Proverbs 18
This is the last Proverb under the heading "Contrast the Upright and the Wicked", and it contains one of my favorite verses.
"Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit. He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the LORD. The poor man utters supplications, but the rich man answered roughly. A man of too many friends comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother" (verses 21-24).
The power of life and death are in our words, the things that we say will either build up or tear down. They will either destroy walls of burn bridges, and the words we love most will give us the fruit we live on. Once something is said it can never be taken back, even with an apology. I have said things to my wife that I wish I never would have said, and no apology or action can undo the damage.
And the thing that hurts most about that is how I have treated the greatest blessing God has given me. I was blessed to find a wife, and in that favor from God. The reason that this is a good thing is because it is the chane to display the full heart of God. It is a chance to model the love of God towards us to others. And it is the chance to create new lives. In a wife a man finds beauty, and learns things about God that He can only learn from her. She bears a different half of God's image and relates to Him differently. We need her if we are to begin to fully understand God in our human capacity.
"The poor man utters supplications, but the rich man answers roughly." The poor man sees his need for God, he realizes his survival is dependent upon Him. But the rich man feels no need for God. His wealth is his security, his possessions are the power that sustains him. Everything he has, he feels he has earned, so what need is there for God? What can God offer that he cannot attain Himself? The love of money is a root of all evil, and I think mainly because it makes a man feel that He has no need of God.
And now to one of my favorite verses. "A man of too many friends comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother."
Growing up I never really had any friends. In high school I met a couple people that I thought I would be close to, but within a year of graduation had lost touch with all of them. It wasn't until college that I found the men this verse is talking about.
Right now I have four guys I maintain regular contact with. Four guys that I can tell anything to, four guys I know have my back and actually pray when I ask them to. And I refer to them as my brothers, because they are. They have stuck by me through everything. I haven't had many friends, but these four men are more than I could ask for.
"I have been young and now I am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his descendants begging bread."
To God alone be the Glory!
Peace be with you
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