Avoid Suffering

In Proverbs 11:15, we’re told to be wary of lending money and cutting deals with strangers.

Good advice!

Prayer Proverb

If anyone turns a deaf ear to my instruction,
   even their prayers are detestable (Proverbs 28:9, NIV).

So listen!

“Word of God” in the Old Testament

This phrase appears only three times, in 1 Kings, as a prescriptive prophecy to King Rehoboam; 1 Chronicles, as a prescriptive prophecy to King David; and Proverbs.

The idea is that if God says it, then we should do it.

The challenge is that people are the medium of the message, so we need to discern the difference between a genuine word of God and a fraud.

Sacrifice v. Prayer

In Proverbs 15:8, we learn that God would prefer words of prayer from “the upright” than gifts from “the wicked.”