Tiny Devotional for Thursday, 10-21-2021

 A great good morning to all my friends and neighbors in Internet Land! And to family members who have dropped by, thanks for encouraging me.

I'm better than you are.
Haughty eyes and a proud heart,
The lamp of the wicked, is sin.
Proverbs 21:4, NASB

This is one of the times when I regret not applying myself more fully to my language studies, because I’m not sure I get what this verse means to communicate. “The lamp of the wicked?”

When I encounter a difficult verse in NASB, I go to other translations to see if they are clearer. In the case of this verse, the NIV translates the second line as “the unplowed field of the wicked.” No help there.

The only Hebrew text I could easily access, translates as “The eye of the wicked and the open heart of the wicked is a sin offering.” Again, no help for me.

Jesus said the eye is the lamp of the body. That makes for a worthwhile study, but I’m going to stop RIGHT HERE. I think I get the main point of the proverb, which is: 

TO the wicked, and FROM the wicked; it’s all wickedness. 

Question: can good things result from bad actions? Yes, absolutely. That is not, however, a justification for bad actions. Don’t plant poison ivy and expect to get cashew nuts. 

In my very early adult Christian walk, this was a HARD concept for me to accept! I wanted to hold on to my music, and my rebellion. So, I would try to insert Christian messages into some pretty bizarre sources, like National Lampoon. 

It didn’t work then, and it won’t work now.  

So, when you encounter someone with haughty eyes, and a proud heart: 

DON’T follow them!  

Peace be on your household.

Comments

  1. Moose45RiderOctober 21, 2021 at 9:59 AM

    Well put.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bess BlackstoneOctober 24, 2021 at 9:19 AM

    I think you hit the gopher on the noggin. Lamps are used in darkness to show a way, and people follow the light of the lamp. So the wicked man's lamp is lighting the way of the sinful path, so DON'T FOLLOW THE LIGHT!!!!! Cuz there are probably badgers and cows and spiders down that way.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tiny Devotional for Wednesday, 06-21-2023

Image
A great good morning to all my friends and neighbors in Internet Land! And to family members who have dropped by, the Fairmount Pattersons are Papa-sitting this morning! It is better to live in a corner of a roof Than in a house shared with a contentious woman. Proverbs 21:9, NASB Today is the 21st of the month; so, Proverbs 21. I have written about verses 1-8;  it’s verse 9’s turn. Thus, my selection of this verse has NOTHING to do with my wife, mother, sisters, or daughters! All of them are intelligent, confident, and assertive; they are NOT contentious. ‘Contentious’ does NOT mean ‘has a different opinion’!  A man who has lived with a contentious woman gives the definition by example: I was 20 years old, and stupid (those might be the same thing).  I thought our marriage would work because she was beautiful, and I was, too. It didn’t take long before I realized I was wrong about that. Most of the time, it didn’t matter what I did; I couldn’t please her. We were married for 3 years,
Read more

Tiny Devotional for Sunday, 08-20-2023

Image
A great good morning to all my friends and neighbors in Internet Land! And to family members who have dropped by, Piper doesn’t like her food. Differing weights and differing measures, Both of them are abominable to the Lord. Proverbs 20:10, NASB If this verse weren’t so important, I’d skip it, because I discovered it in a painful time. Others were involved, and their stories are not mine to tell. So, you get a parable: Stockman Bubba ran a cattle station, in partnership with his horse, Nancy. They worked hard together, and although they were not rich, they had achieved a degree of success. One day, a platypus stung Bubba, incapacitating him. Bubba tried to continue running the station, but after two years had passed, he realized it was time to retire. Nancy couldn’t adjust to this, and she left for life on her own. Three years later, Bubba realized Nancy was never coming back, and considered getting another horse. However, he was concerned that the other station owners would think bad
Read more

Tiny Devotional for Sunday, 07-23-2023

Image
 A great good morning to all my friends and neighbors in Internet Land! And to family members who have dropped by, reach for the sky. Do not let your heart envy sinners, But live in the fear of the Lord always. Surely there is a future, And your hope will not be cut off. Proverbs 23:17-18, NASB Today’s verse is 18, but I included 17, because I THINK they are a couplet. I wrote about verse 17 last month, and will try not to repeat myself. Our senses describe the present, our memory describes the past; the future is described by our hopes and our fears. In this little verse, we are given one of the strongest foundations for peace: yes, you DO have a future, and it’s a good one. Under most circumstances, we take the future for granted. If you have ever been forced to doubt that a future exists, you know how chilling that is. ‘No future’ is MUCH worse than ‘bad future.’ This verse draws us back away from the abyss of nothingness, and back into reality: yes, you DO have a future.  (If that
Read more