Balance
On an
amusing note, I have to confess to reading the first verse in Proverbs 11
completely and totally wrong. The ESV
translates, “A false balance is an abomination to the Lord.” Being a pastor, I completely took the word
“balance” in a spiritual/emotional sense.
I began thinking, “What a great passage about knowing oneself and being
in touch with one’s spirit.” Then I
looked into the Hebrew to make sure that I was reading it right. I was disappointed to find out that the word
for balance actually means “scale” or “means of measuring weight.” I was disappointed to discover that this
verse isn’t talking about a person being in touch with themselves but rather a
person being able to go to the marketplace and not get ripped off!
However,
that doesn’t mean that the verse cannot have meaning – even good meaning! What does this verse tell us? Don’t make a living by cheating other people
out of their hard-earned money. But it
really goes deeper than that. This
proverb dives into from where we as human beings believe our life comes. Do I have to provide for myself? If so, do I have to cheat to make sure I
survive? Or do I place my trust in God’s
ability to enable me to survive?
That turns
me to another topic. Am I willing to
embrace God’s provision? When I trust
that God can provide for me, does that mean that I necessarily am willing to
live by what He provides? Or do I want
more than He provides for me? Is that
why human beings need to be told to not cheat one another? Are we not content with God’s provision for
life? {Wow, who’da thought that I could
go someplace that deep on a reading of the Bible that started by taking a false
step!}
Integrity
As we
progress through this chapter, I find that Proverbs 11:3 follows this line of
thinking quite naturally. The integrity
of the upright guides them while the crookedness of the treacherous destroys
them. Those of integrity may not always
win every battle. They may not be the
wealthiest members of a community. But
they will be respected members of the community. They will have friends – and more
importantly, spiritual family. What of
the crooked? They might have the money
and the stuff. They might have that big
house on a lake looking down upon the rest of the community. But will they have the respect of the
community? To whom will they turn when
life goes sour? Is this not the point of
Proverbs 11:4?
Unfortunate Reality
Proverbs
11:10 – specifically the back half of the verse – saddened me as I read through
it. “When the wicked perish, there are
shouts of gladness.” Don’t get me
wrong. I’m not saying that we should
feel bad about being freed from oppression.
What saddens me is that there are people in this world who are so
corrupt, self-mongerish, and untamed that we rejoice at their death. It saddens me that there are people who are
willing to take their natural human inclination for evil and run with it to
whatever extent that they can get away with.
Counsel
Proverbs
11:14 is also a really neat proverb.
“Where there is no guidance, a people fall; but in an abundance of counselors
there is safety.” I hope the truth in
that comment leaps off of the page. This
proverb made me immediately think about the church. If we want people to feel safe in our church,
we need good counsel. If we want people
to trust us with their spiritual nature, we must develop good counsel. If we want people to take us seriously when
we invite them into a relationship with Jesus Christ, we must develop the
ability to promote and train good counsel.
The more our congregations are filled with people who can genuinely
speak words of wisdom into peoples’ lives the more people will seek out that
counsel!
Pig’s Snout
I can’t
pass up talking about Proverbs 11:22, either.
“Like a gold ring in a pig’s snout is a beautiful woman without
discretion.” I love this line. It’s so much more fun than an equivalent
adage: “Beauty is only skin deep.” A
person who does not have a beautiful spirit has nothing serious to offer in the
terms of what makes a person truly rich.
If a person doesn’t have a beautiful spirit that helps them grow in
wisdom, they will end up ruining the gift of physical beauty they have been
given.
Well, I
did warn you that the remainder of this book would seem a little haphazard and
random. But I think there was much
treasure to mine in this chapter. Certainly there was far more treasure than I
was able to pull out in this simple blog.
I pray that as you read that your mind found and pondered the depth of
God’s truth here in Proverbs 11.
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