In Proverbs there are many helpful instructions for believers covering almost every area of our lives. It is a perfect daily reading for every month with 31 chapters! It is often called the book of wisdom being written mostly by Solomon who was known as the wisest man who ever lived. 1Kings 4:29-34.
In 1Kings 10 we are told that the queen of the south/Queen of Sheba came to visit Solomon because of his reputation; and so did many others from far and wide.
He had insights from the Lord because wisdom is what he asked for in relation to being able to rule Gods people with righteous judgments. 1Kings 3:1-15.
There is a scripture in Proverbs 27:6 which says
Faithful are the wounds of a friend but deceitful are the kisses of the enemy.
What are these wounds?
It takes grace to give Godly correction; and it takes greater grace to receive it. Unlike David, in 2 Samuel 12 who accepted Nathan’s correction and humbled himself when confronted with his issues, many people will not.
Wounds of a friend– Pats’ai‘ohav פצעי אוהב
Proverbs 27:6: “Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but deceitful are the kisses of the enemy.”
Today, with life’s unending difficulties and pitfalls, it causes many to be stressed out, and at times wondering when it will all stop. We should remember that Paul encouraged us all that without patience and faith, it is impossible to please God? Hebrews 11:6.
If we ‘know’ something, then clearly we don’t need faith to believe and wait for an answer. Faith is needed when we don’t understand what is happening to us or our loved ones, when there seems no rhyme or reason for the problems; or when there seems to be one thing after another piled on top of each other with no space to even come up for air. We can always look and find there are those worse off than wherever our situation is. Natural disasters that are happening worldwide, are leaving devastation and causing chaos for thousands, many with little hope of assistance or recovery. We often use our idiom of, ‘it never rains but it pours.’
These are the crises times when we need strong faith in our Heavenly Fathers ability to intervene and come to our aid and rescue us.
Maybe we can handle one, maybe two trials but when these hard testings come one right after the other, there is a choice to either begin to curse God or to hold tighter onto Him. Job being the prime example.
Strong faith is built up over time, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word. Romans 10:17. We must have His Word planted deep within our very being. Just as muscles are built up by hard, tough exercise, we must exercise and strengthen our faith muscles long before we find ourselves in any crisis.
In the Hebrew text of Proverbs 27:6
At the beginning of the verse there is an interesting word, amen or faithful. So it reads:Faithful or amen are the wounds of a friend.
נֶ֭אֱמָנִים
Proverbs 27:6 HEB:נֶ֭אֱמָנִים פִּצְעֵ֣י אוֹהֵ֑ב NAS:Faithful are the wounds of a friend, KJV:Faithful [are] the wounds of a friend; INT:Faithful are the wounds of a friend
[אָמַן] verb confirm, support
aman: to confirm, support
Original Word: אָמַן Part of Speech: Verb Transliteration: aman Phonetic Spelling: aw-man’ Definition:to confirm, support
We are more used to hearing amen spoken out to indicate that we are in agreement or so be it. It is very similar to aman = support or confirm, with only the vowel different.
It is more usual for us to read that commentators interpret this proverb as saying that, the helpful, truthful, honest comments and advice that come from a friend can sometimes hurt and wound our feelings even when they are true.
It may be advice on dress code, personal hygiene or other habits that are antisocial; and even comments concerning our spiritual wellbeing or sinful, unacceptable behavior. These friendly bits of advice are much preferred from one who loves us, than from someone who just agrees with us just to please us.
In reality the essence of this verse is, that even through all the difficulties being faced, we hear the words that our hope and trust are in our Heavenly Father. Jesus/Yeshua said He will never leave nor forsake us, especially in the midst of these troubles; this indicates the individual is remaining amen or faithful to God.
In declaring our faith in His ability to sustain us and be with us through every situation, test and trial, we bring joy to our Heavenly Fathers heart.
The word for faithful or amen has the idea of:
supporting, true, staying, and faithful.
To be faithful to God means:
that we are staying with Him no matter what.
God can deliver us from the fiery furnace, but if He doesn’t, let it be known that we will still be faithful to Him. Daniel 3:18-28.
This verse in Proverbs tells us something about the nature of faithfulness.Faithful are the wounds of a friend.
Original Word: פָצַע Part of Speech: Verb Transliteration: patsa Phonetic Spelling: paw-tsah’ Definition: to bruise, wound by bruising
Word Origin a prim. root emasculated* (1), one (1), wounded (1), wounding* (1).
To be emasculated is what happens to a eunuch
A eunuch is one who voluntarily goes under the knife.
The Hebrew word rendered as friend here is an unusual word to use for friend. It is the word ahav, aheb or oheb which is the word for love. Some examples in scripture where this word is used are below.
Recall letters v and b are interchangeable in Hebrew and the vowels a,e,i,o,u, are added for pronunciation as there are only consonants in the Hebrew alefbet.
Original Word: אָהַב Part of Speech: Verb Transliteration: aheb Phonetic Spelling: aw-hab’ Definition:to love
This is in a ‘construct form’ in the Hebrew language and its sentence construction: link below
https://biblehub.com/hebrewparse.htm
and would be rendered as:
the loving one.
So we could read this as:
the loving one who voluntarily allows himself to be injured.
Does this description remind us of someone?
Let’s be quite honest, none of us would willingly volunteer to go into a time of trouble unless we are helping someone we love. If it were possible, many parents would willingly volunteer to take on their child’s illness or sickness, if it would heal them and prevent their suffering. There are many wartime testimonies of soldiers who have voluntarily laid down their lives for the sake of their friends, their brothers and sisters in arms. Stories of bravery, courage and self sacrifice are seemingly more common in times of life threatening crises for family and loved ones. Is it possible that this verse in Proverbs is making a reference to something even deeper in a subtle way? It may be a bit of a stretch, however we saw that we could read this as:
the loving one who voluntarily allows himself to be injured.
We know for certain that in the eternal plan of the ages, our Heavenly Father sent His son Yeshua/Jesus into this world. He did have to come to earth to be wounded and to die and He did this as a voluntarily act for our sake out of pure love. We are no doubt all familiar withJohn 3:16.
Is it possible that this 6th verse in Proverbs 27 is revealing something about Messiah’s death on calvary’s tree that we may not have thought of or even considered? We know from scripture and all the prophetic declarations throughout the TaNaKH that there are many reasons why Yeshua/Jesus had to suffer and die on the cross. However, here is one more reason, revealed in this verse and that was that He wanted to declare theamen or the faithfulnessof His love. He became: the loving one who voluntarily allows Himself to be injured.
He is also showing us and teaching us, that He used His time of crisis in a positive way; as an opportunity to show His faithfulness to us. Surely we shouldn’t offer Him anything less, even though we may get wounded in the process? But that wound is just a way to show our love to God. He told His disciples in John 15:15, I no longer callyouservants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called youfriends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. If we are His disciples then we too are His friends and He is our friend. Faithful are the wounds of a friend.
This week is the moed of Sukkot; links below for detailed posts on this wonderful 7th Appointed Time of our Heavenly Father. Our Season of Rejoicing!
Heavenly Father I come to you in the Name of Jesus/Yeshua asking for forgiveness of my sins for which I am truly sorry. I repent of them all and turn away from my past.
I believe with my heart and confess with my mouth that Jesus/Yeshua is your Son and that He died on the cross at calvary to pay the price for my sin, so that I might be forgiven and have eternal life in the kingdom of Heaven. Father I believe that Jesus/Yeshua rose from the dead and I ask you to come into my life right now and be my personal Savior and Lord and I will worship you all the days of my life. Because your word is truth I say that I am now forgiven and born again and by faith I am washed clean with the blood of Jesus/Yeshua. Thank you that you have accepted me into your family in Jesus’/Yeshua’s name. Amen.
