Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Reason Behind the Rules | The Writings | Proverbs 21

Episode Date: October 16, 2024

Are there reasons behind God's rules? Are his commands good for me? Why should I submit to God's authority? In today's episode, Jensen shares how Proverbs 21 reminds us that God is the Wise King who is worthy of our obedience. Read the Bible with us in 2024! This year, we’re tackling a group of Old Testament books traditionally known as “The Writings”— Psalms, Chronicles, Proverbs, Daniel, Ruth and more! Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Proverbs 21

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. And the time it takes to get to work. I'm Jensen Holt McNair. I live in a home with two toddlers, so my life is surrounded by chaos and a little Australian dog named Bluey. Now, I know that not everyone listening has had the privilege of watching Bluey, and I really don't mean that sarcastically. Bluey is as much a joy for me as it is for my toddlers. But bear with me for a second, while I recount an episode that we recently watched together. So, Bluey and Bingo are two sisters, and they're spending the day with their dad, Bandit. And the episode begins with Bluey asking her dad, why do you always boss us around all the time? To which Bandit responds, I thought we

already learned this. When I ask you to do something, I'm trying to help you. But Bluey and Bingo decide that that can't be the case, and they would like their father to stop bossing them around. Bandit struggles to explain to them that he isn't trying to boss them around. He's trying to help them. But they just don't get it. So while they're on the way to pick up a surfboard, the Bandit has been wanting, Bandit decides that he doesn't want the GPS to boss him around anymore. He turns the wrong way.

He doesn't listen when she tells him to turn around. They end up lost. And instead of pulling up to the house where his new surfboard is waiting, Bandit pulls up to the gates of a cemetery. Disappointed he isn't where he wants to go, Bluey and Bingo explain to their dad that if he wants to get where they're supposed to be going, he has to listen to the GPS. She's bossing him around for a good reason. So he gives it a go. He follows the GPS's instructions, even when he doesn't want to, and he ends up with a new surfboard to show for it.

Now, I am certain that the moral of the story and the symbolism of the graveyard was love. lost on my three-year-old. But I couldn't miss it. Maybe it's because we've been going through Proverbs, but I just kept seeing how this episode of Bluey hit on a major theme throughout the Proverbs. When we don't want to be bossed around or follow rules or be told what to do, when we want to forge our own paths and ignore the warnings of wisdom, we end up on a road that leads to death. We don't get to where we want to go. But when we heed the rules, when we understand that the rules aren't arbitrary, the warnings are to help us, to guide us, to show us the way to go that brings about flourishing. In the end, we get to where we were made to go.

We find life. Proverbs 21 opens and closes with reminding us of God's sovereignty, that he's the one in control. The first two verses open saying, in the Lord's hand the king's heart is a stream of water that he channels towards all who please him a person may think their own ways are right but the Lord weighs the heart and the final two verses conclude with this there is no wisdom no insight no plan that can succeed against the Lord the house horse the horse the horse is made ready for the day of battle but victory rests with the Lord. Now, if we think of this chapter of Proverbs like a sandwich, all of the rules, all of the proverbs, the guiding wisdom for how you and I should live, is held together. It's surrounded by

these reminders. The book of Proverbs is obviously full of wisdom, but I think especially in this chapter, we see wisdom portrayed not only through the direct words we read, but also in the symbolic structure of the chapter itself. See, I think it can be easy to take individual proverbs or sections of the proverbs that give us instruction for how to live lives of wisdom and be irked by them. Similar to Bluey and Bingo, sometimes when I read individual proverbs, my gut reaction is to want to say, don't boss me around. Why do you always get to tell me, don't do this, don't do that. I chafe at them. I want to justify and defend the way. that my life sometimes lines up with the wicked and the foolish. It doesn't shock me that I feel

this way at times, and it wouldn't shock me if you said you felt this way at times. If you live in the West, you live in a highly individualized society, a society that tells you to forge your own path, to do what feels right, to trust your own intuition, to do what's best for you, that the ultimate good you can do for your life is to be authentic to yourself, your desires, and your feelings. Find yourself and never let her go. And so, there really isn't anything appealing about a book of the Bible that's full of rules, guidelines, and wisdom for how to live your life God's way. I want to live my life my way. Not only that, but I am surrounded by voices telling me that to bow to someone else's ideas, plans, rules for my life is wrong, toxic, and harmful to my own flourishing.

But Proverbs 21 and a certain episode of Flewey have reminded me of the bigger story at work. With the first two verses of Proverbs 21, we are reminded of a truth about the world that we live in. God is sovereign, even over the king's will. Like the path of a stream he can bring blessing in the direction that he chooses. People will decide what is right by their own thoughts and feelings, but the Lord weighs the heart. He judges using steady, dependable, trustworthy methods. As creator of all things, he is the only one who can accurately decide right from wrong. And it is this truth that must be our lens through which we read everything else. See, God isn't bossing us around for his own sadistic benefit. He isn't control.

or manipulative. He isn't overbearing or restrictive. He's your creator. He made you to live in a certain way and he's given you these rules, these warnings, these proverbs to help you. He's showing you how to live lives of wisdom so that you can flourish. Because the final two verses of chapter 21 remind us of what is to come with a glimpse of the future. No wisdom, no insight, no plan can succeed. against the Lord. No matter how wise, thoughtful, or successful someone's advice may seem, if it goes against the wisdom of the Lord, it will not succeed. In the end, the wicked will not prosper. They will not find their place in the kingdom of God. Victory rests with the Lord. Victory is found in his wisdom. He is the one who weighs the heart. He's the arbiter of justice,

and so it does not matter how we feel about his wisdom or what we think might be better, we're not creators of the universe. We're not sovereign. We're not all good, all-knowing, all-powerful beings. If we want to follow true wisdom, if we want to live in the land of the living with the king of all creation, if we want to flourish in the way we are created as human beings, then we must submit ourselves to the wisdom, rules, and direction of our God. He tells us what to out of the kindness, generosity, and goodness of who he is. He does it to help us. If we have that bigger story in sight, if we keep our eyes fixed on the kingdom of God, if we want to live forever in the glory and majesty of our creator, in a city alive with joy and resting in peace,

in a land full of mercy and life, then we have to be willing to submit to the direction of the one who created us. In a world that's telling us that we know what is best, it won't be easy. In Matthew 7, Jesus teaches this, enter through the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it, but small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. Now, I've often read this to mean that only a few will find their way into the kingdom of God. But recently I read a book from John Mark Homer where he described this metaphor in a different way, one that I think is really enlightening. He said that the way of destruction is wide, not just because there are more people on it,

but because there are many ways to walk towards destruction. Every person doing what they think is best. There's a plethora of beliefs and ideologies and paths to follow that will all lead you to destruction. But the way of wisdom, the way that leads to life is narrow, not because if you walk on it, but because it's a specific way of living. The only way to life is through Jesus. There's only one true gospel. It is the way that Jesus lived his life here on earth, guided by the wisdom, rules, and righteousness of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. There's only one true way to live that will bring about human flourishing one way that produces life that ends in the kingdom of God. It is easier in the beginning to just do what you want when you want to, but it will not

bring life. In the end, you will slowly forge your own path to destruction. If you want to flourish and find life, then you must heed the wisdom found in the Proverbs, the wisdom of God. You cannot chafe at his direction, you cannot ignore his warnings, you cannot proudly declare yourself to be the forger of your own pathway. You must faithfully follow the rules of the only one who will bring you into glory with him forever. When you understand the bigger picture, when you see where the pathway of wisdom leads you, you will no longer see these rules as burdens, but as helpful, merciful, merciful guidance from a father. Creator and king, who loves you and wants you to flourish in His kingdom.