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Hey, Bible nerds. This is Dr. Manny Arango and I'm your host for the Bible department podcast powered by Arma. This podcast follows a Bible reading plan we created to help you read the entire Bible in a year. You can head to the show notes or thebibledepartment.com to download our reading plan and join the Journey family. Welcome to day 307. We are in Proverbs 16, 17, and 18 today, and I'm going to give you just a little bit of context, and then we're going to jump into a lot of nerdy nuggets. To be honest, every single proverb can be a timeless truth. Like, that's the beauty of these proverbs. I'm having a blast teaching through proverbs. I love proverbs. I love wisdom. I love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love wisdom. And I love people who have wisdom. I love people who share wisdom. I love people who have things to say that are wise. Oo, I'm in love with wisdom. And so today, just some really, really short context clues. Okay, Couple of verses from today where you're just gonna have to get into the habit when you read the Bible all the time, but definitely when you read these to just, you know, put some context in place. So like I say every day, if you haven't done the reading for the day, okay, if you have not read Proverbs 16, 17, and 18, stop this video, pause the audio, go get the reading done so that you can actually have context for what we're going to talk about in today's episode. With no further ado, for everybody who's done the reading, let's dive into our context clues. I'm just going to give you a couple of proverbs where it's important to just still do the work of interpreting. Okay, so Proverbs 16:14 says this. A king's wrath is a messenger of death, and a wise man will appease it. Well, many of us, especially if you're in the United States of America, don't have a king. Again, you're just gonna have to interpret that. We're used to a president. We're used to democracy. Okay. We're not used to a monarchy. And so again, you're gonna have to take that verse and go, all right, what word could I sub in? Can I say a ruler's wrath is a messenger of death? Like what? What can I sub in? Okay, the next one is the lot is cast into the lap, but it's every decision is from Yahweh you know, now, I could be wrong, but, you know, I'm assuming most of us don't cast lots. You know, I'm assuming that's not how you make decisions. I'm assuming that you don't got lots in your pocketbook. And when you got a. You know, when you're at a fork in the road, you bust out your lots and cast them, you know, so again, that is going to have to get interpreted into modern society. Okay, the next 1, chapter 18, verse 11. A rich man's wealth is his strong city, and like a high wall in his imagination. Okay, so modern cities don't have walls around them. All right, so, you know, a rich man's wealth is his VPN is a better way to say that, right? Like, you know, cybersecurity is more of an imminent threat to most of our daily lives than an army invading our city and us needing a wall. Okay, so again, this is just going to require interpretation, and we're going to get into this one at the end of the episode, we're going to really talk about this in our timeless truth. But it's a man's gift, makes room for him and brings him before the great. Now, a lot of people, I've seen, heard, a lot of people try to teach that this, the. The context of this verse is a bribe. That's not true. And I'm going to debunk that myth. So anyway, we'll get into that in our timeless truth. But again, you need context to help you to understand, you know, what is the Bible trying to communicate when it talks about a king or it talks about lots, or it talks about a strong city. Another one, chapter 18, verse 19, says a brother offended is more unyielding than a strong city. All right, the only way for me to understand that verse is to understand what does the Bible mean by a strong city. So I'm going to need some historical context. And quarreling is like the bars of a castle, assuming there are no castles in your neighborhood. Okay, so in terms of imagery, right, I don't need context to comprehend what's happening, but I do need to realize, okay, there's a layer of interpretive context that I need simply because I'm engaging with content that's from a different cultural time, you know, a different cultural moment. Okay, So I just want to keep our, you know, context clue, ears perked up. All right, Just because we're in the proverbs doesn't mean proverbs that context clues are completely irrelevant. It just means we can still understand the Proverbs without like a historical moment or an author or an intended audience. But you're still going to have to translate this imagery maybe into some modern day imagery, because I actually think that's the point. The point of the Proverbs are to pack a punch. So if the imagery doesn't mean anything to you, then it's not. It loses its shock value. So the same way that I would say, all right, a walled city. None of us live in walled cities. Even if we cognizantly understand what that means, it loses its shock value. Whereas, like, cybersecurity makes sense, right? Like, if somebody were to think like, man, I got hacked and all my. I, I was the victim of credit card fraud and I lost thousands and thousands of dollars, okay? All of us know that pain. None of us have ever been living in a city that was walled and got invaded. None of us. None of us. Maybe if you're watching this, I don't know, and you live in Bangladesh, but for many of us, right, that's just never happened. You don't live in neighborhoods with castles, you don't live in fortified cities. You don't live in cities that have walls around them. And I have no idea if there are any of those in Bangladesh either. I just kind of named a random city in random country. Anyway. All right, time for the top 10. Let's get into our nerdy nuggets. Okay, time for the top 10. The first, in order, not of, like importance, but in order of appearance. We got Proverbs 16, verse 8. Proverbs 16, verse 8. Now this is a repeated theme all throughout the Proverbs. It's a really, really, really good proverb. K16, verse 8. Better a little with righteousness than much gain with injustice. So again, the proverb's going to make it clear. Nothing wrong with wealth. Nothing wrong with wealth. There is not an anti wealth polemic being, you know, preached here in the Proverbs. However, there is an anti greed, anti idolatry, anti injustice, anti laziness polemic being preached here in Proverbs. And we get to see it better. A little. It's better to have less money. But, but, but no guilty conscience. You did it all right before the Lord. Okay, then, much gain with injustice. And again, the word injustice is not a liberal word, it's a Bible word. All right, so anyway, I don't want to go down that rabbit trail, But Proverbs chapter 16, verse 16 says this. How much better to get wisdom than gold, to get insight rather than silver this is a repeated theme all throughout the Proverbs, that if we were to put a monetary value on wisdom, that you should value it more than you value, you know, things that bring monetary, you know, wealth and security. Wisdom is everything. And if you ever have to spend money to get wisdom, that's a great thing to spend money on. Because wisdom is more valuable than gold. It's more valuable than silver. So the question is, would you spend money on gold and silver? Yeah. All right. If I would spend money on gold and silver, then it makes sense to spend money on attaining wisdom. 1623 is in my top 10. It says this. The hearts of the wise make their mouths prudent, and their lips promote instruction. Okay, hold up, hold up. The hearts of the wise make their mouths prudent. So remember, if you were here for yesterday's episode, I said that one of the things that I've learned in the last couple years is how to be more tactful, how to be more careful with my words, how to be more precise with my vocabulary, how to be more surgical. Well, also, what's happened in the last two to three years is there's stuff in my heart that's gotten healed. And so I'm not suffering from discontentment, self hatred, self judgment, self loathing. And so the reason that a lot of my words were toxic was because my heart was toxic. And you can see here the link between a healthy heart and healthy words. What does it say? The hearts of the wise make their mouths prudent and their lips promote instruction. So the stuff that comes out of their mouth is healthy. Why? Because it comes from a healthy heart. And I think there's a lot of people who they don't know whether or not they have a healthy heart. Which means you need a check engine light and your words should become a check engine light. If your words are negative, if your words are toxic, if your words are damaging, then chances are you've got something going on in your heart. There's some negativity or some cynicism or some criticism or something that's happening in your heart that's making you, you know, say things that are ridiculous and rude. Okay, so let's keep going, family. The wait is over. My brand new book, Crushing Chaos is out now and available everywhere. Books are sold. Literally. Today I walked into a Barnes and Noble and I signed a bunch of copies at a physical location. So you can grab this book at a physical Barnes and Noble or you can go to a Books A Million or Amazon or anywhere books are sold. And grab a copy. If you enjoy reading the Bible from an ancient perspective, if you understand that the beauty of Scripture is actually knowing it in context, then you'll love this book. And if there's any chaos in your personal life, I think that reading the Bible from an ancient perspective can actually help to crush the chaos in your life. I think this book is going to be a New York Times bestseller. I really do. I think we wrote a good one. I think you should get a copy today. All right, back to the episode. The next one is a life verse for me. This is Proverbs 16:25. It says this. There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end, it leads to death. That means that the way of life is counterintuitive. I'm never going to intuitively just figure out that I should be vulnerable. That's not intuitive. I'm not just going to intuitively figure out that I should be honoring. Okay, Humans in their natural state are stupid. We're foolish. We do dumb stuff. Okay, so it means there's a way that appears to be right. Everybody's got opinions on what's right, but in the end, at least to death. So what do we all need the humility to know that the way that appears right to me could 100% be wrong? And it's humble. It's good. It's godly to acknowledge. I probably don't know what I'm talking about. Okay, next, Proverbs 16:28. This is good, man. This is a really, really good one. A perverse person stirs up conflict, and a gossip separates close friends. I personally never struggled with the gossip, but conflict? Oh, yeah. I would have described myself as a very confrontational person. I'm still confrontational, but I'm now confrontational, but also warm, like, friendly, pastoral kind. And even when I have confrontation, it doesn't equal conflict. I used to be confrontational to the point of conflict, but Proverbs makes it pretty clear that's perversion. A perverse person stirs up conflict, okay? Healthy people like peace. And gossip separates close friends. Gossip's a sin, period. You shouldn't be gossiping. And I hope that if you do gossip, your pastor corrects you, disciplines you. And if you keep doing it, I hope they kick you out of the church, because that's what should happen. Gossip, gossip will break up, break up a community of believers. Gossip's toxic, man. And gossip is one of those things where people who are moral think that they can get away with gossip because it's not Immoral, but it's a sign of bad character. And I think sometimes in Christian circles, we think that God is all about moral morals, when really he's all about morals and character. And because gossip isn't immoral, it's almost like you think you can get a pass. But I know people who don't drink, don't smoke, don't party, don't take drugs, don't whatever, don't do this, don't do that, don't do that. But they gossip. And it's like, that's crazy, man. Gossip's crazy. First of all, mind your business. Second of all, like, if you're offended, just go to the person you offended. You know, gossip comes from a place of offense and not minding your business. Mind your business. Drink. Drink water. Stay hydrated, do your skincare routine. And. And you gotta, you gotta, you gotta mind your business. You can't be gossiping. And you know, I always told my wife, we were on staff together for eight years, told her, you know, the number one person that people typically gossip to is their spouse. And so anytime my pastor offended me, which was often, you know, I would never tell my wife about my pastor offending me because why would I gossip to like my wife? That's crazy. Gossip is telling anyone who's equal to you or below you in authority something that you should be communicating up. So anytime you're offended, the person to talk to is your boss or your superior or your team lead or your accountability person who's who your beneath them in terms of spiritual maturity, you should never be communicating across or down. Anytime you communicate across or down, it's a wrap. By the way, if you should type in Dave Ramsey gossip in anything that pops up on YouTube, you should watch it because they'll warn somebody one time and then they'll fire you. The Ramsey Solutions will fire you for gossiping. And I agree with that. I could rock with that. I think people who gossip should be fired because first of all, you can't do your job and gossip at the same time. Like, you should be too busy to gossip. You got work to do, bro. Like, why are you gossiping anyway? Gossiping just gets under my. My skin. But let's move on to the next 1. Proverbs 17:3. Proverbs 17:3 says this. The crucible for silver, the furnace for gold. So this, now this is talking about refining choice metals, silver and gold. How do you refine silver? The crucible. How do you refine gold? Furnace. But the Lord tests the heart, man. So your Heart doesn't need the crucible or the furnace. It needs God. God begins in God's presence. That is where God begins to refine your heart so that you can get to the place where you don't say crazy stuff. That's where God wants to heal your heart. He wants to mold your heart. He wants to shape your heart. He wants to. He wants to. He wants to have your heart so that he can get a handle on the words that you speak. Okay, all right. 1719 is going to equate quarreling with sinfulness. 1719, it says this. Whoever loves a quarrel, loves sin. Now, this used to be me, man. I used to love quarreling, which meant I love sin. It's terrible. Whoever builds a high gate invites destruction. Okay, Whoever loves a quarrel loves sin. That means, like, love an argument, love a debate. I was on that train. You know, I would say that the reason that I was wired for quarreling is because I grew up in a home where we formed intimacy through arguing with each other. And so I kind of got married and assumed that's the healthy way that people have intimate relationships. They confront each other, they fight, they argue. They only to realize that that's toxic. Like, that's nuts. And so I would pick fights, pick arguments, because that's the only way I felt like I could really know my wife was to catch her off guard and know what was really in her heart, you know? And that's crazy. Like, I was, like, wanting to be offended. I just wanted to know. I was like, yeah, I know she got some crazy thoughts. I want to know what they are. And so I would pick fights. That's dumb. Like, thank God I'm not dumb. No, more like, I'm not stupid anymore. Like, I just kind of got wise and realized, wait a second. Like, that's just a dumb way to live life. And who. Who wants to do that? Like, why spend that amount of emotional energy on stupidity when I could do things that could cause my life to thrive and flourish? Okay, Those who love to quarrel. Okay, 1719, let's go back to it. Whoever loves a quarrel loves sin. Whoever builds a high gate invites destruction. We don't need the second half of the verse. Proverbs 17:28. We only got a couple of minutes left. Proverbs 17:28 says this. Even fools are thought wise if they keep silent and discerning if they hold their tongues. If you're not wise, just don't talk a lot. Done. Like, if you're dumb, don't talk. There are a couple of times where I've had someone that I'm discipling, like go with me to a meeting and I've told them straight up, hey, just, you're here to listen, not talk. And the reason I said that is because I don't need everybody at the table to know that they're foolish. You know, it's okay that I know that they're foolish. I'm pastoring them. I'm trying to pastor them out of being foolish. But my pet peeve are people who talk more than they listen, when really they should be listening. Like, talking doesn't make you wise, but listening does. And so at some point you're going to have to realize, you know, talking, talking only reveals all the things you don't know. But listening to other people who are wise talk, that's where the gold's at, man. All right. Proverbs 18:9, one of my favorites. It says this, one who is slack in his work is brother to the one who destroys. Destroys. The verse here is equating someone coming and destroying a construction site with the person who's building it half hearted. If you cut corners, you're no better than the person who is is demolishing it. Like, I want that verse in the employee handbook for every organization I lead. If you slack, you are sibling to the person who destroys. That's great. First of all, a slacker, you know, doesn't take pride in their work. A slacker is not excellent. You know, a slacker wants to mooch off everybody else's hard work. A slacker just. A slacker just, you know, could give 100% effort, but it's like they're so talented that like 70% effort's enough. It's like, that's a slacker, man. No one wants a slacker. Don't, don't be that. Don't, don't be slack in your work. And then, last of my last one on my top 10 proverbs 18, verse 22, wives are freaking awesome. Okay, here's what it says. He who finds a wife, finds a, finds what is good and receives mercy, favor from the Lord. Okay? A man who finds a wife finds what is good and receives favor from the Lord. Let me give some dating advice to all the men and women out there, okay? It doesn't say he who finds a girlfriend finds what is good, but finds a wife. Which means when, when a man finds you, there should already be wifely characteristics. Like, when I met my wife, she wasn't yet my wife, but she was definitely a Wife. She was wife material when I met her. I didn't meet someone who I was like, all right, let's roll up my sleeves, get busy with this project called tia. Nah, I met someone who was wife material. If a man is, like, looking for a wife, he shouldn't find a girlfriend or, like, a baby mama or, like, drama or, like, a project. He should find a wife. And. And I think that. I know this isn't true all the time, but generally speaking, women can tend to date for potential. So, like, a. A woman will see potential in a guy and, like, will take on a project. I just want all the ladies out there to know that's not how men date. And also, men don't date women because they love them. They date them because they need them. If I could give, like, really, really good relationship advice to any woman out there who actually wants to be married, not just. It says it, but actually wants that for real and wants to be a wife. Like, become indispensable in some young man's life. If you want someone to put a ring on your finger, Become valuable, become indispensable. Men don't marry women because they like them or love them. They marry them because they can't see themselves living without them, which means those women add real value to those men's lives. So, like, like. But we currently live in a culture that's very much like, girl, don't let no man take advantage of you and abuse you. Like, whoa. So you're just gonna. You're just gonna play defense. You're never gonna score. You're just gonna. You're gonna live your life playing defense. That's. You're living your life from a place of fear. You're living your life from a place of. I'm scared to get hurt. You should never live your life from a place of fear. I don't care if people take advantage of me. I don't care. Like, at the end, guess what? God's going to tally it all up, and there is no one who's ever going to get over on me that. That doesn't exist. You know, even right now, like, we're building a church, and some of the people on the team are like, you know, I'm just nervous about that person. Like, I think they want to lead worship because they want to take advantage of your platform, Pastor Manny. And I'm like, let them do that. Then. I don't. I don't care what. I'm supposed to live my life in defense mode just constantly. Like, I'm Scared of their motive and their motive and their motive. So I'm just going to protect myself. That's crazy. Actually. I just want to live my life generous. I'm going to add value. I'm going to add value. I'm going to add value. I'm going to take big risks on people. I'm going to trust people. And people aren't guilty until proven innocent. With me, they're innocent until proven guilty. I give people trust and it's up to them to lose it. And so if you're a young woman, I would say no, no, no, like make yourself indispensable. Like find a guy, like help that man and like make his life so much better that that guy decides I need to lock this down. Cause like, if I lose this woman, I'm gonna lose money making potential, I'm gonna lose wealth, I'm gonna lose my ability to be effective at my job. I'm gonna lose out. I've told this story a couple times, but me and Pastor Tia, we were dating and I was probably like 23 at the time. And I quit my job in Boston. I was moving to North Carolina and I needed to find a job in North Carolina. And you know, I've only ever gotten jobs based on networking and just like relationships and had never really needed to like apply for a job. A lot of that's just based on my charisma and my level of charm. And I. So I didn't have a resume. I was like 25 years old. I didn't have a resume. And I was at a Starbucks. I was stressed out about needing this resume. Cause I needed to find a job. When I got to North Carolina and I had like a 25 minute drive home and I, I'm about to date myself. Here we go. I was on Skype with Pastor Tia. I was on Skype with this woman and I was just kind of stressed out about needing a resume. And There was a 25 minute drive. This is prior to ChatGPT. Okay? No AI involved. I drove home and when I got. She always used to tell me, when you get home, let me know so I know you're safe. So I got home, I let her know I was home and she said, check your email. And in my email was a resume. That woman typed up a whole resume for me so that I could get a job. You want to know what I did? I put a ring on that woman's finger. Because she added value to me. She became indispensable to me. One time, this is while we Were dating. The church that I was at in North Carolina wanted me to teach a whole course on John. And they needed me to submit my notes before I could teach the course. But all I had was a whiteboard of a time where I had taught the course, because I don't teach from notes. I don't really have notes. And so she found the pictures of the whiteboard on Facebook and turned the pictures of the whiteboard into notes and submitted it to my boss so that I could get a job at that church. And you want to know what I did to that woman? I put a freaking ring on her finger because she added value to my life. Men don't marry women who they love. They marry women that they need. So if you want a man to marry you, you have to convince that man through your actions that they need you. That they need you. But too many women in our culture right now just want to be arm candy. They just kind of want to be a trophy. They want to be an accessory. They just want to be cute. They want to be a Disney princess. And the reality is that men marry women that they cannot live without. And so if you're a woman and you want to be a wife, you've got to be a wife. And wives create budgets. Wives organize the life of the men that they care about and that they love. They have a servant's heart. And don't let society make you so defense oriented that you don't do the things that would actually make a man. Lock it down. Okay. There's musicians right now in Houston. They're so good, I'm willing to pay a premium price so that they're not gigging at other churches. They add so much value, I'm willing to lock them down. Okay, so you should be adding so much value to the man that you're interested in that that dude decides, let's lock this down. Can't risk losing this. This woman adds too much value to my life. All right, Golly. We got to, like. I don't know. Oh, no. Was that 10? We got to all 10. Let's go. Okay. Timeless truth for the day. Proverbs chapter 18, verse 16 is not a bribe. Why? Because Proverbs chapter 17, verse 23 says. Says the wicked accept bribes in secret to pervert the course of justice. So Proverbs is anti bribery. So the context of 1816 cannot be a bribe. It actually just means a gift. So the generous, if people are generous, if you show up everywhere you go with gifts for people, guess what happens? Verse 16 of chapter 18, A gift of opens the way and ushers the giver into the presence of the great. Again, this is not a pro bribery verse. This is a pro generosity verse. And this is good for me and you. This is a timeless truth. Tomorrow we got date 308. We're going to be looking at Proverbs, chapters 19, 20 and 21. It's going to be fantastic. Why? Because Proverbs may just be one of the best books of the dang on Bible. I'll be right here. The question is, are you going to be here same day, same not same day, different day, same time, same place. I love you. I'm proud of you. I'll see you tomorrow. Peace. Thanks so much for joining us on the Bible Department podcast. You can find us online and learn more about the show at thebibledepartment.com and on Instagram hebible department. If you enjoyed this episode and want to dive deeper into the Bible, you can get free access to our library of courses@thebibledepartment.com we'll see you back here tomorrow.