the Third Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Day by Day Devotional - Year 5 of 5
Proverbs 19:1-14
"That the soul be without knowledge, it is not good" (v. 2). For this soul is certainly exposed to all sorts of dangers, which it does not know about. More than this, a person who is not restrained by the warnings in the Word is in danger of acting or speaking in haste and so stumbling (in other words — sinning; v. 2). If we love our soul — and we have nothing more precious — we should see to it that it is instructed so as to acquire wisdom (v. 8).
Many verses speak to us of the poor man. Men in the world often judge people according to their riches. Poor people, even though we may be ready to help them, can easily be despised (James 2:6). But God remembers that His Son was "the Poor Man" down here. He takes up the cause of those poor people who walk in integrity (v. 1; Proverbs 22:23) and He will open His heaven to them (Luke 14:21; Luke 16:22). "Wealth maketh many friends" (v. 4; Proverbs 14:20). They are strange friends, more like enemies, these flattering companions who contribute to the ruin of their victim (Proverbs 18:24, JND trans.). However the person who is stripped of everything and abandoned can then find the only true Friend who remains. The Lord Jesus is the one who "sticketh closer than a brother".
