# 412 The Proverbs – ‘A manual for living’ (MSG). Proverbs 4:10-19 Choose Life!

The book of Deuteronomy has one key message and it is summarized by Moses as follows:   

¹⁹ This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live ²⁰ and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life… (Deuteronomy 30:19-20)

Here in Proverbs 4:10-19 we read the same important life or death message. Again, the father is speaking to his son and contrasts two ways to live. To illustrate this the father uses a picture of pathways and the consequences of walking on these contrasting paths, because paths always take you somewhere! 

Firstly, to walk on the path of “life” and “blessing” is to walk in the way of wisdom and therefore along straight paths (v. 11), and along this path he promises: When you walk, your steps will not be hampered; when you run, you will not stumble (v. 12) This is the path of freedom not bondage. As Nielson puts it: “The path’s boundaries create not limitations but security and strength…” (# 55) And so, he says:

¹⁰ Listen, my son, accept what I say,
    and the years of your life will be many.
¹¹ I instruct you in the way of wisdom
    and lead you along straight paths.
¹² When you walk, your steps will not be hampered;
    when you run, you will not stumble.

Once on this path, it is then vital that we:

¹³ Hold on to instruction, do not let it go;
    guard it well, for it is your life.

Secondly, he contrasts this path of life with its opposite, i.e., the way of “death” and “curses.” To walk on this path of the wicked is to walk in the way of evildoers. (v.14) The father then warns his son Avoid it, do not travel on it; turn from it and go on your way (v.15) and for some very good reasons. Listen to his words:

¹⁴ Do not set foot on the path of the wicked
    or walk in the way of evildoers.
¹⁵ Avoid it, do not travel on it;
    turn from it and go on your way.
¹⁶ For they cannot rest until they do evil;
    they are robbed of sleep till they make someone stumble.
¹⁷ They eat the bread of wickedness
    and drink the wine of violence.

Nielson comments on verses 16-17: “Two awful descriptions reveal the experience of those who are on this path… Most of us know the normal working of our consciences, which won’t let us sleep when we have done wrong. How stunning to see the complete inversion of a healthy conscience, such that in order to sleep, one needs to have done wrong – and not just wrong in general but wrong that hurts another, causing another to stumble.”

She continues: “The second description [v. 17] here also offers a sickening reversal; rather than the actual bread and wine of a healthy, life-giving meal, the wicked “eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence.” The perversion has become the normal thing, the desired thing, even the celebrated thing. What an apt description of the way evil works: to this day, it transforms sinful acts from shocking unnaturalness into the normal stuff of daily life.” (# 55)

 Isaiah put it this way and it seems little has changed since he wrote these words:

²⁰ They say that what is right is wrong and what is wrong is right; that black is white and white is black; bitter is sweet and sweet is bitter. (Isaiah 5:20 TLB)

The last two verses then use the same image that we see in the New Testament when it compares these two paths to light and deep darkness as follows:

¹⁸ The path of the righteous is like the morning sun,
    shining ever brighter till the full light of day.
¹⁹ But the way of the wicked is like deep darkness;
    they do not know what makes them stumble.

Paul summarizes walking in the path of the righteous as follows:

…live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, ¹¹ being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, ¹² and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified youto share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. ¹³ For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, ¹⁴ in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.  (Colossians 1:10-14)

Which path are you choosing to walk on today? The one that leads to life and blessings or the one that leads to death and curses?