FBC Daily Devotions

Intelligence Outranks Muscle

19

 ^1-2 Don’t envy bad people;
   don’t even want to be around them.
All they think about is causing a disturbance;
   all they talk about is making trouble.

20

 ^3-4 It takes wisdom to build a house,
   and understanding to set it on a firm foundation;
It takes knowledge to furnish its rooms
   with fine furniture and beautiful draperies.

21

 ^5-6 It’s better to be wise than strong;
   intelligence outranks muscle any day.
Strategic planning is the key to warfare;
   to win, you need a lot of good counsel.

22

 ⁷ Wise conversation is way over the head of fools;
   in a serious discussion they haven’t a clue.

23

 ^8-9 The person who’s always cooking up some evil
   soon gets a reputation as prince of rogues.
Fools incubate sin;
   cynics desecrate beauty.

Rescue the Perishing

24

 ¹⁰ If you fall to pieces in a crisis,
   there wasn’t much to you in the first place.

25

 ^11-12 Rescue the perishing;
   don’t hesitate to step in and help.
If you say, “Hey, that’s none of my business,”
   will that get you off the hook?
Someone is watching you closely, you know—
   Someone not impressed with weak excuses.

26

 ^13-14 Eat honey, dear child—it’s good for you—
   and delicacies that melt in your mouth.
Likewise knowledge,
   and wisdom for your soul—
Get that and your future’s secured,
   your hope is on solid rock.

27

 ^15-16 Don’t interfere with good people’s lives;
   don’t try to get the best of them.
No matter how many times you trip them up,
   God-loyal people don’t stay down long;
Soon they’re up on their feet,
   while the wicked end up flat on their faces.

28

 ^17-18 Don’t laugh when your enemy falls;
   don’t crow over his collapse.
God might see, and become very provoked,
   and then take pity on his plight.

29

 ^19-20 Don’t bother your head with braggarts
   or wish you could succeed like the wicked.
Those people have no future at all;
   they’re headed down a dead-end street.

30

 ^21-22 Fear God, dear child—respect your leaders;
   don’t be defiant or mutinous.
Without warning your life can turn upside down,
   and who knows how or when it might happen?

More Sayings of the Wise

An Honest Answer

 ²³ It’s wrong, very wrong,
   to go along with injustice.

 ^24-25 Whoever whitewashes the wicked
   gets a black mark in the history books,
But whoever exposes the wicked
   will be thanked and rewarded.

 ²⁶ An honest answer
   is like a warm hug.

 ²⁷ First plant your fields;
   then build your barn.

 ^28-29 Don’t talk about your neighbors behind their backs—
   no slander or gossip, please.
Don’t say to anyone, “I’ll get back at you for what you did to me.
   I’ll make you pay for what you did!”

 ^30-34 One day I walked by the field of an old lazybones,
   and then passed the vineyard of a lout;
They were overgrown with weeds,
   thick with thistles, all the fences broken down.
I took a long look and pondered what I saw;
   the fields preached me a sermon and I listened:
“A nap here, a nap there, a day off here, a day off there,
   sit back, take it easy—do you know what comes next?
Just this: You can look forward to a dirt-poor life,
   with poverty as your permanent houseguest!”

Restrain Yourself

6

 ^1-3 When you go out to dinner with an influential person,
   mind your manners:
Don’t gobble your food,
   don’t talk with your mouth full.
And don’t stuff yourself;
   bridle your appetite.

7

 ^4-5 Don’t wear yourself out trying to get rich;
   restrain yourself!
Riches disappear in the blink of an eye;
   wealth sprouts wings
   and flies off into the wild blue yonder.

8

 ^6-8 Don’t accept a meal from a tightwad;
   don’t expect anything special.
He’ll be as stingy with you as he is with himself;
   he’ll say, “Eat! Drink!” but won’t mean a word of it.
His miserly serving will turn your stomach
   when you realize the meal’s a sham.

9

 ⁹ Don’t bother talking sense to fools;
   they’ll only poke fun at your words.

10

 ^10-11 Don’t stealthily move back the boundary lines
   or cheat orphans out of their property,
For they have a powerful Advocate
   who will go to bat for them.

11

 ¹² Give yourselves to disciplined instruction;
   open your ears to tested knowledge.

12

 ^13-14 Don’t be afraid to correct your young ones;
   a spanking won’t kill them.
A good spanking, in fact, might save them
   from something worse than death.

13

 ^15-16 Dear child, if you become wise,
   I’ll be one happy parent.
My heart will dance and sing
   to the tuneful truth you’ll speak.

14

 ^17-18 Don’t for a minute envy careless rebels;
   soak yourself in the Fear-of-God—
That’s where your future lies.
   Then you won’t be left with an armload of nothing.

15

 ^19-21 Oh listen, dear child—become wise;
   point your life in the right direction.
Don’t drink too much wine and get drunk;
   don’t eat too much food and get fat.
Drunks and gluttons will end up on skid row,
   in a stupor and dressed in rags.

Buy Wisdom, Education, Insight

16

 ^22-25 Listen with respect to the father who raised you,
   and when your mother grows old, don’t neglect her.
Buy truth—don’t sell it for love or money;
   buy wisdom, buy education, buy insight.
Parents rejoice when their children turn out well;
   wise children become proud parents.
So make your father happy!
   Make your mother proud!

17

 ²⁶ Dear child, I want your full attention;
   please do what I show you.

 ^27-28 A whore is a bottomless pit;
   a loose woman can get you in deep trouble fast.
She’ll take you for all you’ve got;
   she’s worse than a pack of thieves.

18

 ^29-35 Who are the people who are always crying the blues?
   Who do you know who reeks of self-pity?
Who keeps getting beat up for no reason at all?
   Whose eyes are bleary and bloodshot?
It’s those who spend the night with a bottle,
   for whom drinking is serious business.
Don’t judge wine by its label,
   or its bouquet, or its full-bodied flavor.
Judge it rather by the hangover it leaves you with—
   the splitting headache, the queasy stomach.
Do you really prefer seeing double,
   with your speech all slurred,
Reeling and seasick,
   drunk as a sailor?
“They hit me,” you’ll say, “but it didn’t hurt;
   they beat on me, but I didn’t feel a thing.
When I’m sober enough to manage it,
   bring me another drink!”

The Cure Comes Through Discipline

 ¹ A sterling reputation is better than striking it rich;
   a gracious spirit is better than money in the bank.

 ² The rich and the poor shake hands as equals—
   God made them both!

 ³ A prudent person sees trouble coming and ducks;
   a simpleton walks in blindly and is clobbered.

 ⁴ The payoff for meekness and Fear-of-God
   is plenty and honor and a satisfying life.

 ⁵ The perverse travel a dangerous road, potholed and mud-slick;
   if you know what’s good for you, stay clear of it.

 ⁶ Point your kids in the right direction—
   when they’re old they won’t be lost.

 ⁷ The poor are always ruled over by the rich,
   so don’t borrow and put yourself under their power.

 ⁸ Whoever sows sin reaps weeds,
   and bullying anger sputters into nothing.

 ⁹ Generous hands are blessed hands
   because they give bread to the poor.

 ¹⁰ Kick out the troublemakers and things will quiet down;
   you need a break from bickering and griping!

 ¹¹ God loves the pure-hearted and well-spoken;
   good leaders also delight in their friendship.

 ¹² God guards knowledge with a passion,
   but he’ll have nothing to do with deception.

 ¹³ The loafer says, “There’s a lion on the loose!
   If I go out I’ll be eaten alive!”

 ¹⁴ The mouth of a whore is a bottomless pit;
   you’ll fall in that pit if you’re on the outs with God.

 ¹⁵ Young people are prone to foolishness and fads;
   the cure comes through tough-minded discipline.

 ¹⁶ Exploit the poor or glad-hand the rich—whichever,
   you’ll end up the poorer for it.

The Thirty Precepts of the Sages

Don’t Move Back the Boundary Lines

 ^17-21 Listen carefully to my wisdom;
   take to heart what I can teach you.
You’ll treasure its sweetness deep within;
   you’ll give it bold expression in your speech.
To make sure your foundation is trust in God,
   I’m laying it all out right now just for you.
I’m giving you thirty sterling principles—
   tested guidelines to live by.
Believe me—these are truths that work,
   and will keep you accountable
   to those who sent you.

1

 ^22-23 Don’t walk on the poor just because they’re poor,
   and don’t use your position to crush the weak,
Because God will come to their defense;
   the life you took, he’ll take from you and give back to them.

2

 ^24-25 Don’t hang out with angry people;
   don’t keep company with hotheads.
Bad temper is contagious—
   don’t get infected.

3

 ^26-27 Don’t gamble on the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow,
   hocking your house against a lucky chance.
The time will come when you have to pay up;
   you’ll be left with nothing but the shirt on your back.

4

 ²⁸ Don’t stealthily move back the boundary lines
   staked out long ago by your ancestors.

5

 ²⁹ Observe people who are good at their work—
   skilled workers are always in demand and admired;
   they don’t take a backseat to anyone.

If You Quit Listening

 ¹ Better to be poor and honest
   than a rich person no one can trust.

 ² Ignorant zeal is worthless;
   haste makes waste.

 ³ People ruin their lives by their own stupidity,
   so why does God always get blamed?

 ⁴ Wealth attracts friends as honey draws flies,
   but poor people are avoided like a plague.

 ⁵ Perjury won’t go unpunished.
   Would you let a liar go free?

 ⁶ Lots of people flock around a generous person;
   everyone’s a friend to the philanthropist.

 ⁷ When you’re down on your luck, even your family avoids you—
   yes, even your best friends wish you’d get lost.
If they see you coming, they look the other way—
   out of sight, out of mind.

 ⁸ Grow a wise heart—you’ll do yourself a favor;
   keep a clear head—you’ll find a good life.

 ⁹ The person who tells lies gets caught;
   the person who spreads rumors is ruined.

 ¹⁰ Blockheads shouldn’t live on easy street
   any more than workers should give orders to their boss.

 ¹¹ Smart people know how to hold their tongue;
   their grandeur is to forgive and forget.

 ¹² Mean-tempered leaders are like mad dogs;
   the good-natured are like fresh morning dew.

 ¹³ A parent is worn to a frazzle by a stupid child;
   a nagging spouse is a leaky faucet.

 ¹⁴ House and land are handed down from parents,
   but a congenial spouse comes straight from God.

 ¹⁵ Life collapses on loafers;
   lazybones go hungry.

 ¹⁶ Keep the rules and keep your life;
   careless living kills.

 ¹⁷ Mercy to the needy is a loan to God,
   and God pays back those loans in full.

 ¹⁸ Discipline your children while you still have the chance;
   indulging them destroys them.

 ¹⁹ Let angry people endure the backlash of their own anger;
   if you try to make it better, you’ll only make it worse.

 ²⁰ Take good counsel and accept correction—
   that’s the way to live wisely and well.

 ²¹ We humans keep brainstorming options and plans,
   but God‘s purpose prevails.

 ²² It’s only human to want to make a buck,
   but it’s better to be poor than a liar.

 ²³ Fear-of-God is life itself,
   a full life, and serene—no nasty surprises.

 ²⁴ Some people dig a fork into the pie
   but are too lazy to raise it to their mouth.

 ²⁵ Punish the insolent—make an example of them.
   Who knows? Somebody might learn a good lesson.

 ²⁶ Kids who lash out against their parents
   are an embarrassment and disgrace.

 ²⁷ If you quit listening, dear child, and strike off on your own,
   you’ll soon be out of your depth.

 ²⁸ An unprincipled witness desecrates justice;
   the mouths of the wicked spew malice.

 ²⁹ The irreverent have to learn reverence the hard way;
   only a slap in the face brings fools to attention.

Words Kill, Words Give Life

 ¹ Loners who care only for themselves
   spit on the common good.

 ² Fools care nothing for thoughtful discourse;
   all they do is run off at the mouth.

 ³ When wickedness arrives, shame’s not far behind;
   contempt for life is contemptible.

 ⁴ Many words rush along like rivers in flood,
   but deep wisdom flows up from artesian springs.

 ⁵ It’s not right to go easy on the guilty,
   or come down hard on the innocent.

 ⁶ The words of a fool start fights;
   do him a favor and gag him.

 ⁷ Fools are undone by their big mouths;
   their souls are crushed by their words.

 ⁸ Listening to gossip is like eating cheap candy;
   do you really want junk like that in your belly?

 ⁹ Slack habits and sloppy work
   are as bad as vandalism.

 ¹⁰ God‘s name is a place of protection—
   good people can run there and be safe.

 ¹¹ The rich think their wealth protects them;
   they imagine themselves safe behind it.

 ¹² Pride first, then the crash,
   but humility is precursor to honor.

 ¹³ Answering before listening
   is both stupid and rude.

 ¹⁴ A healthy spirit conquers adversity,
   but what can you do when the spirit is crushed?

 ¹⁵ Wise men and women are always learning,
   always listening for fresh insights.

 ¹⁶ A gift gets attention;
   it buys the attention of eminent people.

 ¹⁷ The first speech in a court case is always convincing—
   until the cross-examination starts!

 ¹⁸ You may have to draw straws
   when faced with a tough decision.

 ¹⁹ Do a favor and win a friend forever;
   nothing can untie that bond.

 ²⁰ Words satisfy the mind as much as fruit does the stomach;
   good talk is as gratifying as a good harvest.

 ²¹ Words kill, words give life;
   they’re either poison or fruit—you choose.

 ²² Find a good spouse, you find a good life—
   and even more: the favor of God!

 ²³ The poor speak in soft supplications;
   the rich bark out answers.

 ²⁴ Friends come and friends go,
   but a true friend sticks by you like family.