Be honest, please. I understand why you might hold back, so as not to hurt my feelings. Please put that instinct aside. What do you think of the following verse?
“If the clouds are filled with water, they will pour down rain on the earth; and if a tree falls to the south or to the north, the place where the tree falls is where it will lie.”
My wife said “Duh.”
I checked the Research Guide, that tool that comes with JWLibrary. Nothing. They didn’t touch it. Probably, some brother was assigned, he said “Duh” and the editors didn’t think the remark worthy of inclusion.
So I went to some online commentaries that said, ‘It’s because you’re considering the verse separately, Tom. It’s part of a package.’
The package is verses 1-6. In the main, they encourage one to work in the face of uncertainty, not hold back, not to stymie oneself with endless what-ifs, realize you only partially control the outcome, cover lots of bases because any given one may blow up in your face, and do it before factors intervene over which you have no control—don’t procrastinate. Verse 3 offers up two of those metaphorical factors: the cloud that lets loose, and the tree that falls. Act before those things happen:
“Cast your bread on the waters, for after many days you will find it again. Give a share to seven or even to eight, for you do not know what disaster will occur on the earth. If the clouds are filled with water, they will pour down rain on the earth; and if a tree falls to the south or to the north, the place where the tree falls is where it will lie. The one who watches the wind will not sow seed, and the one who looks at the clouds will not reap. Just as you do not know how the spirit operates in the bones of the child inside a pregnant woman, so you do not know the work of the true God, who does all things. Sow your seed in the morning and do not let your hand rest until the evening; for you do not know which will have success, whether this one or that one, or whether they will both do well.” (1-6)
That settled, I turned my attention to another verse from the next chapter, also covered in this week’s Bible reading:
“As for anything besides these, my son, be warned: To the making of many books there is no end, and much devotion to them is wearisome to the flesh.” (12:12)
Is this a discouragement from reading, I’ve long wondered. No, it’s not, the commentary said, it’s just encouragement to stay on matters of substance, such as the Proverbs themselves, and not the endless human philosophies which wear you out because they are endless, that offer no rest or final truth, that wear a person out without profit. It’s not anti-reading. It’s anti-rabbit-hole-ism.
I was slow on the uptake, so it added a modern parallel:
“Imagine a student today:
– Reads Proverbs → clear, godly wisdom.
– Then dives into 10,000 Reddit threads, TikTok philosophies, self-help gurus → endless, conflicting, exhausting.
**12:12 says: Stick to the Shepherd’s words. The rest is noise.”
Oh. Okay. Got it.
****** The bookstore
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