Proverbs Chapter 6
Proverbs
Chapter 6
1. The son has just been warned against the deadly wound of a stranger. Now he is cautioned against the attack from an imprudent friend. Our God has graciously made his Book not only our guide to heaven, but the directory of our common life. We are here warned against put[ting] up security for your neighbor. The warning is clearly against entering into rash agreements, which the young and inexperienced are particularly exposed to.
If you have struck hands in pledge for another. This was the usual way to make an agreement.
2. Often you may be trapped by what you said and ensnared by the words of your mouth by entering into agreements without making careful inquiries about what is involved. Christian prudence will keep us from entering into such agreements, for they will bring disgrace on our families, dishonor on our name, and reproach on our faith.
3. If, however, you have become trapped by making an indiscreet agreement, you must attempt to free yourself from it in the following way: Go and humble yourself; press your plea with your neighbor!
4. Do not take time to sleep until you have succeeded in doing this.
5. You must disentangle yourself like a bird from the snare of the fowler.
Our God, while he warns us against putting up security, has taken it on himself. May his name be praised for this! He has given us his Word, his bond, yes, his blood as security for sinners, which no power of hell can shake.
6. "It is a shame," said the philosopher Seneca, "not to learn morals from the small animals."
Go to the ant, you sluggard. It demonstrates the degradation of the Fall that although man was created in God's image and made wiser than any of the other creatures, he should be sent to this insignificant school for instruction!
7. The ant has no commander to direct her work, no overseer to inspect her, no ruler to call her to account.
8. Yet the ant stores its provisions with diligent foresight in summer and gathers its food at harvest for her winter's need.
9. So the sluggard should consider the ant's ways and be wise. The sluggard sleeps over his work and is half-startled when he is aroused.
10. He still pleads for a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest. Present ease is all he thinks about. The future he carefully keeps out of sight.
11. In this way life runs to waste. Poverty will come, step by step, like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man, with irresistible force.
Perhaps such a man excuses himself by referring to his Master's words, "Do not worry about tomorrow" (Matthew 6:34). But Tully says, "The root of the word expresses the dividing of the mind into different thoughts." So our Lord was not teaching that we should take no care about anything. Care is a duty, a parental obligation, and therefore part of being godly. But being anxious and worried is a sin (Luke 10:41; 1 Corinthians 7:32), an unnecessary burden for ourselves that shows we are not trusting God. The diligent use of providential means honors God (10:5; 24:27).
We call in a much louder voice on the spiritual sluggard. You who are sleeping away the opportunities of grace and are not trying to enter through the narrow gate, you who are taking your salvation for granted and are hoping that you will reap where you have not sown and gather where you have not scattered seed (Matthew 25:26), Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise!
12. What a contrast between the inactivity of the sluggard and the untiring diligence of a scoundrel and villain! This man of Belial, as it says in the Hebrew, goes about with a corrupt mouth.
13. Not content with the scope of his malice, he makes all parts of him—his eye ... his feet and ... his fingers—active instruments of unrighteousness.
14. These, however, are only external manifestations. Deep within lies the powerhouse of evil. He has deceit in his heart—he always stirs up dissension instead of piety and love.
15. Such a pest in society brings ruin on himself, and suddenly he will be destroyed—without remedy.
16. In his heart man thinks of God as being like himself and thus able to look at sin with indifference (Psalm 50:21). Here, therefore, Solomon lists six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him.
17. Haughty eyes. Examples of haughty people are Pharaoh (Exodus 9:16-17), Haman (Esther 7:10), Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 4:28-33), and Herod (Acts 12:21-23).
A lying tongue. Examples of people who lied are Gehazi (2 Kings 5:25-27) and Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1-10).
Hands that shed innocent blood. Examples of people who murdered innocent people are Cain (Genesis 4:8-12), Manasseh (2 Kings 21:16), and especially those who murdered God's dear Son (Matthew 27:31-38).
18. And in case we should think God only looks on outward appearances, a heart that devises wicked schemes is mentioned.
19. God also hates a false witness who pours out lies and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers. A withering blast will fall on those who, mistaking prejudice for principle, cause divisions for their own selfish ends (Romans 16:17-18). The Lord will mark them out as people who do not have his Spirit and who are sensual (Jude 19; 1 Corinthians 3:3-4). Let the wisdom of experience given by an accurate observer of himself and the church be seriously pondered: "I am much more sensible of the evil of schism, and of the separating spirit, and of gathering parties, and making several sects in the church than I was heretofore. For the effects have shown us more of the mischiefs. I am much more aware how prone many young people who profess to be Christians are to spiritual pride and self-conceit and unruliness and division, and so become firebrands in the church. I am much more aware than heretofore of the breadth and length and depth of the radical, universal, odious sin of selfishness, and the excellency and necessity of self-denial, and of a public mind, and of loving our neighbor as ourselves" (Baxter). If we are unable to "be perfectly united in mind and thought" (1 Corinthians 1:10)—"a text," says Flavel, "to be commented upon rather by tears than words"—let us at least cultivate a spirit of unity.
20. The validity of parental authority is again enforced (see 1:8-9; 4:1). God never intended young people to be independent of their parents. Instruction from every quarter is valuable. But from parents, always supposing them to be godly parents, it is the ordinance of God. They will bring you God's Word, not their own.
21. Therefore, bind them [your father's commands} upon your heart forever, as your rule, and fasten them around your neck, so that they may adorn you.
22. Let the law be your friend at all times and in all circumstances. It is to be a guide by day and a solace when you sleep. It will be a friend when you awake. Take care that nothing hinders your early conversations with this faithful counselor before the world comes in. This is the best way to keep the world out. "Happy is the mind to which the Word is an undivided companion" (Bernard).
23. A lamp so full of light in this dark world is an inestimable gift. Its corrections and the discipline of our wayward will are to us the way to life (Psalm 19:11; 2 Timothy 3:16-17). This lamp and light is especially valuable against sensual temptation (2:10-11,16-19; 5:1-8; 7:1-5).
24. Those who choose their own light fall into the snare of a smooth tongue. The neglect of parental warning will in the end produce the bitter situation of unavailing repentance (5:11-14).
25. Here Solomon gives our Lord's own rule (Matthew 5:28). Resist lust as soon as it arises in your heart. Many people have been deluded by vain beauty and wanton eyes.
26. Such victims have been bought for the price of a loaf of bread.
The adulteress preys upon your very life. Like the insatiable hunter who never loses sight of his prey until he has killed it, the seducer never ceases to solicit until she has succeeded in preying upon your very life.
27. Yet neither the present miseries, nor the known end of this wretched course can draw away the foot that has dared to tread the forbidden path. Self-confidence sees and fears no danger. "I can look after myself. I need not go too far, and I will come to no harm." But the temptation acts on a congenial nature like fuel, not water, on the fire. He might as well expect to scoop fire into his lap without his clothes being burned.
28. He might just as well expect to walk on hot coals without his feet being scorched as to go willfully into sin and escape the punishment.
29. Sin and punishment are linked together by a chain of unbreakable stone. "The fire of lust kindles the fire of hell" (Henry). It is no good for such a man to later on complain about the strength of the temptation. Why did he not avoid it?
30. Men do not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy his hunger when he is starving. This should not be used as an excuse for a thief to go unpunished.
31. He must pay full restitution. Sevenfold is not to be taken literally. Fourfold or fivefold was the limit of the divine requirement (see Luke 19:8). Let him earn his living through honest work. If the fruits of his labors fail, let him, trusting in God, seek the help of his fellow creatures. If he has faith to trust, he will not be forced to steal. Yet his extreme temptation makes him an object of pity rather than of scorn: men do not despise a thief (verse 30).
32. But the sin of the adulterer claims no sympathy. His plea is not a cry of hunger but of lust, not want but wantonness. He does not lack bread—he lacks judgment. He is willingly given over to his sin. In this way he destroys himself.
33. He is wounded, but not like a soldier or Christian martyr. He is not full of honor but of disgrace. His name is full of shame.
34. The tremendous passions of jealousy and revenge shut out all forgiveness.
35. No bribe will be accepted. No compensation, no matter how great it is, will be enough.
Such are the many sins that flow from breaking God's holy commandment. "Oh, how great iniquity," exclaimed the godly Augustine, "is this adultery! How great a perverseness! The soul, redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, is thus for the pleasures of an hour given to the devil, a thing much to be lamented and bewailed; when that which delighteth is soon gone, that which tormenteth remaineth without end."
And will not this frightening picture of sin and its consequences (which Solomon, alas, was only too well qualified to draw) teach us to avoid everything that may be temptation, to be sensitive to the first intimations of its becoming so and to close every avenue of sense to its seductive poison? Let us learn to seek divine strength to watch and pray and, as we think that we stand, to take heed in case we fall (1 Corinthians 10:12).