Today’s headlines in light of Scripture · Proverbs 12
Proverbs has thirty-one chapters. Most months have thirty-one days. For generations, believers have read one chapter a day and let Solomon walk them through the month. Today is the twelfth, so today is Proverbs 12.
Carry this verse with you through everything below.
No one can be made secure by wickedness,
Proverbs 12:3 (CSB)
but the root of the righteous is immovable.
Solomon spent his life watching things fall. Kingdoms, fortunes, reputations. He saw men build fast and lose it faster. So he reached for a picture any farmer understands. A tree with deep roots can lose every leaf in a storm and still be standing in the morning.
Below are ten stories from today’s national news. Some are heavy. A few carry good news. Every one of them meets a verse in Proverbs 12 that was written about three thousand years before the headline.
Today’s Headlines
1. Eight dead in a Brooklyn building collapse
A three-story building on Flatbush Avenue collapsed into a neighboring construction pit Wednesday afternoon. By Thursday the mayor had confirmed eight dead, two of them children, and more than a dozen injured, including firefighters. One of the dead was a 26-year-old construction worker with a pregnant wife and a young child at home. (AP via PBS)
Anxiety in a person’s heart weighs it down,
Proverbs 12:25
but a good word cheers it up.
Anxiety weighs a heart down. That is what a hospital waiting room in Brooklyn feels like tonight. The second line of the verse is for the rest of us. A good word lifts what anxiety presses down. Somebody near that rubble needs one tonight, and somebody near you probably does too.
2. A gunman opens fire in a D.C. gym
Just before 8 a.m. Thursday, a 55-year-old doctor opened fire in a gym in Washington’s Logan Circle neighborhood, a mile north of the White House. One man died in the gym and four more people were wounded. The gunman barricaded himself in his apartment, and police negotiators talked with him for about an hour. Most of that conversation, police said, was about his fights with his building’s homeowners association. He took his own life while still on the phone. (CBS News)
A fool’s displeasure is known at once,
Proverbs 12:16
but whoever ignores an insult is sensible.
A dispute over a condo building. That is where this started. Anger that gets fed and rehearsed does not stay small. Solomon calls the man who lets it show at once a fool and the man who can let an insult pass sensible. Whatever grudge you are nursing tonight, put it down before it grows teeth.
3. Iran’s threats reach Washington
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has moved out of his Washington home and onto a military base after Iranian threats against his life. Bessent has led the economic pressure campaign against Iran. A senior intelligence memo late last month warned that Iranian plots against Americans had reached an advanced stage. (Reuters via Yahoo News)
The words of the wicked are a deadly ambush,
Proverbs 12:6
but the speech of the upright rescues them.
Men have been plotting in the dark since Cain rose up against Abel in the field. Proverbs names it plainly. The wicked set ambushes. The second line answers the first. The speech of the upright rescues. Pray for the people whose job is to guard others. Pray for them by name if you know them.
4. Russia and Ukraine agree to trade prisoners
After two days of talks in Abu Dhabi with American envoys at the table, Russia and Ukraine agreed to a large exchange of prisoners of war. The talks ended without a breakthrough on ending the war, which is nearly five years old. The envoys went on to Moscow Thursday to meet with Vladimir Putin and are scheduled to brief Ukraine’s president in Ireland. (AP via PBS)
Deceit is in the hearts of those who plot evil,
Proverbs 12:20
but those who promote peace have joy.
No treaty came out of that room. Still, soldiers will be going home to their mothers, and that counts. Proverbs promises joy to those who promote peace, the people who keep showing up at the table when the table looks hopeless. Pray for them. Pray for the prisoners still waiting.
5. Mississippi elects a new senator
Here at home, after more than a week of counting, Democrat Scott Colom defeated Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith by fewer than five thousand votes. He becomes the first Democrat elected to the Senate from Mississippi since 1982 and the first Black senator from our state since Reconstruction. Hyde-Smith conceded Wednesday and said she respects the decision of Mississippi voters. (CNBC)
Truthful lips endure forever,
Proverbs 12:19
but a lying tongue, only a moment.
Some of my neighbors are celebrating this week. Some are grieving. I know and love people on both sides of that line. Campaign ads last only a moment, and most of them are already forgotten. Truth endures. And whoever sits in that Senate seat, the throne above it has never been vacant.
6. Nvidia’s founder steps down
Jensen Huang, who co-founded Nvidia and built it into the company at the center of the AI boom, resigned as CEO Thursday. He had already admitted to his staff that he was unfaithful to his wife, and the FBI is looking into his relationship with a woman suspected of spying for China. (CBS News)
Lying lips are detestable to the LORD,
Proverbs 12:22
but faithful people are his delight.
I take no pleasure in any man’s fall. But look at how the snare worked. A honey trap only has power over a man with something to hide. A secret is a handle somebody else can grab. Truth gives an enemy nothing to hold. There is mercy for the one who confesses, and Proverbs 28:13 says so plainly. The safer road is having nothing to hide in the first place.
7. Home sales fall to a 16-year low
Sales of existing homes dropped in October to their slowest pace since August 2010, down almost 9 percent from a year ago. High mortgage rates are the main reason. Prices are still near record highs, so a lot of young families are simply waiting. (NPR)
The wicked are overthrown and perish,
Proverbs 12:7
but the house of the righteous will stand.
When Proverbs says house, it means more than lumber and shingles. It means the household, the family, the name that carries on after you. You may be renting longer than you planned. That does not touch the house Proverbs is talking about. Build that one. It stands when the market doesn’t.
8. A new push to help veterans with PTSD
The day after Veterans Day, federal officials announced funding to study ibogaine, a controversial drug some veterans groups have championed, as a treatment for post-traumatic stress. VA Secretary Doug Collins said the country owes veterans “both urgency and the best science we can produce.” (AP via PBS)
A person will be satisfied with good by the fruit of his mouth,
Proverbs 12:14
and the work of a person’s hands will reward him.
Whatever comes of the research, Collins named something true. There is a debt. Men and women gave the work of their hands to this country, and many came home carrying wounds nobody can see. That work deserves its reward. If you know a veteran, call this week. Ask how they’re sleeping. Then listen.
9. Doctors change course on prostate screening
For the first time since 2010, the American Cancer Society recommends routine PSA blood tests for men at average risk, every two years from age 50 to 69. Men at higher risk, including Black men and men with a family history, should start at 45. (CBS News)
A fool’s way is right in his own eyes,
Proverbs 12:15
but whoever listens to counsel is wise.
Men, I’m talking to us now. We will drive on a check-engine light for six months before we ask anybody for help, and we treat the doctor’s office about the same way. Proverbs has a word for the man who is sure he’s fine. Listen to counsel. Get the blood test. Your grandchildren want you at the table.
10. A famous ship becomes a reef
The SS United States, once the fastest ocean liner in the world and longer than the Titanic, was sunk on purpose Wednesday night off the Florida Panhandle. In its day it carried four presidents and the Mona Lisa. After decades rusting at a dock, it now rests upright about 180 feet down, the largest artificial reef in the world. (NPR)
The wicked desire what evil people have caught,
Proverbs 12:12
but the root of the righteous is productive.
Marine scientists say algae and bacteria start settling on a new reef within hours, and the fish come soon after. More than seventy years ago that ship crossed the Atlantic in under four days. Tonight it is a nursery. That is the second line of this verse. A righteous root keeps producing long after the world has decided it’s finished.
Where Our Hope Stands
Ten headlines. A collapse, gunfire, threats, war, an election, a scandal, a slow market, hidden wounds, a medical test, and a ship at the bottom of the Gulf. Not one of them caught God by surprise. Not one of them moved the root.
He has already spoken to days like this one. Here are three places to stand.
God is our refuge and strength,
Psalm 46:1–3 (CSB)
a helper who is always found
in times of trouble.
Therefore we will not be afraid,
though the earth trembles
and the mountains topple
into the depths of the seas,
though its water roars and foams
and the mountains quake with its turmoil. Selah
For the days when the ground gives way under people, sometimes literally.
May the name of God be praised forever and ever,
Daniel 2:20–21 (CSB)
for wisdom and power belong to him.
He changes the times and seasons;
he removes kings and establishes kings.
He gives wisdom to the wise
and knowledge to those who have understanding.
For election weeks and every shift of power that follows them. Wisdom belongs to Him, and so does every seat of authority.
I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. You will have suffering in this world. Be courageous! I have conquered the world.
John 16:33 (CSB)
For everything else. Jesus promised suffering and peace in the same breath, and He told us why the peace wins. He has already conquered.
Read all twenty-eight verses of Proverbs 12 tonight. Read the chapter first and the headlines second. The order makes a difference.
Tomorrow, Proverbs 13.
Scripture quotations are from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.
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