Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

These are more proverbs of Solomon, compiled by the men of Hezekiah king of Judah:
It is the glory of God to conceal a matter;
    to search out a matter is the glory of kings.
As the heavens are high and the earth is deep,
    so the hearts of kings are unsearchable.
Remove the dross from the silver,
    and a silversmith can produce a vessel;
remove wicked officials from the king’s presence,
    and his throne will be established through righteousness.
Do not exalt yourself in the king’s presence,
    and do not claim a place among his great men;
it is better for him to say to you, “Come up here,”
    than for him to humiliate you before his nobles.
What you have seen with your eyes
    do not bring hastily to court,
for what will you do in the end
    if your neighbor puts you to shame?

• Proverbs 25:1-8

Proverbs 25:2, 3 ” The roles of God and the king are compared. God, whose knowledge is above all human knowledge (cf. Ps. 92:5; Eccl. 3:11; Is. 46:10; Acts 15:18; Heb. 4:13), and whose ways are unsearchable (cf. Job 5:9; Ps. 145:3; Is. 40:28), keeps things to Himself because He needs no counsel (see Rom. 11:34). On the contrary, kings should rightly seek to know what they must know in order to rule righteously.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

The Message

Solomon wrote that he was laying out 30 wise sayings, and we have those from mid Proverbs 22 through much of Proverbs 24.  Then, as if to say “Woah, wait a minute, there are more wise sayings.”  That completes Proverbs 24.  At the beginning of Proverbs 25, we see that King Hezekiah has found more wise sayings of Solomon, stuffed off in the vaults somewhere.  He adds those to what is already in the Proverbs of Solomon.  So, you can find recurring themes that come and go throughout the Proverbs, and you see something that almost seems a duplicate of something that you read a few chapters before.  The people who compiled the Proverbs made no attempt to rearrange things by topic, although the end of Proverbs 31 is specific.  And in a way, you are getting quick sound bites.  And the recurring themes provide repetition.  In reading through the Proverbs, the disorganization seems to enhance the learning of the roots of Solomon’s wisdom, and since God gave that wisdom to Solomon, a glimpse of God’s wisdom.

But before we think we can understand God’s wisdom, Proverbs 25:2, 3 tells us that the glory of God is unsearchable.  Whatever is the choicest, highest, most glorious that we could imagine, God is far beyond even that understanding, and what we imagined was not even possible in our reality.

The next proverb talks about dross and silver versus wicked advisors to a king and righteously ruling.  I spent time teaching aluminum melting and purification.  The dross floats to the top.  In steel making, the slag (same as dross in aluminum and silver) can be decanted by tilting the vessel and pouring it off the top.  In aluminum making, they usually rake the dross off using some kind of skimming tool or machine.

It is easy to see the dross (or slag).  It requires wisdom to see an evil advisor for what they are, but the means of righteous ruling is the same as silver or aluminum purification.  It must be removed by whatever means necessary.

If you exalt yourself too highly, the higher up, a king or your boss, can humiliate you by putting you in your place.  It is better to act as a humble servant and let the ruling person see your potential and lift you up.  I have had this wise saying backfire on me as the boss sees the potential of exploiting my skills without ever lifting me up.  I was taught in the military that you never gave someone the responsibility without giving them the authority.  Then again, these are wise sayings and not everyone lives by them.

And the last part of Proverbs 25:7 and all of verse 8 tell us that what we think we see might not be what really happened.  Magicians make their money relying upon that, and there are laws about false accusations so that someone does not get sent to jail for what someone thought they saw.  Make sure of the facts.  But if asked what you think you saw, be truthful and let the investigator piece the pieces together to determine the truth.

And now let us sing.

The following song is Love You with the Truth.  This is sung by Casting Crowns.  We should speak the truth, for if we truly love, we will love you with the Truth.

Closing Prayer

Dear Lord,
We need Your wisdom.  Help us to value wisdom.  I am so glad that You guided Solomon to keep writing.  God, help us and guide us to be wise, in using what Solomon wrote down.  We may not be kings, so we can sit back in awe of who You are.  But even the lowliest of us has people in his ear.  Help us to seek wise and righteous counsel instead of being loaded down with dross and wicked counsel.  And help us to seek the lowly place so that the master of the house can lift us up.  And, Lord, our news and social media accounts are filled with videos about one injustice or another, but we never see the video from the other side.  Let us keep our mouths shut until we really know what is going on.  At a time where there is more information than ever before, there is more misleading and untruthful information than ever before.  Help us, oh Lord.  In thy Name we pray.
Amen

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.