Practical Principles From Proverbs (Part 3)
Choosing Friends
Two proverbs from the first half of the book deal with the same topic.
The righteous should choose his friends carefully, but the way of the wicked leads them astray (12:26).
He who walks with wise men will be wise, but the companion of fools will be destroyed (13:20).
Why should we choose our friends carefully? The answer is that friends exert an influence over us. A friend is likely to recommend a book, a television show, or a movie. What we enjoy, we like to share with others so that they might enjoy the experience, also.
However, these two verses go a little farther than entertainment preferences. They contain a clear warning to stay away from the wicked, who would champion the causes of evil men. Your congenial editor was once told by a grade school principal that the ACLU did a great deal of good. That was a lie. They have been opposed to God, the church, the Bible, freedom, and even the United States itself on occasion. Recommended on this topic are two books that will open the eyes of anyone who thinks as that individual did: Indefensible: Ten Ways the ACLU is destroying America by Sam Kastensmidt and ACLU: The Devil's Advocate: The Seduction of Civil Liberties in America by F. LaGard Smith. [Although Smith is in error on certain topics, this is an outstanding and well-researched book.]
The point above was that many of those in the academic world hold values that are the very antithesis of those taught in the Scriptures. Of course, that judgment is not based on only one experience but from the academic atmosphere of a secular university. If one is going to saturate himself with professors of an entirely different mindset, he needs to be prepared to defend truth or to be won over to the other side.
But even that situation is probably not in mind in this text. Solomon may be thinking again of the warning issued in the very opening of Proverbs, where he charged his son not to participate with ungodly men who desired to steal from and murder others (1:11-14). There too he warned: "My son, do not walk in the way with them; keep your foot from their path" (1:15).
A youth might say, "I would never join in a group that was going to kill someone (but some obviously do join gangs) or steal someone's goods." But how about when the group chooses to drink alcohol or smoke marijuana? What if they get a little "tipsy" and decide to visit some of the girls on Seventh Avenue? Those who violate God's laws in one area may well determine to violate them in every area.
So, one should choose friends carefully, with a view towards avoiding those without positive values. Everyone takes on and shares the group's ideology. Hanging out with wise people may raise one's IQ, but running with fools who have too much time on their hands will lead to trouble and eventual destruction. We don't always get our "druthers" in life, but in this instance, the choice is ours.
Hope Deferred
Proverbs 13:12 states: "Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when the desire comes, it is a tree of life." What we expect to happen sometimes takes a little longer than we imagined. When that which has been so eagerly sought after fails to materialize, the disappointment can be devastating.
Abraham and Sarah, for example, were promised a child, yet year after year went by, and they remained childless. Finally, Sarah passed the age when it was possible for her to conceive. When God told Abraham that Sarah would bear him a son, he laughed; it simply wasn't possible (Gen. 17:17). When Sarah heard the same news, she laughed, also (although she denied doing so) (Gen. 18:9-12). The promise made decades earlier had no chance of coming to pass. Abraham and Sarah had reconciled themselves to not ever receiving it. Their hearts were sick and disillusioned. In fact, the idea of having a child when they were 100 and 90 was hilarious. Or was it?
God asked Abraham why Sarah laughed (v. 13). Then He added, "Is anything too hard for the Lord?" (v. 14a). God miraculously restored to Sarah the ability to have children, and Isaac (whose name means "laughter") was born. Having that promised son was as a tree of life. Zacharias and Elizabeth did not have a promise, but they too had a child when they were old and advanced in years. John must have been a blessing (a tree of life) to one who had so long been barren.
Man's timetable and God's do not always coincide. How many prayers had Zacharias and Elizabeth offered up to God that they might have a son? Year after year went by; after many decades, they had to assume that the answer to their request was, "No." But then came along John—born at just the right time to prepare the way for Jesus (Mal. 3:1).
One man was saddened that his teenage son never obeyed the gospel and quit worshiping altogether. After more than a decade, the son still refused to have anything to do with the church. But the father was not deterred; he prayed for his son every day. And when he did decide to obey the gospel, it was as a tree of life. Are there other prodigals who have never returned? Sure. So, our hearts sometimes grow discouraged, but what we fervently desire just may eventually occur, too.
If You Want to Make an Omelet….
Proverbs 14:4 begins with a hypothetical—"If you do not own an ox (or oxen)," then something is bound to be true. Depending on the translation, the truth is that the stall or the feeding trough will be clean (or empty). The stall would be clean because no animal would be there to eat or leave refuse behind. The feeding trough would be empty because there is no animal to feed. The point is the same whichever translation might be the more accurate. If you don't have a work animal, you have no beast to feed or clean up after.
The down side is that an ox is good for the economy. He is strong and capable of doing a lot of work, from which one can sow crops and make money from the harvest. One can rely on human labor, but that is more taxing and time consuming with fewer results. So, do you want a clean stall or food on your table? We might say, "You have to take the bad with the good." You have to feed an animal and clean the stall, but it is well worth the effort in order to profit from him.
Today, we use a phrase, which is not identical but makes a similar point. If you want to make an omelet, you have to break some eggs. Again, if you want the result—a tasty meal—then you have to break eggs to achieve the desired result—consuming the contents.
Mocking Sin
What is the meaning of Proverbs 14:9? According to the KJV and the NKJV, "fools mock at sin," meaning that they don't take the subject seriously—or its consequences. The Pulpit Commentary provides an excellent description of this idea:
Fools, wicked men, commit sin lightly and cheerfully, give specious names to grievous transgressions, pass over a rebuke with a joke, encourage others in crime by their easy way of viewing it (9:1:269).
How does one mock sin? One example comes from the television show, All in the Family. Archie Bunker would refer to moral degenerates (or anyone who disagreed with him) as preverts instead of perverts. His designation tended to trivialize and mock the idea that perversion even exists.
Although the meaning of the lyrics in Adam Ant's song, "Goody Two-Shoes," may have some other application, they sound as though they are mocking the concept of sin:
Don't drink, don't smoke, what do you do?
The idea appears to be that drinking and smoking are things that everyone does and that it is abnormal not to do these things (even if they are wrong). In other words, it's expected that people engage in sinful practices; they are fine. Abstainers are the oddballs.
However, the Pulpit Commentary also points out that fools is plural and the verb is singular; so, a better translation might be, Sin, or a Sin-Offering, mocks fools. No one translates it that way—except the American Standard Version of 1901. They render it, "A trespass-offering mocketh fools…." The Hebrew word for "sin" can also mean "sin offering," which introduces two new possible meanings for the text.
If sin mocks fools, the idea would be that sin promises much enjoyment, but ends up disappointing. A man can't take fire in his bosom and not get burned (Pr. 6:27). A man seduced by a woman may be reduced to a crust of bread (Pr. 6:26). This same type of individual, when he gives in to temptation, "did not know it would cost his life" (Pr. 7:23b). Sin mocks its participants.
A third interpretation is that the sin offering mocks fools. In other words, God will not receive their offerings for sin; thus, their sin remains. In Malachi 1:10, God refuses to accept an offering from those currently living in Jerusalem. They brought him inferior sacrifices which He would not accept. If they thought they could give God defective animals, those sin offerings would mock such fools. In fact, the "sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination" (Pr. 21:27a). One does not need to decide which of these three interpretations is correct; they are all true, as seen by the fact they were substantiated by other passages of Scripture.
If I Were God….
Two verses in Proverbs are identical—14:12 and 16:25. Hmm. Maybe it's important to note the importance of this message. First, the "way" under consideration is not God's way. The way of God may or may not seem right to human beings; such is irrelevant. If it is God's way, it is right.
What is being considered, therefore, in this verse is human reasoning that does not match God's Word. But it "seems" right to men; probably, these individuals even justify their rationale—to themselves. In other words, what people do is to tell themselves, "If I were God, this is what I would do (or not do)." "I wouldn't condemn someone for drinking alcohol all the time and, maybe, getting drunk once in a blue moon." "We should be honest with our friends, but it's all right to lie to strangers; we don't owe them anything." "Having an occasional affair is not that uncommon these days."
"Some are always harping on false doctrine, as if most people cared that much about it. Love is a more important concept." "Another hangup involves fellowship. We should be free to fellowship those whom we want to without having to know everything they believe."
"If I were God, I wouldn't sweat the small stuff, as long as people's hearts are right. That's the important thing." Notice that the upshot of making these decisions for God is "the way of death." Instead, we ought to acknowledge that God means what He says—and that obeying Him is the way to eternal life.