# 449 The Proverbs – ‘A manual for living’ (MSG). Proverbs 18 (1). A safe place!

When we lived in Pakistan, we became familiar with very high walls. Our first house in Karachi had a brick wall at least 3-4 metres high and then in the rural town we also lived in our house was surrounded by a wall of similar height. The reason often given concerned the Islamic custom of “purdah” which involved the strict separation of the sexes and the covering up of women when they went outside their walled houses. So, the walls provided the strict privacy required by these customs. We also heard other reasons for this, including the obvious one of security and safety.

Proverbs 18 speaks of this. It says:

¹⁰ The name of the Lord is a fortified tower;
    the righteous run to it and are safe.

¹¹ The wealth of the rich is their fortified city;                                                                              they imagine it a wall too high to scale.

Timothy Keller comments:

“In ancient times a wall was a safe place in an attack, but a fortified tower was even better. These two proverbs indicate that everyone has a place of ultimate safety, a ‘fortification’ … The wealthy, the powerful, the beautiful all think that these [attributes] are their ‘towers.’” (# 51)

The key word in verse 11 is “imagine” – the rich imagine! The reality is of course that whatever we may “imagine” is our fortification against whoever or whatever is seen as the “enemy,” eventually it will fail. History and our own personal experiences prove this to be true.

But there is a “fortification” that will never fail and Proverbs gives us the answer – the name of the Lord!

Keller continues:

“But the wise person runs into the name of the Lord. In the Bible, God’s name is a way of speaking of his nature and attributes. To run into God’s name is to deliberately rehearse and tell yourself who he is.” In tough times when we flounder, maybe it is because we “are failing to remember (to “run into”) his power, his wisdom, his love for you.” (# 51)

What are you trusting in today?

When living in Pakistan, a good friend wrote to us and quoted the following:

“The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe.” (Proverbs 18:10)

• A strong tower in his ‘unfailing love.’ (Isaiah 54:10 – “Though the mountains be shaken
   and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,” says the Lord, who has compassion on you.)
• A strong tower in his ‘unfailing protection.’ (Isaiah 54:17- No weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and this is their vindication from me, declares the Lord.)
• A strong tower in his ‘unfailing wisdom.’ (Isaiah 55:8-9 – “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.)
• A strong tower in his ‘unfailing mercy.’ (Isaiah 55:7 – Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.)
• A strong tower in his ‘unfailing purpose.’ (Isaiah 43:1-13 – But now, this is what the Lord says— he who created you, Jacob, he who formed you, Israel:“Do not fear,  for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine…)

A strong tower in his unchanging character; his truth which never changes, his love which never dies, his holiness which never darkens, his mercy which endures forever… to such a One we may flee. On him we may rest our whole weight of need both for time and eternity.” (L. Mitchell)

And so, as we again celebrate Easter remembering the death and resurrection of Jesus, we see all these truths magnified by the wonder of the Son of God going to the cross for our sin and being raised to life that we may live, entering into all the blessings of being children of the Living God – the One who is a strong tower in his ‘unfailing love’ … in his ‘unfailing protection’ … in his ‘unfailing wisdom’ … in his ‘unfailing mercy’ … in his ‘unfailing purpose.’  Amen.