Proverbs 17

Proverbs 17 – As part of the 31 Day Proverbs Challenge, I am doing one chapter per day for 31 days since there are 31 chapters also in the Book of Proverbs. This is Day 17 of 31, therefore I am focusing on Proverbs 17. #Proverbs17

Today read the whole chapter of Proverbs 17. There are 28 verses in Proverbs 17.

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Proverbs 17, is one like the previous ones where it compares one thing better than the other. Like a dry morsel could be dry bread, meaning it could be day old or stale bread. It can be better to be in a quiet house with old bread than a house full of food with fighting going on.

Proverbs 17:22 - a cheerful heart is good medicine

It says that to refine gold and silver it must go in the furnace, the fire in other words. To refine us, God will put our hearts on fire. He knows our hearts. He test our hearts too to see if we will be refined pure. Testing here is to make sure we will stay faithful to God. He may bring adversity our way to test us.

An evil person and a liar make things worse but continuing and edging on the evil lying behavior. Take heed of those type of people.

If you were to mock someone, it means that you are making fun of them. May you say the poor deserves it, etc. That is a way of mocking the poor. God made the poor and to make fun of them, is to make fun of God himself, since He is the Creator, the Creator of everything and everyone.

A crown is a celebrated symbol of status. To get this crown you need to pursue wisdom. Remember we get wisdom from the Fear of God. God is the one who gives us wisdom. It is good for children to have wise and godly parents. Ones that will raise them up in the way of the Lord.

Verse 7 according to my KNJV study Bible it says that fool here is Hebrew, Nabal, meaning religious indifference, one that curses God and denies he exists.

A precious stone is like a bribe. It may only be precious to the one who sees it. Almost reminds me of the saying one mans junk is another mans treasure. One person may not see the stone as valuable but another would. God doesn’t like bribes. This person may proposer here on earth because of these bribes, but He won’t prosper anywhere else.

I believe here in verse 9 talks about forgiveness. Leaving the where they mistreated you to God and God’s wrath for them. Remember vengeance is mine sayith the Lord. See Nahum 1:2; Romans 12:19; & Hebrews 10:30. If you let the hostility get to you, it will separate you as friends, it means you are holding onto a grudge. You are not forgiving.

Verses 9-19 or Proverbs 17, deal with conflict of some type, just like the above on forgiveness.

An evil person will continue to rebel. If you rebel long enough, God can and will put you death. It says in here messengers in this case it could be an angel, perhaps the angel of death.

Do not reward evil for good. If you do, evil will not leave. Evil will continue. Think of it like a child, when the child does wrong do you want to reward them? If you do, they will think they can do it again and get another reward.

Strife or anger is like running water, it can be strong and will continue to flow. It can pass on to others along the stream it takes. So it is important to stop it when you see it starting. Put a seance to arguments and fights and bad talks.

A cheerful heart is good medicine.
Proverbs 17:22

Again it talks about justifying the evil or bad, the things that go against God’s Will. Like today, there are many topics that go against God’s Law, that are bad and evil,. if we accept it and tolerate it it means that we are justifying it. We are to love the sinner, but hate the sin. Sin must be dealt with! Yes we all sin, but as Christians we should strive to be more Christ-like. The old saying WWJD. What Would Jesus Do? It also tells us if we justify or comply with those who says it is right when it is wrong, we are as guilty of committing the sin as if we did it our self.

This Proverb lets us know we cannot purchase wisdom. We may think we can with fancy educations and degrees and such, but true wisdom doesn’t come from an educational institute; it comes from God Himself. We must have the right heart, the fear of God, a reverse type of fear to gain this wisdom. It is all about the heart condition. God looks at us by our heart.

This Proverb also tells us that often a friend will love us more than a brother. The bother may not love us when it seems good is happening to us. Look at Cain and Abel and what happened in that situation.

The Bible says that it is a crazy or stupid thing to put up a pledge or a loan for a friend. I believe it is saying if they cannot get the load to begin with there is a reason why. It may be a simple warning that your friend may never repay you for the debt they owe.

Don’t be the person who brings on anger or argument. If you are that type of person you will be destruction. That is why it is important to just forgive and allow God to take control, after all He will give His punishment.

If you lie to get what you want or to take advantage of others you will find no good. You will not trust other people because your life is built on a lie, so you lie to cover up other lies. Because of this you do not know what the truth is. So when someone talks to you; you won’t believe them because you will be unsure if they are telling the truth or not.

The same goes to bad talking, bad language, perverse talking etc. It brings nothing but evil, this evil will cause you to fall and sin. Remember sin separates us from God. We are the ones that go away from Him. He is still with us, but we are the ones that turn away or take our eyes off Him.

A scoffer is an immoral person. Someone with no moral accountability. This person is dangerous, because they really don’t know what is right or wrong. They do not know what is acceptable or unacceptable.

If you have a merry heart, a cheerful or happy heart it is like medicine. It is good for you, makes you feel good, it lifts you up, perhaps encourages you. It is a good cure for anything. On the other hand, when you have a sad heart, you bring pain to others. This pain can be so bad that it hurts to the bones. The bones is part of the inner most part of us.

Proverbs 17 talks about bribes. Remember God detest Bribes. It goes on to say a wicked man will even do bribes behind your back. This will be someone close to you!

Again wisdom is talked about and it is from God. He is the one that brings understanding with the wisdom. We can get this wisdom by keeping our eye on the Lord, but when we take our eyes off of Him, we see the world and become fools. Taking our eyes off of the Lord shows we no longer trust Him. Remember what happened to Peter when he took his eyes off Jesus? He sank!

Proverbs 17 also says, If you become a foolish son, going away from the Lord,denying Him and breaking his Laws, you become a fool to your father and bring bitterness to your mother. After all your parents are the ones that suppose to bring you up in a godly home. If you go against that they know what awaits you, the wrath of God and they love you and don’t want to see you face that.

It tells us that it does us no good to punish the righteous, those who do good. That is unfair to punish a righteous person or an innocent person. This can also mean pass judgement on someone that isn’t true.

It says if you know how to hold your tongue and not say bad words, etc. You have knowledge and understanding. A knowledge of God and what God wants. It will also keep a calm spirit between you and those around you. But remember even a fool can hold his peace, his mouth from time to time. So be careful of the false perception.

Share what you got out of reading Proverbs 17? What verse stood out to you and why?

A cheerful heart is good medicine. #Proverbs17 Share on X

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About the Author

Steve Patterson

A Christian Blogger that enjoys blogging about the Bible, Theology, God, Jesus Christ, Christian Music, Family, Cats, Odd Holidays, sewing and much more. I have been blogging since 2004, however, I have been blogging on Courageous Christian Father since 2012. I enjoy listening to Christian Music. I am married with 1 daughter, 2 step-sons and a step daughter.

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