Reflections on Proverbs 6

Proverbs 06 (Contemporary English Version)


1. My child, suppose you agree to pay the debt of someone, who cannot repay a loan.
   
2. Then you are trapped by your own words,
   
3. and you are now in the power of someone else. Here is what you should do: Go and beg for permission to call off the agreement.
   
4. Do this before you fall asleep or even get sleepy.
   
5. Save yourself, just as a deer or a bird tries to escape from a hunter.
   
6. You lazy people can learn by watching an anthill.
   
7. Ants don't have leaders,
   
8. but they store up food during harvest season.
   
9. How long will you lie there doing nothing at all? When are you going to get up and stop sleeping?
   
10. Sleep a little. Doze a little. Fold your hands and twiddle your thumbs.
    
11. Suddenly, everything is gone, as though it had been taken by an armed robber.
    
12. Worthless liars go around
    
13. winking and giving signals to deceive others.
    
14. They are always thinking up something cruel and evil, and they stir up trouble.
    
15. But they will be struck by sudden disaster and left without a hope.
    
16. There are six or seven kinds of people the LORD doesn't like:
    
17. Those who are too proud or tell lies or murder,
    
18. those who make evil plans or are quick to do wrong,
    
19. those who tell lies in court or stir up trouble in a family.
    
20. Obey the teaching of your parents--
    
21. always keep it in mind and never forget it.
    
22. Their teaching will guide you when you walk, protect you when you sleep, and talk to you when you are awake.
    
23. The Law of the Lord is a lamp, and its teachings shine brightly. Correction and self-control will lead you through life.
    
24. They will protect you from the flattering words of someone else's wife.
    
25. Don't let yourself be attracted by the charm and lovely eyes of someone like that.
    
26. If you carry burning coals, you burn your clothes;
    
27. if you step on hot coals, you burn your feet.
    
28. And if you go to bed with another man's wife, you pay the price.
    
29. We don't put up with thieves, not even with one who steals for something to eat.
    
30. And thieves who get caught must pay back seven times what was stolen and lose everything.
    
31. But if you go to bed with another man's wife, you will destroy yourself by your own stupidity.
    
32. You will be beaten and forever disgraced,
    
33. because a jealous husband can be furious and merciless when he takes revenge.
    
34. He won't let you pay him off, no matter what you offer.
    

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This 6th chapter of Proverbs touches on multiple topics, beginning with entering into a surety with a neighbor. This is when a person cosigns to assure payment of a loan should the other person (the neighbor) fail to pay. Solomon does not mince words about such a practice. He says it is an entrapment, a snare, and if a person has put up security for his neighbor he should do whatever he can to be free of it. Don't waste any time about it either. Don't sleep another night before seeking to be free of the surety. Most of us would not cosign with anyone other than a family member, and Solomon does not speak to this. Helping a family member in this way may be an accepted or even expected practice in providing for one's family. I would consider it unwise also if it were beyond one's own immediate family. I might do it for an adult child of mine, but even that should be entered into with caution. Solomon is clear, however, that such practice beyond the family is unwise.

Should this not be considered loving one's neighbor as himself? The key here is in verse 3, "you have put yourself in your neighbor's power." The only one whose power we should allow ourselves to be placed in is God's. All others hinder us from being subject to God's purposes for our lives. Whether or not the neighbor has the resources to repay his loan, he can default leaving us holding the note. We have placed ourselves at his mercy. If we feel we must help our neighbor, we would do better to simply give him the money, or at least a portion of it, for whatever purchase is in question. If the neighbor does not have the resources for a particular purchase, though, the question that arises is whether it is a wise purchase in the first place. If not, our surety has both enabled him in an unwise purchase and entered ourselves into the unwise transaction.

Verses 6-11 address laziness. Solomon uses the ant as an example of being industrious. There are three primary points in these verses: First, as the ant, we need to be self-motivated, Second, also as the ant, we need to seek our provisions when it is possible, and third, laziness will inevitably lead to poverty. We should not draw the conclusion that all poverty is caused by laziness, but we can definitely conclude that all laziness will result in poverty unless a person has some source of income not dependent on their own efforts. Going back to the first point, unless we are self-motivated we will not be provided for. Depending on another to lead or tell us what to do will not provide for our needs. If we are not concerned enough for our own welfare to be motivated to provide for ourselves, no one else will be. Concerning the second point, there will always be times when our needs cannot be met due to circumstances. As with the ant, his needs for food cannot be met during the winter, therefore he makes provision during the summer. During a time of plenty we may be tempted to take our ease rather than provide for the future. But when the lean time comes when we cannot make provision, we will need what has been stored or saved for the "rainy day." Much of this type of behavior has been evident over the past year of national financial crises. Many spent all they had and more during the times of plenty and when the lien period came not only did they not have anything stored up for the lien period, they had already spent their funds for that period in advance by over-extending themselves financially. I see a relatedness of this issue to that in the first verses concerning entering into a surety.

What things are detestable to God? Solomon gives 7, though we would not want to claim these as a complete list of things God finds to be detestable. Rather than look at these "7 detestables" as we might the "10 Commandments" as 7 individual laws to keep, it might be more beneficial to look at the whole. Together the 7 detestables characterize the wicked person who is intent on stirring up trouble and constantly devising evil plots. Jesus told us that the law, or the 10 commandments, are summarized in two Great Commandments - love God with all your heart, and your neighbor as yourself. In fact, Jesus said these two summarize all of scripture. Therefore, I consider them not only as all-important to God, but as the interpretive filter through which to pass all scripture. When applied to these verses, this interpretive filter shows the wicked person characterized by Solomon to be in violation of both Great Commandments. Rather than having love for his neighbor, he is intent on causing him trouble, and though no mention is made of his concern for God, it is evident by his actions toward his neighbor that he has no love for God either. He is his own god. Such a person is on a course of self-destruction. He may cause trouble for a number of people along the way, but he will end up worse than any he has troubled.

In the final verses of Proverbs 6 (verses 20-35), Solomon encourages his son to walk according to God's commandments. "Bind them in your heart," he says, thus making them an integral part of your life. God's commandments are a guide that lights our pathway to life. What a contrasting perspective to that of so many people who consider God's commandments to be an obstacle to living life. I have never quite figured how getting drunk, staying up most of the night partying, and pushing life to its limits, is "really living," as many say. At the core of our being what does such a life give us? What does it give us in the quiet times of life when it is just ourselves and our mind has nothing to occupy itself? Does it make of us a person we can live with? Or is the party life really just a way to escape the life we really have?

In these last verses Solomon mentions some of the pitfalls that can be avoided by walking according to God's commandments. They are pitfalls the "party animal" walks straight into. He doesn't even know they are pitfalls but thinks them to be more of the so-called "good life," that turns out to be not so good.