apply your heart to what I teach,
18 for it is pleasing when you keep them in your heart
and have all of them ready on your lips.
19 So that your trust may be in the LORD,
I teach you today, even you.
20 Have I not written thirty sayings for you,
sayings of counsel and knowledge,
21 teaching you true and reliable words,
so that you can give sound answers
to him who sent you?
22 Do not exploit the poor because they are poor
and do not crush the needy in court,
23 for the LORD will take up their case
and will plunder those who plunder them.
24 Do not make friends with a hot-tempered man,
do not associate with one easily angered,
25 or you may learn his ways
and get yourself ensnared.
26 Do not be a man who strikes hands in pledge
or puts up security for debts;
27 if you lack the means to pay,
your very bed will be snatched from under you.
28 Do not move an ancient boundary stone
set up by your forefathers.
29 Do you see a man skilled in his work?
He will serve before kings;
he will not serve before obscure men.
Questions to consider:
- List the attitudes and actions that a wise person must (a) avoid and (b) apply themselves to.
- How does wisdom affect others?
As we did earlier this week, we see God’ heart for justice again, in verses 22 and 23 of this passage. It’s a pretty cool concept to think of God as “tak[ing] up [the] case” of the poor and needy who have been exploited. I think that there are a lot of poor and needy people who do not feel that their “case” has been taken up by God. Today, let’s pray on behalf of the poor and needy in our city and around the world, and ask God to take up their cases even now, and to bring justice into their lives, freedom from oppression and exploitation.
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