Proverbs chapter 22

vs 21

Truthful reports? Who is it this person serves? Is it Solomon, or another? Are these 30 sayings for his own benefit, or for the benefit of someone far away? Is he still talking to his sons? I don't know. In any case, it seems that honesty and truthfulness are our first lesson. Making truthful reports, albeit in a graceful and gentle manner (as we've learned from previous proverbs) is the best way to serve kings and the like.

vs 22

God doesn't like it when people pick on those who can't defend themselves.

vs 23

He'll defend them if that's what it takes, and that means your ass. So lesson number two - don't pick on the defenceless, because God isn't defenceless.

vs 24

I have lots of hot-tempered friends. But there's a difference between my friends that are hot-tempered and throw a hissy, and the kind of people I hear about in court who are hot-tempered and get violent and smash things. It can be easy to forget that people actually do that, when you just don't live in that world.

vs 25

And here's the rub - if you do live in that world, it's damn hard to stop it from turning you into one of them. That's lesson three.

vs 26

The punctuation really does change the meaning here. I mean, that semi colon, moved one more clause to the right, totally changes the idea of the proverb. In the first instance, you shouldn't lend or be a guanantor at all. In the second, it would be only if you can't pay that it is wrong.

So let's assume the TNIV scholars are right. That means it's always unwise to put up a guarantee for someone.

vs 27

The reason being that if you can't pay, you end up in world of goop. So lesson 5, don't do things that put your whole economy at risk. Poverty sucks.

vs 28

This is actually against the levitical law. I know, because The Goodies told me so. Remember that the land of the promised land was divided up before they even entered it, for the most part. So moving these stones is fiddling with an age old tradition.

vs 29

Being good means being called on by high ups to do good work. The lesson? Do good work, I guess, and work hard at making it better, if you want the recognition that comes from working by appointment.

Of course, for the vast majority of us, our work will never be that good, so we have to get used to the idea of some level of mediocrity - which is all you will ever be, if you only compare yourselves to "those who are skilled in their work".

Yes, this is reality call TK421 right here - the vast majority of us suck at everything. You will never be president. You will never be an astronaut. You'll never see your CDs for sale in JB HiFi. You'll never win a Nobel Prize, or be in a blockbuster movie, or be voted into government. Every single person who does achieve these things leaves in their wake a whole host of people - anything from a schoolbus to a school of people - who will never see their aspirations met.

Okay, that's a pretty out there tangent. I'll stop now.