Life is full of warning signs, literally! You don’t have to drive or walk or go swimming far without seeing them. They include, “Danger. Strong current;” “Caution, watch your step;” “Private Property. No trespassing;” “Toxic Hazard;” “Danger. Do not enter;” “Wet paint;” just to name a few! And in our digital age there are now warnings about cyber-crime, particularly concerning scams that seek to steal people’s life savings, etc.
Then there are warnings to enable us to avoid certain activities that will not only prevent us from living well and leading a profitable and meaningful life, but inevitably lead us along paths of self-destruction. In Proverbs these two paths are called the way of wisdom and the way of folly. In chapter 6 we find more paths of folly to avoid. In verses 1-15 there are three mentioned. They are: vv. 1-5 – being trapped by lacking prudence when putting up financial security for another person; vv. 6-11 – being lazy and vv. 12-15 being taken in by (or even being) a malicious deceiver.
The first, (vv. 1-5) is an interesting one, it concerns when you have put up security for your neighbor, if you have shaken hands in pledge for a stranger, [and as a result] you have been trapped by what you said, ensnared by the words of your mouth. (vv. 1-2) Now, “this is not a call to not be generous, but rather to be prudent.” (# 55) In fact Proverbs encourages generosity when it says later:
A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed. (11:25)
The generous will themselves be blessed, for they share their food with the poor. (22:9)
The point is that one needs wisdom when getting involved financially with another person. “All kinds of qualifications must bear on this subject: it matters whom we are helping and why, what the situation is, and what ours is.” (# 55) The problem here is once made, the decision is binding and the implications may be disastrous. For example, many people have gone bankrupt having committed large amounts of money to schemes which have failed. So, the author suggests caution before deciding, but then, having decided (and discovering there is a problem), endeavour humbly to get out of it anyway possible: Free yourself, like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the snare of the fowler. (v. 5)
The second (vv. 6-11) is a warning against laziness. A well-known passage that says:
6 Go to the ant, you sluggard;
consider its ways and be wise!
7 It has no commander,
no overseer or ruler,
8 yet it stores its provisions in summer
and gathers its food at harvest.
Here, we are “asked to consider the industrious ways of the ants and to learn wisdom from them… The ant knows the created order and lives according to it. In a crazy and delightful contrast with the orderly little ant, the big lazy sluggard… just lies there thinking. (# 55) The author writes;
9 How long will you lie there, you sluggard?
When will you get up from your sleep?
10 A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to rest—
“Until this warning breaks in, again with two quick, violent pictures [as in v. 5] of impending disaster.” (# 55):
11 and poverty will come on you like a thief
and scarcity like an armed man.
The third is (vv. 12-15) warning against being taken in by a malicious deceiver (or maybe, being one yourself), described here as:
12 A troublemaker and a villain,
who goes about with a corrupt mouth,
13 who winks maliciously with his eye,
signals with his feet
and motions with his fingers,
14 who plots evil with deceit in his heart—
he always stirs up conflict.
His ”whole body [is] alive with his evil: eye winking, feet signaling, finger pointing… [and] the warning for this fool breaks in quickly, with a more general but just as ominous picture of impending disaster.” (# 55):
15 Therefore disaster will overtake him in an instant;
he will suddenly be destroyed—without remedy.
To complete this section, the author says:
16 There are six things the Lord hates,
seven that are detestable to him:
Certainly, here it is time to take note of the warnings, because if what the Lord hates will bring the judgement of God down upon the perpetrator, then beware! And these are the things mentioned:
17 haughty eyes,
a lying tongue,
hands that shed innocent blood,
18 a heart that devises wicked schemes,
feet that are quick to rush into evil,
19 a false witness who pours out lies
and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.
“The point is that the Lord sees and hates these evil outpourings of a ‘perverted heart’ (v. 14a). Folly is not just actions that can be defined as evil. Folly is a personal rejecting of wisdom, which begins with the fear of the Lord. Folly first destroys our relationship with our Creator.” (# 55) And eventually all our relationships!
Let me finish off on a more positive note though, and that being that God loves those of us that are his and wants his very best for us. And so, to the church of Laodicea (and for us today) he said:
19 Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. 20 Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me. (Revelation 3:19-20)
Worship and Wisdom - Psalms and Proverbs 