In this life and in our society, we all desire and crave recognition, especially before kings and before both men/and women and people that matter.
In other words, no man/woman is ever happy if he is despised and relegated to the background, but is always happy if he or she happened to be recognized by important personalities that matter in our society, especially kings.
However, even though it is our heart’s desire to stand before kings and before prominent men and women in our society, some are doing things that cause our society to despise and relegate us to the background.
To stand before kings and not before mean men, there are things we need to do. That is, there are things expected from us. One such thing is, as pointed out by King Solomon, by what he said in Proverbs 22:29.
The King James Version of the Bible rendered Proverbs 22:29, saying, “Seest thou a man diligent in his business? He shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean men”. While The New King James Version equally rendered that verse thus, “Do you see a man who excels in his work? He will stand before kings; He will not stand before unknown men.
The New International Version equally rendered that verse thus, “Do you see a man skilled in his work? He will serve before kings; he will not serve before obscure men. NIV
I was also thrilled by God’s Word to the Nations Bible Society translation. It rendered that verse thus, “Do you see a person who is efficient in his work? He will serve kings. He will not serve unknown people.
The living Bible translation has this to say, “Do you know a hard-working man? He shall be successful and stand before kings”!
Finally, the Amplified Bible equally translated it thus, “Do you see a man diligent and skillful in his business? He will stand before kings; he will not stand before obscure men”. AMP
We decided to look at the various translations because of their different rendition is the keywords that are prerequisites to our standing before kings and prominent men and women. A look at the keywords of these renditions, we can see the phrase, “a man diligent in his business” and also the phrase, “a man who excels in his work”
Equally, other phrases are as follows: “a man skilled in his work”, “a person who is efficient in his work”, and “a man diligent and skillful in his business”. It is left for us to choose which phrase best suits us, whether to be diligent in our business or choose the phrase “excels in our work” Equally, we can choose the phrase “efficient in our work”.
The phrase has not finished, we can choose “a man diligent and skillful in his business”. Whatever phrase, we choose, the important thing is that such phrases are a reality in our lives.
Once any of the phrases are a reality in our lives, the endpoint is that we will stand before kings and before prominent men and women. In other words, we are the one that determines whether we will stand before kings and not before obscure men”.
In continuation, I still hope that you still remember what we learned while treating “soaring higher in life as an eagle”? On that topic, we discussed the place of wisdom in soaring higher in life.
We saw from Proverbs 4:7 that “Wisdom is the principal thing; Therefore get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding. NK JV
What I am trying to point out is that we need wisdom, knowledge, and understanding in other to translate our “diligence and skillfulness”, and “efficiency in our work”. Or to “excels in our work” to be able to stand before kings and prominent men and women.
I said this because there are many men/women who are hard-working or diligent in their business. However, by merely looking at what they are doing, even though they are so skillful, they are despised and relegated to the background with their skills because they lack wisdom.
All that I am saying is that our diligence, our skill fullness, or our efficiency will amount to nothing if we lack wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. That may be the reason king Solomon said that wisdom is the principal thing. To lack wisdom is to throttle our skillfulness, our diligence, and our efficiency.
In other words, wisdom seems to be the wheel upon which our skillfulness, our diligence, and our efficiency travel. Therefore, get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding. This is the end of part one, get set to launch out into part two, so keep a date with us. Shalom!
