From Caution to Action: Embracing Biblical Wisdom in Proverbs 6

The following is a transcript-form version of Pastor Joe Santee’s sermon delivered on 5/12/2024 on Proverbs 6:1-19.

Good morning; we are in Proverbs Chapter 6 this morning. As I was looking at the various paragraphs and the things going on here in this chapter, I began to kind of piece it together in terms of understanding that these are people upon whom destruction will come. And part of this led me back many, many years ago to a song I listened to. And one of the lines in the chorus was, "Hate all the things you" - how did it go? "Hate all that you despise and love the things you love." And it was talking about God and this person was wanting to love the things that God loves and hate the things that God despises, which years ago just struck me because I'd not really thought of it up to that point bigger from there. So he begins here in verses 1 through 5 talking to the Son. So again, this is the Father speaking wisdom to His Son as He is sending Him out into the world as the Son is encountering the many things, the many voices, the temptations, the busyness, the distractions of life. What do you need to know, my son, as you go out there? For us as the people of God, what is wisdom? What does God want us to know about this life?

“My son, if you've become surety for your neighbor, have given a pledge for a stranger, if you've been snared with the words of your mouth, have been caught with the words of your mouth, do this then, my son, and deliver yourself since you have come into the hand of your neighbor. Go humble yourself and importune your neighbor. Do not give sleep to your eyes nor slumber to your eyelids. Deliver yourself like a gazelle from the hunter's hand, like a bird from the hand of the fowler.”

He brings to the setting here this hunting imagery, the bird who is being pursued, who has caught, the gazelle that is being driven into some kind of enclosure or pen to be killed. Deliver yourself from this as the hunted animal seeks to deliver itself from the hunter. Do this quickly. Do it immediately. Throw yourself at the mercy of your neighbor. Why is there such urgency here? What is the issue at hand? Well, if you have become surety for your neighbor, if you've given pledge for a stranger, this is surety here is to pledge yourself as a guarantee for another's debt. If you've co-signed the loan for someone else, if you've placed your name and your reputation, your finances on the line for someone else's debt, the father urges the son to get out of this situation as fast as you can. Go beg and plead. Go humble yourself and grovel. Do whatever you need to do to get out of this situation because this is not a good financial decision.

Interestingly, if you (at least it used to be) look on the Federal Trade Commission's website, they said the same thing. Basically, they've got this entire paragraph about, "Be very, very, very, very careful," I'm paraphrasing them, "Before you co-sign a loan for someone else because whoever you sign for, if they default, the other party can come after you for the whole thing "at any time." In fact, they don't even have to go to the other person. They can come straight to you for repayment of the debt. They can garnish your wages. They can tack on interest and fees and penalties. Make sure you really know what you're doing before you sign.” They said it in much prettier language, but the Father is saying the same thing here.

Now, in the Old Testament, the people of God were commanded to take care of one another financially, take care of the needy, take care of the poor, be generous to them. This is not what he's talking about. He's not saying be stingy with your money and don't give to anyone. No, they were commanded to be generous and to take care of those in need and the poor that they would have with them. Be generous to them. This was part of God's command and instruction to them to take care of one another. This is a different scenario here. This is putting yourself and your family at financial risk that you cannot afford for someone else's gamble. And this is not a good financial decision. And so the Father very clearly wants the son to understand. This is a recipe for disaster. This is putting yourself and your family in jeopardy. If they come after you and you cannot afford to repay.

This idea shows up a number of times in Proverbs. Don't do this. Don't cosign that loan. Don't go into debt over this. This is a financial decision. This is self-inflicted impoverishment. And so the Father is very clear, very direct, very straightforward in this. We do have this idea of cosigning and become surety for someone else still. And we also have things like credit cards, which they didn't have, and student loans and all kinds of things, ways that we can put ourselves in financial jeopardy as well. Massive ways that we can monetarily and financially put ourselves in dire circumstances because of foolishness in handling money. What does the Father want the son to do here? Deliver yourself from this quickly, immediately.

We could begin to summarize these ideas here. Do not harden your heart against those in need. We are to be generous in that sense, as Deuteronomy 15, for example, tells them, but do not put yourself or your family in financial jeopardy through foolish financial decisions. If you do, and the destruction comes, it is because you foolishly brought it upon yourself. Then in verses 6 to 11, he turns to the sluggard.

“Go to the ant, O sluggard, observe her ways and be wise, which having no chief, officer or ruler, prepares her food in the summer and gathers her provision in the harvest. How long will you lie down, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and your poverty will come in like a vagabond and your need like an armed man.”

So we've gone from talking to the son to talking to a third party, the sluggard, the sloth, the lazy. And what does he tell him to do? Go to the ant. That in itself is kind of humbling, isn't it? Go observe the ant, this little tiny insect. Learn from the ant with the idea here of change, of repentance. What you're doing is incorrect. You need to learn and do something differently. Go to the ant. What are you to learn there? What are you to see and observe that is to change you? Well, the ant has no overseer, no chief, no officer, no one with a whip and a bullhorn and a clipboard standing over demanding work be done and accomplished. Why not? Because it's not needed. The ant is internally motivated. The ant is about doing its responsibility. It goes to work without having been told to.

At this point I’m sure all your parents are writing down, "Go to the ant" and put up "Go to the ant” on your kid's bedroom door. This is what we are called to be doing about the work that is before us, without the need for overseers, watchers, chiefs, and officers. The ant prepares her food in the summer and gathers her provision in the harvest. Why? Because winter is coming. Winter is coming. What happens when winter comes and you're an ant? There isn't any food. This is really outside of our milieu, isn't it? We don't live in an agricultural society where you had times and seasons where you harvested food and food was readily available and times of the year when food was not readily available. The grocery stores don't work on that kind of schedule. They're open all the time with food on the shelves all the time. You don't have to prepare ahead. You don't have to think ahead. In ancient cultures, they did. You had to think ahead; you had to prepare. Not so long ago, this was still true in most parts of the world. You had to plan ahead. Because food was only readily available in certain times of the year and in winter when animals hibernated, when crops wouldn't grow, if you hadn't prepared, it's going to be a very hungry winter. The ant is preparing. It is using foresight to think ahead. Food is here now. The work is available now. The time is now to be about the work because winter is coming.

“But you, oh sluggard, how long will you lie down? When will you arise from your sleep?” - everything here is used as a metaphor. It is the hallmark of the sluggard. What is the sluggard doing? What is this lazy, undisciplined person doing? Avoiding responsibility, for whatever reason. To avoid reality, to avoid responsibility, for any and all reasons, here is the one who is using this approach to life as a means of escape to avoid responsibility. For you young people, I'm sorry to tell you, growing up means responsibility. It means taking responsibility and doing the work that is before you. If you don't want to do that, then go backwards. But if you're going forward into adulthood, that's what it means. It means taking responsibility, having foresight, planning ahead, doing the work. This is what the father is referring to here, calling this out for his son to see. A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest. Snooze button, anyone? Just a little more sleep, just five more minutes. Now is the time. Maybe I'll start tomorrow. Maybe next week. Maybe next year. New Year's resolution. I'll put it off until then. Just a little more sleep. Just a little more. If we're not careful, poverty comes quickly due to our own folly. So let me ask this. Is it possible for us to have a biblical life, a biblical worldview, without discipline, without responsibility, without work? Is it possible to have a biblically responsible or a biblical life without discipline and responsibility and work? To be disciplined. To be diligent.

I think we could apply this in several different areas. Be disciplined, and be diligent in our physical work. Whatever that is before us, whatever physical work we have to do, to be disciplined and diligent in that. Whatever we do to do it as unto the Lord. Whether Paul is talking to slaves or masters, husbands or wives, fathers, children, we are to be diligent and disciplined in our physical labor. How about in our spiritual labor? Are we diligent and disciplined there in our spiritual practices? Are we at work in the things that God has given us to do spiritually? Or to ask it from the other end, am I a sluggard? Am I lazy in my physical work? Am I lazy when it comes to my family responsibilities? Am I lazy when it comes to my spiritual responsibilities and disciplines? That's a good question. Maybe we should go to the ant. Next he moves to the worthless and the wicked. Verses 12-15 and then 16-19 kind of roll in together with one another to form these ideas here.

A worthless person, a wicked man. These are terms that are used of those who rebel against God, rebel against his people, rebel against his anointed, rebel against society. Worthless and wicked, rebellious troublemakers. A worthless person and a wicked man is one who walks with a false mouth, who winks with his eye, who signals with his feet and points with his fingers, who with perversity in his heart devises evil continually, who spreads strife. Therefore his calamity will come suddenly, instantly he will be broken and there will be no healing. The worthless, the wicked. This is one who speaks falsehoods, lies, gossips, spreading dissent with his words, who winks with his eyes, signals with his feet and points with his fingers, usually at the expense of others and behind their back. He's the one who is telling lies and spreading and pointing and whispering. One pastor, I was reading his thoughts on this passage, he said, "I saw a guy one time who didn't think I saw him. As I was speaking, he was sitting on the back row and he looked down the aisle at one of the other guys and he rolled his eyes as if to say, "Can you believe this joker up there?" Winking, pointing, indicating, spreading dissension, spreading lies, spreading gossip, rumors. With perversity in his heart devises evil continually, who spreads strife." And when I read this and I was thinking about it, I immediately thought of Jesus' prayer for his disciples in John 17 where he prays that they would be one as He and the Father are one, which stands in direct contrast to this idea of spreading strife among people.

We've called to be united in Christ, to be unified around the gospel. This is the opposite of that. With his mouth, with his eyes, with his feet, with his hands, the totality of who he is, this worthless person is about spreading strife. We are to be unifying, edifying people, not this. And then 16 to 19, "There are six things which the Lord hates, yes, seven which are an abomination to him, haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that run rapidly to evil, false witness who utters lies, and one who spreads strife among brothers." Very similar to the worthless person in the previous paragraph. These are things God hates. We don't need to spend a lot of time dissecting them, they're pretty straightforward. What are we to do with them though? Well as I thought about this, I thought this was quite interesting because I imagine while you and I may be guilty of sin at times, these ideas don't really describe us as believers.

For those of us who are believers in Christ, we've already come to terms with these things are wrong, we are to walk by the Spirit, not by the flesh. We may, again, we may struggle with anger, we may struggle with gossip, we may struggle with things here and there, but the way that these are being presented here, these are not just an act here, an act there, this is characteristic of this kind of person. This is a worthless, wicked person who lives for these things. So why are these things here? What is the father wanting his son to understand? Well certainly as a warning, to obviously not engage in these behaviors and these activities, certainly as a warning not to associate with people who do, but also I think in the way they're stated here is for us to better know and understand the character of God. As I mentioned at the beginning, we like to, especially this side of the cross, we like to spend our time thinking about the grace and mercy of God, and that's a good thing. We like to talk about the love of God, and that's a good thing, but we cannot do so to the elimination of the justice of God, the wrath of God, the things that God hates.

I was just reading an article, there was a politician whose name was up for Prime Minister, except they don't call it Prime Minister, I think they call it First Minister in Scotland, and when the ballots came out, her name wasn't on the list because she was a follower of Jesus Christ, she was a Bible-believing Christian, and there were too many who thought that her opinions, her religious beliefs, would not be good for the secular state of Scotland. There was an article written in the Times of London talking about this, and it was interesting what the writer of the article was saying, that he didn't want a Scotland that was under that kind of purview. The only weeping and gnashing of teeth that he wanted to talk about was over the state of the National Football Club. The only fire and brimstone that he wanted to talk about was in the chemistry classroom. He didn't want any concept of hell, or the wrath of God, or any of these ideas. It's religious talk, it's passé, we want a secular nation. We're reminded here of the wrath of God, the anger of God, the things that God hates, that these are real things. We're reminded that Jesus talked a lot about hell, those who are cast out to the outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth, those who are outside of the kingdom of God. He talked a lot about that. This is a reality of the character of God, and if we are going to worship God as He reveals Himself to be, this is part of what we worship. There are things that God hates that are an abomination to Him. That must be part of our understanding of God, and He deals with them as He sees fit. And so, destruction will come upon those who reject the things of God.

First of all, do we understand that? Second, is that compatible with our concept of who God is? If it's not, then we don't have a biblical concept of God. So putting all of these together is a little difficult in terms of what we are to do with them because it covers quite a bit of territory here. But understanding them as we began with, people upon whom destruction will come, moving from bad to worse to worst, helps us to understand, I think, the overall picture of what God wants His people to know about Him and about life and ask and answer these kinds of questions. Am I the kind of person who is engaging in the things of life in a way that is pleasing to God or in a way that is displeasing to Him? Do I love the things God loves? Do I hate the things that He hates? Am I about the work that God has given me to do diligently or am I sleeping through life physically, spiritually? Am I about the work of being edifying to other believers or am I spreading strife and disunity? Am I making wise financial decisions so that I can be generous to others or am I jeopardizing myself and my family because of the decisions I'm making with money? Do I recognize that God hates sin? Do I recognize that He is a God of justice and wrath and that destruction comes upon those who reject the things of God? Hate all that you despise and love the things you love. Does that characterize you and me?