✝ Daily Encouragement (3/7/24) "Like Firmly Embedded Nails"

Published: Thu, 03/07/24

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Thursday, March 7, 2024

"Like Firmly Embedded Nails"

Message summary: We need God's Word driven into our lives and have His truth in our hearts like firmly embedded nails. Keep this in mind as you live for Jesus today! "Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep His promise" (Hebrews 10:23).

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"The words of the wise are like goads, their collected sayings like firmly embedded nails--given by one Shepherd" (Ecclesiastes 12:11).

In the course of our home addition project we needed to remove some decking beside our present house along with the treated lumber supports. Being the son of depression era parents I was taught to be resourceful in repurposing material whenever possible. There were a number of nice-sized boards I plan to make window boxes out of.

But first I needed to remove the nails from the 2x6 boards and many were very hard to remove being, in the words of our text today, "firmly embedded" or "nails firmly fixed". Even with my large pry bar and all my aging strength I was still unable to remove some of them.

There are teachings in the Bible that require a bit of historical research to understand even though they were likely more easily understood at the time they were written.

Today's verse is an example concerning the words of the wise. We believe Solomon is referring to God's Word as he writes of "the words of the wise" and "their collected sayings" - "given by one Shepherd".

There are two illustrative similes used in this text to describe the words of the wise. We will consider "like firmly embedded nails" in this message. (For additional study on the goad see below)

The words of the wise are "like firmly embedded nails." What a powerful word picture for those who, like me, have tried to remove nails firmly embedded in a piece of wood. Just like embedded nails, may the principles of God's Word be firmly embedded in our minds and hearts.

The photo to the right brings back some memories. Those rusty nails were driven many years ago into some gnarly hardwood, perhaps a fence post, like that on my Uncle Gentry's farm near Harwood Missouri when I was a child.

At some point the nails were bent in probably to keep them from snagging something and now after many years they show the rust as they've weathered moisture and age. At this point these nails are very firmly embedded in the wood. Can you imagine trying to get them out?

Nails in their crudest form date back to 3,000 BC, some 2,000 years before Solomon lived. Our spiritual application is in regard to having the truths of God's Word firmly embedded in our hearts.

We have a role in allowing God's Word to be firmly embedded in our hearts. We read, study, listen to godly teaching, memorize and hide God's Word deep in our hearts. The Word in time becomes firmly embedded like the nails in the photograph. When Satan's siftings are experienced we might be put through the grinder of fear or doubt, but in Christ we remain steadfast, firm, and immovable!

The words of the wise are "given by one Shepherd" . It seems to me that the "words of the wise" and "collected sayings" ultimately refer to the Word of God. Due to the divine inspiration of Scripture these wise words and collected sayings are indeed given by one Shepherd, although various human agents were involved.

Ecclesiastes ends with this powerful truth that completes the thought: "Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil" (Ecclesiastes 12:13,14).

We need God's Word driven into our lives and His truth hidden deeply in our hearts like firmly embedded nails. Keep this in mind as you live for Jesus today! "Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep His promise" (Hebrews 10:23).

Be encouraged today, Hebrews 3:13

Stephen & Brooksyne Weber

Daily prayer: Father, we recognize the spiritual, emotional, and physical strength that comes from relying on truths and principles established in Your Word. Impress them deep into our hearts like embedded nails so that we hold firmly to them. Otherwise we will get lax and be led astray from the paths You've laid out for us. Much like the oxen we need the goading or prodding of Your Holy Spirit to keep our hearts in check and our will submitted to Your leading as our Shepherd. Keep us faithful we pray. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Additional study: The words of the wise are "like goads”.

I suppose many of our readers would not know what a goad is, since the farming implement is likely not a part of our daily vocabulary! The goad is a traditional farming implement, used to spur or guide livestock, usually oxen, which are pulling a plow or a cart. Today farmers still use a livestock prod which has a similar function.*

I joined my neighbor once as he was preparing to load finished hogs into a truck on the way to market and saw the workers using a prod to goad them along into the truck.

One version renders the verse: "Sayings of wise men are like cattle prods , and those sayings collected by experts are like firmly fixed nails, given by one Shepherd."

We do use goad today as a verb which means to "provoke or annoy so as to stimulate some action or reaction".

The goad is a long stick with a pointed end. Perhaps its most peculiar use involved Shamgar who killed 600 Philistines with an ox goad (Judges 3:31). I still recall an Old Testament professor explaining this verse and pointing out an ox goad is a "stick with a prick on the end". An obscure verse rarely considered indicates their value in the economy of the day.

By way of a spiritual analogy the goad is similar to the conviction of the Holy Spirit revealing truths that function like "goads" (pointed sticks) convicting us of sin and prodding us on to live in the right way. Consider Acts 2:37 describing the response of the crowd at Pentecost to Peter's message; "When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, 'Brothers, what shall we do?'"

Later the word actually is used at Saul's testimony of his conversion, "I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic, 'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads'" (Acts 26:14). When God uses His Holy Spirit to convict us of sin, or as a means of directing us, it may initially be a very painful or uncomfortable stirring within our hearts!

Today's Suggested Music and Supplemental Resources

A consideration of nails brings to mind the nails at the cross

"He Took the Nails" Watch on YouTube The Browders

"He Chose the Nails" Brief teaching video by Max Lucado

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