Proverbial characters;- The Righteous Man

The collector of the Old Testament Proverbs makes his purpose clear from the beginning.
“That men may know wisdom and instruction, understand words of insight” (ch1 v2).
Then he further defines this wisdom as “fear of the Lord” (v7). This phrase, when used in the Bible, means respect and willingness to obey.
I’m studying the different characters of Proverbs, as one way of organising and understanding the teaching.

The man who lives by this Wisdom is called a Righteous Man.
“He who walks in uprightness fears the Lord” (ch14 v2).
This means that he necessarily “turns away from evil” (ch12 v26).

This righteousness begins in the mind;
“The thoughts of the righteous are just” (ch12 v5).
It continues in his speech;
“The mouth of the righteous brings forth wisdom…
The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable” (ch10 vv31-32).
That is why “ the tongue of the righteous is choice silver” and “the lips of the righteous feed many” (ch10 vv20-21).

The righteous man loves to see justice in action;
“When justice is done, it is a joy to the righteous, but a dismay to evildoers” (ch21 v15).
The other side of the coin is that he “hates falsehood” (ch13 v5).
“A righteous man knows the rights of the poor” (ch29 v7).
His nature is to be generous to others;
“The righteous gives and does not hold back” (ch21 v26).
Indeed he has regard even “for the life of his beast” (ch12 v10).

The righteous man is not taken captive by sin;
“The righteousness of the blameless keeps his way straight” and consequently “the righteousness of the upright delivers them”-(ch11 vv5-6).
“An evil man is ensnared by the transgression of his lips, but the righteous escapes from trouble” (ch12 v13).
He escapes from trouble because the Lord protects him;
“The Lord is a stronghold to him whose way is upright” (ch10 v29).
“The righteous man falls seven times and rises again” (ch24 v16).
“The desire of the righteous will be granted” (ch10 v24), “the Lord does not let the righteous go hungry” (ch10 v3), and no ill befalls him (ch12 v21).
In short, it can be said that “Blessings are on the head of the righteous” (ch10 v6).

His righteousness does not benefit himself alone.
While the wicked man wants to kill, the righteous man wants to give life;
“The words of the wicked lie in wait for blood, but the mouth of the upright delivers men” (ch12 v6).
If he saves lives through his words, that must be the effect of his teaching.
That is, he persuades them to join him in fearing the Lord.
That is why “when all goes well with the righteous the city rejoices”, because “by the blessing of the upright a city is exalted” (ch11 vv10-11).

The real key to all this blessing is the security from judgement;
“He who walks in integrity walks securely” (ch10 v9).
For this reason; “Be assured, an evil man will not go unpunished, but those who are righteous will be delivered” (ch11 v21).
When the day of wrath comes, it will be found that “riches do not profit”, and only righteousness “delivers from death” (ch11 v4).

We are told that “The fear of the Lord prolongs life” (ch10 v27), which is the obvious consequence of the fact that the righteous man escapes death.
And again, “He who is steadfast in righteousness will live, but he who pursues evil will die” (ch11 v19).
This is the “sure reward” which belongs to the man who sows righteousness (ch11 v18).
But this life does not come to an end.
Thus “when the tempest [of judgement] passes, the wicked is no more, but the righteous is established for ever” (ch10 v25).
While the wicked will not dwell in the land, “the righteous will never be removed”.
This is as close as the Old Testament tends to get to the difference between having and not having eternal life.

In fact “The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life,” (ch11 v30).
The truly righteous man, by “fearing the Lord”, is able to restore the Tree of Life which was lost through disobedience.

Threads in the current series will be looking at these characters;
Wisdom
Foolishness
The Righteous Man
The Wicked Man
The Wise Man
The Fool
The Quarreller
The Troublemaker
The Friend
The Son
The King
The Rich Man
The Poor Man
The Sluggard
The Wife

Most of these characters can be paired off against each other.
The Quarreller, the Troublemaker, and perhaps even the Friend, are subcategories of the Fool.
The Father will be brought into the discussion of the Son, just as the Servant will be brought into the discussion of the King.
I may find reason to take the Sluggard and the Wife as another contrasting pair.

a reply to: DISRAELI

SoOo... you are rewriting The Pilgrim's Progress?

The Pilgrim's Progress from This World, to That Which Is to Come is a 1678 Christian allegory written by John Bunyan.

Just wondering.

If you are interested, the latest adaptation of it is coming to theaters near you this year...

a reply to: Lumenari
Of course I know Pilgrim's Progress, but my information here is coming direct from the book of Proverbs. So the characters are more basic and more "Old Testament", the theme is the religious aspect of daily life rather than a detached religious life, and there is no sense of a "journey".

a reply to: DISRAELI

It has been ages since I've read Pilgrim's Progress but I had thought you had listed all the main characters so was wondering, is all.

So, sorry I was interested in the thread and I'll leave you alone to get closer to God.

Have a nice night!

a reply to: Lumenari
No need to apologise. There will be some overlap on the characters, simply because both books are dealing with universal human types, but they don't quite coincide. E.g. Bunyan's rich man is an evil character, which is not necessarily so in Proverbs. Also Proverbs doesn't have the non-human characters like Giant Despair.

a reply to: DISRAELI

I disagree. When you are obsessed with identifying evil you become evil. When you are in a constant state of judging everything and everyone as being "righteous" or "evil" your mind is closed to experiencing the blessings of God all around you. It's only when you stop judging people around you and everything in your life that you begin to see what is divine all around you.

When every facet of God's creation is loved and appreciated as divine we live the happiest life, the longest life because we are not sad and depressed by all the "evil" all around us. When all you see is "evil" you cannot experience the divine.

So ask yourself if think you are "righteous" man then why are you so unhappy with your life? Judging others is a little like masturbation. It makes you feel great because you pretend to be as high and mighty as God. But in the end afterwards you remain sad and somewhat unsatisfied because you are alone in your experience.

a reply to: dfnj2015

You make the mistake of assuming someone is unhappy with their life and that if they are, you know why.

Learning to judge for yourself right from wrong is the basis of wisdom because understanding wrong is mainly understanding how to avoid harm to yourself and to others through your actions. And understanding wrong in others is the wisdom of learning to avoid being harmed by the actions of others in the most basic sense.

A parent raises a child with the interest of teaching them right from wrong -- right being how to avoid harm in society and to society and wrong being things that will lead them to harm or to harm society. But of course, if you want your children to eventually grow up without that valuable knowledge, they might well become a statistic.

a reply to: ketsuko

I'm not assuming. I am going by personal experience.

People do not have to read the Bible to appreciate the golden rule.

I find people who judge other people pretending they are God in doing so seem to be the very same people who have the least amount of empathy, kindness, and consideration of other people's beliefs and behaviors.

I find from my personal experiences there is value in treating someone else as sacred and divine in spite of their non "righteous" behaviors.

originally posted by: dfnj2015
So ask yourself if think you are "righteous" man then why are you so unhappy with your life?

The title of this thread was not meant to be a self-description. Have you been replying direct from the title on that assumption? When you get around to glancing at the opening posts, you will discover that I'm looking at the character descriptions provided by the book of Proverbs.

The paradox is that your criticism of judgemental people is as judgemental as anything they might be doing, so you bring yourself under your own judgement.

a reply to: dfnj2015

There is a fine line between the Golden Rule and moral relativism. Make sure you don't fall into the hole.

Treat others with kindness sure, but that doesn't mean you look at someone who comes from a culture that normalizes child marriage and you decide you cannot judge that as wrong because it would be wrong to be judgmental.

All moral relativism does for you is make sure you have no standards.

Sure you might never forcibly marry off a child of 6, but if others feel that's perfectly OK ... well, who are you to judge that? It's a tacit agreement that it is OK to forcibly marry off children of 6 because while you wouldn't, you feel it's OK for others to if they feel it's fine.

You have to draw lines somewhere or you really draw no lines, and none of that has anything to do with how you personally respond to that person should you run into them on the street. Do you stand aside to allow them to cross or rudely shove them out of the way? Different levels of behavior and belief.

You may condemn their child marriage practices, but does that mean you would starve them or beat them if you had them in your power? No. There is no need for that. Again, different levels of behavior and belief.

a reply to: DISRAELI

Virtuous woman where is she? Oh you call her a wife maybe where the Bible calls her, virtuous woman in Prov 31:10, see how you say stuff like the serpent did when he said, Yea, hath God said, . . .? You questions God's ability to preserve his word, you question his power to preserve his word and you think he has given you the power to write and interpret the word in His stead.

"Collector of the Proverbs" is proof you never studied what you are posting about. If you did you can accurately Identify the Writer, the Author and a second name of a King who wrote them.

You said "Most of these characters can be paired off against each other." Yeah it is called in English, "Parallelistic Poetry" anyone who has studied in the field of Biblical Scholarship has learned this. Identifying the many different types of Poetry in the Bible and more specifically in Proverbs is where you will make many mistakes (because you nor any Jew knows today how they spoke Hebrew back when the copies of Hebrew documents were rewritten and originally written). I can see it now literal things here will be made Allegorical, Applicable things will be made historical, Historical things will be made Applicable, and Allegorical Literal.

You are rehashing some one else's teaching as I had surmised many times already, no new original thinking of you own will we see. The term "woman" 20 times in Proverbs is a representation of evil and wickedness which leads people into foolish decisions, and four times is there a positive note about women to women and men whom would have a wife like her.

There is no assurance of anyone's Salvation found in the the book of Proverbs or any Bible, what you need to do is study the Proverbs in the AV they are not confused by men as found in the other versions of the Bible. And you will see this to be true.

And your blending of all the different Christian writings you've read to teach the Bible is not a true Bible study but rather an over stated personal opinion gathered by the opinions of other men.

originally posted by: ChesterJohn
Virtuous woman where is she? Oh you call her a wife maybe

Yes, the need to arrange the material made it convenient to bring together the "woman" references under the "wife" heading

You are rehashing some one else's teaching as I had surmised many times already,

Not particularly. I haven't even read any commentaries on this book, the idea of "all the characters in Proverbs" is not one I've seen other people use, and I did my own work in selecting quotations and arranging them. I've done similar preparation work on them several times over the last couple of decades, but this is the first time I've been able to work them up into anything.

You are obsessed with this idea about getting teaching from other people, but you would have no grievance if I was willing to take my opinions from you. There's the rub, eh?

a reply to: DISRAELI

I didn't even use the word commentaries in my post. You must have it confused with some one else's post. Oh but of course you have never read other Christian literature on Proverbs at all. And another replied to you as if you were rewriting Pilgrims Progress (a Baptist book), a book you noted as being familiar with it and I also read it. Don't try and deny you have no knowledge of any other commentary or Christian literature on Proverbs or any Bible book. You said you took select quotations of men and arranged them to create a teaching you are already flawed in. As I have already seen plenty of your works that mirrors the plethora of erred work out there. I am reading to see something original from your work, however so far it is the same old work based on the same supposed originals the Roman Catholic take their work from the Sinaiticus, Vaticanicus, and Alexandrius texts found in Egypt, promoted by Westcott and Hort to make every English Bibles since 1880's. As the Preacher says, Nothing new under the sun. Don't try and publish any of this without at least giving a list of books you have read where you got your info from, it is called a Bibliography, I wouldn't want you to come under any suits for Plagiarism.

No, I am stating a view you ignore and dismiss without even checking taken from the Authorized Version, like the command to Study and Right Division, all other Bibles except the NKJV change the words study and rightly divide. Those other versions support erred doctrine which you espouse quite regularly. I would never want you to take me on my word or opinion, I want you to check what I say by the Bible that I use, the AV, and see if those things which I say are true or not. Like the Berians did with Paul's teaching. In that he called them Noble because they didn't just take it at face value they Studied to see if those things were true to scripture.

It is always good to have a critic, but your childish venture at being an online Scholar will fail as you go into Proverbs. Every error in the church organizations today are taken from books that were not directly written to them, and are not from the books that hold doctrine for them, and will lead people to not have assurance in their faith alone on Christ and lead them to try and do good works as a means of finishing the work of Christ. Which means they are not saved today under the gospel of the grace of God, but under the Gospel of the Kingdom which was for Israel in preparation for her coming into the promised kingdom. Gentiles were never promised a kingdom and being a child of God today does not mean we are the ones to live and reign as priests and kings with him a 1,000 years.

But always good to have a critic, it can make you better or worse. But your main critic is God's word as found in the Authorized Version.

originally posted by: ChesterJohn
Don't try and deny you have no knowledge of any other commentary or Christian literature on Proverbs or any Bible book.

I made no such claim (your sentence is a double negative, by the way). "Any Bible book" is an addition on your part. I said I had read no commentaries (or other books) on Proverbs, and that is true.

You said you took select quotations of men and arranged them to create a teaching you are already flawed in.

Again, I said nothing of the kind. "of men" is another addition on your part.
My preparation work was selecting quotations FROM PROVERBS and arranging them.

Deliberate misunderstanding is a serious symptom of hostility, and again I suggest that you re-examine your state of mind. Your state of mind is the second reason that makes you an unreliable critic.

Don't try and publish any of this without at least giving a list of books you have read where you got your info from, it is called a Bibliography, I wouldn't want you to come under any suits for Plagiarism.

Any direct quotations are always marked as such and identified.

a reply to: DISRAELI

I take all your threads into consideration when I reply to your over all post. You did tell another you knew the pilgrims progress and were familiar and that you endeavor to present and connect all of it in your study on Proverbs. Now that is my interpretation of all your posts incorporated into this one as it has influenced many of your other threads. A leopard cannot change its spots you present not one original revelation from scriptures. Like I said to another you are so used to being fed rotten fruit of relativistic teachings of the Bible as good fruit, that your couldn't see the good fruit God has put in the Bible for you to dig out and praise him for. Nothing original does not praise God, it just echos what someone else who did the REAL work of Study and wrong division. With a steady diet of spiritual milk sop you are starving spiritually and continual eating of rotten fruit will eventually poison you spiritually. Just wait and see.

originally posted by: ChesterJohn
You did tell another you knew the pilgrims progress and were familiar and that you endeavor to present and connect all of it in your study on Proverbs.

Once again, you have invented the second half of that statement.
The suggestion came from the other party, and I was rejecting it by indicating the DIFFERENCES between what Pilgrim's Progress was doing and what I was doing. Admittedly I wasn't shouting abuse at the other party, which may have made the fact that I was disagreeing with them less obvious.

a reply to: DISRAELI

once again I take all your posts and all you said in making these threads together. My so called invented second half is of my statement is true to your words through my criticism of your other threads. Yes they are not proverbs but they are once again based on yours and others opinions and not based on the word of God. Like the opinion found in your term "the collector of the proverbs".

a reply to: ChesterJohn
We are referring to this statement;

and that you endeavor to present and connect all of it [i.e. the Pilgrim's Progress] in your study on Proverbs.

No, you did not get that from my other threads either. Where is your sense of honesty? Where is your love of truth?