TRUNEWS with Rick Wiles - Date: August 13, 2026. Lesson 159-2026. Title: Surety's Folly and the Curse of Loud Praise

Episode Date: August 13, 2026

In today’s Morning Manna, Rick Wiles and Doc Burkhart examine Proverbs 27:13–14 and two very different mistakes with the same underlying problem: good intentions operating without wisdom. Solomon warns against reckless financial entanglements and then shows how even a sincere blessing can become a curse when delivered at the wrong time and in the wrong manner. This lesson draws a crucial distinction between generosity and recklessness, sincerity and discernment, reminding believers that biblical wisdom considers more than our motives. Genuine love requires us to consider the consequences of our decisions and how our words and actions will actually affect the people receiving them. Lesson 159-2026 Teachers: Rick Wiles and Doc Burkhart You can partner with us by visiting MannaNation.com, calling 1-888-519-4935, or by mail at PO Box 399 Vero Beach, FL 32961 MEGA FIRE reveals the ancient recurring cycles of war and economic collapse that have shaped history for 600 years. These patterns predict America is now entering its most dangerous period since World War II. Get your copy today! www.megafire.world Get high-quality emergency preparedness food today from American Reserves! www.AmericanReserves.com It’s the Final Day! The day Jesus Christ bursts into our dimension of time, space, and matter. Now available in eBook and audio formats! Order Final Day from Amazon today! www.Amazon.com/Final-Day Apple users, you can download the audio version on Apple Books! www.books.apple.com/final-day Purchase the 4-part DVD set or start streaming Sacrificing Liberty today. www.Sacrificingliberty.com

Welcome to Morning Manor. Welcome to Morning Manas. Your teachers, Reckwiles and Dr. Burkla. Get your Bible and get ready to hear as you've never heard it before. I've got some questions for you. Does your soul have hunger pains? Are you searching for something meaningful to satisfy your soul's life? longing? Are you thirsty for righteousness? If you answered yes, you've come to the right place,

because this is morning manor. And we feed hungry and thirsty souls. We feed them the word of God. In Psalm 119, verse 103, King David declared, how sweet are thy words unto thy taste. Yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth. I think David knew what his soul was searching for. The only thing that was satisfy his hunger. And he said God's word was sweeter than honey in his mouth. The next question I need to ask you is, does God's word taste sweeter than honey to you?

That's something a question you can answer. I cannot make you desire the Word of God. You must have that desire within you. This Bible study is not for everyone. And so if you move on, go to another video, switch the TV channel, that's you right, that's your decision. And I respect it. But it's not going to affect me.

It will affect you. It's not going to affect me. When flies swarm over a pile of rotted decaying food, bees don't stop their work and beg the flies to taste their honey. Flies like the taste of decayed, rotted food. They like feces. They like a lot of stuff that's not good to eat. So why beg them to taste honey?

What does your soul feed on? Facebook, Rumble, YouTube, Instagram, X. Satan has, he offers a lot of decayed rotting food. And when you get tired of one plate of rotted food, Satan will bring you another one. People swarm over and think this stuff is good. Meanwhile, heaven's kitchen. is serving soul food. For who?

For those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Each of us must decide every day which food line we are going to stand in. So what's on our menu today? Today's special is Proverbs 27 verses 13 and 14. And the theme is purity's folly in the curse of loud praise. Let's pray and invite the Holy Spirit who is the president of this Bible class. And then Dr. Raymond Burckhardt will introduce today's lesson. Almighty God, our Father in heaven.

Father, we come to you as your sons and daughters, hungry and thirsty for righteousness and desiring to be fed by your Spirit. So Holy Spirit, take charge of this Bible study and bring forth wisdom. wisdom and truth and understanding, open the eyes and ears of every person watching or listening to this program and bless them with your word. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Welcome, everyone, to this edition of Morning Manna. Today's lesson number is 159-2026, and we're so privileged to have you studying the book of Proverbs with us. We continue our study in Proverbs chapter 27 by looking at verses 13 and 14 today, I have to say up front, I've been a student of the Bible for now nearly 47 years.

It's hard to believe that. I turned 62 this year, and I started studying the scriptures when I was 15. I don't know how many times I've been through the book of Proverbs, how many times I've read the book of Proverbs, and came across these verses today for study and saw things I've never seen before. And I hope that you do today as well. Let's read together Proverbs chapter 27 verses 13 and 14, and let's see what the Holy Spirit has to say to us today. Verse 13 reads from the King James first, Take his garment that is surety for a stranger and take a pledge of him for a strange woman. He that blesseth his friend with a loud voice rising early in the morning, yet shall be counted a curse to it.

And now the Septuagint, take away the garment of him that has. has ruined a stranger's estate, for whereas he has behaved disgracefully, take a pledge from him. Whoever blesses a friend loudly in the morning will seem no better than one who reviles him. This fascinating pair of scriptures here today, and if you have to have a common theme between these two verses today, Rick, it's two proverbs of misjudged social conduct. actions that on the surface appear generous and appear well-intentioned, but wisdom exposes as reckless in the first case and tasteless and tactless in the second. So in verse 13 today, we're going to be addressing the financial recklessness that's embedded there.

A man who has pledged himself as a surety for a stranger or worse for a strange woman and has made himself liable for someone else's debt with no relational foundation to justify the risk. And wisdom counsel is severe urging that his own garment the coat off his back be seized as the pledge that he offered. And then in verse 14, it addresses the social miscalculation in an entirely different register, a man who blesses his friend at the wrong volume.

and the wrong hour, signs his well-meaning gesture received not as kindness, but as it's opposite, a curse rather than a blessing. A fascinating verse here. Now, though the subject matter varies greatly between the two verses,

money in one verse, and manners and social conduct in the second, both proverbs share a single underlying concern. Here's what I want you to get today. actions that are technically well-intentioned, good motives, or at least not maliciously motivated, can nonetheless be genuinely foolish. And wisdom does not excuse folly,

simply because it wears a friendly face. Today's lesson is going to encourage us to examine not only our motives, but our judgment as well, because you need to listen carefully here. Good intentions. Good intentions without wisdom governing their execution can produce financial ruin in one case and the loss of a friend in another.

So Rick starts off our lesson today as we dive into verse 13, Rick. Are you ready? I'm ready, Doc. Verse 13, the King James says, take his garment that is surety for a stranger and take a pledge of him for a strange woman. This repeats slightly different,

this slightly different phraseology, but it repeats a proverb that we studied many months ago in chapter 26, which was verse 16. And it's this theme that Solomon keeps coming back to. As we've said before, Solomon didn't have dementia. He didn't have forgetfulness. He didn't forget that he said this proverb earlier. He repeated proverbs because they were important.

And he was driving to point home to his students. These things that I repeat are critically important to you. So once again, he's talking about purity. The Hebrew word is Arav. Surety is collateral. Okay. Loan companies and banks require collateral. And so when you co-sign a loan for somebody, you become the collateral.

Amen. Doc, I never thought about it until this season of doing proverbs. I mean, I knew what these proverbs were talking about. You know, don't co-sign loans. But I didn't perceive it until the past year that, We become the collateral. You know, putting up, it's not a house, a car, an asset. You become the collateral for the other person's loan.

You're right. The lender requires collateral. What do you got for collateral? Hey, I've got my friend. I got my uncle. Yeah. You're putting your friend up for collateral. That's what you're doing.

And what are they saying? He pays his bills on time. He's your collateral. What puts it in a different perspective, doesn't it? The person who cannot get a loan on their own credit says, I will put up as collateral a man or woman who pays their bills on time and has good credit. And the banker says, that's good enough for us? Once again, Solomon says, don't sign a loan.

Don't commit yourself to somebody else's loan. to somebody else's debt. Especially a stranger. Especially a stranger. Yeah. Especially a stranger. Okay. So to be surety, to be collateral means legally guarantee another person's debt.

You are guaranteeing yourself that you're going to pay somebody else's debt. So if the borrower defaults, the guarant her, who is the surety becomes personally liable for the full amount of the loan. Now, Proverbs Solomon treats this as one of the most dangerous financial decisions a person can make, especially, as Doc said, when the debtor is not well known. So, Doug, I have to think about why, why does Solomon repeat this warning multiple times throughout Proverbs? I think because as the king, you know, as the king, he was also the chief justice of the Supreme Court. And I have to imagine that he saw a lot of sad cases come before his court, where he had to take somebody's property from them who had signed a loan for another person.

And I think he probably shook his head each time and said, that was so foolish of them. I hated to take their property from them, but they pledged themselves as a surety for this other person's law. And then the ones that really surprised him was when he said, how do you know this person? Well, I don't really know him that much, but we kind of entered into a deal. Yeah. I'm sure King Solison. Oh, man, this was really dumb. And then the next one, he says,

and take a pledge of him for a strange woman. This is a strange woman. It's not talking about a weirdo. You know, this is, you've got to understand it's what a strange woman is, okay? First of all, a stranger in the biblical term of a stranger is, is anyone outside of the covenant of God. So a stranger is anyone outside the covenant.

The person being guaranteed is unknown, untested. They are outside any relationship that would allow the guarantor to reasonably assess the risk that he or she is taking on. So first he says, don't take on. Don't take on the debt of a stranger. And then he adds to it.

And don't take a pledge for a strange woman. He intensifies it. He intensifies the folly. Adding to the financial recklessness, the danger of moral entanglement. Right. What this means is he's saying, you've gone beyond pledging yourself

to pay the debt of a. stranger, you're now pledging the debt of an immoral person who's also a stranger. It's doubly dumb. You're pledging to take on the debt of a stranger who is immoral. How many people, it probably says people right now are going to go, oh, my, oh, what should ever do to do that? Right. How many of you ever got entangled in a bad business deal with someone that turned out to be a crook? It hurt, didn't it?

You lost because you got entangled with a stranger who was immoral. Immoral doesn't necessarily mean that they're committing adultery and sexual sins and all kinds. It can also mean they are liars, they're deceivers. They're not trustworthy. They scam people. So guaranteeing a debt for an immoral and unfamiliar woman compounds the financial risk with well-documented dangers. And we read about this in Proverbs chapters five, six, seven. The instruction then, take his garment.

very severe. Now, to us today, it doesn't sound like anything bad, but in today's world, it would be take his house. Right. Well, that would hurt. I mean, somebody come in here and taking my coat, doc. Okay, I'll go get another coat. Right. But if someone came and took your house, takes my house, now you've put the hurt on me. Because I can't just go out and get another house, especially if I still owe money on the house he took. Because now you're in double trouble. You don't have your asset, but you owe for it. And so back in those ancient times, a person's cloak, their garment was one of their most

valuable physical assets. And to take the cloak, to take the garment was literally to strip somebody. In Exodus 22, verses 26, 27, God gave very specific warnings to Moses about not allowing people's garments to be taken. Matthew Henry, that great Presbyterian theologian of the 1700s, he observed that the severity of this counsel from Proverbs 277 is meant to impress upon you and me, how seriously Scripture regards this particular folly, the foolishness of pledging

yourself to pay somebody else's debt, that a person unwilling to exercise ordinary financial caution regarding an unknown party has in a real sense invited the loss that follows. In other words, you brought it upon yourself and that wisdom does not counsel rescue from a fate that the person's own carelessness secured. You brought it on yourself and you're going to pay the price for it. And so, Rick, the theological application here in verse 13 really extends to the broader biblical doctrine of financial prudence and financial clarity as an expression of wisdom rather than merely a practical or secular concern. Say, this is an extension of who you are. It's not just good financial advice. And I think a lot of times people miss that in Proverbs. Proverbs has a lot of great business wisdom,

but it only has true wisdom if it's coming from a spiritual perspective. And that's what Solomon's trying to get across you too. Now, in Proverbs chapter 22, verses 26 and 27, there's a passage there that parallels this one. And it gives a fuller warning. It says, be not thou one of them that strike hands or of them that are sureties for deads. If thou has nothing to pay, why should he take thy dead from under thee? So the same idea there. the consequence of this careless endorsement in surety is named explicitly as the loss of one's most basic possessions, your bed, your cloak, exactly as verse 13 describes here. Now, in the New Testament, Romans 13, verse 8, it gives the New Testament's positive counterpart to this warning.

He says, oh, no man anything but to love one another. that's enough of an obligation in itself there. So the general biblical posture toward debt and financial obligation is one of caution and clear-headedness, not because generosity is wrong. That's not what we're saying, but because reckless financial management and reckless financial entanglement entered without adequate knowledge or relationship, that's what's missing here, tends to produce harm rather than help for everybody involved. And so the distinction that must be drawn carefully here

between wise generosity and reckless guarantee. Scripture elsewhere commends genuine sacrificial giving, lending to the poor, bearing one another's burdens like we read in Galatian 6-2, none of which this proverb doesn't condemn any of that, what verse 13 specifically warns against is the entanglement that one self-fines themselves in and financial liability for a person they don't actually know, at least don't actually know well enough to assess and to really count

and motivated more by either societal pressure or emotional response or desire to appear generous, which comes from Bride, then by genuine informed relationship. And so the application for those that are watching and listening here on Morning Manor Tuts, things like co-signing loans, guaranteeing debts for casual acquaintances,

entering financial partnerships with people known only superficially, situations that remain as common and as dangerous in the modern world today as they were in Solomon's Day. That's what's fascinating here, Rick. So the wise course is not refusal of all financial help to others, but really a careful assessment of whom one actually knows well enough to reasonably guarantee. I think that's one of the core messages there to make you stop and think, Do I really know this person enough to sign my name to them to endorse it?

It's a great question to ask, Rick. Yeah. And, Doc, I think when it comes to someone you don't know or you barely know, I don't think there's even any discussion about what you should do. It's just a big no. No, don't do it. But what about the people you know? close friends, family members.

So I would just share with our classmates, my personal policy that if a relative, someone in the family comes to me and wants me to co-sign a loan, say, for an automobile, a pickup truck. for their raid. They need a vehicle, a van, something like that. Doc, my policy is to say to them, if you need a co-signer,

obviously your credit is weak, and that's something that we should be talking about. Why is your credit weak? your credit is usually weak because you have a history of not paying your bills on time. Right. Okay. Now, it could be that they're young and they don't have any credit. I get that.

Sometimes, you know, they're right out of school and they want to get a car. They don't have a credit record and so they need some help. But what I do, Doc, is my approach is, well, the lender, ordinarily will approve the loan without a cosigner if there is a bigger down payment. Why don't you go ask the lender what size down payment you need that they would give you the loan without a cosigner? Right. And then come back and tell me.

And Doc, if that amount is something that I can handle, then what I do, is give the money. I give it. I don't loan it. I'll give you this money as your down payment. You don't owe it to me. This is my gift to you. I am not going to co-sign a loan. I'm not going to co-sign a loan. I will give you this money for a down payment. Then you're on your own to pay your bill, but I'll do what I can do to help you get to downpaying. That I think is a safer approach to take with people in your family, close friends, these are not strangers. Again, the answer to for strangers, no, no, no, not going to happen. Not going to go there, okay?

But when it comes to people in your family and your close associates, you've got to take a different approach. I still wouldn't sign alone, but maybe you could help them in another way, like helping and get a larger down payment. Well, let's take a look at what the Septuagin says. The King James translation is, Take His garment, that is surety for a stranger, and take a pledge of him for a strange woman.

Septuagin says, take away the garment of him. Now listen to this, that has ruined a stranger's estate. Whereas has he, whereas he has behaved disgracefully, take a pledge from him. The subterigence rendering shifts the scenario from the King James' picture of Furity, collateral, offered on someone else's behalf. It shifts to a picture of active financial harm caused to another person, the man or woman who has ruined a stranger's estate.

This goes beyond just merely. guaranteeing a stranger's death. The shift moves the proverb from passive financial recklessness, meaning unwisely guaranteeing the debt of an unknown party. It now has moved towards something closer to active culpability. Right. Having genuinely damaged another person's property or their estate, through disgraceful conduct.

So the Septuagint man or woman is not merely foolish. This person is described as having behaved disgracedfully. Term carrying very real, serious moral weight beyond simple imprudence and foolishness. They've acted in a way that has harmed someone. him. Right. And so the consequence that's described here in the Septuagint taking away his garment as a pledge, it still remains consistent with the King James. But like you said, that justification shifts from he made himself liable for a debt he could not assess, to he has caused genuine harm and disgrace must therefore forfeit something of value as recompense.

So why does the Septuagint read it this way? Well, it reads less as a cautionary tale about financial improvements and more as a statement of proportionate justice, disgraceful conduct that damages another's estate rightly exact something tangible from the offender in return. So if we put these side by side and we read them alongside the Hebrew tradition that the authorized King James comes from. The two versions together teach a more comprehensive lesson here.

So whether the fault lies in reckless guarantee for an unknown party that King James emphasizes or in an active disgraceful harm to someone else's property, like the Septuagint talks about, the consequence of losing one's own value possession has a pledge or a pledge or penalty, Solomon describes as just and fitting and the proper response to financial recklessness or misconduct, not an unfair or excessive punishment. When you first read this, you almost get taken abackling it. You're going to take somebody's cloak, and like he said, that's equivalent to take somebody's house.

Today's modern world said, well, you can't take somebody's house. I mean, that's where they live and everything, but that's how demanding that Solomon was. And he said, this is serious we're talking about here. So whether it's a guarantee for someone else for a stranger, which is foolishness in itself, or you're damaging someone's reputation, it should cost you something, and it should cost you something serious, not something casual, Rick. This is why some states in America, like Texas and Florida, and I don't know which other states

because those are two states I've lived in. So I do know with Texas and Florida. They have something called homestead. Right. And your home, you get a homestead exemption for your primary residence. You can't get more than one. It's your primary residence.

But nobody can take your house. Right. Doc, this is the level. level of seriousness that we're talking about, why do states have homestead protections so that some debtor can't take somebody's house? That's why, because it's happened in the past. Right. You know, think back, Doc, I don't know if, you know, you can think of anyone. I don't want to do it, name it, but, I mean, just our audience in general, think back over the years.

people that you had known who got entangled in a business arrangement either a business or investment with a person who turned out to be shady a little on the crooked side and what happened

in the really bad cases that went south the shady crooked person ruined the honest person's estate where that person may have had to empty their retirement fund or their investment fund or even sell their house to get out of the mess that the shady business partner put them in. See, they ruined the estate of another person.

And again, Solomon, because he was the chief justice of the Israel Supreme Court, saw a lot of these cases over 40 years. And he grieved him because he knew. the hearts of men and women are wicked. And they don't change. This stuff was happening thousands of years ago. It's still happening today. That's why we study Proverbs,

because human nature doesn't change. Human behavior doesn't change. Let's go to verse 14. He that blesseth his friend with a loud voice, rising early in. the morning, it shall be counted a curse to him. And I agree with that verse wholeheartedly.

Boy, I could have wrote this one. It means don't show up when your neighbor's porch and banging pots and pans and blowing horns. No matter how happy it is. Yes. He or she are not going to see the humor at it.

Okay? That's what Solomon say. You really pushing it too far to think that your friend is going to think this is funny. It's describing a specific vividly imagined sea. A man or woman arriving early in the morning. A son hasn't even come up yet. His neighbor, his friend, his relative is still in bed. They're still in their pajamas. They're nice and cozy under the blankets and all of a sudden there's this loud shouting outside and a banging on the door and it sounds like there's a party outside. And this person is

blessing his friend or relative. There's nothing. I mean, the person who's causing this commotion has nothing but good intentions. He's blessing this person. He's happy. He's happy. He's about something. He's celebrating. The scenario is comical in its specific specificity. But it's the proverb, this is the very teaching method of the proverb. The well-wishers' intention may be entirely genuine, sincere. This person desires to bless his or her friend. And their The blessing is not insincere, it's genuine, but it's the timing and the volume of this gesture that turns it into an intrusion rather than a blessing and a kindness. So, again, we can think of a lot of modern ways this could happen. A family still asleep disrupted by loud.

enthusiastic shouting and praise. Before the person's had time to get up, take a shower, comb their hair, brush your teeth, get a cup of coffee. They're not ready to receive loud visitors. You're not even ready to receive a quiet visitor. The recipient is startled and inconvenience. They're not blessed. they are receiving this experience as an imposition on their privacy. And so Solomon is declaring that this experience reality,

the reality of what's truly happening here, not the well-wishers stated intention. It's the reality that actually counts. And how does it count? Solomon says, it shall be counted a curse to him. It will be reckoned, accounted, considered as a curse to this man or woman. Your friend or your relative may not curse you to your face, but under their breath, they're saying some ugly things about your behavior.

They may pull a smile on their face and do their best to be friendly, but they're not happy on the inside. The Hebrew word ha-sha'av means to reckon, to account, to consider. And so it's making clear that this is a matter of how the gesture is received and evaluated by its recipient, regardless of the givers' motive. So there's a principle that's being taught here. the effect of a well-intentioned action on its recipient matters as much as or more than the givers internal motivation. In other words, how your friend or relative receives your action is more important than your intention of giving that action.

But you've got to think this through. How are they going to receive it? we can give a gift at the wrong time. We can give a gift in the wrong manner. We can give a gift with excessive volume and enthusiasm. There are a lot of ways that we can mess up giving a gift. Sometimes a gift has to be given privately. You can bless somebody.

Let's say somebody is in financial need, and you loudly announce that you are giving money to this, person who's in need and everybody in the room hears you saying it. Okay, your intention's good, but your mouth has now damaged a person who's receiving it, and now it's not a blessing, it's a curse. Because you've embarrassed them in front of all these people. Adam Clark observed that this proverb corrects a comment, but mistaken assumption that good intentions automatically produce good effects.

Amen. Because the person who's, well, I meant well. I don't know why they are so upset. I meant well by insisting that wisdom includes not merely the desire to bless others, but the discernment to bless them in a manner, in a way, in a time that will actually be received as a blessing instead of a disruption. Right. Now, we're certain not saying don't bless people. That's not the message here.

The application here, the theological application of verse 14 concerns, let's call it sanctified sensitivity, Rick. The conviction that genuine love for others includes not merely sincere feeling, right, but attentive discernment regarding how that feeling is best expressed, for the other person's actual benefit. Right? So in Romans chapter 12, verse 15, the Apostle Paul gives us an instruction that is directly relevant to this verse.

And I never thought about the application of it until we were studying. Rejoice with them that do rejoice and weep with them that weep. We rejoice with them that do rejoice and weep with them that weep. And so the emphasis is on matching one's expression to the other person's actual state and that readiness to receive it, not merely expressing one's own feelings regardless of the timing or the context there. Now, in 1st Corinthians chapter 13 verse 5, in that list of love qualities there, one of the things that lists there is love does not behave itself unseemly, does not behave itself unseemly. We read that, we pass over it, we don't digest it, we don't consider it until today with this problem.

Because that Greek word unseemly there describes conduct that is inappropriate to its context, just what we're talking about here. precisely the failure of this proverb, and it identifies it in the over-eager early morning well-wisher, right? Love, properly understood includes the discipline of appropriate expression, not merely the presence of genuine feeling. So the application extends really to every relationship we have. It's the parent who praises a child loudly in front of a peers in a way that produces embarrassment rather than encouragement. It could be the friend that offers enthusiastic advice at a moment of genuine grief rather than quiet presence. It could be a well-wisher whose timing consistently misses the actual needs of the moment. And so wisdom in this proverb

where it calls believers to examine not just their motives. You know, like you said, well, it came from a good place. If I had it, my heart was in it. But it calls believers to examine not only their motives, but their timing and manner. And recognizing that love expressed

without proper discernment can however unintentionally be experienced as it's opposite. Rick, that's why we need the Holy Spirit. That's really why we need the Holy Spirit. How many times has the Holy Spirit you've wanted to do something? You've wanted to bless somebody and the Holy Spirit has held you back. Not now. Wait. Or you thought of a way to bless somebody and the Holy Spirit has said to you, no, I want you to do this instead. And so it requires that sensitivity, that spiritual sensitivity of knowing, not only having the desire to show love,

to show caring, but also the right method and the right timing, these are all important. And that's why we need the presence of the Holy Spirit in our life, Frank. You know, Doc, as you were talking, I was thinking of a couple of people that have known in my lifetime. One man who's passed away,

a friend that I worked with for many years, Doc, I don't think that I've ever known somebody who is more sensitive to the timing of when to approach our employer. We both worked for this gentleman who was head of a large international organization. And I learned a lot from him, Doc. That was many years ago. I learned a lot working with him because I would want to. I would be like, well, let's call so-and-so and let's present this to him. And my friend would say, my coworker, he would say, no.

Mr. So-and-so flew in to the airport late last night. He's sleeping in. I know that he's sleeping in. He got in late. If we call him, we're going to disturb him. See, I wouldn't think like that, Doc. I would think, hey, it's 9 a.m. Let's call.

Let's go. We're at work. Let's go. Yeah, go on. Yeah. Come on. We've got things to do. Let's get a decision made.

But he would think about this. No, wait a minute. He got in late last night. He's probably going to have a late start. Or it may be, it could have been something like, no. I know for a fact, this is the hour he sits down with a cup of coffee and does some reading. This would not be the right time to disturb. See, there's a sensitivity.

He knew the man's behavior. He knew his past. Okay. And so he was, now, some people would say, I would never do. You gotta make the phone call, mental phone call. Well, that's not wisdom. Solomon is teaching us there's a certain time,

a certain way to do things. And why did he know that? Because he was the king for 40 years. Believe me, there were people that barged then and interrupted him and they probably lost their job. Okay. It was like, don't do that again. He's teaching us as a proper time, a proper way to do things, to say things.

And that wisdom thinks about it before you just barge in and do something. There's another person, Doc, a dear friend. And I have never known anybody, Doc, that is as wise as he is, not about when to say something, how to say it. And because we have a close friendship, he's able to say to me, hey, Rick, here's a better way to say that. You could take the same words, the same message, and phrase it like this. Okay. And I've gotten to the point where if I have an important letter, I'm submitted to him and say, hey, would you read this before I sent it?

This is a really important letter. And he'll write back and say, you know what? I wouldn't change a word in this letter. I'm going to change some paragraphs. I'm going to move paragraph three to the top. Paragraph one to the third. And go, why? And he would explain why.

There's wisdom in us. And all of us need to learn. We can learn from each other. There are other people who have more wisdom than you do about certain things. But you have more wisdom than they have about certain things. That's right. That's why we need one of them. We need each other.

You've got to bounce off of somebody and learn. As Solomon is teaching us, there are certain things you don't do. and there are certain things you don't do at a certain hour. And, you know, going over to your neighbor's house with a, with heartied horns at 6 in the morning, that's not a smart thing to do. But you have to apply the principle to other things in mind. Let's take a look at the situogen before we close up today's lesson. The King James says, he that blesses his friend with a loud voice rising early in the morning,

it shall be counted curse to him. The Greek Septuagint says, whoever blesses a friend loudly in the morning will seem no better than one who reviles him. So the Septuagint, the rendering of the Septuagint intensifies to King James' comparison from the phrase counted a curse to a direct equivalence.

The loud early blesser will seem no better. than one who reviles. But what is a reviler? Reviler is someone who curses you. A reviler speaks evil words against you, reviles you, haunts you, defames you, calls you names. That's a revival. And so the Greek Septuagin is like,

you go to your friend or neighbor's house early in the morning, free to commotion, you're on the same level as a reviler. And by the way, their revilers will not inherit the kingdom of God. That's how serious it is talking. Revilers will not inherit the kingdom of God. You don't want to do anything that gets on the same level as a reviler. So the Greek phrase suggests there's no meaningful difference between the two. whereas the King James slightly softens shall be counted, recognized as.

But the Septuagin says, will seem no better than a revival. So the intensification sharpens point of this proverb. It is not merely that the ill time blessing might be mistaken or curse. or experienced as unwelcome, the subtyigent insists that there is no difference whatsoever between the two from the perspective of the recipient. Right. That the disruption experience is functionally identical regardless of the speaker's intentions. That's right.

The subtergent reading here, Rick, reinforces the Proverbs Central Teaching with that additional force. In that wisdom should evaluate actions by their actual effect on the recipient. And keeping in mind that a sufficiently poor delivery can render even the most well-intentioned words in practice as indistinguishable from open hostility or curse. And so there's a gap between intention and reception when timing and manner are badly miscalculated that can close entirely. The subtergents very direct to you, Rick, and that directness here serves as a useful corrective

against any tendency to excuse core social timing. Core social timing. We don't consider this as something wrong, do we? but it's a correction here against poor social timing or excessive enthusiasm on the grounds of good intentions alone. Boy, I am re-evaluating a lot of things in the past here based on this, Rick.

However sincere the blessing, the recipient experiences precisely what its manner and timing produce. And if that manner and timing produced disruption and it produces offense, then this proverb is teaching that this disruption, that's the reality to be reckoned with, not the giver's private, well-meaning motive. And, you know, we can think of all the good intentions in the world, and we'll even defend it. You know, we'll say, well, I meant, well, I meant good intention.

I had a good heart about it. But how, what was the end result? Well, how was it received? If it was received the same as a curse, you may as well just curse custom out. And so once again, it comes back with spiritual discernment here. And true spiritual discernment can only really be generated from the Holy Spirit's presence in our lives.

And that means two things. First of all, you've got to have the word in you to know how to discern situations like Proverbs, but you also have to have humility in your life, you know, and thinking of esteeming others better than yourselves, esteeming others better than yourselves. That's not the philosophy of the world today, Rick. The philosophy of the world today is we're in a rat race

and we're all racing to be the number one rat, right? But from the Christian point of view, we're to esteem others better than ourselves, to think, how will this brother or this sister receive this message? I'm excited about, I want to share this, but is this the right time? Is this the right place?

And that really can only be discerned through the Holy Spirit. And I think that's really, in both these verses today, Rick, that's a real takeaway for me. And like I said, I've read these verses. I don't have any times over my life. and I've never seen these messages here before. Never until today. Doc, you know what I'm hearing in these verses today?

Think before you talk. Think before you talk. Verse 13. Stranger is asking you to sign a note. Think before you say yes. Yeah. Think. There's no law that says you have to.

answer right away. Think. Verse 14, don't bless your friend with loud voices rising early in the morning. Think before you do something like that, before you talk, before you think. Stop and think. What could possibly go wrong with what I'm about to say? You know, we fast, as Christians, we fast from food. we really should go on a mouth fast. We really should. We should just go on a word fast.

Put your mouth on a diet. I mean, I'm talking to myself. Just say fewer words. You know, like U.S. President Calvin Coolidge, you know, he was the nickname Silent Cowan, because he didn't talk very much. Yeah. What do you think President Coolidge had learned in life? I think he was probably a very wise man who said,

you know, if I say fewer words, I'll be in less trouble. And so he guarded his lips. He fasted his words. Can you get through a day? Can you get through today fasting your words? Can you put your mouth on a yesterday? There's a Hollywood actor. He's passed now by the name,

Larry Hagman. Yes. He played JR on the TV show Dallas in the 80s. He was also on I Dream of Jeannie. And so, but he, on Sundays, he didn't do this from a Christian perspective, but a practical perspective, he did not speak on Sundays. Didn't say a word on Sundays. He did not speak from the time he got up to the time he went to bed at night on

Sundays. That caused some problems with his acting schedule and stuff because, you know, you're an actor. You have to speak. And so oftentimes he couldn't work on Sundays because he refused to speak on Sundays. And he learned this as a young adult back in college, and he practiced it his entire life. And in an interview, I remember watching this. What do you do that? He said, well, it taught. It taught me the value of what I say. It taught me the value of what I say. And so when you talk about having a word fast, you know, we need to value the words that we speak.

Sometimes the multitude of words actually diminishes the message rather than promotes it. Yes. That's my takeaway from this lesson. And that's all we need to say, isn't it? Yes. think before you speak, think it through, take a breath and think about it. When somebody asked you to sign a loan, I need some time to think about it. All you need to say, if they call you back a week later, I'm still thinking about it.

Eventually, they'll find somebody else to sign that note because you're still, you haven't said no, you're just still thinking about it. So use wisdom in the words that you use. Take care. Tomorrow's Faith Friday. That's right. What are we going to study tomorrow? Let's see what the Lord has for is tomorrow. And I do know one thing.

It'll be about faith. I know two things. It'll be about faith. And it will also have the Lord's supper. So be prepared for tomorrow's Holy Communion service. Invite somebody to morning that. and bless them and encourage them to watch morning math or listen to it as they drive to work.

Get people involved with this teaching ministry. You tell them what it is done for you. That's the best advertisement that we could have. If you would tell your friends and brothers what morning math is done to you, right? And that'll help us grow. Make care. We'll see you tomorrow.

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