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Friday, November 15, 2019

WEALTH AND POVERTY

Some thoughts from Proverbs 15

The wealth of the rich enables them to build strong cities, which protect them, which enable them to keep, and get more wealth.  The poverty of the poor leaves them nothing to work with, or to use to defend against destruction.  This causes them to lose even more of what they might have, which makes them poorer.  This must be why God speaks so much of the strong uplifting the week and the rich feeding the poor – and we don’t have to be really strong or really rich to do this. 

"He that hides hatred with lying lips and he that speaks slander is a fool".  The Hater hates who or what he is talking about but tells others something entirely different.  The listener does not know where he really stands.  The Slanderer openly despises the one he talks about, and everyone knows it.  The similarity between the two is in the heart, where there is hatred.  They both seek to damage.  The hatred and destruction make them fools; they are not God-like. 

"The lips of the righteous feed many, but fools die for want of wisdom".  The lips of the righteous feed.  This must mean what comes out of his lips  - his words of wisdom.  What he says goes out (feeds) the ears of many.  They feed because they are hopeful, helpful, beneficial words others can use in their lives.  But there are some, the fools, that will neither speak nor hear wisdom.