THE CANDLE AND THE LAMP OF THE LORD

RETURN TO SYLLABUS

PROVERBS 20:16-30
Lesson #34
THE CANDLE AND THE LAMP OF THE LORD

• Memory verse: Pro 20:27
• ^“Take his garment that is surety for a stranger: and take a pledge of him for a strange woman.” (16)
  • Key words: surety (to co-sign); stranger (prostitute).
  • In our study of Proverbs we have discussed both of the topics of surety and the stranger or strange woman:
    • Surety = to co-sign for the debt of another person.
      • We have seen that this is a bad idea that encourages debt which puts the borrower in bondage.
      • We have also seen where it is a bad idea to assume responsibility for the debts of another person that puts you at risk for his debt.
    • Stranger/strange woman
      • In various parts of our study, we have seen that at times the stranger or strange woman represents sexual promiscuity in the form of a sexual prostitute.
      • Other parts of our study, we have seen that at times the stranger or strange woman represents spiritual adultery or the worship of foreign gods or idols.
  • Garments or personal property were a common surety or collateral for a loan. However, the garment had to be returned to its owner by sundown. In the case of this proverb, the garment is given to a prostitute for collateral to insure eventual payment.
    • We have an excellent example in scripture: The story of Tamar and Judah.
    • Read Gen 38:1-6
      • Judah continually violated God’s command not to have sexual relationships with foreign women (prostitutes) or to marry them.
      • The prostitute Shuah had 3 children by Judah. The oldest was Er.
      • Judah arranged a marriage for Er with Tamar.
    • Read Gen 38:7-11
      • When her first husband, Er, died, Judah arranged a marriage with his second son which was the marriage custom.
      • When her second husband, Onan, died, Judah was supposed to give his third son, Shelah, to Tamar but he was too young to marry so he told Tamar to wait.
      • But the years passed and Judah did not keep his promise to Tamar as was the law.
    • Read Gen 38:12-26
      • Judah gave to Tamar, playing the harlot, the collateral of his signet ring, bracelets, and his staff.
      • These items represent the identity and authority of Judah, the leader of the tribe of Judah through which was to come, Jesus Christ.
        • The importance of this story:
        • Judah did not take seriously God’s commands or God’s plan for the tribe of Judah. If Tamar had not done this, the tribe of Judah would have become extinct without a blood line to Jesus Christ. There would not have been a King David.
• ^“Bread of deceit is sweet to a man; but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel.” (17)
  • This proverb reminds us Satan’s temptation of Jesus in the desert to turn stones into bread.
  • Heb 11:25 says that things not of God are “pleasures of sin for a season;”
  • Therefore, when man indulges himself in sin, it is sweet for time but the end is not pleasant as Judah discovered with Tamar.
    • The taste in the mouth is not good.
    • The word “gravel” is the grating of teeth.
    • Of course Rom 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
• ^“Every purpose is established by counsel: and with good advice make war.” (18)
  • Key words: counsel (advice).
  • A good general seeks good counsel to establish a battle plan before he makes the big decision to go to war.
  • The purpose that is spoken of in this proverb is God’s purpose or will.
  • Therefore, before you make big decisions in your life, pray and seek good advice from other believers to help you determine God’s will for you. ‘
  • Judah and Tamar should have asked God for His will and purpose in their lives.
• ^“He that goeth about as a talebearer revealeth secrets: therefore meddle not with him that flattereth with his lips.” (19)
  • Key words: talebearer (gossip).
  • The person that gossips reveals the secrets of others that are best kept secret.
  • The gossip stirs up trouble. He meddles in the lives of others.
  • The gossip is not beyond lying by means of flattering you to your face, and then when your back is turned, he/she will speak lies of gossip to a third person about you.
• ^“Whoso curseth his father or his mother, his lamp shall be put out in obscure darkness.” (20)
  • This proverb is the opposite of the commandment that says, “Honor thy father and thy mother that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.” (Exo 20:12)
  • A person’s lamp is his body that holds the breath of life and the light of Christ given to him by God.
  • This proverb can refer to his physical life and/or his spiritual life.
  • In the case of this proverb, it seems to refer to the non-believer because the second half of the verse speaks about “obscure darkness” where the non-believing dead wait for the final judgment. (Mat 22:13 Mat 25:30)
  • To curse one’s parents is to curse yourself because probably the greatest love you will experience, other than God’s love, is the love of parents for their child.
• ^“An inheritance may be gotten hastily at the beginning; but the end thereof shall not be blessed.” (21)
  • From the last half of the verse, the inheritance hastily gotten is an inheritance gotten by illegal means or before God intended you to have it.
  • For example, if you hasten the death of your father, your inheritance is hastily gotten. You would have obtained the inheritance eventually anyway when your father died naturally. But because you have obtained it hastily, God will not bless it.
  • This proverb also reminds us of the prodigal son that got his inheritance early and wasted it.
  • Unexpected wealth can ruin you because you are not equipped to handle it. The truth of hastily gotten wealth ending badly is testimony of the many lottery winners that end up losing everything in the end.
• ^“Say not thou, I will recompense evil; but wait on the Lord, and he shall save thee.” (22)
  • In this New Testament age of grace, we are not to seek revenge, for Jesus said to pray for our enemies.
  • This proverb is a surprise in an Old Testament age of Law where vengeance was often in the hands of individuals, especially in the hands of the Old Testament kinsman-redeemer.
    • The kinsman-redeemer was the person who was your closest older relative that would save you from debt, save you from the loss of your property, or save you from your enemy.
    • The book of Ruth explains the practice of a kinsman-redeemer.
    • For the New Testament believer, Jesus Christ is our kinsman-redeemer. We are to wait on Him to repay those who persecute us. That recompense for evil done against the believer in Christ may occur in this life, or it may occur in eternity, or both.
• ^“Divers weights are an abomination unto the Lord; and a false balance is not good.” (23)
  • Key words: abomination (hated)
  • We have discussed previously dishonest business practices that include changing weights and balances even a fraction is hated by God because He is a God of truth and honesty.
• “Man’s goings are of the Lord; how can a man then understand his own way?” (24)
  • The first word for “man” in this verse refers to a mighty man of God. The second word for “man” in this verse refers to a human being in general.
  • Therefore, the man that has a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ is a mighty man that knows God guides every aspect and detail of his life
  • However, the human being that does not know God or have a personal relationship with God will not be able to understand his own ways.
    • He will think he knows his own heart.
    • But then something occurs in his life and he will wonder why he acted that way.
    • The Christian must learn the unfolding purposes of God in his life for the indwelling Holy Spirit to guide him in the ways of God. God knows us better than we know ourselves.
• ^“It is a snare to the man who devoureth that which is holy, and after vows to make enquiry.” (25)
  • This is a very strange proverb that specifically began with practices in the Old Testament.
  • “That which is holy” refers to offering something to God as a free-will offering or sacrifice as part of a vow, having dedicated it to God.
    • We have an excellent example of this proverb in the Old Testament.
    • Read Jdg 11:30-35
  • The principle is this: When you promise something to God, it is holy and dedicated to God for God to use as He sees fit. It is important to fulfill your promise because it is snare to take it back.
    • Read Jos 6:17-18 Jos 7:1
    • The entire city of Jericho was such an object dedicated to God as an offering.
    • The Israelites were to burn everything left in the city after they took the city.
    • One man stole something from Jericho and hid it.
    • Because of what that one man did, the Israelites lost the next battle.
    • When the Israelites found the man and the thing he had stolen that belonged to God, he was killed. (Jos 7:15)
  • We have a New Testament example in Act 5 with Ananias and Sapphira.
• ^“A wise king scattereth the wicked, and bringeth the wheel over them.” (26)
  • Key words: wise (believer in Christ); wicked (lawless evil).
  • The phrase, “bringeth the wheel over them” means to punish the lawbreaker. It was an instrument of torture.
  • To punish crime is one of the responsibilities that government leadership has been given by God. (Rom 13:1-4.
  • Of course, the ultimate wise king is Jesus Christ. At His second coming he will destroy the wicked living on the earth so that when He establishes His kingdom for 1000 years, only believers remain. As in Jesus’ parable of the wheat and the tares, (Mat 13:30) the tares (or unbelievers) will be separated from the wheat (the believers).
• ^“The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord, searching all the inward parts of the belly.” (27)
  • The candle is the Holy Spirit living inside of the believer in Jesus Christ.
  • In the Old Testament the Holy Spirit anointed a believer by coming over him so as to perform a specific task. Then the Holy Spirit would leave.
  • Only in the New Testament age of grace do we find the Holy Spirit living inside of a person.
    • The work of the Holy Spirit is to know intimately the character of the believer in whom He lives.
    • We learned in verse 24 that man cannot even understand his own character.
      • However the Holy Spirit has the truth of God and is able to know the truth of man’s character.
      • The Holy Spirit knows our sins and convicts the believer of sin.
  • The believer in Jesus Christ is to let his inner light shine before men in the spiritual darkness of sin.
    • The light inside of the believer in Jesus Christ is the Holy Spirit.
    • He is the candle of the Lord.
• ^“Mercy and truth preserve the king: and his throne is upholden by mercy.” (28)
  • Key words: truth (moral reality); preserve (defend).
  • The king or national leader that is cruel and without mercy will find that his kingdom will not continue for long. A king must have mercy.
  • However, his mercy must be tempered with truth.
    • The word truth in Proverbs has moral reality as its base.
    • It is not just the truth of facts.
    • Only God has the truth of moral reality.
  • Therefore, when the king is a believer and has God’s truth, he will know when to be strict and when to apply mercy.
  • David’s kingdom is the example.
    • David was a believer reigning with the moral truth of God. His kingdom was known for truth and mercy.
    • Because of that, God promised that Jesus Christ, the ultimate King would come through the lineage of David and rule forever in truth and mercy.
• ^“The glory of young men is their strength: and the beauty of old men is the grey head.” (29)
  • We have seen previous proverbs dealing with old men with grey hair as being the example of wisdom gained through years of experience.
  • Read 1Tim 4:7-8
  • The message to young men is that exercising godliness is better than exercising the body to gain physical strength.
    • The example in the Bible is Samson that did not seek godliness.
    • He used his strength for his own glory.
• ^“The blueness of a wound cleanseth away evil: so do stripes the inward parts of the belly.” (30)
  • Key words: stripes (punishment).
  • The phrase Stripes in the “inward parts of the belly” refers to God’s punishment in man’s inner being.
    • This is the punishment that the indwelling Holy Spirit accomplishes in the believer.
    • When the believer reads the Word of God, the Holy Spirit uses the Word to convict the believer of sin.
    • The anguish of the soul that knows he has displeased God is the bruise or “blueness of a wound”.
    • Notice the result of God’s inward punishment is to cleanse away evil.
      • That is the work of the Holy Spirit to convict of sin so as to make you a better person, more like Christ. (Joh 16:8)
      • When the believer feels the conviction of the Holy Spirit, he is to repent and receive forgiveness.
      • Read 1Joh 1:9
• Summary and application:
  • We see two proverbs that deal with God’s inner work in man.
    • Verse 20 refers to a person’s “lamp”.
      • The Holy Spirit is the breath of life. (Joh 20:22) When a person is born he receives a breath of life and God lights his lamp of physical life.
      • When a person is “born again” by receiving Jesus Christ into his heart and life, the Holy Spirit comes to live inside of him, and God lights his lamp of spiritual life. He now has the light of Christ in him because the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of life. (Rom 8:10 2Cor 3:6)
    • Verse 30 refers to the inner punishment of the Holy Spirit.
      • Because the Hoy Spirit is the Spirit of truth, He knows us better than we know ourselves.
      • The Holy Spirit reveals truth to us as He convicts us of sin.
  • For all that the Holy Spirit does for us from physical birth to spiritual birth, to conviction of sin that brings moral holiness to our character we owe a lot to the Holy Spirit, our helper.
  • The best way to demonstrate our appreciation for the work of the Holy Spirit in us is to cooperate with Him to accomplish what God wants to do in us.

Homework
Proverbs 21:1-16

• Application of Pro 20:16-30
  • What have you learned about the work of the Holy Spirit in the inner part of man?
  • What have you experienced of the work of the Holy Spirit inside of you?
  • How well do you cooperate with the Holy Spirit?
• Preparation for Pro 21:1-16
  • Read Pro 21:1-16
    • Find a proverb that tells you about a sin.
    • Find the proverb that tells you what is more valuable to God than sacrifice.
    • Find a proverb that describes the sovereignty of God.
    • Find the proverb that tells you what a wise person receives when God instructs him.
• Memory Verse: Choose a verse to memorize in Pro 21:1-16 that encourages you and explain why you chose it.