Proverbs 5:16 should your springs be scattered abroad, streams of water in the streets?
When we have something of value in life we are encouraged to look after it, to use it wisely and in the right context and place. In the town of Oban in Scotland, they had been preparing a fundraising fireworks display for twelve months, and the night was here. People and families from all over were coming to gather and chat and enjoy the display and maybe have some hot food and make a donation to the local sports clubs.
Oban community fireworks fiasco
Well, it did not go to plan. Many people were still parking the cars and the display was already finished. It was supposed to last around 10 to 12 minutes but was over in 50 seconds.
I know this is a humorous example and is not really quite what the scripture is about.
I do think though that the sense of disappointment, for the families that had been looking forwards to this for weeks and were still walking up to the field with their excited your children, for the clubs that depended on this for sponsorship, and for the organisers that were looking for repeat business.
There is a sense of wasted opportunity and of missed moments. It’s that sense that haunts this scripture for me. The regret for those people who go down this path is overwhelming, their end is disastrous, and their hope is sold for lentil stew.
God has given us precious gifts in life, see them while you have them, value them each day, guard them in your heart and watch how God brings increase to your world.
KNOWLEDGE
This figurative portion of scripture carries on from the previous verse. The writer is using this type of language to help us recognise the emptiness and foolishness of some of our decisions when we step out from under the covering of the instructions from the father to his beloved son. A water spring in the days this was written, was a source of life and wealth, clear water in the desert sustained the whole family, allowed the flocks to flourish and so wealth to increase. Anyone who had a spring on their property understood the value and would never in their right mind be loose with this, but would guard and value it as precious. Just as in marriage we guard the intimacy between a man and his wife, the source of life and wealth (sons) was precious and is sacred to God. Anything that devalues this, has an element of foolishness and disregard for the instructions and insights (moral purity) from God to his beloved children.
As we allow our thoughts to go higher, the insight rests on our relationship with God, for us today, through Jesus.
In Jer 2:13 we read “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.”
And in John 4:14 “but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
How do I value my relationship with God, do I recognise and protect it as the source of life, or do I disregard it and waste it in poor choices and decisions? The call here is to recognise what we have, to guard it for what it’s worth, and to allow it to flourish in the best possible setting.
UNDERSTANDING
Let’s pick one word from this verse to look closer at and see if that can help us gain a deeper insight into how God would love us to live? The word for “scattered” in Hebrew is pronounced as “pus” and appears 65 times in the Old Testament. It is translated in the ESV into the English words, disperse; scatter; spread; chase; overflow; and, pieces. We see the idea of being strewn around and thrown about loosely in this scripture.
WISDOM – what are you not guarding well today?
STRENGTHS THOUGHT: Belief has an expectation of integrity, to dwell in the meaningful, to fight for what is right, and to help others flourish.
Allan’s Unauthorised Version – [should your fountain and source of life be dispersed and spread outside in the marketplace, a flood of tears or a channel of water in the public square.]
PRAYER: Father, thank you for today. Help me to live my life honouring your precepts, please. Thank you.
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