Proverbs Devotion - Day 6

Chapter 6 contains multiple themes, as later chapters will contain lists of singular proverbs. However, this chapter has longer teaches but focuses on negative characteristics and actions that should be avoided. Topics like hasty cosigning, laziness, and pride. It also contains the more well-known list of things that Yahweh hates. So, if anything, this chapter is telling us what to avoid or flee. 

But the true heart of this chapter is the question: what is in your heart? Verses 20-23 return to the familiar theme in Proverbs: learning from those who are wise. Solomon is reminding his son to heed the word and lessons his parents are teaching him. But what he is teaching them is the truth and commandments that are rooted in God’s commandments. He encourages them to “bind them” on your heart and to tie them around his neck. (The wording in this section is a direct connection to the Great Commandment in Deuteronomy 6.) Binding on the heart has the idea of not just knowing or even taking in information, but that what you learn will literally permeate so as to transform the way we live. To bind them is to apply the commandments first to your heart so the truth will transform our life in a way that we make choices and act according to those instructions and commands. It is about Knowing God in order to live in a way that honors and glorifies Him. 

But not only do they transform the way we live, but also the way we see everything else. In verse 23, he calls the commandment the lamp and light. The commandments of truths becomes the lens by which we see everything. To have God’s truth transforming our heart, it is also transforming our beliefs and views. Instead of following the culture’s views and beliefs, we are to now view the culture through the lens of God’s truth. Scripture becomes our light by which we see the world and how we engage with the world. We stand on the authority of the Scriptures light and we respond accordingly in a righteous way, even if unpopular or unfavorable. But not only can we see the world’s views for what they are, the truth of God’s word also shines forth into darkness. So we should Go with the gospel, to share the Light with a lost and dying world. 

If we’re honest, we struggle with this. Ultimately, this chapter (and about all of them) could inspire feelings of “I need to try harder to live in this way.” But that would be missing the greater picture of the gospel. What God calls us to is very difficult in our own strength and that’s why we struggle. But, thankfully, God has given those who trust in Christ the Spirit to empower us to live this out. So, when we struggle with the beliefs, the actions, the desires (struggles we all still have), the encouragement is not to try to muster up more effort in yourself. You can’t change your heart, but rather to take it to God and ask Him for supernatural help with fighting the sin and turning from temptations from these destructive sins. He will be faithful to answer because He is always there to “lead you…watch over you…and talk with you.” (Verse 22) Know and harness the power of the Spirit that you have working in and through you today that is forever bound in your heart. Seek to walk in step with Him each day.