January 14 2014: Proverbs 14

Today, let’s talk about House.

 

No, not Hugh Laurie’s genius grumpy physician.

(promo photo snagged from IMDB.com)

 

No, not that weird planet entity in season six of NuWhu.

 

 

Instead, we’re looking at Proverbs 14:1 and Proverbs 14:11 and how “house” is used here.

 

First, Proverbs 14:1 and the power of a woman over her household. Obviously, this has its main application to women with a household—but even if you life alone, you are your own household. The power is there to build up or destroy, just as seriously as if you sledgehammered your drywall for fun.

 

The additional aspect here is that the woman has this power. It ought to be clear that households are not meant to be dominated by one gender or the other—a powerless woman is held back from showing her wisdom, from building. Where’s the good in that? Where is the God-honoring principle in that?

 

Nowhere. Wisdom does not shut out half of God’s people from building.

 

Second, Proverbs 14:11 and the contrast in the house of the wicked and the tent of the righteous. The image you get there is right: sometimes, the wicked seem to have more permanence than the righteous, the upright do. It’s the reality—many times, the righteous fall in this world when economies falter or troubling times come.

 

Yet over time, the upright flourish. From this life, and on into eternity, those who walk a righteous path are honored and honorable, and they grow.

 

The wicked? Few track the wicked from one generation to the next, because often they do not have many generations. A wicked person pops up here, and then falls, and new wickedness rises elsewhere. Yet righteousness is often seen in the continuation of a household and its influence.

 

Consider that, and remember this: better righteous life in a tent than wickedness in a mansion. That was true before reality TV, and now you can tune in to the evidence…