Path to Folly
Proverbs
20 begins with a verse that essentially says, “Wine scoffs, intoxication is
boisterous, and whoever goes down that path is not skilled in wisdom.” For all the emphasis in this book that is put
on making wise decisions and not acting rashly, it seems to me that the
author’s main issue with alcohol is the loss of rational thinking ability. The one thing that alcohol tends to do
universally is to bring out the human passion in a person while subduing the
human will. In general, people display
much less will power against their emotions when using alcohol. Some people get depressed, others get very
lustful, some people get overly happy, some people get loud, even more lose
inhibition, and some just get mean. The
common thread through each of these traits is that alcohol – especially overuse
of alcohol – tends to bring out the human nature that is within a person even
more than normal.
The
question that I can’t help but wonder about is this. If alcohol – again, especially its overuse – generally
brings out our human nature and we believe in a religious perspective that says
that our human nature in inherently sinful, then why do we voluntarily choose
to partake in it? Can we not say that
generally speaking the use of alcohol makes it more difficult to live a life of
human humbleness before God? I think
along a more generic line we can ask about ourselves why we show such interest
in activities that inherently make it more difficult to experience God?
Please
don’t hear me condemning all use of alcohol.
Even Paul tells Timothy that he should drink a little wine to settle his
stomach. I’m talking primarily about the
use of alcohol where it is imbibed to the point of being able to notice any kind
of change in the behavior of an individual.
Who Is Clean?
Proverbs
20:9 is a verse that is true on many different levels. Who can honestly say that they have made
their heart pure and are clean from sin?
I daresay that nobody can. Even
those of us who acknowledge our sin before God and beg for His mercy will find
ourselves in sin yet again! Can any of
us genuinely clean ourselves from the effects of our sin?
Now of
course, I don’t want to go too far and beat ourselves down and make any of us
worry whether or not we are forgiven. Of
course we are forgiven according to the promise of God. Those who repent of their sins and humble
themselves before Him are promised to be forgiven, and He is a God who keeps
His promises. So we can absolutely take
faith in our forgiveness. But I think
that is the point of this particular proverb.
It is God who reconciles us with Him, not we who reconcile ourselves
with Him. It is God who purifies us and
cleanses us, not we who purify and cleanse ourselves.
Proverbs
20:22, 24, 25 all make a similar point that ties in nicely with the understanding
that it is God who cleanses and purifies.
Who among us can understand His works to begin with? Who among us can honestly know His ultimate
plan? After all, look at His biggest
plan – bringing salvation to mankind.
Certainly mankind should have been able to see God’s biggest plan
coming, right? But how many people on
the face of the earth understood what God was doing prior to His
crucifixion? I daresay none. Even Jesus’ own disciples, who heard Jesus
tell them He was going to Jerusalem to die, didn’t understand it until after
the Holy Spirit came upon them and worked God’s understanding within them! If we cannot understand the big plan, what
makes any of us think that we can understand the subtleties of God’s smaller
plans?
Sure, with
the Holy Spirit we can be clued into what God is doing. But for me this is yet another set of verses
that points us back to the idea of humbleness before God. When we are making plans, how regularly do we
pause in order to humble ourselves and ask for God’s direction? Or do we assume that the Holy Spirit is
within us prior to the opening of our mouth?
Or as verse 22 indicates, how many of us get angry and assume God is
behind us when really we should take our anger to the Lord and ask God to deal
justly with those who have angered us?
Or how many of us make promises to other people or organizations
assuming that something sounds “good” but before we pray about a thing and
discern if it is genuinely God’s will?
This chapter seems to have much to say about humbly removing ourselves
from a life led by human passion and creating within each of us a life
genuinely yearning for patience and humbleness before God.
True Honor
I can’t
help but to end my reflection on this chapter as I ended one a few days
back. Did anyone notice another
reference to how we should praise gray hair?
Young men think that their glory is in their strength. But the true splendor of a person is in their
gray hair. Living long enough to become
wise in God is splendor. Living long
enough to have wisdom to pass on to another generation is splendor. Why are we as a culture so infatuated with
youth – and even worse, the appearance of youth – when the Bible lifts up that
it is the aged who are truly splendid?
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