Wisdom’s Warnings
Various Proverbs
I’ve never been to Europe but I remember hearing stories of how dangerous thieves and pickpocketers were. Supposedly people have had their wallets stolen from their pockets or purses, even if they had been zipped or pocket was on the inside. Supposedly some trains are so crowded that people get pressed up against each other and things get stolen all the time.
Suppose you’re traveling to Europe and you hear warning after warning to hold onto your wallets and to secure important documents in safety deposit boxes. If you hear warning after warning, you understand, it’s dangerous out there.
That’s the impression I get from Proverbs. There are so many warnings, and we’ll look at a few today. This suggests to me that Proverbs sees the world as a pretty dangerous place.
We live in a world of dangers.
My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent.
If they say, “Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood; let us ambush the innocent without reason (Pr 1:10, 11)
Proverbs 1 pictures a gang of robbers enticing a boy to come and join them in their adventures of violence and stealing. Proverbs warns, don’t go with them.
More broadly, this speaks about the dangers of peer pressure and negative influences.
As parents, I’m sure many of us are keenly aware of some of these dangers for our kids. Our kids learn a lot of not-so-wholesome things from the school playground or the neighborhood. We know the desire to fit in and look cool can cloud our judgment, especially when we’re young. I’m sure we all have stories of some crazy things we did as teens to fit in or to impress our friends
In the original context, Proverbs is largely a father teaching his son, parents teaching their children, imparting wisdom. I’m sure many of us as parents feel a similar concern for the potential danger of negative peer pressure.
But this isn’t just for teens. We all feel influences and pressures.
Do not enter the path of the wicked, and do not walk in the way of the evil.
Avoid it; do not go on it; turn away from it and pass on.
For they cannot sleep unless they have done wrong; they are robbed of sleep unless they have made someone stumble.
For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence. (Pr 4:14-17)
We’ve talked about how the world has 2 paths. The picture of Proverbs is that the path of the wicked is all around us. It isn’t “way over there.” It is always crossing our paths. It is always around us. You don’t have to go looking for it, it will come looking for you.
There is a loud and clear warning: There are dangerous paths, it’s easy to make some bad choices. Be careful! Proverbs pictures a dangerous world.
In this section, this path has people who have to cause trouble. They are wicked and violent. And if we walk down this path, we will not walk out untainted. We will be influenced.
We are more influenced than we think. Proverbs urges us to consider carefully those who we spend a lot of time with, those who we allow to influence us.
I recognize that there are some who make me think more about my health, people who make me want to be generous, people who make me wish I could read more, people who make me wish I were famous, people who make me want to get more gadgets and stuff.
Do we recognize these influences? Consider some potential negative influences. Perhaps you may recognize that some influence us toward materialism, greed, complaints, criticalness, self-righteousness, dishonesty, laziness, anger, violence, etc.
Foolish is the one who does not recognize the negative influences and tries to avoid them.
Wise is the one who intentionally surrounds himself with positive influences.
With much seductive speech she persuades him; with her smooth talk she compels him.
All at once he follows her, as an ox goes to the slaughter, or as a stag is caught fast
till an arrow pierces its liver; as a bird rushes into a snare;
he does not know that it will cost him his life. (Pr 7:21-23)
There are many warnings against the seductive woman and sexual temptation. It may look so sweet, enchanting, fun, exciting—but it is lethal. It’s like an animal caught in a trap, moments away from death.
In the moment, we don’t think about the consequences. But in that moment, we can destroy our marriage (present or future), our kids, ourselves. We can trade it all for a moment of pleasure.
Proverbs takes sexual temptation very seriously. If the ancient Israelites saw dangers for sexual temptation in their society, what would they say about ours?! Danger! Beware!
Proverbs sees a world of dangers and urges caution, urges vigilance, urges avoidance.
Pause for a moment and consider
What dangers do you see around you?
What should you be avoiding?
Are there people who are having a negative influence?
Are there people/places that stir lustful temptations? gossip, slander? etc.
There are many dangers “out there,” but the greater dangers are within ourselves.
Such are the ways of everyone who is greedy for unjust gain; it takes away the life of its possessors. (Pr 1:19)
This is in that section of the gang of robbers enticing a boy to join their adventures of violence and stealing. But here, the danger is within: greed, greed for unjust gain.
The reason why there is danger in the gang of robbers is because the danger of greed with us is.
In the end, greed is self-destructive. Greed is its own enemy.
I read about an experiment to consider how “honest, well-to-do, well-educated” people do in tempting situations. It was done with Harvard Business School students. They were given 50 multiple choice questions and 15 minutes to answer them. They were to then transfer their answers to a bubble sheet. For every correct answer, they’d get 10 cents ($5 max).
In another set-up, the students had the same test. They also would transfer their answers to a bubble sheet, but this time, the bubble sheet had the correct answered pre-marked in grey. They could, if they choose, write in a correct answer when they had in fact gotten the answer incorrect. They would self-score their results, write the number correct at the top of their bubble sheet, and then submit their worksheet and bubble sheet to the instructor. The instructor would then give them 10 cents for each correct answer. Would they cheat?
A 3rd set of students had the same as the second, except they would shred the worksheet and only hand in the bubble sheet. That is, all the evidence would be destroyed. Would they cheat?
A 4th set of students would destroy the worksheet and the bubble sheet. There was a jar of coins and they took out their earnings, 10 cents for each correct answer. Would they cheat?
The first group was the control group. They revealed what the average would be if there were no cheating.
What did they find from groups 2, 3 and 4? The first conclusion is that when given the opportunity, many honest people will cheat. Instead of finding a few bad apples that cheated a lot, they found a majority of people cheated a little.
The second finding was that groups 2, 3 and 4 all cheated about the same. Even though group 3 and 4 had no evidence, no chance of getting caught, they didn’t become wildly dishonest.
But the point is this: greed and dishonesty are probably in all of us, more than we’d like to admit.
(Dan Ariely, Predictably Irrational, 2008, pp. 197-201)
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. . .
Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil. (Pr 3:5, 7)
Don’t trust yourself. Doubt yourself. Know that you don’t always know.
The problem is that we overestimate ourselves, we think too highly of ourselves, we have an amazing capacity for self-deception, self-persuasion, self-rationalization.
We are capable of foolish decisions, ignorant of important facts, driven by greed, lust, etc.
My son, do not despise the Lord's discipline or be weary of his reproof,
for the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights. (Pr 3:10, 11, 12)
We’re to value correction and discipline. The assumption is that we need it. We’re prone to sin and error. Left to ourselves, we’d stray. Proverbs does not give us a flattering assessment.
Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you; reprove a wise man, and he will love you.
Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser; teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning. (Pr 9:8, 9)
When we see that we are prone to sin and error, we value correction. We recognize our own ignorance, foolishness, capacity for self-deception or self-rationalization.
I hear our society say, “You’ve got to believe in yourself.” Proverbs says, “I don’t think that’s a good idea.” We need correction, from God and from one another. Again, not so flattering.
For a man's ways are before the eyes of the Lord, and he ponders all his paths.
The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him, and he is held fast in the cords of his sin.
He dies for lack of discipline, and because of his great folly he is led astray. (Pr 5:21-23)
I want to zoom in on “he dies for lack of discipline.” The problem is a lack of self-control, lack of moral discipline. This context is about sexual temptation, and the problem is moral weakness, an inability to guide oneself, to make good choices and/or the discipline to carry out the good choices. We die for lack of discipline.
Do we see dangers within ourselves? (greed, lust, self-deception, etc.)
Do we see our need for correction, instruction and self-discipline? (receive correction well, developed self-control against our own impulses)
a Proverbs has a cautious outlook on life. There are many dangers, and so it issues many warnings. The world is a messed up place full of messed up people, ourselves included.
Some of us may be somewhat naive, both about the world and about ourselves. We over-estimate the goodness of others, the goodness of society, the goodness of ourselves. We do not have the wisdom to see the dangers all around us. We are foolishly naïve.
Some of us may already know the world is messed-up. We’re already suspicious, pessimistic, perhaps even jaded. We see lots of problems out there, we may even see problems in here. We know we have our own issues, need counseling, have bad habits, see unhealthy or dangerous impulses. We see problems, but we don’t know what to do about it. We do not have the wisdom to handle this messed-up situation/selves. We don’t have an answer.
We need to know that the world is messed up, far more than we even realize. These warnings are good, important. But the Bible doesn’t just leave us in spite and despair. The Bible does offer an answer.
If all we hear is how messed up things are and how many dangers there are, we live in fear not freedom, we feel more burdened not rescued. So let me ask, how does the Gospel fit in with all these warnings in our messed-up world?
The Gospel shows us it’s far worse than we realize.
The Gospel doesn’t say the dangers aren’t that bad. It does not minimize the problem. If anything, the Gospel says its worse.
The Gospel says, we don’t just need warnings. You can have all the warnings you can hear but if you were in Port-au-Prince during the earthquake, warnings are not enough. If you have end stage cancer, warnings are not enough.
Warnings presume you can do something to remedy the situation. But sometimes the situation is beyond anything we can do. That’s what the Gospel says. Our greed, lust, selfishness, self-deception are so deep, so ingrained, so pervasive that we can’t fix ourselves. We need far more than warnings.
The Gospel shows us a Rescuer has come.
We don’t need warnings, we need a rescuer. The Good news is that there is One who came to save us. There is one who lived in this messed-up world but never entered the path of the wicked. He took on all our failures and mistakes, our greed and lust, our foolishness and sin. He plucked us out of Port-au-Prince, he took our cancer. In the past we talked about the great exchange: he took our failures and sin and gave us his perfect righteousness. That’s the good news. Proverbs is part of a Bible whose main story is about how God rescued sinners.
Let me add the Gospel isn’t just that he rescues us and heals us. The Gospel includes the rescuing and healing of our world. Violence, injustice, oppression, racism, disease, death—all will one day be no more. Jesus died to heal all the affects of the curse. The Gospel addresses the problems in here and out there, it includes the restoration and renewal of all of creation.
In the Gospel, we realize the dangers are all still there. We’re able to see them more clearly.
We realize that we won’t ever be disciplined or good enough or wise enough to avoid them by ourselves.
We humbly realize our helpless and hopeless situation.
We put our hope in Christ, that He takes away the guilt and punishment and power of sin. We feel loved and accepted. We don’t have to “perform” to be loved and accepted, we already are.
The Gospel empowers us to fight sin and temptation.
We have hope in our messed-up world, though we see even more clearly how messed up things really are.
In our personal lives, we are now more able than ever to avoid those dangers, because
We rely on Him, not ourselves. We give up trusting in ourselves and put our faith in Him. We make ourselves more open to the power of the HS in our lives.
We do this out of love, not fear. We’re not trying to “be good enough” or fearing we’re not good enough. For those of you who know Christ, you are already forgiven, accepted, loved. God smiles upon you with kindness and delight, not because we’ve been so great but because of what Christ has done for us. Know that He loves you now. There more you see that, the more you want to live righteously, you desire the wise and righteous path, you love Him (and that is the righteous path).
When we feel completely accepted by our parents or by our spouse, when we’re not trying to earn their approval, to be good enough, to not upset them, when we feel deeply loved, then we want to honor our parents, we want to take care of our spouse.
The Gospel frees us to not perform for God but to love God. The Gospel doesn’t make us more lax in our battle with sin and temptation. It frees us to fight it in His power (not ours) and in love and freedom (not fear).