A Conversation Starter
I’m part of a Ladies’ Bible Class which has met every Tuesday afternoon at 1:00 for about thirteen years (we do take a few weeks off around the holidays). We have studied deeply the books of law and the historical books of the Old Testament. We are now on a schedule that takes us through the Psalms, Proverbs, and the prophetic books.
We began our next section of Proverbs yesterday – Proverbs 25-29. As we got into chapter 25, near the end of that chapter, verses 23 and 24 really started a great discussion. They read: “The north wind brings forth rain, and a backbiting tongue, angry looks. It is better to live in a corner of the housetop than in a house shared with a quarrelsome wife.” As you can imagine, we also took a look at Proverbs 21:9, 19 which share the same and similar sentiments.
Our discussion began with wondering if those two verses (23 and 24) are a couplet. While they don’t rhyme like a couplet usually does, we wondered if the coldness, backbiting tongue and angry looks might be a description of the quarrelsome wife in verse 24.
I don’t have a definitive answer to the question about couplets, but what a great discussion starter! We talked about the difference between those who are newly married and those who have lived multiple years together. What begins sweetly in those early years of marriage can be turned into a description like those two verses.
We discussed the importance of communication in marriage at any point along the way in your life together. We even talked about what communication actually is – both talking AND listening.
It was expressed that the longer we are together we sometimes fail to really listen because we think we know what they will say about any given topic. Often we are busy with something else when the talking is going on making it sure that real communication has not happened.
We know that Solomon was writing these words to give wisdom to his son. But since this is wisdom literature, we also discussed the fact that just because it says “wife” in the passage, it could also be applied to a “husband.” We all knew of situations that involved a husband who was very hard to live with because of his tongue, his demeanor, and quarrelsome nature.
It doesn’t really matter if those two verses are a couplet or not, nor does it matter whether or not it is confined to the wife. What matters for us is that a group of ladies, who are trying to understand the Bible better than we ever have, opened up in a discussion that led us to know that how we act and speak, especially within our marriages, is important. How I act and how I say what I say should never cause my husband (or anyone else) to want to be away from where I am.
Another great class from the Book is in the books.
“She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.” (Prov. 31:26)
AUTHOR: Donna Faughn
