Lover Of Knowledge Or Plain Stupid. Series

A man shall not be established by wickedness: but the root of the righteous shall not be moved.

Prov.12:3

Life is full of change. Little is fixed and stable. Change can be disruptive and fearful. But godly men have deep roots to secure their family tree for the future. Wicked living is popular, but it will not work for long, since God will destroy such men and their families.

The lesson is simple: godly men and their families will outlast the wicked . It may not seem so for a time, but it will soon be true. Proverbs gives you a rule as true as gravity, and it is repeated for emphasis (Pr 2:21-22; 10:25,30; 12:19; 24:3).

Abraham and Lot made choices. Lot chose financial advantage over holiness by pitching his tent toward Sodom. Abraham chose the leftovers. But what happened? Lot lost everything and ended up in a cave with two pregnant daughters; Abraham ended up as the rich father of Israel What a difference!

This very proverb has a wonderful parallel in the New Testament in the sermon on the mount. The parable of the foundations deals with how the man who built his house on the sand, having no foundation except on sand, had his house fall. The man who set his house on the rock,, stood against all the storms and winds that beat upon it.

The man who seeks to be established on wickedness is kidding himself. He won't know any kind of firmness or foundation. The word here means to be firm or fixed, to be steadfast and deeply founded. The picture is of a house that has deep moorings into the ground and as a result is very stable and strong. There is no promise of this for the man who wants to dig his roots into wickedness. He won't know stability - he won't have strength that will last. When troubles and trials, storms and winds come upon his life - he will fall flat.

“An excellent wife is the crown of her husband, but she who shames him is as rottenness in his bones Proverbs 12:4

What a precious proverb! A virtuous woman is a noble, gracious, diligent, and loving woman. She faithfully honors and pleases her husband. He is thankful and rejoices in God’s goodness to him through her. But an odious woman shames her husband and slowly kills him on the inside by selfishness, stubbornness, foolishness, or unfaithfulness.

The word crown here is a simple metaphor. A crown honors a person. Kings wear crowns for the honor of their office, and athletes were crowned to honor sporting achievements. A great wife honors her husband by the pleasure and esteem she brings him, and she also crowns his authority by her own submission and that which she requires of her children. A crown is a grand piece of jewelry, and a virtuous woman is a crown to her husband!

Rottenness in his bones is a simple simile, a comparison that gives itself away by using the word “as.” Bones are the support of your anatomy, and rottenness in your bones is fatal trouble for your body. Ask anyone with advanced leukemia. An odious wife causes horrible grief to a man’s mind and distress to his soul. In public he is ashamed he is married to her, and in private he is deeply wounded in his heart. It is a painful affliction. A woman can hardly understand it, for she was made for him, not he for her (I Cor 11:9).