Proverbs 25:14

The book of Proverbs gives us a lot of instruction on a lot of different subjects. One subject that can keep us in God’s wisdom is Godly Follower-ship. Who we follow; where we follow; how we follow are all spoken about in Proverbs. Here is one of them about truth and non-truth: 

Proverbs 25:14 (NASV)

Like clouds and wind without rain

Is a man who boasts of his gifts falsely.

Proverbs 25:14 (ESV)

Like clouds and wind without rain

is a man who boasts of a gift he does not give.

The imaginary in the above proverb is that of a farmer standing in his dry and dusty field with his eyes on the horizon.   He sees a small cloud and feels a slight breeze brewing.   It makes a promise of rain.   His lips are dry and his forehead perspired.   His crops long for the freshness of water from above.   The cloud gets closer and closer and bigger and bigger.   The wind gets harder and hotter.   The promise of rain is in the air.   But, alas, it is only an empty promise.   Nothing comes of the cloud and the wind.  It is an empty mirage of nothingness.   The farmer returns to the field dryer, dustier and more discouraged than ever.   The same feeling comes when someone promises to help with a gift but gives nothing.   The same feelings the farmer has, so too the poor man who thought a gift was coming.  So, too, the feelings God gets when a vow is vowed and then broken.   Wind and cloud without rain; promise with a gift.   A man who boasts of a high gift but gives none continues the drought of the poor man.  He withers up even still when no gift comes to moisten his parched heart.   Words without follow through are dead words.