Study Audio Download

Pro 10:6-14 “Wise men lay up knowledge:
but the mouth of the foolish is near destruction”

[Study Aired February 6, 2025]

Pro 10:6 Blessings are upon the head of the just: but violence covereth the mouth of the wicked.
Pro 10:7 The memory of the just is blessed: but the name of the wicked shall rot.
Pro 10:8 The wise in heart will receive commandments: but a prating fool shall fall.
Pro 10:9 He that walketh uprightly walketh surely: but he that perverteth his ways shall be known.
Pro 10:10 He that winketh with the eye causeth sorrow: but a prating fool shall fall.
Pro 10:11 The mouth of a righteous man is a well of life: but violence covereth the mouth of the wicked.
Pro 10:12 Hatred stirreth up strifes: but love covereth all sins.
Pro 10:13 In the lips of him that hath understanding wisdom is found: but a rod is for the back of him that is void of understanding.
Pro 10:14 Wise men lay up knowledge: but the mouth of the foolish is near destruction.

Last week we discussed how the summer ‘being nigh’ is another way of saying that the kingdom of God is within us, and therefore ‘nigh at hand’ (Luk 21:29-31, Luk 17:21). We are exhorted and encouraged to fight a good fight of faith while it is called “day” (Joh 9:4), and “summer” (Luk 21:29-31), knowing that our labours in His vineyard are not in vain (1Co 15:58), and that in due season we will reap if we faint not (1Co 15:58, 2Co 4:1, 2Co 4:16, Gal 6:9, Eph 3:13).

Luk 21:29 And he spake to them a parable; Behold the fig tree, and all the trees;
Luk 21:30 When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand.
Luk 21:31 So likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand.(1Co 3:16)
Luk 17:21 Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

Joh 9:4 I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day:[“Wise men “lay up” knowledge”] the night cometh, when no man can work.

1Co 15:58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.(Php 2:12-13) [“lay up”]

Tit 3:8 This is a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable unto men.

1Ti 6:19 Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.

2Co 4:1 Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not;

2Co 4:16 For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day (hope by which were saved – Col 1:27, 1Jn 3:2-3).

Gal 6:9 And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.(Luk 18:1, 1Th 5:17)

Eph 3:13 Wherefore I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory.

Luk 18:1 And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;

This week we will continue to look at the mature fruits that become part of those whose lives are blessed to have the life of Christ within them through the summer when things grow, via the true vine (Joh 15:1) who makes it possible for that nourishment to reach the branches via the increase that our Father gives the bride of Christ in this age (Col 1:27, Rom 8:9, Eph 2:10, Rev 19:7-8, 1Co 3:6-7).

Eph 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

Rev 19:7 Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.
Rev 19:8 And to her was granted (1Co 3:7) that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.

1Co 3:6 I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.
1Co 3:7 So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.

That increase that comes from God alone is accomplished through a process of judgement upon our old man of sin (1Pe 4:17-18) and the contrast of how light comes out of darkness which is in each of these proverbs is written in this manner to remind us that the seed, the word, the proverbs of God’s word must fall into the ground of our hearts and minds and die in order to bring forth fruit (Joh 12:24). This process of dying daily is the hallmark of someone that God is working with in this age as His workmanship, and the scarce victory that is given along the strait gate and narrow way (1Pe 4:18-19, Mat 7:14) bear witness that our overcoming will happen through the faith of Christ alone (Rom 3:27, 1Jn 5:4).

Joh 12:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

1Jn 5:4 For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.

1Pe 4:18 And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?
1Pe 4:19 Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.

Rom 3:27 Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.

Mat 7:14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

Christ is the word, or the one seed that God uses (Gal 3:16, Rom 8:9) in our hearts and minds to illuminate our heavens so we can see that need for his life which is juxtaposed against the carnal fleshly man within us who must die daily, and does die daily when we are baptized into Christ’s death (Rom 6:3); another way of saying we become part of that one seed, Jesus Christ, when we are a “corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit” (Joh 12:24).

Rom 6:3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?

It is a dying daily process that is being discussed in each of these proverbs that has been ordained by the Husbandman, God the Father, who tells us that we must patiently endure this process of seeing the light and dark side of the pillar within ourselves, in order to see the growth of this new life of Christ that will spring forth from our heavens (Rom 2:4, Jas 5:7-8, Luk 21:19, Mat 5:37, Joh 3:30).

Rom 2:4 Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?

Jas 5:7 Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.
Jas 5:8 Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.

Luk 21:19 In your patience possess ye your souls.

Mat 5:37 But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.

Joh 3:30 He must increase, but I must decrease.

Pro 10:6 Blessings are upon the head of the just: but violence covereth the mouth of the wicked.(Pro 10:11)
Pro 10:7 The memory of the just is blessed: but the name of the wicked shall rot.(Pro 10:16)
Pro 10:8 The wise in heart will receive commandments: but a prating fool shall fall.(Pro 10:10)

God will bless those who bless Him and His Christ (Gen 12:3), and Christ is the head of every man (1Co 11:3), but not every man has this knowledge (1Co 8:2, 1Co 8:7).

Gen 12:3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

1Co 11:3 But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.

1Co 8:2 And if any man think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know.

1Co 8:6 But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.
1Co 8:7 Howbeit there is not in every man that knowledge: for some with conscience of the idol unto this hour eat it as a thing offered unto an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled.

Aside from the fact that the world does not know that all things are of God “of whom are all things”, and that there is one Lord Jesus Christ “by whom are all things”, the world is also blinded to the reality God’s elect are in Him, “we in him” in the Father, and are sustained by Christ, “we by him” (Joh 14:20), and that we who are being judged in this life (1Pe 4:17) are blessed with the mind of Christ that is burning up the mouth of the wicked within us, taking away that covering that did violence to the word of God and are now blessed to have a new name (Rev 2:17, Rev 3:11-12) that is no longer the name of the “wicked that shall rot”. We are sustained in other words, or preserved through that judgment in this life.

Joh 14:20 At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.

Rev 2:17 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.

Rev 3:11 Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.
Rev 3:12 Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.

God has blessed the body of Christ to be brought into remembrance of the truth in such a way that our thoughts and actions which is Christ working in us, blesses us (Psa 1:1-3, Psa 23:3, Rom 8:14-15, Php 2:12-13, Joh 14:26). Our old man’s thoughts and actions are being destroyed by the brightness of Christ’s coming into our lives, and this is what blesses us (2Th 2:8). The name of the wicked that rots, represents the doctrine and the false beliefs that we initially hold onto until the Lord begins this work in our lives that destroys those spirits, those idols which were taught to us in Babylon by the false prophets who prophesied lies, as we all did in our appointed time (Jer 14:14).

Psa 1:1 Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
Psa 1:2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
Psa 1:3 And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

Psa 23:1 A Psalm of David. The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.(Psa 62:5-8)
Psa 23:2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
Psa 23:3 He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

Christ in us prepares our hearts to receive his commandments, which are life unto those who are blessed to keep them in this age (Rev 1:3). We are told that we will fall seven times in the wilderness (Pro 24:16) in order to burn out the vain words of the “prating^H8193 fool” within our heavens.

H8193 śâphâh    śepheth saw-faw’, sef-eth’ prating
(The second form is in dual and plural); Probably from H5595 or H8192 through the idea of termination (compare H5490); the lip (as a natural boundary); by implication language; by analogy a margin (of a vessel, water, cloth, etc.): – band, bank, binding, border, brim, brink, edge, language, lip, prating, ([sea-]) shore, side, speech, talk, [vain] words. Total KJV occurrences: 176

Pro 10:9 He that walketh uprightly walketh surely: but he that perverteth his ways shall be known.
Pro 10:10 He that winketh with the eye causeth sorrow: but a prating fool shall fall.

It is only by the hand of the fit man (Jesus Christ) who takes the scapegoat (God’s elect in type) into the wilderness (Lev 16:21) that anyone of us can “walketh uprightly walketh surely^H983”, as it is Christ who is working in us both to will and to do of our Father’s good pleasure which is to give us the kingdom of God that we now possess in earnest (Eph 1:14). The man of sin will be revealed because God will give Satan the power to cause us to pervert our ways, “he that perverteth his ways shall be known”, in the day of evil (Pro 16:4), of which we will repent of in this age if God will grant us that repentance as we are dragged to him to be set free from sin (Rom 2:4, Joh 6:44, Joh 8:36).

H983 beṭach beh’-takh surely
From H982; properly a place of refuge; abstractly safety, both the fact (security) and the feeling (trust); often (adverbially with or without preposition) safely: – assurance, boldly, (without) care (-less), confidence, hope, safe (-ly, -ty), secure, surely. Total KJV occurrences: 42

A man who causeth sorrow is spoken of as one who winketh^H7169 with the eye causing sorrow for others, and his living a life of lies as a “a prating fool” will cause him to fall. This thought of the prating fool is mentioned twice in this proverb to witness against our old man who is the prating fool except the Lord deliver us from ourselves (prating fool twice mentioned Pro 10:10, Pro 10:8). This is the man of sin in our life who cannot receive the light of God’s word and rejects it and comes not near it, narrowing his view of the light that he is not able to receive. Walking in darkness, the end of that man is that he will fall in the wilderness without the vision that comes from God’s commandments. The light and path for our new man is in Christ who prevents us from falling (Pro 29:18, Luk 17:33, 2Ti 4:18, 1Th 5:23).

Pro 29:18 Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.

Luk 17:33 Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it.

2Ti 4:18 And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

1Th 5:23 And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

H7169 qârats kaw-rats’ winketh
A primitive root; to pinch, that is, (partially) to bite the lips, blink the eyes (as a gesture of malice), or (fully) to squeeze off (a piece of clay in order to mould a vessel from it): – form, move, wink. Total KJV occurrences: 5

Pro 10:11 The mouth of a righteous man is a well of life: but violence covereth the mouth of the wicked.
Pro 10:12 Hatred stirreth up strifes: but love covereth all sins.

Christ is symbolized as “a well of life” in God’s word, where those living waters are given to those who ask of Him (Joh 4:14-15). The “violence” on the other hand, that covers the mouth of the wicked is his own lies, his own misguided and deceived view of God’s word that we do violence to, as it is concealed by being wrapped around the idol of our own hearts at that time, “but violence covereth the mouth of the wicked” (Eze 14:4, Pro 16:4).

Joh 4:14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.
Joh 4:15 The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.

Eze 14:4 Therefore speak unto them, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Every man of the house of Israel that setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet; I the LORD will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols;

Pro 16:4 The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.

When God’s word is understood and rightly administered in our lives, it is because God has dealt with the natural enmity or hatred that would naturally stir up strife. God’s love must be shed abroad in our hearts (Rom 5:5) making it possible for us to fervently cover a multitude of sins within the body of Christ to be healed of the hatred and strife of the natural man (Jas 5:16, 1Pe 4:8).

Rom 5:5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love^G26 of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

Jas 5:16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

1Pe 4:8 And above all things have fervent charity^G26 among yourselves: for charity^G26 shall cover the multitude of sins.

Our understanding comes from Christ, and Christ (our wisdom) is found within His body and manifest through the judgement of God upon our carnal fleshly minds that need to have his word burn out our iniquities via a rod (Pro 3:12), which represents His word that will chasten and scourge every son He receives (Heb 12:6, Rev 3:19).

Pro 3:12 For whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.

Heb 12:6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

Rev 3:19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.

Pro 10:13 In the lips of him that hath understanding wisdom is found: but a rod is for the back of him that is void of understanding.
Pro 10:14 Wise men lay up knowledge: but the mouth of the foolish is near destruction.

Verses 13 an 14 tells us that the foolish man within me must be destroyed for defiling the temple of God that I am (1Co 3:17-19), and the way that God does this is through His chastening grace that He brings to us, that teaches us to forsake ungodliness and worldly lust in this age (Tit 2:12-13, Heb 12:6).

1Co 3:17 If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.
1Co 3:18 Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise.
1Co 3:19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.

Tit 2:12 Teaching^G3811 us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;
Tit 2:13 Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;

Heb 12:6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth^G3811, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

It is that chastening spoken of in (Tit 2:12, Heb 12:6), that makes it possible for us to first trust in God before the rest of the world (Eph 1:12, 2Co 1:9), and to come into this “knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord” that calls us to glory and virtue (2Pe 1:2-8)

Eph 1:12 That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.

2Co 1:9 But we had the sentence of death in ourselves (2Sa 12:9), that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead (Eph 2:6, Col 2:12):

2Pe 1:1 Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ:
2Pe 1:2 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,
2Pe 1:3 According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
2Pe 1:4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
2Pe 1:5 And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;
2Pe 1:6 And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;
2Pe 1:7 And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.
2Pe 1:8 For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

It is the ongoing trial of our faith, the sword of his word that does not depart from our house that brings us onto perfection on the third day (1Pe 1:7, Luk 13:32). It is by the grace through faith process that God’s elect are called unto (Eph 2:8) that we can continue to look “for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works” (Tit 2:14).

Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;) (Heb 10:23).