God, it's so easy
to get lost in the delusions of our own grandeur.
To think that we must be involved in everything.
We must have an opinion about everything.
That we must control everything.
But Lord, you alone are sovereign.
You alone are king.
And you have assigned to us
our particular set of responsibilities,
roles, relationships
to be faithful in.
And you call us to childlike faith
to entrust the rest to you.
Teach us that humility.
Give us that faith this morning
as we hear from you
and from your word in Proverbs 6,
verses 1 to 19.
In Jesus' holy name we pray.
Amen.
We're in Proverbs 6,
verses 1 to 19.
I will read it out loud for us.
My son,
if you have put up security for your neighbor,
have given your pledge for a stranger,
if you are snared in the words of your mouth,
caught in the words of your mouth,
then do this, my son,
and save yourself,
for you have come into the hand of your neighbor.
Go hasten and plead urgently with your neighbor.
Give your eyes no sleep
and your eyelids no slumber.
Save yourself like a gazelle
from the hand of the hunter,
like a bird from the hand of the fowler.
Go to the ant, O sluggard.
Consider her ways and be wise.
Without having any chief officer or ruler,
she prepares her bread in summer
and gathers her food in harvest.
How long will you lie there, O sluggard?
When will you arise from your sleep?
A little sleep,
a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to rest,
and poverty will come upon you like a robber
and want like an armed man.
A worthless person,
a wicked man,
goes about with crooked speech,
winks with his eyes,
signals with his feet,
points with his finger,
with perverted heart,
devises evil,
continually sowing discord.
Therefore calamity will come upon him
suddenly.
In a moment,
he will be broken beyond healing.
There are six things that the Lord hates.
Seven that are an abomination to him.
Haughty eyes,
a lying tongue,
and hands that shed innocent blood.
A heart that devises wicked plans,
feet that makes haste to run to evil.
A false witness who breathes out lies
and one who sows discord among brothers.
This is God's holy and authoritative word.
This is an unusual passage
because it's sandwiched between two long sections
that are both warnings against adultery.
So Proverbs 5,
that Ray preached on last week,
and Proverbs 6, 20 to 7, 27.
And you wonder what it's doing here
between these two passages.
But there is a thematic connection.
Proverbs 5 warned in verse 3 and verse 20
of a forbidden woman,
which means literally a strange woman,
as Ray pointed out last week.
A woman that is strange
rather than known or familiar to you
because she is another man's wife.
And to bolster this argument,
Proverbs 5, verse 10,
once again used the word stranger
and said this to paraphrase,
you wouldn't labor long and hard
only to see all the fruit and income
of your labor go to the strangers,
would you?
And Proverbs 5, 17 added,
should your springs be scattered abroad,
streams of water in the streets?
Let them be for yourself alone
and not for strangers with you.
So it's a recurring theme,
a running theme that unites these passages,
the thing of the identity of a stranger.
That's in fact the main argument of chapter 5,
that to commit adultery
is to transgress your own boundary,
that to move beyond what is rightfully yours,
to infringe upon what is rightfully another's.
Because as 1 Corinthians 7, verse 4 teaches us,
when you get married,
the husband's body does not belong to him anymore,
it belongs to his wife.
And the wife's body does not belong to her anyway,
it belongs to her husband.
And so when you get married,
you belong to one another
and there's this mutuality and interdependence.
And when you tamper with another man's wife
or another woman's husband,
you violate that sacred mutuality and interdependence.
And so I don't know if you've ever gotten into a wrong car in the parking lot
because it looked exactly like yours or tried to get in.
I mean, one time a car with the exact same make and model and color as mine
was for some reason parked right next to mine at Market Basket.
And as I came out of Market Basket,
this was at the time my key fob battery was dead.
So I was using a manual key to open it.
And here I might try to open this car and it wouldn't turn,
the key wouldn't turn.
And so I looked more closely at the car
and recognized a scratch I'd never seen before.
And now I'm getting frustrated.
Did someone just scratch my car and leave?
And then, of course, to my relief,
I realized it's actually not my car at all.
And my car was right next to it.
And, of course, as soon as I realized that I was kind of looking around
because I'm a little embarrassed, you know,
you don't want to be seen trying to get into someone else's car.
And the reason for that is because you have no business
trying to get into someone else's car.
It's not your car, right?
And that's, but that's exactly what we do when we commit adultery.
You have no business being in that relationship.
It's not, that is not the relationship that God has put you in.
You are transgressing the boundaries God's given you.
We wouldn't ever think after a long day of work
to go home to someone else's house to sleep.
Not only would they call the police for intruding,
but it's just not our place.
It's not homey.
We wouldn't rest it.
We wouldn't think of it.
But yet we often, in other areas of our life,
think about things that way.
We transgress the boundaries that God has given us.
And so that was the main argument with chapter 5.
Really, the main argument against adultery in Proverbs chapter 5
was mind your own business.
Spouses have a mutual obligation to one another,
and whether you have consent or not
with a married woman or married man does not justify it
because there's a sanctity of marriage that has been established.
You have no business meddling in that relationship.
And chapter 6 is actually continuing that same theme.
So in verses 1 to 5, it tells us to mind our own business,
to not become a surety to a stranger's debt.
Don't co-sign a stranger's loan.
Verses 6 to 11 tell us to mind our own business,
to put our heads down and go to work,
to make provisions for our own life instead of being a slugger
that does not work unless someone forces him to.
Verses 12 to 19 tell us also to mind our own business,
to not be an instigator that sows discord among brothers.
So to summarize, the main point of this passage is
mind your own business and attend to the responsibilities
and relations God has given to you specifically.
Now please don't misunderstand me.
Sometimes we use that phrase, you know,
mind your own business,
to rebuff people who do rightfully have an interest in our lives.
Like our own parents,
our own spouses,
our own bosses,
our own brothers and sisters in Christ.
If we tell these people to mind their own business,
that's just selfish irresponsibility and rebellion.
To mind our own business in a biblical sense
is the opposite of selfish irresponsibility.
It means to be responsible citizens.
It means to fulfill our own obligations.
It's what 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 verses 9 to 12 talk about.
It says,
Now concerning brotherly love,
you have no need for anyone to write to you.
For you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another.
For that indeed is what you are doing
to all the brothers throughout Macedonia.
But we urge you brothers to do this more and more
and to aspire to live quietly
and to mind your own affairs
and to work with your hands
as we instructed you
so that you may walk properly before outsiders
and be dependent on no one.
Notice that in that passage,
this 1 Thessalonians chapter 4,
that living quietly,
minding our own affairs,
working with our hands
so that we may walk properly before outsiders
and be dependent on no one,
that these things are not a sign of selfishness
but rather an expression of brotherly love.
That's how that passage began.
One of the important ways we love one another
within the family of God
is by faithfully fulfilling
the responsibilities and roles
God has given us particularly.
And that faithfulness
is born of faith in God's sovereignty
that He is the one that's ultimately in charge
and oversees all that we do not have our business in.
And when we faithfully do that,
this passage teaches us
that in verses 1 to 5,
that we will not be a surety.
Verses 6 to 11,
that we will not be a sluggard.
And verses 12 to 19,
that we will not be a sower of discord.
So that's the way my outline
as we go through this passage.
So first,
minding our own business
and attending to the responsibilities
and relations God has given us
entails not becoming a surety.
A surety is a person
who makes him or herself
a guarantor of another person's debt.
A cosigner of a loan.
It says in verses 1 to 3 of our passage,
My son,
if you have put up security for your neighbor,
have given your pledge for a stranger,
if you are snared in the words of your mouth,
caught in the words of your mouth,
then do this, my son,
and save yourself,
for you have come into the hand of your neighbor.
Go,
hasten and plead urgently with your neighbor.
Now this is not,
I want to add this important qualification,
this is not a prohibition
of helping and being generous to our neighbors.
For example,
Deuteronomy chapter 15,
verses 7 to 11,
it specifically commands
that if among you,
one of your brothers should become poor
in any of your towns within your land
that the Lord your God is giving you,
you shall not harden your heart
or shut your hand against your poor brother,
but you shall open your hand to him
and lend him sufficient for his need,
whatever it may be.
Take care,
lest there be an unworthy thought in your heart
and say,
the seventh ear,
the ear of release is near,
and your eye look grudgingly on your poor brother
and you give him nothing.
And he cry to the Lord against you
and you be guilty of sin.
You shall give to him freely
and your heart shall not be grudging
when you give to him
because for this,
the Lord your God will bless you
in all your work
and all that you undertake.
For there will never cease to be poor in the land.
Therefore,
I command you,
you shall open wide your hand to your brother,
to the needy and to the poor in your land.
So on the sabbatical year,
to give you some Old Testament background,
the seventh year,
God's people were commanded
to cancel the debt
of all of their fellow Israelites.
And God is saying in this passage
that even when the sabbatical year
is just around the corner,
that his people should lend generously,
knowing full well
that they may never get the money back
because of the sabbatical year.
God always explicitly prohibited his people,
on top of that,
from charging interest on loans.
Exodus 22, 25 says,
if you lend money to any of my people with you
who is poor,
you shall not be like a money lender to him
and you shall not exact interest from him.
And of course,
the goal of that command
is to prohibit exploitation
since those who seek to borrow money
are usually the neediest people.
That's why they're coming to you,
to borrow money.
And so it usually was considered unjust.
It's an injustice,
an exploitation of someone
in their time of greatest need
and that it actually worsened
their financial condition
instead of improving it.
So that was the logic behind that.
In certain cases,
Israelites were allowed
to demand securities for a loan.
The security was usually a garment
which represented the borrower himself,
meaning that should the borrower
fail to repay his debt,
he would be pressed into servitude
in order to render a service
equal to the amount of the debt he owed.
But even that practice
was prohibited in scripture
for certain more vulnerable populations.
For example,
Deuteronomy 24, verse 17 says,
you shall not pervert the justice
due to the sojourner,
a foreigner that doesn't have
legal rights within the country,
or to the fatherless,
or take a widow's garment in pledge.
The sojourners who lacked legal protection,
orphans who lacked fatherly protection,
widows who lacked their husband's provision
and protection,
were never in any circumstance
to be taken advantage of.
You are not allowed
to take a security from them.
And so,
the Bible encourages
love for neighbor
and generosity toward the poor,
and Proverbs chapter 6,
verse 1,
does not contradict that.
What's in view here
is something different.
It is warning against
putting up security
for your neighbor,
on behalf of your neighbor.
You're not lending here
to a needy neighbor.
You're not giving
to a poor neighbor.
You're, in essence,
assuming their debt
and taking full responsibility
for their financial situation.
And biblical wisdom literature
consistently warns
against that practice.
And note the word
at the end of verse 1
that's parallel
to the word neighbor.
My son,
if you have put up security
for your neighbor,
have given your pledge
for a stranger.
That should ring a bell
because of all the connection
to the theme of stranger
we've seen in chapter 5.
Stranger,
that's the keyword
that explains
what he means
by the word neighbor here
because the word neighbor
in Hebrew
has a very wide
semantic range.
It can mean
a lot of different things
depending on its context.
Similar to the English word friend,
right?
When you say
a friend,
you could mean
an acquaintance,
a Facebook friend
that you have never seen before.
Or you could mean
a friend,
meaning your best friend
that you grew up with
and is,
is,
has been,
was in your wedding
or is going to be
in your wedding,
right?
So friend can mean
a number of different things.
Same thing with the word neighbor
in scripture.
And so the word neighbor here
is given context
by the word stranger.
So this stranger
is not someone
that is familiar to you.
This is not a brother
that you are responsible for.
This is someone
that is not within
your circle of relationships
and responsibilities.
Remember that
in chapter five,
the adulterous woman,
another man's wife,
was described
as a strange woman.
And Proverbs chapter 27,
verse 13
makes a very interesting
suggestive connection.
It says,
take a man's garment
when he has put up security
for a stranger
and hold it in pledge
when he puts up security
for an adulteress.
So what might,
what might be in view here
is that a seductive adulteress
can lure a foolish man
into putting up security
for her debt.
So if you're putting up security
for your wife or sister,
that's one thing.
But for a stranger,
for an adulteress,
don't ever do that.
That's what the problem,
what this problem is saying.
Let me ask you,
have you ever rashly
taken responsibility
for something
that is not
your responsibility?
Have you ever tried
to play the hero
in something
that really
is none of your business?
Have you
been out of your depths
because you have been
meddling in
trying to control
things that are
outside of your control?
The exhortation
in this proverb
is mind your own business
and attend
to the responsibilities
and relations
God has given you.
And putting up security
for a stranger
is not one
of those responsibilities.
But if you've already
done that,
there's advice
for you here too.
If you have already
done that,
as verse 2 says,
you've given your pledge
for a stranger.
If you are snared
in the words of your mouth,
caught in the words
of your mouth,
verse 3 says,
then do this,
my son,
and save yourself.
For you have come
into the hand
of your neighbor.
Go hasten
and plead urgently
with your neighbor.
The phrase,
give your pledge,
in verse 2,
is literally,
you know,
clap your hand,
you know,
clap your hand
in Hebrew.
It's a gesture
that people back then
used to seal
an agreement,
much like nowadays
we shake hands,
right?
And so,
there's a word play
then in verse 3,
you have come
into the hand
of your neighbor.
In other words,
if you clap your hand
to make yourself
a surety for a stranger,
you come into the hand
under the power
of that stranger.
You have been snared
or caught
in the words
of your mouth
by what you said
with your very own mouth.
You have entrapped yourself.
This is self-inflicted
predicament.
In order to save yourself
from this
unfortunate situation,
you should go
hasten
and plead urgently
with your neighbor.
Now,
you may have
a footnote
in your Bible
next to the word
hasten.
The English
standard version
that I'm using
as a footnote
there,
that the word
can also be translated
humble yourself.
I think that's
a better translation.
The word that is
translated as
plead urgently
and literally means
to bother.
So,
if you take those things,
the New American Standard
Bible translates
the end of verse 3
this way,
I think is very
helpful,
accurate.
It says,
Go,
humble yourself
and importune
your brother.
Importune your brother.
It means to humble yourself
and plead urgently
and persistently
even to the point
of embarrassment.
Like the importunate widow
in Luke 18
verses 1-8
who persistently
pleads for justice
to a wicked judge
so that the judge,
even though he has
no regard for God
or humanity,
he says,
because this widow
keeps bothering me,
I will give her justice
so that she will not
beat me down
by her continual coming.
So,
that's what Proverbs
chapter 6 verse 3
is telling us to do.
The stranger
that you put up security
for is obviously
not going to be eager
to release you
so plead urgently
and persistently
and shamelessly
so that he or she
might release you
from the legal obligation
before the payment
is due.
Now,
the father continues
his admonition
in verses 4-5.
Give your eyes
no slumber,
no sleep,
and your eyelids
no slumber.
Save yourself
like a gazelle
from the hand
of the hunter,
like a bird
from the hand
of the fowler.
Once again,
the word hand
is repeated.
You see it four times
in these first five verses.
At first,
the son foolishly
clapped his hand
in pledge
so that he came
into the hand
of his neighbor.
Now,
he must free himself
from this trap
like a gazelle
from the hand
of the hunter,
like a bird
from the hand
of the fowler.
It's the stranger's hand
that's in view here
that he must escape
like a gazelle
or the bird from.
And this extended metaphor
of hunting
and being hunted
and caught
and ensnared
is really helpful
because it inverts
the assumed
power dynamic.
Right?
When you put up
security for a stranger,
when you co-sign a loan,
it makes you feel like
you are in charge.
Right?
It makes you feel like
you are the benefactor
and that this debtor
is subject
to your goodwill.
But in reality,
what this passage
is teaching us
is when you put up
security for a stranger,
you become the subject
to his goodwill.
You are now
his beneficiary.
He has successfully
ensnared you
and you will be impoverished
if he refuses
to repay his own debt.
So moments ago,
he was begging you
to put up security
for him,
but now you must
beg him
to release you.
That's the folly
of becoming a surety.
Instead,
it says,
we should mind
our own business
and attend
to the responsibilities
and relations
God has given to us.
Right?
I mean,
think about how urgent
this is.
A bird caught
by the fowler
is not going to say,
well,
let me take a nap first
and finish eating this food
and then try to flee.
Right?
I mean,
that's not how you think
when you're trapped.
Similarly,
you should think about it
that way.
If you have come under,
pledge,
if you become a surety,
give your eyes no sleep,
your eyes no slumber,
you have been trapped.
Extricate yourself
as soon as you possibly can.
It's the first order
of business.
And he says,
untimely sleep
and dilly-dallying
and procrastination
and laziness
can ruin you.
And that thought
of untimely sleep
and laziness
and procrastination,
it prompts the father
to warn the son
against being a sluggard
in verses 6 to 11.
That's my second point.
He says in verses 6 to 8,
Go to the aunt,
O sluggard,
consider her ways
and be wise.
Without having any chief officer
or ruler,
she prepares her bread
in summer
and gathers her food
in harvest.
Now,
he uses
a form of direct address.
He says,
O sluggard,
in order to dramatize
and emphasize this warning.
But the implied audience
is still the son.
He doesn't want the son
to become like the sluggard.
So he says,
Go to the aunt,
you know,
waking him up
from his slumber.
Go.
Consider her ways
and be wise.
The father points out
that an aunt
gathers and stores grain
during the summer
so that he can survive
the winter
when there is little
food to gather.
Not only is this
relatively insignificant creature
more forward-thinking
and industrious
than the sluggard,
it's also more
responsible
and self-starting.
Right?
Look at it again.
It says,
Without having any chief
officer
or ruler,
she prepares her bread
in summer
and gathers her food
in harvest.
Nobody orders the aunt
to do that.
Go grab the breadcrumb
at this time
from this place
and bring it
and store it here.
Nobody decides
her duties for her
but the aunt
does it anyway.
She knows from her
God-given insect instinct
what her responsibilities
and relations are
and she fulfills them
admirably.
The aunt knows
to mind her own business
and attend to her
God-given responsibilities
and relations.
The sluggard,
on the other hand,
does not.
So the aunt's
industry
and independence
put the sluggard
to shame.
Verses 9-11
describe the sluggard
this way,
How long will you
lie there,
O sluggard?
When will you
arise from your sleep?
A little sleep,
a little slumber,
a little folding
of the hands
to rest
and poverty
will come upon you
like a robber
and want
like an armed man.
The interrogative words
emphasize time,
right?
How long
will you
lie there?
When will you
arise from your sleep?
So there's an implied
rebuke in those words.
The sluggard has already
been lying there
and sleeping for far
too long.
From the perspective
of the father,
the sluggard's slumber
is endless.
When?
How long?
It seems endless.
But from the perspective
of the sluggard,
note the contrast
that the father
gives voice to
in verse 10,
it's just
a little sleep,
a little slumber,
a little folding
of the hands
to rest.
Notice how vague
and incremental
that is, right?
I mean,
it seems harmless.
Oh, a little sleep.
Oh, I'll just snooze
just for a little while.
Oh, I'll get that done
just a little later.
Right?
Bible scholar
Derek Kittner
puts it insightfully.
He says,
he does not,
the sluggard,
he does not
commit himself
to a refusal
but deceives himself
by the smallness
of his surrenders.
So by inches
and minutes,
his opportunity
slips away.
The sluggard
is reluctant
to make a firm
time commitment.
So he delays
incrementally
and indefinitely.
He hates deadlines.
He shirks
responsibilities.
He flees
pressure.
Sleep is like
a drug
for the sluggard.
It's the means
by which he escapes
the painful realities
of life,
the difficulties
of life.
And we can be tempted
to think in the same way,
can't we?
What are some urgent
and important things
in your life
that you keep pushing back
little by little?
Perhaps it requires
discipline.
Perhaps it's unpleasant.
Perhaps it's
seeking reconciliation
with the Christian
brother or sister
that you have
sinned against.
perhaps it's
calling your parents.
Perhaps it's
getting a laborious
work project done.
Perhaps it's
applying for jobs.
Perhaps it's
studying for exams.
Perhaps it's
getting up early
in the morning
to read your Bible
and pray.
Maybe it's exercising.
Maybe it's finding
and committing
to a local church.
What have you
been delaying
unnecessarily
to your own peril?
You might think
it's just a little
folding of the hands
to rest,
but the Father warns,
and poverty
will come upon you
like a robber
and want
like an armed man.
The Father warns
of poverty
and want.
He doesn't merely
say that you won't
be rich.
He doesn't merely
say that you will
be middle class.
No, he says
that you will
be impoverished
and lack
the basic
necessities of life.
The Hebrew word
that is translated
poverty here
in verse 11
only occurs
in the book
of Proverbs.
It always
has a negative
connotation.
It doesn't refer
to just not
having enough
disposable income
and living from
paycheck to paycheck.
No, it refers
to destitution,
not having
enough food
to eat.
And it's not
a coincidence
that the Bible
never uses
the adjective
poor
to describe
the condition
of a sluggard
that becomes
destitute.
The word
poor
in contrast
to the word
poverty
is used
in the Bible
primarily
to refer
to those
who are poor
because of
circumstances
that are
outside of
their control.
And almost
uniformly
they are
the object
of God's
special compassion
and care
in Scripture.
So Proverbs
19.17
says,
whoever is
generous
to the
poor
lends
to the
Lord
and he
meaning
God
will repay
him
for his
deed.
God cares
for the
poor
but the
impoverished
sluggard
is another
story
altogether.
This is
not the
case
for charity.
Poverty
and want
in wisdom
literature
are result
of divine
judgment
for sins
such as
slothfulness,
stinginess,
love of luxury,
carelessness,
and idle talk
which we'll all
see throughout
the book of
Proverbs
as we go
through.
And poverty
is not
deferential
toward its
victims.
Verse 11
says that it
comes like a
robber which
conveys the
sudden,
stealthy way
in which
poverty comes
and like
an armed
man which
conveys the
violent,
forcible way
in which
poverty comes.
So you
can't always
indulge in a
little more
sleep and
expect to
arouse
yourself for
work just
in time to
avoid poverty.
It doesn't
work like that.
Poverty comes
unannounced,
unexpectedly,
unavoidably.
It's similar
to why so
many drivers
I think fall
asleep on
the road.
They think
that they
could arouse
themselves when
they start to
feel themselves
falling asleep.
They don't
realize that
even though
that pre-sleep
stages are
gradual,
when they
actually fall
asleep,
it's almost
instantaneous.
There's no
way to pull
yourself out
of that once
it's too
late.
And so
they don't
pull over
at the
first indication
that they
are sleepy
or falling
asleep.
Instead,
they say
a little
longer,
a few
more
miles,
and then
bam,
car wreck.
Poverty is
similar.
It will come
upon you
like a
robber,
like an
armed man.
You thought
you were
getting away
with the
little shortcuts
here and
there,
a few
wasted hours
here and
there,
and then
bam,
you lose
your job.
You thought
you could
skim the
books and
pull an
all-nighter
the day
before your
exam,
relying on
your own
intelligence
to bail
you out
as it
has done
before.
A little
more video
games,
a few
more episodes,
and then
bam,
you fail
the exam.
You thought
you could
miss church
just a few
times,
well,
that wasn't
so bad,
and then
a few
more times,
a little
more spiritual
neglect,
and then
bam,
unbelief
and spiritual
hardness
have sunk
into your
heart.
By the
time you
realize that
you're in
trouble,
it's already
too late.
So the
passage exhorts
us,
mind your
own business
and attend
to the
responsibilities
and relations
God has
given you.
The third
category of
person that
the father
warns the
son against
becoming is
a worthless
person,
or more
literally,
a man of
worthlessness.
He is twice
described in
verses 14 and
19 as a
sower of
discord.
This is an
agitator,
a rabble
rouser,
a troublemaker,
a person who
incites discord
and disunity
against God
and against
humanity.
The term
worthlessness is
almost a
catch-all term
for all kinds
of rebellious
wickedness,
so much so
that the
Hebrew word
behind that,
belial,
is used as
a name for
the devil in
2 Corinthians
chapter 6,
verse 15.
And the
kind of
things that
he does,
this worthless
man does,
is described
colorfully in
verses 12 to
14.
He goes out
with crooked
speech,
winks with
his eyes,
signals with
his feet,
points with
his finger,
with perverted
heart,
devises evil,
continually
sowing discord.
Many body
parts are used
to describe this
worthless man's
behavior.
He is
described as
having a
crooked speech.
It's literally
crooked mouth,
which refers to
his slanderous
and false
speech.
His winking
eyes betray
deception.
I think people
in various
cultures still
do that.
It's like,
you say one
thing, but
when you're
meaning another
thing, you
wink, right?
You're deceiving
people.
He signals
his feet,
or more
literally,
he shuffles
with his feet.
The parallel
in verse 18
describes feet
that make haste
to run to
evil.
So the
shuffling feet
is likely
a reference
to a busy
body just
restlessly
nosing about
plotting evil
and stirring
up the pot
and meddling
in other
people's
business.
Shuffling
feet.
He points
with his
finger,
right?
Mocking,
ridiculing,
caricaturing,
and accusing,
blaming all
of the stems
ultimately from
the perverted
heart,
which devises
evil,
continually
sowing discord.
And all of
these body
parts are used
to show
that this
sower of
discord
instigates
conflict and
agitates
crowd with
his whole
self.
He leverages
everything he
has to do
this.
He is a
deceptive and
destructive force
in society,
sowing
misunderstanding,
suspicion,
hatred,
and violence.
He is the
polar opposite
of the wise
man who
minds his
own business
and attends
to his
God-given
responsibilities
and relations.
The worthless
man minds
others'
business,
meddles in
their affairs,
their responsibilities,
their relations,
and the
prevalence of
such worthless
men explain
why our
society is so
fractured.
And we have
to be careful
not to follow
in the path
of the
sower of
discord,
right?
It's so easy
nowadays when
everything from
law to
even health
seems partisan
and politicized.
It's so easy
to represent
unfairly and
uncharitably
those whom
we disagree
with.
It's so easy
to wink
with our eyes
at our
followers or
friends,
to point
with our
fingers,
to pass
blame,
mock,
even demonize
the other.
It's so easy
to devise
evil in
our hearts,
seeking the
ill or
downfall of
another person
instead of
seeking their
good and
speaking well
of them.
Have you
made a
caustic or
snarky
comment that
sows discord
rather than
peace?
Have you
shared an
article or
meme that
is misleading
because it
contains only
half the
truth?
We should
always strive
to represent
those who
disagree with
us in
the most
honest and
compelling way
possible.
That's what it
means to
follow Matthew
chapter 7
verse 12.
Whatever you
wish that
others would
do to you,
do also to
them.
I think the
vast influx of
available knowledge
to us through
the internet seems
to have made
many of us,
our knowledge,
a mile wide
but an inch
deep.
We live in
the shallows,
as the
Pulitzer Prize
nominated author
Nicholas Carr
puts it.
we have
much knowledge
but little
wisdom.
And as a
result we have
become slow
to hear and
quick to speak,
quick to anger,
rather than as
James 1.19 says,
quick to hear,
slow to speak,
slow to anger.
If that's the
case, brother and
sister, we are
in danger of
becoming
sowers of
discord, men
and women of
worthlessness.
So let's not
get sucked into
this and
instead heed
the warning of
the father in
verse 15.
Therefore,
calamity will
come upon him
suddenly.
In a moment,
he will be
broken beyond
healing.
The judgment
predicted here is
very similar to
the sudden and
violent poverty
that comes upon
the sluggard in
verse 11.
The sore of
discord too will
be overcome by
calamity suddenly
and he will be
broken beyond
healing.
So causing
trouble spells
trouble for the
troublemaker.
The sore of
discord will
himself be
broken.
And to
reinforce this
teaching, the
father reiterates
the offenses of
the sore of
discord in
verses 16 to
19 using many
parallel body
parts going from
head to toe.
It says,
there are six
things that the
Lord hates,
seven that are
an abomination
to him,
haughty eyes,
a lying tongue
and hands that
shed innocent
blood,
a heart that
devises wicked
plans, feet
that make haste
to run to
evil.
And then he
adds two more,
a false witness
who breathes
out lies and
one who sows
discord among
brothers.
The use of
ascending numbers
going from six
things that the
Lord hates to
seven that are
an abomination
to him is a
poetic device,
it's a rhetorical
device that serves
to escalate and
emphasize what
he's trying to
say, that the
Lord despises
these things.
So they are
an abomination
to him.
And the
haughty eyes,
a lying tongue
and blood
shedding hands,
plotting heart,
evil chasing
feet, a lying
witness and
one who sows
discord among
brothers, they
all have this
in common,
that they are
all disruptive,
that they are
all anti-social
behaviors.
They claw out
the thread of
trust from the
fabric of society
so that it
unravels into
ugly chaos.
they disrupt
and destroy
family relations
that are
precious to
God.
And by
bringing in
the Lord
in verse
16, in
climactic
fashion, the
father gets
to the heart
of the matter
in all of
his advice.
The reason
why he warns
us against
being a surety,
a sluggard,
and a sore
discord is
not merely
because it's
harmful to
ourselves,
but even more
importantly because
these things are
offensive to
God.
they are sins
against God
and the order
he has instituted
in our world
and the roles
that he has
assigned in
particular to
us.
And so he's
telling us that
we are to
mind our own
business and
attempt to
responsibilities and
relations God
has given us.
Unfortunately,
apart from
Christ, we all
have the
perverted hearts
that devise evil
that this passage
speaks of.
Twice in
verse 14 and
verse 18,
this passage
describes the
perverted heart
that is at
the root of
wickedness.
Verse 14 says
that the
worthless man
with perverted
heart devises
evil,
continually
sowing discord.
So people
argue whether
the adverb
continually goes
with sowing
discord or
devising evil,
but if you
follow the
punctuation
that was
provided by
the Jewish
scribes and
scholars in
the 10th
century,
the adverb
actually goes
with devising
evil.
So it's
saying that
our perverted
hearts are
continually
devising evil.
That's what
our perverted
hearts are
doing all
the time.
So it's
actually corroborated
by Genesis
6-5 when it
says,
the Lord
saw that
the wickedness
of man was
great in
the earth
and that
every intention
of the
thoughts of
his heart
was only
evil
continually.
Our
wicked
hearts,
perverted
hearts are
continually
manufacturing
evil.
That's why
the theologian
and reformer
John Calvin
put it this
way,
man's
nature is
a perpetual
factory of
idols.
And what
are we to
do about
this?
I mean,
this passage
emphasizes taking
responsibility for
ourselves,
right?
Verse 3,
verse 5
tells us,
save yourself,
save yourself
from legal
trouble,
save yourself
from economic
ruin,
save yourself,
but there's
one thing
that we
cannot save
ourselves from
and that is
our own
sinful hearts.
For that,
we need a
savior.
Jesus,
whose name
means to
save,
to deliver,
is described
in scripture
as the
savior of
the world,
John 4,
42.
He is the
one who
fulfills the
prophecy of
Ezekiel 36,
verse 25-26,
when God
promised to
give us new
hearts,
because there's
no hope for
us with the
perverted hearts.
Only way that
we can be
saved,
only way we
can obey
God and
believe in
him and
be faithful
to the
responsibilities
and relations
he has
given us
is by
receiving
this new
heart that
God promises
on and
that comes
to us only
through Jesus
Christ,
because Jesus
cleanses us
by dying for
our sins on
the cross,
he's victorious
in being raised
from the dead
and he fills
us with his
Holy Spirit
by whom we
are born again
to new
creation,
with new
hearts.
God
does this
for us
while we
are his
enemies,
as Romans
5 talks
about it.
Look at the
words that I
use,
he says,
these are
things,
these things
that we
have all
done are
an abomination
to God.
That's a word
that we don't
use very often,
is it?
I don't
think I
ever say
that I
abominate
something.
I mean,
that's a
pretty strong
word,
abominate
something.
Maybe the
only thing
I can think
of abominating
is maybe
like a
cockroach
or something.
It's
just revolting.
And that's
what we
were in
our sins
to God.
This
disgusting
cockroach
should have
just squashed
to death
instead.
That's what
we deserved.
We should
have been
punished.
We should
have been
consigned
to eternal
damnation.
We should
have died.
And yet
God is
merciful to
us because
He,
at the same
time,
He has
this wrath
towards
sinners.
He has
this
unparalleled
love.
So He
makes a
way for
us to
be saved
from the
wrath of
God,
from the
sins that
He
abominates.
And that
is through
Jesus.
And it's
only through
faith in
Jesus that
we learn
truly
to live
with the
wisdom of
God that
is taught
in this
book of
Proverbs.
He has
to live
with the
wisdom of God
that is taught
in this book of Proverbs.