Thursday, October 9, 2025
Scripture Readings
- Primary Reading: Proverbs 14-15
Key Verse
Proverbs 14:35 — “The king’s favour is toward a wise servant: but his wrath is against him that causeth shame.”
Devotional Thought
Solomon’s collection of proverbs in these two chapters reads like a walk through an ancient village, past doorways where wisdom and folly are busy at work. A wise woman builds her house; a foolish one tears it down with her own hands. An ox treads the grain, and the crib is messy but the harvest is plentiful. A king weighs his servants, a father instructs his son, a neighbor despises the poor man at his gate. These are not abstractions; they are the ordinary scenes of ordinary lives, and Solomon insists that the fear of the LORD is woven through all of them—through the tongue that answers softly, the witness who tells the truth, the heart that is slow to wrath.
The verses return again and again to the same small instruments: the mouth, the heart, the ear. “A soft answer turneth away wrath,” but “grievous words stir up anger.” “The tongue of the wise useth knowledge aright.” “A wholesome tongue is a tree of life.” We tend to think of our words as weightless, but Solomon treats them as load-bearing. A house is built or plucked down by them. A friendship is kept or lost. A soul is delivered or deceived. And behind every conversation stands verse 3: “The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.” Nothing we say is unheard by Him.
Notice, too, how much of this wisdom is about receiving correction. “He that regardeth reproof is prudent.” “The ear that heareth the reproof of life abideth among the wise.” The fool despises instruction; the scorner will not go to the wise. Humility, Solomon says, comes before honor—and that is the shape of the whole book. To be teachable is to be wise, and to be unteachable is to be undone.
It is October, and the leaves are turning and the nights are drawing in. Even as the year dies back, farmers are bringing in the harvest, and homes are being made ready for colder days. Autumn is a season of building and gathering, and these chapters ask us what we are building with our words, our tempers, our money, our friendships. “Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith.” A small table with peace in it is wealth. “Better is little with the fear of the LORD than great treasure and trouble therewith.” The way that seems right to a man ends in death; the way of the upright, though narrow, flourishes like a tabernacle that will not be overthrown.
Reflection
- Where in your home, work, or church are you building with your words and habits—and where might you be quietly plucking down with your own hands?
- When someone corrects you, do you receive it as the “reproof of life,” or do you resent it? What does your reaction reveal about your heart?
Prayer
Father, Thy eyes are in every place, beholding the evil and the good, and nothing in our hearts is hidden from Thee. Teach us to fear Thee with a strong confidence, and to make our words a tree of life rather than a breach in the spirit. Give us soft answers in the day of wrath, a slow spirit in the hour of provocation, and a teachable ear when we are reproved. Build our houses in Thy wisdom, and let our little be better with Thee than great treasure with trouble. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.