Proverbs 12

I am going to continue yet again with the theme of righteousness:

• Cannot be uprooted (v3)
• His plans are just (v5)
• Speech rescues them (v6)
• House of the righteous stands firm (v7)
• Care for the needs of animals (v10)
• Their root flourishes (v12)
• No harm overtakes them (v21)
• Choose their friends carefully (v26)
• There is life in their path and it leads to immortality (v28)

Why am I persisting with this theme? . One, it is one way to look at Proverbs. We could take each verse on its own, and that would be a perfectly good thing to do, but doing things this way can sometimes bring out things we would otherwise miss. You could apply the same technique to other words or themes. 

Verses 3 and 7 reminds us of Jesus' words about the man who listens to His words and does them being the one who builds upon a rock.

We might look at verses like 21 and say "it is not true", for we all know good people who have experienced great harm, we may even have done so ourselves. This is part of the reason why I said in an earlier post that it is a mistake to read these as "laws" or "rules", it is better to read them as principles. We are in a far better position if we are righteous, it will make us far more secure. Now it does not mean we will not suffer for various reasons. (i) we still have sin us; (ii) others will sin against us; (iii) we live in a fallen and therefore imperfect world. But even when harm does befall us we will be in a far better position to recover.