Day 305: Proverbs 10-12 | Read The Bible In A Year | Bible Study with Commentary by Dr. Manny Arango

Welcome to the Bible department podcast powered by Arma. We are walking through the entire Bible in a year. You can go to the description or thebaldapartment.com to download a reading plan and join the journey. (upbeat music) Family, welcome to day 305 here at the Bible department. Today we are diving into Proverbs chapters 10, 11, and 12. This is the more classic kind of Proverbs that people are used to. The short wisdom sayings, Proverbs chapters one through nine had a poetic storytelling kind of a flow, themes that carried through. And these are just one liners, one hit wonders, okay? So this entire section of the book is going to feel this way from Proverbs chapter 10, all the way to Proverbs chapter 22 verse 16 is gonna feel like these one hit wonders, these one liners, these just, these hard hitting memorable one liners, okay? So if you haven't done the reading for the day, how about you stop this video, pause the audio, go get the reading done. I mean, I quite enjoy reading Proverbs, but I love wisdom. I love, love, love, love, love wisdom. And I hope by the end of our time together through Proverbs, you love wisdom as well. 'Cause if you don't love wisdom,

that means you love foolishness. So we don't wanna love foolishness. All right, the only context clue I really have for you is that we have a difference of the type of Proverb that we are reading, okay? From Proverbs one through nine, we are reading a narrative storytelling poetic kind of a flow and you can feel it. As soon as you start Proverbs chapter 10, you can feel like, okay, yeah, that was a distinct section. And now I'm in a new section and these are short sentences drawn from long experiences, okay? When people think of Proverbs, this is what they typically think of, the short memorable sentence sayings, all right? So here's what I'm gonna do today. I'm just gonna give you my top for our nerdy nuggets, okay? For our nerdy nuggets today, I'm just gonna give you my top 10 Proverbs from these three chapters, top 10. So we're gonna kinda like rapid fire through these, not gonna give super, super long explanations. It's gonna read the verse, encourage you, and then move to the next one, okay? And I'm gonna try to move through 10. I know that's lofty. I should've said five or seven or something, but no, I think I can do 10, okay? Here's Dr. Manny's top 10 Proverbs from today's reading, okay?

I want you to grab your Bible. Let's go to Proverbs chapter 10, verse four. Proverbs chapter 10, verse four. And while you're there, go ahead and grab verse 22. Proverbs chapter 10, verse four, and Proverbs chapter 10, verse 22. 'Cause man, woo, this is good right here. I think they go together. These two, one liners go together. Proverbs chapter 10, verse four. Lazy hands make for poverty, but diligent hands bring wealth. Lazy hands make for poverty, diligent hands bring wealth. Is it a guarantee? No, does it mean that every lazy person will be poor? No, some lazy people have rich parents, and it is what it is. Does it mean that every poor person is lazy? No, but does it mean that there is overlap between laziness and poverty? Yes, diligent hands bring wealth. Does that mean every diligent person is wealthy? No, does that mean that every wealthy person is diligent? No, but is there overlap? Yes. And there's enough overlap for this proverb to say that lazy hands make for poverty and diligent hands bring wealth.

What I get out of that is hey, make sure I'm fighting laziness at every stage. And there's different kinds of laziness. There are people who are workaholics, but they're still lazy, okay? So they'll put in tons of work and effort at their job because their work or their professional life is actually easy for them. But when it comes to like their emotional life or their marital life or their life as a parent, they don't put in equal amounts of work because in those areas, they're lazy. And so I have prided myself as a hardworking person. I remember the first time that a leader kind of looked at me and was like, yeah, but you know, you're lazy when it comes to your marriage. You're lazy when it comes to things that have to do with the home. You're lazy when it comes to Tia and Theo. You're lazy. And I remember the first time Uncle Jimmy Rollins, like I had preached like four times and I call him Uncle Jimmy. And he was like, you better grab a five-hour energy at the airport. Your son does not care that you preach four times. He does not care. And it's lazy to use preaching four times as an excuse to go home and not be a good parent. And to just check out.

And to not engage with your son, okay? That's lazy. If you're gonna be hardworking on Sunday mornings at the church, and guess what? You're gonna be hardworking when you get home when you engage with your wife and your son, okay? So lazy, diligent. I think that it goes well with verse 22, 'cause he has what verse 22 says, "The blessing of the Lord brings wealth without painful toil for it." So, proverbs is shy about wealth. Proverbs is not going to operate under the assumption that wealth is like evil or wealth is bad. Actually, the Bible operates from this place. That greed is a problem. That idolatry is a problem. So, if money is something that creates greed in you, or if finances or financial security is an idol for you, then God has an issue with that. But he has no problem with wealth. Actually, the Bible never says that money's evil or money's bad, it says the love of money is bad, which again, is greed and idolatry, okay? So, number one, proverbs, chapter 10, verse four, number two, proverbs 10, verse 22. Number three, proverbs, chapter 11, verse four, proverbs, chapter 11, verse four, says this, wealth is worthless in the day of wrath, okay? Again, proverbs is actually giving

a pretty holistic view on wealth. Says, hey, you know, God brings a blessing of wealth, diligent hands, create wealth, but let's be clear, wealth is worthless on the day of wrath. But righteousness delivers from death. Hey, don't just go after being wealthy, make sure that you go after being righteous, okay? I love that, that's a good, good, good reminder, and it's a good counterbalance. I guess the way that I've thought about it is this, if a plane's crashing, it doesn't matter if you're in first class, okay? So, you're dying, you're dying, okay? So, the goal of this proverb is to help people to go, hey, wealth is worthless in the day of wrath. Hey, once God cracks the sky and comes back, you're not gonna be able to take your riches through your wealth with you. So, wealth is worthless in the day of wrath. So, make sure that you stored up some treasures in heaven, okay? Where moth and rust don't destroy it, with thieves don't break in and steal. Okay, that's why it says righteousness delivers from death, not wealth. That's three, let's do number four. Family, the weight 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 gonna be a New York Times best seller. I really do. I think we wrote a good one. I think you should get a copy today. All right, back to the episode. Proverbs chapter 11, verses 24 to 26 says this, "One person gives freely, yet gains even more." That's the counterintuitive nature of generosity right there. One person gives freely, yet gains even more. Another with holds, unduly, but comes to poverty. That verse right there essentially says, generosity leads to wealth, not the other way around. Wealth doesn't lead to generosity, but generosity leads to wealth. But stinginess leads to poverty. Are all stingy people poor? No. Are all poor people stingy? No.

But is there overlap? Yes, okay. So remember, proverbs are not telling you how things work all the time. It's not a law of nature. It's not like gravity. But proverbs is telling you a general rule of thumb. Let's keep going. Verse 25, "A generous person will prosper. Whoever refreshes others will be refreshed." This is saying, this is how society works. Generous people are attractive people. I've won favor by just being a generous person. One of the first things we did when we got to Houston is I decided, yep, I'm gonna buy seasoned tickets to the Houston Rockets. Why? 'Cause I'm not planting a church from a poverty mindset. I'm planting a church from an abundance mindset, from a wealth mindset. with me. So I bought two tickets. And I'm able to say to anybody on our team, come go to a game with me. It's best. Oh, actually, not anybody men on our team. Come come go to a game with me. Well, that's generous. That's just me being generous and executive pastor at my old church. So told me that he always used to give his kids when they were in high school, a pack of gum. He sent them to school with a pack of gum every morning. He said, guess what? The kid with gum makes friends because you can give gum away. He didn't give them gum so their breath could be fresh. He gave them gum so that they could win favor with

other people because generosity always attracts people. People love being around givers. They love being around generous people. People do not like being around stingy people or people who take people who withdraw more than they deposit. No one likes being around that person. But people love being around a generous person. I want you to think about this. What emotion do you think people feel when they see your name on their caller ID? When they look at their phone and you calling, do you think they get a pit in their stomach? Like, I just do about to ask me for something. Or do you think they rejoice like y'all? This person is about to encourage me. And I got some friends in my life who as soon as I see their name on my phone, they're calling me. I'm like, yo, every time they call me, they encourage they make a deposit. They're generous. That means I always answer the phone. There's some people who they are low capacity behind maintenance. That's the opposite of generous. Here's a generous is low maintenance and high capacity. It means that you don't require a lot of attention, but you're someone who gives a lot of value. Okay, that is a general rule. I could say right that Gary V. I don't know if you know who Gary V is is genuinely just trying to teach people how to do that, right? You don't even need to be a Christian to access that level of wisdom that you should be generous. Why do we make this entire podcast free? Well, it's because I believe that the more you share the world of the generous get bigger and bigger get larger and larger. Okay, so Proverbs chapter 11, verses 24 to 26. And then last one, people curse the one who hoards grain, but they pray God's blessing on the one who is willing to sell. Okay, so Proverbs chapter 11, verses 24 to 26, essentially saying, Hey, the world of the

generous man brings blessing. People want generous people to flourish. Because they understand that if that person flourishes, we all flourish. Okay, so Proverbs 10 for Proverbs 10 22, Proverbs 11 for Proverbs 11 24 to 26. Okay, and then I Proverbs 10. So we're going to go back to Proverbs chapter 10. Okay, Proverbs chapter 10 verse 24, Proverbs chapter 10 verse 24 and 25. Oh, no, no, just 24. Sorry, just 24. It says this, what the wicked dread will overtake them. What the what the righteous desire will be granted. Say, I want you to think about this. This is the first time that we have a riddle. This is more like a riddle. You got to have to figure out the riddle. Okay, what the wicked dread will overtake them. What the righteous desire will be granted. Okay, so we have to ask the question, what do the wicked dread and what do the righteous desire? And it would seem as though it's the same thing, because that's how the riddle works. And the answer is Yahweh. That's the answer. You got to figure out the real. You have to think about it for a little bit. The answer is Yahweh. What do the wicked dread the presence of God? Why? Because they're wicked. And they know that Yahweh means wrath. Okay, what do the righteous desire Yahweh? And so both will get what they what they the wicked will get what they dread. One day Yahweh will come on a day of the Lord. Yahweh will come. And what will happen? Yahweh will overtake the wicked. They'll die. But what will happen to the righteous? The righteous, what they desire will be granted. And then next verse kind of goes along with it. When the storm is swept by the wicked are gone. It may look like the wicked are prospering, but their lives are not set up to withstand trouble to withstand storms to withstand hardship. Okay, but the righteous stand from forever. The

righteous aren't shaken by storms. Okay, because they're righteous. And they're building their life, not just for this world, but for eternity. All right, I got through five. Let me see how many more I can get through before our time runs out today. Proverbs chapter 10, verse eight, Proverbs chapter 10, verse eight says this, and it goes along with verse 17 of the same chapter. So, Proverbs chapter 10, verse eight and 17 says this in verse eight, the wise and the wise and the wise and the to life, but whoever ignores correction leads others astray. The wise and heart accept commands. The wise and heart, they accept commands. They, they, and then it says this, but a chattering fool comes to ruin. I always can tell whether or not someone's in a position to accept based on how much they're listening to the ratio of how much they're talking. So the wise and heart accept commands. They know how to heed discipline. They're easy to correct, easy to give advice to, because you give them advice. They pivot. They change. They apply it. What's verse 17 say, whoever he's disciplined shows the way to like, but whoever ignores correction leads others astray. I don't want to be someone who ignores wisdom, who ignores correction. Actually, the way that I would say it is like being easily offended will lead you to a place where you, where you ignore correction and where you don't want to be challenged, where you don't like commands. Nothing worse than an insecure person who's always offended when you have something to say that will help them ultimately. Let's see if we can get a couple more in Proverbs chapter 11 verse 1. It's a good one. The Lord detests us on a scales, but accurate weights find favor with him. Obviously, God, what you begin to see through Proverbs is wealth is not an issue for God. But what does God have an issue with injustice, ill-gotten gain? He's like, no, no, no, no, no, dishonest scales means that you're using, you know, it would be kind of like it's a way to get over on people, okay, dishonest scales. It's like, hey, what the Lord actually has an issue with is lying and cheating and using shady methods to get wealthy, okay? Get rich, quick schemes, like that stuff. God is just like, yeah, no, I'm not in that. And so anyone who's trying to convert you to like be a part of their pyramid scheme or sorry, they're multi-level marketing, you know, like, if it's dishonest, if it's getting over on somebody, you know, if I got to cheat on my taxes to do it, I'm probably, I'm not going to do it because God says like he hates dishonest

scales. And at some point, you can't love wealth so much that you will end a compromise on your character because one of the things that Proverbs is going to make clear is that your name, like, having a good name is to be valued, okay? So dishonest scales. God has an issue with injustice, especially if that injustice is taking advantage of the poor. All right, so I wanted that put in there because if we just cherry-picked the Proverbs that sound like, yeah, man, God is pro-wealth, then that's not actually helping us. There's a very, very holistic picture that God's creating here in the Proverbs on how we're supposed to engage with money in the marketplace as business leaders. And one of the things that God says, verse 11, sorry, chapter 11, verse one, the Lord hates dishonest scales, okay? But after it waits, find favor with him. God wants you to win, but he doesn't want you to cheat to do it, okay? He doesn't want you to lose your character and do it or compromise your morals to do it. Let's see how many more I can get done. Proverbs, chapter 12, verse 11 is a good one. Proverbs, chapter 12, verse 11, it says this, "Those who work their land will have abundant food, but those who chase fantasies have no sense." Whoo! That's a good one. Work the land, don't chase fantasies, okay? There are people who I ask them their dream and they tell me and I'm like, okay, so what are you doing to get there? And they're like, oh, nothing. And I'm like, got it. There's not a dream then that's a fantasy. You're living in fantasy. You know, there's nothing realistic about what you're saying. And the way that I know that I'm operating in faith and not a fantasy is that faith without works is dead. I guess the other way that I can say is faith without corresponding action is a fantasy. It's a fantasy. There's some people, actually they have dreams and their dreams, they're dreaming not to get to work, but they're dreaming to keep them from work. They spend all this time dreaming up what they're going to do, who they're going to be, almost like they're caught up in dream land. And it's like, you can't get them to get busy doing something. But who's who's actually going to have a bunch of food? Those who work their land, get work the land is one thing for me to dream about armor. It's another thing for me to get in the studio, record some courses, learn how to get, you know, sales funnel together, run some ads, get a podcast, you know, put the ads in the middle of the podcast and work the land. It's one thing for me to have a pipe dream like, oh, I'm going to plan a church one day. It's another thing to move to Houston, start meeting people, start evangelizing. get them active, they get them from dormant, you know, active, like enough to work the land.

Get to work, wake up. There's a lot of us, we're just living in fantasies. One day I'm gonna, one day, what about today? What are you gonna do today? What about right now? A whole bunch of people who it's like they tell me about all their future goals, and then I look at them and I'm like, okay, so you got a dream of being an entrepreneur, fantastic. You're a bad employee today though. Hey, stop with the fantasies, work the land. Work your land, and guess what the best land is to work? And this is where we're gonna pivot to our Thomas tree. Guess the best land to work, right here. The soil of your own soul. Everything, everything that I've reached in my life has come out of the toil of getting my heart, turning my heart into good ground, making sure that my heart is not thorny, rocky, or shallow, but that I'm good ground. And there's other proverbs that we could look at. There's, you know, I've got a bunch of proverbs listed here that we just don't have time to get into. So we didn't hit 10, it was wishful thinking. It was a fantasy, but I wanna leave you with this timeless truth. First of all, the problem's already timeless, but just the timeless truth that the best land to work is the ground of your heart. It's the wellspring of life.

Protect your heart. Above everything, it's the wellspring of life. Like does love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generous, self-control, do all the fruits of the Holy Spirit grow out of the soil of your soul? Because if they don't, that means you gotta work the land. You gotta work the land of your heart. Because it doesn't matter how great of an employee or talented of an employee, I could recruit if my own soul is not producing the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Great employees are not gonna stay. So what good is it if I recruit them, but then it can't keep them, okay? So the biggest ROI that I've had as a pastor, as an entrepreneur, as a leader, as a faith leader, as a business leader, has been cultivating the soil of my own heart. And I would say, man, Proverbs, chapter 12, verse 11, those who work their land, not just the land of their business or their family or, no, no, but their land. Like what me and my therapists do, okay? Couple of times out of the month, this land called, this plot of land called Manirango, I was made from the dirt into the dirt I will return one day. And my job is to work this plot of ground until this plot of ground produced a harvest of righteousness. And that's not just true for Solomon, that's not just true for the context of when these Proverbs were written,

but that's true for you, that's true for me. That's timelessly true. All right, tomorrow we got day 306. We're gonna be looking at Proverbs chapters 13, 14, and 15. I love Proverbs, maybe tomorrow I'll do a top 10 again. And maybe I'll say it's top 10, but won't get to 10 'cause there's no way to get to 10 in a 20 minute episode. But anyway, we'll see, I love you. I'm proud of you, especially if you're on the street. I'll see you right here tomorrow. Same time, same place. Let's look at Proverbs chapter 13 and 15 tomorrow. Love you guys, peace. - Thanks so much for joining us on the Bible Department podcast. If this episode was helpful, how about you leave a comment? Share with a friend and subscribe so that you never miss an episode. To learn more about the show, head to thebobledepartment.com. We'll see you right back here tomorrow.