Why These Verses Connect

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All right, welcome back. Today we're going to be going through Proverbs chapter 10, verse 20 through 23, and I'm going to title this one When Wisdom Becomes a Delight. So as we go through these verses, it's going to say a lot more than what it first appears to say. In Proverbs 10 23 23, these four verses move from the tongue to the lips, to the blessing of the Lord, and then to the pleasure of wisdom. At first glance, these may sound like separate sayings, but when you lay them side by side, they form one connected thought. A righteous life begins with a heart that has been touched by God, comes out through words that feed other people, receives blessings without the sorrow that comes from striving, and eventually discovers that wisdom itself becomes a joy. The passage reads this way in the King James Version The tongue of the cho of the just is as choice silver, the heart of the wicked is little worth. The lips of the righteous feed many, but fools die for want of wisdom. The blessing of the Lord it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it. It is a sport to a fool to do mischief, but a man of understanding hath wisdom. That is Proverbs ten twenty through twenty three. And I want to treat these verses not as disconnected sayings but as a progression. Solomon is showing us what comes out of life ordered by God. Here is the thing I want to carry all the way through. Wisdom is not merely knowing what is right. No, wisdom is hearing God's voice, trusting it, speaking it, walking in it, and then enjoying the privilege of watching him bring his purpose to pass. That is what makes a righteous person different. His words are different because his heart is different. His blessing is different because his source is different. His pleasure is different because what delights him is different.

The Tongue As Choice Silver

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The righteous tongue has been refined. Proverbs ten twenty says The tongue of the just is as choice silver, the heart of the wicked is little worth. Silver has value because it has been refined, it has been separated from what does not belong. It has passed through fire and has been purified. Solomon is saying that the tongue of the righteous has value, not because a righteous person is naturally brilliant, clever or impressive, but because something has happened inside of him. His words have been worked by God. This is important because a lot of people can talk. A lot of people can fill up a room with words, and a lot of people can sound confident, but confidence is not the same thing as wisdom. Volume is not the same thing as truth. The tongue of the righteous is choice silver because it has been brought under the authority of God. The righteous persons have learned that every thought needs to be spoken. Not every opinion needs to be defined and not every emotion deserves a microphone. Remember we learned that last time? David understood this when he prayed in Psalms one hundred forty one three. Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth. Keep the door of my lips. This is not a prayer of weakness. This is a prayer of wisdom. David was saying, Lord, I do not trust my mouth itself. Put a guard there, keep a watch. Help me not speak out of anger, pride, fear, or impatience. Let my words pass

Put A Guard On Your Mouth

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through you before anybody else. That prayer is desperately needed today, isn't it? We live in a time when people speak quickly, post quickly, react, and react too quickly, but then apologize too slowly. But Proverbs is teaching another way. The righteous tongue is not hurried by the flesh, it is governed by the spirit. It knows that words can heal or wound, build or destroy, feed or poison. James says the tongue is a small member, but it boasts of great things. A small spark can set a great force on fire, so a wise person does not treat speech lightly. Jesus gives us the perfect picture of this. In John fourteen ten, he says The words that I speak unto you, I speak not of myself, but the Father that dwelleth in me, he does a work. Think about that. The Son of God did not speak independently from the Father. He did not say, I have my own agenda and my own message and my own platform. He spoke what the Father gave him to speak. If Jesus treated words that seriously, how much more should we? So when Solomon says the tongue of the just is choice silver, he's talking about speech that has been refined by surrender. There is a difference between a clever tongue and a consecrated one. A clever tongue may win an argument, a consecrated tongue may save a soul. A clever tongue may impress people, but one consecrated, that tongue feeds

Words That Feed Instead Of Drain

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them. And that brings us naturally into verse twenty one. The righteous lips feed many. Proverbs twenty one says the lips of the righteous feed many, but fools die for want of wisdom. That word feed is really powerful. Solomon does not say the lips of the righteous entertain many, impress many, or dominate many. He says they feed many. Righteous words nourish people. You know, they give strength, they give direction, they put something into the here that helps them live. This connects beautifully with Jeremiah three hundred fifteen, where the Lord says, And I will give you pastors according to my heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding. God's shepherds feed people with knowledge and understanding because that is what people actually need. They do not merely need noise, do we? Nope. And we don't need inspiration. We got plenty of that. No, we need truth that strengthens our inner man and helps us walk with God. That is why the righteous person has to be fed before he can feed others. You cannot give people what you don't have. If a man is not living under the word, his words will eventually run dry. But when a man has been in the presence of God, when he has been corrected by scripture, humbled by prayer and steady by experience, his words carry nourish nourishment. They may be simple words, but they have weight. They may not be fancy, but you know they have life. There is also a warning here. Fools die for want of wisdom. In other words, the fool dies not because wisdom was unavailable. He dies because he would not receive it. That is one of the great tragedies in Proverbs. Wisdom keeps crying out. Remember that on the corner, the entrance of the city? Wisdom is always crying out. She keeps presenting herself. God keeps sending correction, counsel, examples, warnings, and opportunities for us to turn, but the fool refuses to listen. That means foolishness is not primarily an IQ problem, it's a heart problem. The fool is not unable to hear, the fool is unwilling to hear. He does not lack access to wisdom. He lacks humility. That is why Proverbs repeatedly connects wisdom with receiving instruction. A wise person can be corrected. A fool has to be crushed before he will consider correction. And sometimes, you know, as the scripture says even when it crushes them to dust, the foolishness does not leave him. That's pretty sad. So the righteous lips feed many because a righteous heart remains teachable. That is the pattern worth noticing. A man who refuses to be fed by God will eventually feed others with his own frustration, pride, bitterness, or confusion. But a man who lets God feed him with wisdom will have something to pass along. His life becomes a table, his words become bread. People leave his presence stronger than when they came in. You know, the blessing of the Lord enriches without sorrow. Now in verse twenty two, it says the

Why Fools Refuse Wisdom

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blessing of the Lord it maketh rich, and yet no sorrow with it. This verse gets quoted all the time about money, and it certainly can include material provisions. Abraham was blessed, Isaac and David were blessed. Scripture is not embarrassed by the fact that God can prosper his people, but I think Solomon is talking about something bigger than just your bank account. The blessing of the Lord is the favor of God resting on a life, a calling, a household, or even at your work. Notice the distinguishing mark here. Solomon does not merely say the Lord gives riches. No, he says his blessings make rich, and he has no sorrow to it. That means the difference is not only what is gained, but was not come attached to it. Anybody can make money. A crook can make money, a fool can stumble into it. A person can get rich and still lose peace, family, integrity, sleep, and joy. But when God blesses you, his blessings do not carry the same poison with it, and that's what I love. That does not mean a blessed life has no trouble. No, Abraham had tests, David had bottles, battles, Paul had suffering. Jesus himself was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. So this verse is not promising a life without hardship. It is saying that when the blessing has come from God, it is not filled with sorrow that comes from sin, or from striving, manipulating, or self made ambition. No, God can give you something that does not own you. He can bless your work without making your work your God. In Psalms one hundred twenty seven two, it says it this way it is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows, for he giveth his beloved sleep. There is a kind of labor that is driven by fear, and there is a kind of labor that is blessed by God. Both may involve hard work, long days, sacrifice, but one is filled with anxious striving while the other is carried by trust. One eats the bread of sorrow, the other can sleep because God is in it. This is where life experiences matters. When you look back over the years, the greatest joy is not just that a door opened or that a business grew, that provisions came in. No, the cheap the deepest joy is this. God told me to take that step. God put that person in my path. God opened what I could not open, and God closed what I did not need.

Rich Without The Sorrow

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God was not only giving me something, he was leading me somewhere. That is the richness Psalmist talking about. There is a richness that is bigger than money. There is a richness of peace in your home, of children who grow unto a purpose. There is a richness of a long marriage tested and still standing. There is the richness of being useful to God. There is this richness of seeing a word he gave you come to pass after months or years of waiting. That kind of blessing do not have to be explained by the world's categories. It comes from the Lord and it carries his fingerprints. See, the whole thing of like wisdom we're talking about here is hearing God's voice and walking in it and watching it come to pass. As we're going to find out in a little bit here, it becomes a sport for the wise. So in verse twenty three, it completes the movement. It is a sport to a fool to do mischief, but a man of understanding hath wisdom. Most people read the first half and stop there and they say, Oh yeah, the fool enjoys sin. True enough. Mischief is entertainment to him. He treats evil like a game. He says, Let's see what I can get away with. Let's see how far I can push this. Let's see who notices. That is a spirit of foolishness. It turns rebellion into recreation. But the contrast is the part I do not want to miss. A man of understanding hath wisdom. In other translation, the idea comes through that wisdom is joy or delight to the person who has understanding. The fool gets pleasure from mischief, but the wise man gets pleasure from wisdom. Now that's a beautiful thought. Wisdom is not merely duty to him. It becomes delight. It's just not the thing he has to do. It becomes something that, you know, you and I want to do. In plain language, the fool says, Let's see if I can get away with this. The wise man says, let's see what God is doing. One treats evil like a game. The other treats wisdom like an adventure. And if you walk with God for any length of time, you know that obedience can become exciting. It's not always easy or painless, but exciting, because you begin to recognize that God is moving pieces on the board that you could never move yourself, or even thought about moving. There are times when God gives a nudge. Call that person. Wait, don't make an answer yet. Wait, go ahead and ask. Sometimes he asks you to apologize. Take the next step, or let this opportunity pass. And in that moment it may not make complete sense. In fact, it hardly ever does. And you may even argue with it. I know I do quite often. But later, when you see what God was doing, wisdom becomes a pleasure. You begin to enjoy being led. Isaiah fifty five eleven says, So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth. It shall not return to me void, but it shall accomplish that what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing where unto I sent it. This means when God speaks, His word is not empty. It's not a suggestion without power. His word carries purpose, and his purpose carries fulfillment. And what I've seen in the past, which I think is wrong, is Christians will take scripture like the one we just read, and they'll repeat it and demand things to come to pass. Why don't we look at it more internally? When He speaks to you, He expects that to come to pass, and it will. You just got to apply your belief to His words to you. So be a wise person and start looking for these moments when God's word is being sent into your situation. That is why wisdom becomes a delight. Not because life becomes predictable, but because God proves himself faithful, and not because every desire is instantly granted, but because his direction becomes better than your ambition. Not because every door opens, because even the closed doors begin to make sense when you trust the one who is leading you. Now let's see how these verses all hold together. Verse twenty says, The tongue

When Wisdom Becomes A Delight

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of the choice of the just is choice silver. That is speech refined by God. Verse twenty one says the lips of the righteous feed many. That is speech used by God. Verse twenty two says the blessing of the Lord makes rich and has no sorrow. That is provisions given by God. Verse twenty three says wisdom is a pleasure to a man of understanding. That is life enjoyed with God. The movement is beautiful. God refines the heart, then the mouth, he fills the mouth with words that feed, he blesses the life with richness that does not have the same sorrow attached to it. And then he trains the person to actually enjoy wisdom. That is spiritual maturity. At first, obedience may feel like restrictions. Later you discover it's freedom. At first guarding your mouth may feel like losing your voice. Later you discover it gives your voice value. At first waiting on God may feel like delay. Later you discover it was protection. That is why Proverbs is not just a book of clever sayings. It's a book about formation. God is forming a certain kind of person, a person whose mouth can be trusted, a person who words help others live, a person who can receive blessing without being corrupted by it, and a person who finds more pleasure in wisdom than fools find in sin. And that is where the passage becomes personal. The question is not merely do I know these verses? The question is is God making me into this kind of person? Is my tongue becoming more like choice silver? Do my lips feed people or do they drain them? Am I chasing riches that add sorrow or am I seeking the blessing of the Lord? Do I still find mischief entertaining? Or has wisdom become my delight? So the conclusion is this The joy of being led by God. The wise life is not a dull life, it's not a small life. It's not merely a careful life where you avoid trouble and keep your head down. No, the wise life is a life where God becomes the center of your words, your work, your blessing and your pleasure. He teaches you what to say and gives you something worth saying. He blesses what he leads, and then he lets your experience the joy of seeing his wisdom prove true. That is why the righteous tongue is valuable. Heaven has touched it first. That is why the righteous lips feed many. They are passing along what God has supplies. That is why the blessing of the Lord makes rich. It comes with peace, purpose, and most importantly his presence. And that is why wisdom has become my delight. Because once you have seen God guide, provide, correct, protect, and fulfill his word, the world's version of fun starts looking cheap. The fool plays games with sin, the wise man walks with God. The fool asks, How can I get to the edge? The wise man asks, Lord, where are you leading? The fool lives for the thrill of getting away with something. The wise man lives for the joy of seeing God accomplish what only God can accomplish. And maybe that is the imitation in Proverbs ten twenty through twenty three. Let God revive refine your tongue. Let him feed others through your lips. Let his blessing be enough, even when it does not look like something or someone else is a blessing. And learn to enjoy wisdom. Learn to enjoy obedience. Learn to enjoy being led. Because there is no richer life than the life where God speaks, you listen, you obey, and then you get to watch Him bring His words to pass. That's really cool. That is wisdom. That is blessing. That is the kind of life Solomon is pointing toward over and over again. And that is the kind of life worth asking God for today.

Final Questions And Next Steps

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So that is it for this podcast on Proverbs 10, verse 20 through 23. And in conclusion, if you want to learn how to hear his voice quicker than just trying it on your own, get my book as a companion, of course, with the Word of God. And it is called God, Why Won't You Talk to Me by Edward L. Carpenter. And it's on Amazon Prime. Until next time, y'all be blessed and have a great week. Bye bye.