Daily Manna, Year Two · Day 331 · November 27
Iron Sharpeneth Iron
“Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.”
Sharpening a blade takes metal away. It is noisy work, it throws sparks, and the blade that comes off the stone is a little smaller than the one that went on.
That is the picture Proverbs chooses for friendship: "Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend." Countenance is an old word for face, the place where a person's meaning shows before he says a word. Two verses later the chapter comes back to the face: "As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man." And this part of Proverbs is not sentimental about friends. Three verses before the iron, it warns, "He that blesseth his friend with a loud voice, rising early in the morning, it shall be counted a curse to him." Praise that comes too loud and at the wrong hour lands as an insult. A real friend does something harder than flatter you. Like iron against iron, he works on your dull edge.
Somebody has probably already told you a thing you would rather not have heard, and since then they have been careful around you. Go back and ask them what they held back. Sit through the answer without rushing to defend yourself, and let it be as noisy as sharpening is. The same chapter says, "Faithful are the wounds of a friend." God gives friends like that as a kindness, and the edge they sharpen is one He means to use.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 331 is Eternal Light and Reign (Revelation 22:5).