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PROVERBS: ALIGNING TO GOD'S FIXED MORAL ORDER
Part III: Displaying God's Fixed Moral Order
Q. Viewing Specific Proverbs Of God's Fixed Moral Order
(Proverbs 26:1-28)
  1. Introduction
    1. After motivating a young man to heed an observed fixed moral order, the literary genre of the Egyptian sboyet that the Book of Proverbs uses works to supply actual proverbs to reveal that order, cf. Bruce Waltke, "The Book of Proverbs and Ancient Wisdom Literature," Bibliotheca Sacra, 136:543, p. 221-238.
    2. Solomon reveals that order to be God's order for his son to heed. We continue that study of that order:
  2. Viewing Specific Proverbs Of God's Fixed Moral Order From Proverbs 26:1-28.
    1. A son must learn that, as a future leader, he must avoid assigning a fool who does not adhere to God's fixed moral order in a place of honor: it is inappropriate and may injure others who follow him, Pr. 26:1.
    2. Similarly, a son must not treat one with dishonor who is honorable: it will not be productive, Prov. 26:2.
    3. A son must learn to control subordinates not aligned to God's moral order by strong, forceful means, 26:3.
    4. A son must learn to pick his conflicts with a party not aligned with God's moral order carefully: such a conflict often costs him dearly, but he cannot let a fool go too unrestrained lest he do worse harm, 26:4-5.
    5. A son must learn to avoid using one not aligned to God's fixed moral order to deliver a message: it is better not to have tried to deliver a message than to use such a party to deliver a wrong message, 26:6!
    6. A son must learn to resist heeding the insight of a party not aligned to God's fixed moral order: such advice is as effective as a lame man's legs, which actually become a liability to him, Proverbs 26:7!
    7. A son must learn to avoid honoring one not aligned to God's fixed moral order lest the honor do more damage than good in a time of crisis, Proverbs 26:8.
    8. A son must learn to resist heeding the insight of a party not aligned to God's fixed moral order: such insight as applied will do as much damage as a thorn bush in the hand of a drunkard, Proverbs 26:9.
    9. A son must learn to hire only those parties he carefully surveys if he would avoid eventual great harm, 10.
    10. A son must learn that a party separated from God's fixed moral order does not learn to avoid his disgusting mistakes from experience: he has to be forcibly motivated or restrained for success, 26:11, 3.
    11. A son must learn to have little hope of success for a man who is wise in his own eyes: only a teachable party who sees he must continually gain insight is a party who has hope for success, Proverbs 26:12.
    12. A son must discern people who lack "follow up" as those not heeding God's fixed moral order: (1) they go to great measure to avoid taking responsibility (26:13); (2) if they do assume responsibility, they often do not exert the energy to address real needs (26:14); (3) if they do exert the energy, they often do not finish their tasks once they get attempt them (26:15), and (4) they are unteachable, Proverbs 26:16.
    13. A son must learn to avoid meddling in the disputes of others lest he suffer undue harm himself, 26:17.
    14. A son must learn not to deceive and then claim he was only joking: deception is no joking matter, 18-19.
    15. A son must see that refusing to pass gossip about only quenches disputes among people, Pr. 26:20.
    16. Similarly, a son must learn to avoid a quarrelsome man if he would stay out of useless strife, 26:21.
    17. A son must learn to avoid gossip as it tends to stick to a party, harming a reputation even if unproven, 22.
    18. A son must be very cautious of those with fervent, moving speech: if such speech is deceptively hiding an evil heart, it can do much damage as many accept its words as truth, Proverbs 26:23.
    19. A son must learn that such parties, being malicious, are harmful, making him very cautious of them, 23-25
    20. A son must see that waiting for a party with impressive words to be examined in public will expose if he is upright: thus, he should learn to wait for verification before banking on those with such words, 26:26.
    21. A son must avoid trying to entrap others, for doing so will backfire on the schemer, Proverbs 26:27.
    22. A son must learn to avoid deceivers, liars and flatterers: they all work ruin by hatred toward others, 26:28.
Lesson: From these proverbs, we learn that a youth is much better off learning from his parents that heeding God's ways is to his own distinct advantage in the adult world.

Application: (1) We parents must have the courage under God's leading to inform our maturing sons and daughters of the VALUE of heeding God's fixed moral order. (2) As maturing children or as adults ourselves, we can apply these truths to our own lives for eventual blessings.