Proverbs Chapter 4
Keep on the Right Path, It’s Safer
Today’s verses are from Proverbs 4:20-27
20 My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings.
21 Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart.
22 For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.
23 Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.
24 Put away from thee a froward mouth, and perverse lips put far from thee.
25 Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee.
26 Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established.
27 Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove thy foot from evil.
I like Stone Mountain. I’m from the generation where Stone Mountain was cool. When I was a kid, our family would go on picnics at Stone Mountain. As a teenager, our youth group would take frequent trips to Stone Mountain. There are lots of things to do at Stone Mountain but the one thing we did every time was to climb the mountain. When I was young, there were no real trail markers up the mountain, just a painted line to follow. If you stayed close to the line, you were relatively safe. If you strayed too far from the line, you were in trouble. Back before they had fences, you could actually explore quite a ways from the painted line. But the mountain is deceitful. What seems to be a smooth gentle sloop downward turns out to be a very treacherous incline that you can’tclimb back up. I learned this lesson first hand on one of my trips. I wandered too far from the line and had to crawl on my belly up the side of this smooth granite rock to safety. There were others that were not so fortunate. We were always hearing news stories where someone had to be rescued or someone had fallen to their death by straying too far from the path.
From our reading today, we see that we must keep on the path and not depart from it.
25 Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee
26 Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established.
27 Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove thy foot from evil.
Just as straying from the path on Stone Mountain is dangerous, straying from the path set before us by the Word of God is dangerous. They way may look smooth but the end is sorrow, a ruined life and even death. There is a rescue by repenting and turning back to God. But not every prodigal returns home; not every backslider returns to God and not every sinner is saved.
Let us commit ourselves to verse 27, Turn not to the right hand or to the left, and stay on the painted path for Christ.