Proverbs 4:20-27

TEXT Proverbs 4:20-27

20.

My son, attend to my words;

Incline thine ear unto my sayings.

21.

Let them not depart from thine eyes;

Keep them in the midst of thy heart.

22.

For they are life unto those that find them,

And health to all their flesh.

23.

Keep thy heart with all diligence;

For out of it are the issues of life.

24.

Put away from thee a wayward mouth,

And perverse lips put far from thee.

25.

Let thine eyes look right on,

And let thine eyelids look straight before thee.

26.

Make level the path of thy feet,

And let all thy ways be established.

27.

Turn not to the right hand nor to the left:

Remove thy foot from evil.

STUDY QUESTIONS OVER 4:20-27

1.

Why does the father go over the same thought so often (Proverbs 4:20)?

2.

What 2 parts of a person are spoken of in Proverbs 4:21?

3.

Is Proverbs 4:22 speaking literally or figuratively?

4.

Memorize Proverbs 4:23.

5.

Find the parallels in Proverbs 4:24.

6.

What is the meaning of Proverbs 4:25?

7.

In life what should one be interested in as brought out in Proverbs 4:26?

8.

How much deviation from the proper path is allowed (Proverbs 4:27)?

PARAPHRASE OF 4:20-27

Proverbs 4:20-22.

Listen, son of mine, to what I say. Listen carefully. Keep these thoughts ever in mind; let them penetrate deep within your heart: for they will mean real life for you, and radiant health.

Proverbs 4:23-27.

Above all else, guard your affections. For they influence everything else in your life. Spurn the careless kiss of a prostitute. Stay far from her. Look straight ahead; don-'t even turn your head to look. Watch your step. Stick to the path and be safe. Don-'t side-track; pull back your foot from danger.

COMMENTS ON 4:20-27

Proverbs 4:20. Oh, the earnestness of the father's instructions and entreaties as he thinks upon these matters!

Proverbs 4:21. That Rehoboam would keep what his father was teaching him ever before his eyes and ever in his heart was so important that Solomon mentions it so often in this section of the book. Proverbs 3:21 is similar: My son, let them not depart from thine eyes; Keep sound wisdom and discretion.

Proverbs 4:22. The great physical blessings of life and health are promised if the son will follow the father's good teachings throughout life. Several times is life promised on this basis: Length of days, and long life...shall they add to thee (Proverbs 3:2); Length of days is in her right hand (Proverbs 3:16); Hear, O my son, and receive my sayings; and the years of thy life shall be many (Proverbs 4:10). Proverbs 3:8 also promises health on this basis: It shall be health to thy naval and marrow to thy bones.

Proverbs 4:23. Here is one of the best known, most memorized verses in all of Proverbs. The reason is obvious: the outward words and deeds and course of life are but the manifestation of what is in one's heart. Other passages: Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. The good man out of his good treasure bringeth forth good things: and the evil man out of his evil treasure bringeth forth evil things (Matthew 12:34-35); The things which proceed out of the mouth come forth out of the heart...Out of the heart come forth evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, railings (Matthew 15:18-19); Let each man do as he hath purposed in his heart (2 Corinthians 9:7). The Pharisees kept the outside but neglected the inside. Jesus pointed out that if they cleaned the inside, the outside would automatically be all right: Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also (Matthew 23:25-26).

Proverbs 4:24. A wayward person is one who has gone astray, so a wayward mouth is a mouth that speaks wrong things. Perverse lips is but a repetition of the same type of mouth. Wrong, speech is so detrimental and out of place that our verse says it should be put away, put far away! So, say nothing wrong-don-'t even come close. In other words, use nothing that is out-and-out wrong and not even that which is shady. One will be judged by his speech: Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned (Matthew 12:36-37).

Proverbs 4:25. After urging the son's care of his heart in Proverbs 4:23 and bidding him to put away perverse lips in Proverbs 4:24, he now calls upon him to direct his eyes and not let them wander upon sights that would be detrimental. In the next 2 verses he will speak of his feet. Especially when it comes to women, this is such an important and right way to keep from lusting in one's heart (Matthew 5:28; 2 Peter 2:14). Job said, I made a covenant with mine eyes; How then should I look upon a virgin? (Job 31:1). This is a covenant that every man needs to make with his eyes. Let his own wife be the desire of his eyes even as Ezekiel's wife was to his (Ezekiel 24:16; Ezekiel 24:18).

Proverbs 4:26. In everyday life we try to keep from falling. Every irregularity in the sidewalk and every object in the pathway is a potential stumbling block that could result in a fall. In life we should avoid everything that would cause us to stumble and fall; we should want our ways to be established.

Proverbs 4:27. Don-'t deviate from the right path in either way. We have to be careful of ditches on both sides of the road. One who is in the ditch is going nowhere. Other passages: Ye shall observe to do therefore as Jehovah your God hat commanded you: ye shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left (Deuteronomy 5:32); Thou shalt hearken unto the commandments of Jehovah thy God...to observe them and do them, and shalt not turn aside from any of the words which I command you this day, to the right hand, or to the left (Deuteronomy 28:13-14); Observe to do according to all the law...turn not from it to the right hand or to the left (Joshua 1:7). In putting away pride, we must be careful not to become sloven; in putting away rashness, we should not become soft; etc.

TEST QUESTIONS OVER 4:20-27

1.

Find the parallels in Proverbs 4:20.

2.

Rehoboam was to keep his father's instructions before his ............ and in the midst of his .............. (Proverbs 4:21).

3.

What 2 blessings of obedience are promised in Proverbs 4:22?

4.

What great fact of life is contained in Proverbs 4:23?

5.

How seriously important is one's speech (Proverbs 4:24)?

6.

What was Job's covenant with his eyes (Proverbs 4:25)?

7.

Comment on Proverbs 4:26.

8.

What do you get from turning not to the right hand nor to the left (Proverbs 4:27)?

LAZINESS IS WASTEFULNESS

The Bible reveals waste to be a terrible thing. This is not a saying from the Bible, but it is surely true: Wilful waste makes woeful want. We see that in the prodigal son. But, listen to what Proverbs 18:9 says, He also that is slothful in his work is brother to him that is a great waster. You can see how that would be: the waster destroys that which is produced while the slothful man fails to produce it in the first place.

There are those who are ambitious, but wasteful, and they think it is so terrible when people are lazy. On the other hand, there are those who talk about how wasteful some people are, but they themselves are too lazy to work. Proverbs says in the final analysis, both are brothers.