Proverbs 21:8 ¶ The way of man is froward and strange: but as
for the pure, his work is right.
“The way of man”, spoken of here, would be the
way of the natural man as compared to the man regenerated and reborn by the
action of the Holy Spirit, God’s Spirit, in applying this Old Testament verse
to the Christian.
1Corinthians 2:14 But the natural man
receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto
him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
The natural man without Christ has no capacity
to either please or obey God because he does not have the Spirit of God
dwelling in Him. He is a child of disobedience and a child of wrath, with God’s
abiding anger resting on him waiting for the day of judgment.
Ephesisans 2:2 Wherein in time past ye walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of
the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: 3 Among
whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh,
fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the
children of wrath, even as others.
The way of this man is froward, which we have
discussed many times previously. It is wicked, evil, and sinful; filled with
violence, sexual sin, and even hatred against Christ and anyone who follows
Him. It is foreign to the man of God, strange. But the work of the one purified
by God is right, not because of any righteousness that he has in himself but
because the pure man has the Spirit of the perfect Lord Jesus Christ in him;
the man-God who was without sin and perfectly obedient. Regarding righteousness
God the Father, the soul of God, looks at the born again Christian and sees God
the Son, the visible image of the invisible God, perfect and complete.
A great lesson for us is how the Holy Spirit
views the heroes of the Old Testament in the New Testament. For example, Lot,
Abraham’s nephew, was a terrible compromiser who went to live with his family
in a wicked city named Sodom. He even got drunk and had intercourse with his
daughters, being so drunk he didn’t know what he was doing. And yet, God looks
at these characters through the lens of Christ and this Lot whom God chose to
save from the destruction of Sodom is referred to differently than we would
expect.
2 Peter 2:6 And turning the cities of Sodom
and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an
ensample unto those that after should live ungodly; 7 ¶ And delivered just Lot,
vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: 8 (For that righteous man
dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day
to day with their unlawful deeds;)
In fact, even Samson, and they don’t come any
more carnal and addicted to the flesh’s pleasures than him, although his awful
behavior is laid out bare in the Old Testament, in the New, like the Christian
who is born again, gets a new look listed as a great man of faith along with
Gideon, David, and Samuel.
Hebrews 11:32 ¶ And what shall I more say? for the time would
fail me to tell of Gedeon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae; of
David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets:
So, as the Holy Spirit tells us in Proverbs 21:4
that even the plowing of the wicked is sin, so does He tell us here that the
work of the pure is right. No one is pure without Christ’s Spirit, which is
God’s Spirit, the Holy Spirit, dwelling in him.
Proverbs 21:9 ¶ It is better to dwell in a corner of the
housetop, than with a brawling woman in a wide house.
I don’t think there is any problem understanding
the literal value of this verse. This verse will be repeated in chapter 25. In
ancient Israel the houses were constructed so you could use the roof. See
Deuteronomy 22:8; Joshua 2:6; and 2 Samuel 11:2. A wide house can be understood
as meaning the same thing as a large house. By using the cross-referencing way
of understanding the Bible’s self-defining properties we can see it. In the
following verse it is linked to large as a synonym.
Jeremiah 22:14 That saith, I will build me a
wide house and large chambers, and cutteth him out windows; and it is cieled
with cedar, and painted with vermilion.
In the next verse it is linked to broad.
Matthew 7:13 Enter ye in at the strait gate:
for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and
many there be which go in thereat:
Young men, there are fewer tidbits of advice
that I can give you than to avoid a girl who likes drama, enjoys fighting, and
will eventually wind up making your life miserable if you foolishly choose to
unite with her in marriage. When you are courting a girl, see her at church,
around her family, and notice that she seems to have a penchant for over
reaction, a hot temper, and a love of drama, run away from her like she was the
devil himself.
She will ruin your life and destroy your
children’s as well. You may think her emotional responses to everything are
cute now but you won’t think so once you’ve set up a household with her as the
spoke around which the wheel turns. Of course, the same goes for a girl getting
to know a potential husband. If the person who you are thinking of loves to
argue with you and even seems out of control at times they will not make a very
good mate.
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