Proverbs 3:8 (Mini Sermon)

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1.      Pro 3:8 – “It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones.”

1. Being humble and “not wise in thine own eyes” (Pro 3:7) is not only good for the soul, but for the body as well.
2. Pride, which is the opposite of humility, is detrimental to a man’s inward man comprised of his soul and spirit.
   1. Pride is destructive (Pro 16:18; Pro 18:12; Pro 29:23).
   2. When a man’s spirit is wounded, it takes a toll on his physical health.
      1. “by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken” (Pro 15:13).
      2. “a broken spirit drieth the bones” (Pro 17:22).
      3. “heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop” (Pro 12:25).

• Thus, working through a broken spirit, pride can indirectly cause bodily maladies.
  1. David experienced this when he sinned against God and was too proud to confess it.
  2. Only after he acknowledged his sin to God was his health restored (Psa 32:3-5).

1. In addition to indirectly causing health trouble through a broken spirit, pride can also directly cause bodily affliction and even death through God’s judgment of it.
   1. Nebuchadnezzar’s pride caused him to lose his mind and be driven from civilization into the field to grovel around like a beast for seven times over until he was humbled (Dan 4:28-37).
   2. Haman’s pride led to his own execution on a seventy-five foot gallows that he built to hang a man that refused to bow down to him (Est 7:9-10).
2. Conversely, just as pride can cause us physical problems, humility can foster good physical heath, which is the crux of the teaching of the verse under consideration.
   1. Humility will bring a man to honor (Pro 18:12) which shall uphold him (Pro 29:23).
   2. The Lord “giveth grace unto the humble” (Jam 4:6) and will “exalt [them] in due time” (1Pe 5:6).

• Being lifted up and brought to honour will cause a “merry heart” which “maketh a cheerful countenance” (Pro 15:13) and “doeth good like a medicine” (Pro 17:22).

1. Whereas the broken spirit caused by pride “drieth the bones” (Pro 17:22), humility is “health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones” (Pro 3:8).
2. Even when the humble man gets sick, his uplifted spirit “will sustain his infirmity” (Pro 18:14).

While the haughty heart of the proud man is heading for destruction (Pro 18:12), the “sound heart” of the humble man “is the life of [his] flesh” (Pro 14:30).