Series –

Ancient Wisdom for a Modern World

13
Articles in this Series
Ancient Wisdom for a Modern World: Wise words from the book of Proverbs
Can a man take fire unto his bosom and not be burned?
Proverbs 6.27 Surely no one would be so daft as to pick up a handful of burning coals from the embers of a fire and place them on one’s chest. To do such a thing would be to invite severe burns and po…
Ian Rees
2004 Volume 1 Issue 1
Bible Teaching
Ancient Wisdom for a Modern World: Wise words from the book of Proverbs
‘If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty give him water to drink. For thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, and the Lord shall reward thee'
Proverb 25.21-22 ‘Heaping coals of fire’ upon an opponent’s head has become a proverbial expression in English and remains in common use even today. The thought behind the proverb is that if we repay …
Ian Rees
2004 Volume 1 Issue 2
Bible Teaching
Wise Words From the Book of Proverbs
Let another man praise thee and not thine own mouth; a stranger and not thine own lips
Proverbs 27. 20 There is surely nothing more insufferable than having to listen to someone who is full of himself. The most unpopular person is not necessarily the one with whom we disagree or have li…
Ian Rees
2004 Volume 1 Issue 3
Bible Teaching
Ancient Wisdom for a Modern World: Wise words from the book of Proverbs
As a door turns upon its hinges, so does a sluggard upon his bed.
Proverb 26.14 The sluggard in the Bible is a tragic-comic character, one who is lazy to the point of ridicule and full of excuses, many of them feeble. ‘I can’t plough today because it is too cold. I …
Ian Rees
2005 Volume 2 Issue 1
Bible Teaching
Wise Words From the Book of Job
I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
Job 19. 20 The English idiom ‘escaped by the skin of one’s teeth’ is derived from this graphic expression in the book of Job. One of the main themes of the book is the problem of suffering. At the beg…
Ian Rees
2005 Volume 2 Issue 2
Bible Teaching
Wise Words From the Book of Proverbs
Better a dinner of herbs where love is than a stalled ox and hatred therewith
Proverbs 15. 17 Which of us has not preferred a simple meal with good companions to a feast with those with whom we do not get on? The force of this proverb is that a happy loving relationship, though…
Ian Rees
2005 Volume 2 Issue 3
Bible Teaching
Wise Words From the Book of Proverbs
He that is surety for a stranger shall smart for it,
Proverbs 11. 15 A friend of mine, with his wife, moved to Bath a while ago.John had emigrated from Botswana to the UK to read for a post-graduate degree in Bath University. He had been a primary schoo…
Ian Rees
2005 Volume 2 Issue 4
Bible Teaching
Ancient Wisdom for a Modern World: Wise words from the book of Proverbs
A soft answer turneth away wrath, but grievous words stir up anger
Proverbs 15 v1 The natural thing to do when someone is angry with you is to reply in anger: yet how often we regret the words once they are out of our mouths.The tongue, despite being such a small par…
Ian Rees
2006 Volume 3 Issue 1
Bible Teaching
Ancient Wisdom for a Modern World: Wise words from the book of Proverbs
Favour is deceitful and beauty is vain; but a woman who fears the Lord is greatly to be praised.
Proverbs 31. 30 The NIV translates the first part of this proverb as, ‘Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting’. ‘Beauty is only skin-deep’ may be the wisdom of the world, but it confirms what God s…
Ian Rees
2006 Volume 3 Issue 2
Bible Teaching
Wise Words From the Book of Proverbs
For him that is joined to all living there is hope: for a living dog is better than a dead lion.
Eccles. 9. 4. To understand where Solomon is coming from in the Ecclesiastes is to realize that he is speaking only of those things that are,‘under the sun’. In other words God has allowed the wisest …
Ken Rudge
2006 Volume 3 Issue 3
Bible Teaching
Wise Words From the Book of Proverbs
The words of a talebearer are as wounds [dainty morsels], and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly
Proverbs 18. 8 This little proverb is so important that it is stated twice, here and in Proverbs 26. 22. It warns us of the pleasure and problem of gossip; the pleasure lies in the telling and the hea…
Ian Rees
2006 Volume 3 Issue 4
Bible Teaching
Ancient Wisdom for a Modern World: Wise words from the New Testament
Whoever slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also, Matt. 5. 39
Perhaps you, like many others, have little time for the Lord Jesus. Some deny He is the Son of God, saying He was deluded in many of His claims, especially when He said, ‘I am the way … no man cometh …
Ian Rees
2007 Volume 4 Issue 3
Bible Teaching
Ancient Wisdom for a Modern World: Wise words from the book of Proverbs
Pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall
No one, other than the proud himself, likes a proud person. God likes the proud least of all. One of the seven things that are an abomination to God is ‘a proud look’, Prov. 6. 17. This is because pri…
Ian Rees
2007 Volume 4 Issue 4
Bible Teaching