THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION

Proverbs: Topical Applications of Proverbs

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

J. Gaining Good Guidance

Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

Many people today need to obtain good guidance just to navigate our complex and spiritually unsettled world:

(1) People need good financial guidance: An ad by a financial planning firm that has recently run in the Waterbury Republican American asserts, “As the financial landscape continues to shift, many individuals and families are taking a closer look at who they trust to guide their future . . .” (Republican-American, June 19, 2026, p. A14)

(2) The need for good guidance exists among the rich and famous: Lesley Groff, “Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime executive assistant” in testifying before Congress “repeatedly denied knowing about” his “sex trafficking operation, insisting she never witnessed abuse, never knowingly scheduled appointments for minors and was unaware crimes were occurring. ‘Mr. Epstein was, in hindsight, a master manipulator and deceiver who separated his legitimate life from his secret life as an abuser and made sure that, as his secretary, those two worlds did not collide,’ Gross testified.” (Nathaniel Rosenberg, “4 takeaways from Lesley Groff’s Epstein testimony,” op. cit., June 27, 2026, p. A4)

(3) The need for good guidance affects people in society as a whole: “Connecticut’s new artificial intelligence law . . . is a sweeping effort to implement regulations over the continuously emerging technology, from consumer protections to workforce development . . . ‘Increasingly, social media companies are taking advantage of kids, creating apps and algorithms that decrease their attention spans and drive them to become addicted, causing them to tune out each other, and harmfully impact their mental health and wellbeing,’ Gov. Ned Lamont said during a bill-signing ceremony June 2 . . . The act also creates a Connecticut AI Academy . . . for students, teachers, school officials and more to learn about how to use the technology responsibly . . . ‘This law creates real protections against the misuse of AI while preparing our workers, students, businesses, and public institutions for an AI-enabled future’” according to “state Rep. Hubert Delany, D-Stamford.” (Natasha Sokoloff, “Connecticut AI law sets new school rules,” op. cit., June 8, 2026, p. A1)

(4) Good guidance is greatly needed in the political realm: “(T)he Democratic Socialists of America . . . has increasingly positioned itself a sort of unofficial branch . . . within the Democratic Party,” and its “National Political Committee recently adopted a platform that ‘commits DSA to scrapping the U. S. Senate, ‘abolishing the carceral forces of the capitalist state,’’ – in other words, abolishing prisons – ‘defunding the Department of War, amnesty for all immigrants, and ‘replac[ing] the President and Supreme Court with an executive and judiciary chosen by a subordinate to Congress.’ . . . It is not an exaggeration to say the DSA has declared political warfare against the American republic as it has existed for 250 years, and its goal is to institute a system of anarcho-tyranny . . .”

Remarkably, “(t)here is a large contingent of Americans who believe every major political event revolves around President Trump and the Republican Party. To the extent that they’re even paying attention to the DSA’s slow but accelerating takeover of the Democratic Party, they’re likely to handwave it away and engage in Trump-centric whataboutism . . .” (“More Conn. Dems embrace radical, antisemitic DSA,) op cit., July 13, 2026, p. A6)

Need: So we ask, “In view of the great need for good guidance, how can we gain it today?”

I. God’s “wisdom,” His hokmah, or fixed eternal moral order for success and blessing, applies to many issues of human concern, including the need for good guidance.

II. We thus view proverbs that are translated from the Hebrew Biblical text (Kittel, Biblia Hebraica) in the Book of Proverbs that inform us about God’s insight on gaining good guidance (as follows):

A. Sin and ignorance will cause a human being to be tragically misled:

1. Proverbs 16:29 states, “A violent man entices his neighbor and leads him down a path that is not good.”

2. Even more dramatically, Proverbs 21:16 asserts, “A common man who strays from the path of understanding comes to rest in the company of the dead.”

B. On the other hand, righteousness and one’s personal integrity help guide him aright:

1. “The integrity of the upright guides them, but the crooked dealing of those who act treacherously also devastates them,” Proverbs 11:3.

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

C. If one recognizes that he needs good counsel and he acquires it, he is greatly helped in getting good guidance:

1. “When there is no good, wise counsel a people fall down full length, but with many counselors there is deliverance,” Proverbs 11:14.

2. “The way of a fool seems right in his eyes, but a wise man listens to advice,” Proverbs 12:15.

3. “Plans are frustrated, made ineffective for lack of advice, but with many advisers they succeed,” Pr. 15:22.

4. “Make plans by seeking counsel; if you wage war, obtain advice,” Proverbs 20:18.

5. “A mighty male warrior of valor (gever, Kittel, Bib. Heb., p. ; B. D. B., A Heb-Eng. Lex. of the O. T., p. 149-150) who is wise has great might, and a man of knowledge increases his ability, because for waging war you need guidance, and for victory many advisers,” Proverbs 24:5-6.

D. However, every human being needs divine guidance due to blind spots to the facts that every human faces:

1. Human beings due to limited, fallible insight, need help beyond human help for the right paths in life:

a. Proverbs 14:12 states, “There is a way that is upright in the eyes of man, but in the end it leads to death.”

b. Proverbs 16:25 adds, “There is a way that seems upright to a man, but afterwards (it is) the way of death.”

2. Accordingly, we humans must ultimately rely on the Lord for the absolutely correct guidance we need:

a. Proverbs 16:9 states, “In his heart a man plans his course, but Yahweh determines his steps.”

b. Proverbs 21:2 asserts, “All the ways of a man are upright in his own eyes, but Yahweh weights the hearts.”

III. God’s guidance is adequately given for man in His written Word (as follows):

A. The Apostle Paul predicted that men would go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived, 2 Tim. 3:13.

B. However, he added that for overcoming such deception, God has given adequate guidance for every believer’s path in life through His written Word, the Scriptures, 2 Timothy 3:15-17:

1. All written Scripture is divinely inspired, being profitable for “teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,” 2 Timothy 3:15-16 NIV.

2. Written Scripture thus equips the believer to be thoroughly equipped for every good work he needs to perform in every realm of his entire life, 2 Timothy 3:17:

a. The expression “perfect” (KJV) translates the Greek term artios, meaning “fitted, complete” (G. Abbott-Smith, A Man. Grk. Lex. of the N. T., 1968, p. 61), what we can paraphrase as meaning “proficient.”

b. The verb rendered “throughly furnished” (KJV) or “thoroughly equipped” (NIV) translates the perfect passive participle exertismenos, from the verb exartizo, that means, “furnish, supply” (Ibid., p. 159; Wm. D. Mounce, The Analyt. Lex. to the Grk. N. T., 1993, p. 195).

c. Thus, Scripture makes the believer proficient to do every good work he needs to do by permanently (perfect tense of exertismenos) making him equipped (passive voice of exertismenos) to do every good work he is called upon by God to perform!

Lesson: Where sin and ignorance lead to certain tragic misguidance, where righteousness, personal integrity and good, multiple counselors often help give one some good guidance, only by relying ultimately on the guidance of God’s written Scriptures can one achieve the certain good guidance he needs in this earthly life.

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 rely on the Holy Spirit for the behavior control (Galatians 5:16) we need to function in ways that equip us to gain the guidance we need in this life.

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

Two proverbs mentioned in our sermon guide us to discern moral shortcomings in the political platform of the Democratic Socialists of America that we mentioned in our introduction: (a) Proverbs 16:29 states, “A violent man entices his neighbor and leads him down a path that is not wholesome.” The DSA’s goals of abolishing the U. S. Senate and prisons, defunding the Department of War, giving amnesty to all immigrants and replacing the President and Supreme Court in warring against 250 years of constitutional order is not peaceful, but violent, and hence wrong! (b) Then, Proverbs 11:5 claims, “The righteousness of the blameless makes smooth and straight his pathway, but with his own wickedness the wicked falls full length.” The DSA’s warring against our constitution’s law and order that has worked well for us for 250 years and has given us a relatively smooth, straight path only to replace it with “a system of anarcho-tyranny” will inevitably destroy the country! Exposing the public to hardened criminals and not defending the nation from invading armies with a Department of War would hurt everyone in our country, including people in the Democratic Socialists of America organization! We as a people need to hold to law and order.

May we trust in Christ Who died as our Atoning Sacrifice for sin that we might receive God’s gift of eternal life. May we then rely on the Holy Spirit for behavior control to function with His good guidance.