iron. Get the preachers under good preaching and that'll help them.

“As in water face answereth to face,” what does that mean? Reflection. When you look at yourself in the water, you don't see somebody else’s face. You see your face, “face answereth to face.”

“. . . so the heart of man to man,” really, you ought to be giving straight answers You ought to be telling people what's in your heart. In other words, when you're dealing with a man tell him what is in your heart. Don’t deceive him.

Daily Bible study is necessary if we are going to begin our day with the right attitude and the right spiritual diet. Proverbs has 31 chapters, and most months have 31 days, so let's read a chapter of Proverbs a day and see what God might have for us. As the Lord leads, share with us what God has shown you in a special way and by His grace let us build up a devotional repository. Let's keep our knives and forks handy for some daily bread! Ideally, a chapter or two of Proverbs will fit in nicely with a good plan of reading our Bibles through each year.

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