Proverbs 10 (Megan)
I counted, after reading Proverbs Chapter 10 a few times, and the word “righteous” is used in the Chapter thirteen times. I figured any word repeated that many times in a passage (well besides a, and, the, etc) needs to be checked out. M.-W. online dictionary defines righteous as “acting in accord with divine or moral law: free from guilt or sin.” So righteousness isn’t just a condition that a person is in, it is also reflected in how he or she acts. This chapter in Proverbs gives us an idea about what life in God is like compared to life apart from Him.
Verse seven begins, “The memory of the righteous will be a blessing. ..” I immediately thought of my grandmother. No, she was not perfect, but she was a believer in Christ and that made her righteous. There were so many people who came to her funeral five years ago. She had been a blessing to so many in her lifetime. Just thinking about her life inspires me and makes me want to leave the same type of impact she did. The last part of verse seven says, “but the name of the wicked will rot.” This goes without saying, but that’s not a good way to be remembered. Unfortunately, several people are.
Chapter 27 begins, “The fear of the Lord adds length to life. . .” This verse reminded me of an experience I had on one of my medical rotations during school. I was at a hospital rounding with the doctors. We were talking to a patient who was in his eighties. This man was on no medication and had come in with kidney stones. The doctors were commenting on him being in such good health for his age and asked him “what his secret was.” The man simply replied, “The good Lord watches over me.” He didn’t say that he ate organic food or exercised or anything specific to man’s way of prolonging life. Of course not everyone who is righteous will live a long time here on earth, but this man realized that his life was sustained by God. Righteousness begins by recognizing God and following Him.
