Proverbs 30:24-28
There be four things which are little upon the earth, but they are exceeding wise:
The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer;
The conies are but a feeble folk, yet make they their houses in the rocks;
The locusts have no king, yet go they forth all of them by bands;
The spider taketh hold with her hands, and is in kings' palaces.
We come today to the final messages in both of our series in Proverbs.
Because I wanted to finish today and because I had about five chapters of Proverbs left to work through, I had a good selection of Scripture to make this lesson from.[1]
I selected this passage
· Because it is so well known
· Because it has a broad range of application and
· Because I want the exceeding wisdom described in it.
Don’t you?
I believe the Bible.
I believe if I:
· Learn the Bible
· Rightly divide it and
· Obey the lessons learned
That it would be a wise thing to do and will be accented with the blessings of God.
It seems to me the best place to get this rare wisdom is where our Lord tells us to learn it.
There are four types of wisdom mentioned:
*I. The Wisdom to Prepare in Advance
Proverbs 30:25
The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer;
In this case we have two passages about the ant:
Proverbs 6:6-8 (KJV)
Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise:
Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler,
Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest.
Joseph did this for Egypt and the result was that Egypt became the super power of its day.
God gave Egypt advance knowledge of a time of plenty and a time of poverty.
God also gave Egypt a man with the wisdom of God to prepare for the day of less in the day of plenty.
Here’s the thing,
· God has already told us to expect trials in this life. We know they are coming so
· Whenever we find ourselves with plenty, the wisdom of God’s Word says to set some of it aside for the lean times.
Of course spiritually this would apply to preparing today for eternity future.
Matthew 6:19-21 (KJV)
Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
May I say that there is a lot more to heaven than just being there.
We prepare for an abundant entrance[2]into glory today – not in a prayer of salvation and not on our deathbed
*II. The Wisdom to Build a Solid Foundation
Proverbs 30:26
The conies are but a feeble folk, yet make they their houses in the rocks;
I was in Oklahoma City for the 20thanniversary of Heartland Baptist Bible College last week.
Pastor Terry Randolph, who was the President of the College when I was the Executive Vice President, preached and reminded us of a message he preached back in 1997 that started the whole ball that ended up with the move of the college.
He used traffic cones as an illustration and said that the pastors and teachers who had trained him for the ministry had laid out a clear and biblical path for us.
But he said that, as the years went on those same preachers and teachers wanted to change directions.
They wanted to move the cones.
Anyway, those preachers who did not like his message later wrote him a scathing letter and called those of us who were standing in the “old paths” a bunch of conies, or cone heads.
When he received that letter he was reminded what the Bible says of the conies, that, “they make their houses in the rocks.”and that’s a good thing. He decided that being called a cone head was a complement. J
There is some discussion about what the conies are but that has little bearing really on the lesson since the passage tells us the conies are wise because they make their houses in the rocks.
I am reminded that Jesus is the Rock.
If we are wise we will dig our lives into Jesus Christ. He will become the center of everything we are.
Some of us who say we are Christians, aren’t even close to building our lives in Jesus Christ.
· We use His name
· We go to church
· We might even serve in the church some
But that is much different than being fully surrendered to the Lord Jesus Christ and obeying His Word as it is revealed to us through preaching and personal devotional time.
*III. The Wisdom to Unite with Others
Proverbs 30:27
The locusts have no king, yet go they forth all of them by bands;
This sounds like a church to me.
We have leadership in the church but it is not forced leadership but voluntary.
No one can be required to follow or to assemble.
However, a wise Christian goes forth by bands. He bands himself with a church and does the ministry he does through that church.
I mentioned this yesterday in my Saturday morning devotion to those who come for visitation work – We Americans have a culture of individualism.
We have learned to understand the Bible as an individual – God speaking to me personally, leading me personally.
But that is not the culture of the Middle East, not the culture of the writers of the Bible or of the original readers.
They all understood the value of community:
· Of family
· Of city and in the New Testament
· Of the church
None of them would have ever believed it is possible to worship God but hate organized religion.
They all understood that corporation, organization, community was essential for their own well being and growth.
To separate a member out of the church would have been a major deal, requiring prayer and fasting.
If someone left the church without prayer, fasting and the agreement of the church as a whole their conclusion would have been, 1 John 2:19 (KJV)
They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.
· The Wisdom to Prepare in Advance
· The Wisdom to Build a Solid Foundation
· The Wisdom to Unite with Others
Finally,
*IV. The Wisdom to be Personally Involved
Proverbs 30:28
The spider taketh hold with her hands, and is in kings' palaces.
The lesson of the spider is that she doesn't think about where she is, she just goes to work.
We make too much ado about
· The difficulty of our circumstances,
· The times in which we live,
· The evil of our day, etc.
I am amazed at animals.
They never pay attention to whether they live in:
· Rainy country
· Hot country
· Cold country
· Windy country
· Humid country
They just go to work where God put them.
The key to successful Christianity is just to get busy for the Lord.
· Do what you can do
· Do it every day and
· Do it all day
Conclusion
· The Wisdom to Prepare in Advance
· The Wisdom to Build a Solid Foundation
· The Wisdom to Unite with Others
· The wisdom to be personally involved
Rare wisdom indeed.
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