January 5

Jan 5 - Today from Proverbs 5 we look at verses 22 & 23
"The evil deeds of a wicked man ensnare him; the cords of his sin hold him fast. He will die for lack of discipline, led astray by his own great folly."

There is a continual theme about the contrast of discipline/life and folly/death throughout the book of Proverbs. There is a reason for this; "Repetition is a good teacher." Proverbs isn't meant to be a quick read-through like some kind of novel. It is to be studied a little each day. I can remember as a child what a drag it was memorizing my times-tables. Day-by-day, week-by-week. The two-times were quite easy. The nine-times worse. The twelve-times a nightmare. But eventually I had them stuck in my mind. For almost twenty years I worked in a lumberyard. I worked with twelve-times all of the time - feet to inches, inches to feet. I don't even have to think about it any more. My wife was recently employed by a fabric shop. She is getting proficient in nine-times; square feet to square yards, square yards to square feet. Repetition is a good teacher. God wants us to quickly calculate that which is discipline and that which is folly. He wants it to become second nature for us. He uses repetition too.
The root word for 'folly' in the Hebrew language is 'perverse'. Sound familiar? To be perverse means to be self-willed. To be self-willed is folly. Folly brings about death - separated from God and from the wonderful purposes for which He created us. Discipline in this case is not self-discipline, rather it is 'instruction' or 'chastisement'. It is the correction of a loving parent. It is discipline only if it is received. Self-willed people will not receive discipline and they end up 'ensnared', tangled in the cords of the very sin that separates them from a relationship with God. Not a nice picture.
As believers we have two things going for us. We have clear enough instruction through the Word of God and we have the indwelling Holy Spirit to 'prick’ our conscience when we would seek to exercise our own will against that of God. The problem comes when we chose to ignore His voice and go with our own folly. Sometimes our folly appears to be wisdom, but we are warned not to lean on our own understanding. "There is a way which seems right to man, but in end it leads to death." (14:12). Repetition. The Word of God is to take precedence in every matter - His Word brings life. His Word keeps us from getting ensnared and tangled in the cords of sin. It is worth studying - over and over until it becomes a part of our thinking process.