THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION

Proverbs: Topical Applications of Proverbs

III. The Proverbs Themselves, Proverbs 10:1-31:31

E. Proverbs On Discernment

Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

2 Timothy 3:13 predicted that people would go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. That prophecy is being fulfilled today, so discernment is a great need:

(1) It is a great need in our national politics: Columnist Christine Flowers acknowledged, “I first registered as a Democrat . . . the year I turned 18 . . . (but) I blossomed into . . . a ‘conservative firebrand’ . . . Mostly, it was about abortion. The Democrats had slowly morphed from ‘safe, legal and rare’ to non-indigenous Aztecs supporting human sacrifice . . . It took me too long to see the moral rot from the inside . . . at the ripe old age of 55 . . .” (Christine Flowers, “Democrats fall short in combating antisemitism” (Republican-American, May 27, 2026, p. A7)

(2) Discernment is a great need for voters regarding state government:, “Politics and government long have been full of . . . words that camouflage or sanitize what is being done and the euphemism . . . in greatest use as the recent session of the legislature ended was ‘invest.’ (Officials) declared . . . they had ‘invested’ more in this . . . that, and . . . the other thing. What they really had done was to spend more on this, that, and the other thing. Ordinarily, investing means deploying resources in pursuit of a return. But when government in Connecticut ‘invests’ it seldom checks to see if there has been any return . . .” (Chris Powell, “‘Investing’ euphemizes spending,” op. cit., p. A6)

(3) Discernment is a great need in academia: “A Connecticut State Colleges & Universities employee says that for 10 days after she sat down with the public college system’s top attorney,” CSCU General Counsel Karen Buffkin, “and detailed what she describes as years of sexual harassment by her boss, Chancellor O. John Maduko, she was told to keep going to work – and not to tell anyone else. She brought screenshots. She brought text messages. She brought a photo he sent of himself clad only in underwear . . . sent through Signal, the disappearing-messaging application her attorney says the chancellor steered their communication onto,” but she “was told to keep going to work – and not to tell anyone else.” (Natasha Sokoloff and Jaqueline Rabe Thomas, “CSCU employee says harassment complaint went unaddressed,” op. cit., May 30, 2026, p. A1)

Need: So we ask, “Does God’s ‘wisdom’ offer discernment we need to face mounting deception in today’s world?”

I. God’s “wisdom,” His hokmah, or fixed eternal moral order for success and blessing, applies to many issues of human need including the need for discernment in all realms of life.

II. We view proverbs in the Book of Proverbs that reveal discerning guidelines for all realms of life:

A. Item One: Instability in life rises from sin where stability rises from righteousness, Proverbs 10:25, 30; 29:16:

1. “When the storm has swept by, the wicked are gone, but the righteous are a foundation forever,” 10:25.

2. “The righteous will never be uprooted, but the wicked will not settle down in the land,” 10:30.

3. “When the wicked thrive, so does sin, but the righteous will see their downfall,” 29:16.

B. Item Two: Material lack comes from sin where material welfare comes from righteousness, Pr. 12:28; 13:25:

1. “In the way of righteousness there is earthly life; along that path is immortality,” 12:28.

2. “The righteous eat to their satisfaction, but the stomach of the wicked goes hungry,” 13:25.

C. Item Three: The unrestrained lack God’s insight where the self-restrained heed His Word, Proverbs 29:18:

1. The ESV translates this verse as, “Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law.”

2. Thus, a lack of God’s Word leads people to practice unrestrained evil where those who are exposed to God’s Word and heed it see its influence restrain them from evil and influence them to do good!

D. Item Four: Twisted (perverse) people face warning barbs and snares in life and suddenly fall where the upright who guard their inner man stay far away from such warnings and avoid calamity, Proverbs 28:18; 22:5:

1. “He whose walk is upright is kept safe, but he whose ways are perverse will suddenly fall,” 28:18.

2. “Barbs and snares are in the path of him who is twisted, but he who guards his ‘inner man’ (nepesh; Kittel, Bib. Heb., p. 1181; R. B. Girdlestone, Syns. of the O. T., 1973, p. 56-59) stays far from them,” 22:5.

E. Item Five: Constant disaster signals hardness against God, and constant blessing submission to Him, Pr. 28:14:

1. Translated from the Hebrew text, this verse literally reads: “Blessed is the man who ‘continuously’ (tamid, B. D. B., A Heb. and Eng. Lex. of the O. T., p. 556) ‘is in dread, awe’ (mepahed, Ibid., p. 808), but he who hardens his heart will fall into calamity.”

2. What the blessed man continuously is in dread and awe of must be God, what the major translations also suggest, for such a man does what is opposite hardening his heart, which would be rebellion against God.

3. Thus, opposite the one who hardens his heart against God so that he continuously suffers calamity, the man who continuously reveres and is in awe of God so as always to obey Him is continually blessed!

F. Item Six: Sudden disaster amid one’s general trials in life signals sin where safety amid one’s general trials in life signals righteousness, Proverbs 12:13; 11:5, 6:

1. “With his sinful talk an evil man is entrapped, but a righteous man comes out of narrow straits of trouble,” Proverbs 12:13.

2. “The righteousness of the blameless makes smooth and straight his pathway, but with his own wickedness the wicked falls full length,” Proverbs 11:5.

3. “The righteousness of the upright snatches them away (from trouble), but those who deal treacherously are taken captive by evil desire,” Proverbs 11:6.

G. Item Seven: Despair amid a disaster signals sin where joyful hope signals uprightness, Prov. 10:28; 11:7, 23:

1. “The prospect of the righteous is joy, but the hopes of the wicked come to nothing,” Proverbs 10:28.

2. “When a wicked man dies, the things he hoped for perish, and his expectation comes to nothing,” Pr. 11:7.

3. “What the righteous desire ends only in good, but the hope of the wicked only in ruin,” Proverbs 11:23.

H. Item Eight: Entanglement in trouble comes from being captured by one’s own sinful desires where righteousness snatches the upright away from such evil desires and their entanglement, Proverbs 11:6:

a. Proverbs 11:6 literally translates, “The righteousness of the upright snatches them away, but those who deal treacherously are taken captive by evil desire.”

b. What the upright are snatched away from in the context is the certain trouble he would face were he taken capture by his own evil desire to do or to say what would be treacherous and thus would entrap himself.

c. Thus, one’s own evil desires tend to entrap himself, particularly if he deals treacherously with others, where one who deals righteously, honorably and considerately with others avoids such troubles.

Lesson: The Book of Proverbs gives guidelines on navigating a world of deception with discernment for blessing.

Application: (1) May we trust in Christ Who died as our Atoning Sacrifice for sin that we might receive God's gift of eternal life, John 3:16; 1 Corinthians 15:1-11. (2) May we heed the discerning guidelines of the Book of Proverbs to gain the discernment we need for blessing in all realms of life.

Conclusion: (To illustrate the message and/or provide additional guidance . . .)

Several proverbs in this sermon address the issues of concern mentioned in our introduction (as follows):

(1) On Christine Flowers’ admission that she joined the Democratic Party when it held to its early view that abortion should be safe-legal-and-rare before that view morphed to what she described as a non-indigenous-Aztecs-supporting-human-sacrifice stance, (a) the Democratic Party’s initial view that she tolerated condoned the killing of fetuses on demand. Ms. Flowers should have seen that view as a “barb” or “snare” that could only get worse as Proverbs 22:5 claimed! Also, (b) Ms. Flowers is a self-professed Roman Catholic, and her Bible at Exodus 21:22-23 (in The New American Bible For Catholics, 1986, p. 76) teaches like our Protestant Bible that abortion on demand at any trimester is a capital crime! If Proverbs 29:18 claims that a lack of God’s Word leads to unrestrained evil, then a lack of teaching on Exodus 21:22-23 in Catholic Churches or in any church can only lead people who accept the safe- legal-and-rare abortion view to be set up for the shock of seeing that view decline into greater barbarity!

(2) State officials’ euphemism of “investing” to sanitize their “spending” fulfills the Proverbs 28:14 claim that constant calamity occurs due to hardness against a fear of sinning! Voters need to realize that most officials do not sense an accountability to the God of the Bible, so they cloak their words to fleece voters and promote their agendas!

(3) On the former CSCU chancellor’s abusive efforts for years to seduce a female subordinate, (a) his vulgar actions fulfill the Proverbs 11:6 prediction of one’s being captured by his evil desire. Had the victim been aware of this, she would have seen his initial action as a danger signal and immediately reported it! (b) As for the CSCU General Attorney’s directive that the victim keep going to work and keep quiet about the abuse for 10 days, Proverbs 28:14 indicates that calamity as a way of life occurs due to hardness versus fearing accountability for the wrong. Had the victim known this, she could have discerned the attorney’s moral hardness and immediately gone to the police!

May we trust in Christ Who died as our Atoning Sacrifice for sin that we might receive God’s gift of eternal life, John 3:16; 1 Corinthians 15:1-11. May we heed the discerning guidelines of proverbs in the Book of Proverbs to gain the discernment we need for blessing in all realms of life.