The Best Way to Learn

Thursday, November 3, 2022

by Dr. Paul Chappell

I went by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding; And, lo, it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken down. Then I saw, and considered it well: I looked upon it, and received instruction. Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep: So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth; and thy want as an armed man.

Proverbs 24:30-34

Solomon was given great wisdom by God because that is what he requested when God offered to give him whatever he wanted. People quickly recognized that the young king was gifted at discerning attempts at deception and judging fairly and rightly the cases brought before him. God would eventually use Solomon to, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, pen a book of the Bible that would impart godly wisdom to those who came after him: “The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel; To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding” (Proverbs 1:1-2)

One of the things that Solomon highlights is the importance of learning from the events and outcomes we see in the lives of others. Solomon received instruction from what happened to other people, not just from his own experiences. Some people refuse to listen, and the only way they will learn is by suffering the consequences of their choices and actions. Benjamin Franklin wrote, “Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn at no other.”

The slothful man whose vineyard Solomon saw did not set out to have a broken down and unusable vineyard. But his desire for sleep outweighed the necessity of work in his mind, and the consequences soon followed. There are no exceptions to the law of sowing and reaping. We will not somehow be exempt from outcomes that those who have gone before experienced. So we should look well and consider what follows certain choices and actions, and not repeat the mistakes of others.

Today's Growth Principle
Rather than repeat the mistakes of others, we should learn from their examples.

Old Testament Reading

Jeremiah 30-31

CHAPTER 30

¹ The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, ² Thus speaketh the LORD God of Israel, saying, Write thee all the words that I have spoken unto thee in a book. ³ For, lo, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel and Judah, saith the LORD: and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it. ⁴ And these are the words that the LORD spake concerning Israel and concerning Judah. ⁵ For thus saith the LORD; We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace. ⁶ Ask ye now, and see whether a man doth travail with child? wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned into paleness? ⁷ Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob's trouble; but he shall be saved out of it. ⁸ For it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD of hosts, that I will break his yoke from off thy neck, and will burst thy bonds, and strangers shall no more serve themselves of him: ⁹ But they shall serve the LORD their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up unto them.

¹⁰ Therefore fear thou not, O my servant Jacob, saith the LORD; neither be dismayed, O Israel: for, lo, I will save thee from afar, and thy seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and shall be in rest, and be quiet, and none shall make him afraid. ¹¹ For I am with thee, saith the LORD, to save thee: though I make a full end of all nations whither I have scattered thee, yet will I not make a full end of thee: but I will correct thee in measure, and will not leave thee altogether unpunished. ¹² For thus saith the LORD, Thy bruise is incurable, and thy wound is grievous. ¹³ There is none to plead thy cause, that thou mayest be bound up: thou hast no healing medicines. ¹⁴ All thy lovers have forgotten thee; they seek thee not; for I have wounded thee with the wound of an enemy, with the chastisement of a cruel one, for the multitude of thine iniquity; because thy sins were increased. ¹⁵ Why criest thou for thine affliction? thy sorrow is incurable for the multitude of thine iniquity: because thy sins were increased, I have done these things unto thee. ¹⁶ Therefore all they that devour thee shall be devoured; and all thine adversaries, every one of them, shall go into captivity; and they that spoil thee shall be a spoil, and all that prey upon thee will I give for a prey. ¹⁷ For I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the LORD; because they called thee an Outcast, saying, This is Zion, whom no man seeketh after.

¹⁸ Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will bring again the captivity of Jacob's tents, and have mercy on his dwellingplaces; and the city shall be builded upon her own heap, and the palace shall remain after the manner thereof. ¹⁹ And out of them shall proceed thanksgiving and the voice of them that make merry: and I will multiply them, and they shall not be few; I will also glorify them, and they shall not be small. ²⁰ Their children also shall be as aforetime, and their congregation shall be established before me, and I will punish all that oppress them. ²¹ And their nobles shall be of themselves, and their governor shall proceed from the midst of them; and I will cause him to draw near, and he shall approach unto me: for who is this that engaged his heart to approach unto me? saith the LORD. ²² And ye shall be my people, and I will be your God. ²³ Behold, the whirlwind of the LORD goeth forth with fury, a continuing whirlwind: it shall fall with pain upon the head of the wicked. ²⁴ The fierce anger of the LORD shall not return, until he have done it, and until he have performed the intents of his heart: in the latter days ye shall consider it.

CHAPTER 31

¹ At the same time, saith the LORD, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people. ² Thus saith the LORD, The people which were left of the sword found grace in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest. ³ The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. ⁴ Again I will build thee, and thou shalt be built, O virgin of Israel: thou shalt again be adorned with thy tabrets, and shalt go forth in the dances of them that make merry. ⁵ Thou shalt yet plant vines upon the mountains of Samaria: the planters shall plant, and shall eat them as common things. ⁶ For there shall be a day, that the watchmen upon the mount Ephraim shall cry, Arise ye, and let us go up to Zion unto the LORD our God. ⁷ For thus saith the LORD; Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout among the chief of the nations: publish ye, praise ye, and say, O LORD, save thy people, the remnant of Israel. ⁸ Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the coasts of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her that travaileth with child together: a great company shall return thither. ⁹ They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble: for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.

¹⁰ Hear the word of the LORD, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock. ¹¹ For the LORD hath redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he. ¹² Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness of the LORD, for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock and of the herd: and their soul shall be as a watered garden; and they shall not sorrow any more at all. ¹³ Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, both young men and old together: for I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow. ¹⁴ And I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, saith the LORD. ¹⁵ Thus saith the LORD; A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rahel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not. ¹⁶ Thus saith the LORD; Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears: for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the LORD; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy. ¹⁷ And there is hope in thine end, saith the LORD, that thy children shall come again to their own border.

¹⁸ I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus; Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke: turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou art the LORD my God. ¹⁹ Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh: I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth. ²⁰ Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a pleasant child? for since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my bowels are troubled for him; I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the LORD. ²¹ Set thee up waymarks, make thee high heaps: set thine heart toward the highway, even the way which thou wentest: turn again, O virgin of Israel, turn again to these thy cities. ²² How long wilt thou go about, O thou backsliding daughter? for the LORD hath created a new thing in the earth, A woman shall compass a man. ²³ Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; As yet they shall use this speech in the land of Judah and in the cities thereof, when I shall bring again their captivity; The LORD bless thee, O habitation of justice, and mountain of holiness. ²⁴ And there shall dwell in Judah itself, and in all the cities thereof together, husbandmen, and they that go forth with flocks. ²⁵ For I have satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul. ²⁶ Upon this I awaked, and beheld; and my sleep was sweet unto me.

²⁷ Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man, and with the seed of beast. ²⁸ And it shall come to pass, that like as I have watched over them, to pluck up, and to break down, and to throw down, and to destroy, and to afflict; so will I watch over them, to build, and to plant, saith the LORD. ²⁹ In those days they shall say no more, The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children's teeth are set on edge. ³⁰ But every one shall die for his own iniquity: every man that eateth the sour grape, his teeth shall be set on edge. ³¹ Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: ³² Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: ³³ But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. ³⁴ And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

³⁵ Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of hosts is his name: ³⁶ If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the LORD, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever. ³⁷ Thus saith the LORD; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the LORD. ³⁸ Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that the city shall be built to the LORD from the tower of Hananeel unto the gate of the corner. ³⁹ And the measuring line shall yet go forth over against it upon the hill Gareb, and shall compass about to Goath. ⁴⁰ And the whole valley of the dead bodies, and of the ashes, and all the fields unto the brook of Kidron, unto the corner of the horse gate toward the east, shall be holy unto the LORD; it shall not be plucked up, nor thrown down any more for ever.

New Testament Reading

Philemon

¹ Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ, and Timothy our brother, unto Philemon our dearly beloved, and fellowlabourer, ² And to our beloved Apphia, and Archippus our fellowsoldier, and to the church in thy house: ³ Grace to you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. ⁴ I thank my God, making mention of thee always in my prayers, ⁵ Hearing of thy love and faith, which thou hast toward the Lord Jesus, and toward all saints; ⁶ That the communication of thy faith may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus. ⁷ For we have great joy and consolation in thy love, because the bowels of the saints are refreshed by thee, brother.

⁸ Wherefore, though I might be much bold in Christ to enjoin thee that which is convenient, ⁹ Yet for love's sake I rather beseech thee, being such an one as Paul the aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ. ¹⁰ I beseech thee for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my bonds: ¹¹ Which in time past was to thee unprofitable, but now profitable to thee and to me: ¹² Whom I have sent again: thou therefore receive him, that is, mine own bowels: ¹³ Whom I would have retained with me, that in thy stead he might have ministered unto me in the bonds of the gospel: ¹⁴ But without thy mind would I do nothing; that thy benefit should not be as it were of necessity, but willingly. ¹⁵ For perhaps he therefore departed for a season, that thou shouldest receive him for ever; ¹⁶ Not now as a servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved, specially to me, but how much more unto thee, both in the flesh, and in the Lord? ¹⁷ If thou count me therefore a partner, receive him as myself. ¹⁸ If he hath wronged thee, or oweth thee ought, put that on mine account; ¹⁹ I Paul have written it with mine own hand, I will repay it: albeit I do not say to thee how thou owest unto me even thine own self besides. ²⁰ Yea, brother, let me have joy of thee in the Lord: refresh my bowels in the Lord. ²¹ Having confidence in thy obedience I wrote unto thee, knowing that thou wilt also do more than I say. ²² But withal prepare me also a lodging: for I trust that through your prayers I shall be given unto you. ²³ There salute thee Epaphras, my fellowprisoner in Christ Jesus; ²⁴ Marcus, Aristarchus, Demas, Lucas, my fellowlabourers. ²⁵ The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.

Written from Rome to Philemon, by Onesimus a servant.

Proverbs Reading

Proverbs 3

¹ My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments: ² For length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to thee. ³ Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart: ⁴ So shalt thou find favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man. ⁵ Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. ⁶ In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. ⁷ Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil. ⁸ It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones. ⁹ Honour the LORD with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase: ¹⁰ So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine. ¹¹ My son, despise not the chastening of the LORD; neither be weary of his correction: ¹² For whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth. ¹³ Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding. ¹⁴ For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold. ¹⁵ She is more precious than rubies: and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her. ¹⁶ Length of days is in her right hand; and in her left hand riches and honour. ¹⁷ Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. ¹⁸ She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her: and happy is every one that retaineth her. ¹⁹ The LORD by wisdom hath founded the earth; by understanding hath he established the heavens. ²⁰ By his knowledge the depths are broken up, and the clouds drop down the dew. ²¹ My son, let not them depart from thine eyes: keep sound wisdom and discretion: ²² So shall they be life unto thy soul, and grace to thy neck. ²³ Then shalt thou walk in thy way safely, and thy foot shall not stumble. ²⁴ When thou liest down, thou shalt not be afraid: yea, thou shalt lie down, and thy sleep shall be sweet. ²⁵ Be not afraid of sudden fear, neither of the desolation of the wicked, when it cometh. ²⁶ For the LORD shall be thy confidence, and shall keep thy foot from being taken. ²⁷ Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it. ²⁸ Say not unto thy neighbour, Go, and come again, and to morrow I will give; when thou hast it by thee. ²⁹ Devise not evil against thy neighbour, seeing he dwelleth securely by thee. ³⁰ Strive not with a man without cause, if he have done thee no harm. ³¹ Envy thou not the oppressor, and choose none of his ways. ³² For the froward is abomination to the LORD: but his secret is with the righteous. ³³ The curse of the LORD is in the house of the wicked: but he blesseth the habitation of the just. ³⁴ Surely he scorneth the scorners: but he giveth grace unto the lowly. ³⁵ The wise shall inherit glory: but shame shall be the promotion of fools.