Inflexibility
As I began
Proverbs 29, I immediately thought of one of my favorite sayings. The best defense comes from those people who
are able to bend and not break.
Flexibility seems to be one of the key issues to survival and overcoming
this world. Proverbs 29:1 says about the
same thing. We will all be rebuked at
one time or another in our life. We will
all make mistakes. Every one of us will
be rightly reproved. The question is,
when we are rebuked do we stiffen or do we loosen?
I’ve seen
it time and time again. When people
stiffen, people break. When
organizations become less flexible, their ability to meet the needs of their
clientele diminishes and business is in trouble. When churches become rigid in their structure
then divisions form, arguments happen, and ministry stops. Rigidity is often a part of the death process.
Rigor mortis pun intended.
From a
Biblical perspective, this makes absolute sense. How many times in scripture do we hear that
the Lord is doing a “new thing?” God’s
morals and ethic may never change, but His means of bringing His grace, love
and mercy to people are constantly on the move!
Is not our culture constantly changing?
Do we as God’s people put a higher priority on meeting our own needs or
on making ourselves available to bring God’s grace to the world? Of course, we don’t want to change for the
sake of change. But we must not forget
the principle of this proverb on either the individual or the organizational
level. When we stiffen – especially
after reproach – we are looking to be broken.
Abhorring the Righteous
Proverbs
29:10 has many layers of truth in it.
Bloodthirsty people abhor righteous people. On the most obvious layer, look at the
example of Jesus. Was there anyone more
righteous than Jesus? Has there been
anyone more hated throughout the ages than Jesus?
On a more
personal layer, think about why this is true.
Suppose two people are gossiping about a mutual friend – and they’re
being fairly mean about what they are saying.
Then a third person sits by them and the first two try and get the third
person to join in. If the third person
says, “I really don’t care to talk about other people when they’re not
present,” what do you think will happen?
Hopefully, nothing will happen right then and there. But I guarantee you that the immediate
reaction of the people who were initially gossiping will be to lower their
opinion of the third person in their own eyes.
Why? The righteous person exposed
the sin of the unrighteous people. The
righteous person didn’t sink to their level.
Conviction
hurts. Normal, regular, human beings
hate to be convicted at first. Sure,
some of us get over it and learn to appreciate it. But most of us don’t respond well when we are
being convicted.
Keeping the Tongue In Check
I think
Proverbs 29:11 holds much truth – although it is fairly obvious truth. We hear people all the time say things like
“hold your tongue in check” or even “swallow your tongue.” I think it is just true. When we react prior
to thinking, things tend to go worse than when we respond after thinking. I know about myself this is very true. I like to have a good 24 hours to respond to
something prior to making an official statement. And when I respond seriously to someone without
having that 24 hour window, I always warn people that I am doing so and thus
might not be giving as good of a thought as I could.
Leadership
Regarding
Proverbs 29:15, I am going to throw a nod back to a conversation I had a few
days back – largely thanks to several women readers that are a part of my
congregation and a couple of male friends throughout the country. As a country, we are in a “leadership”
crisis. There are many effects on our
culture because of this crisis. However,
I think the root of the crisis is in the home.
Husbands are abdicating their calling to lead. Parents are abdicating their calling to
discipline their children and raise them correctly.
Certainly
not all parents and husbands, mind you.
There are many parents to whom I relate and for whom I have incredible
respect for the choices they make in raising their children.
As a country,
when we abdicate the raising of our children to teachers, school boards,
politicians, movie stars, athletes, and pop-culture sensations we are asking
for trouble. If we aren’t willing to
raise our kids and discipline them, why would we think any of these other
people would do so? What does this
proverb warn us about? A child left to
themselves brings shame. Children need
to be taught!
Lack of Prophetic Vision
Although
there are many great proverbs left in this chapter, I am going to finish with
Proverbs 29:18. Where there is no
prophetic vision, people cast off restraint.
Please, oh please, don’t read this in terms of “prophet equals
Nostradamus.” In the Bible, a prophet is
a person who brings God’s Word to their contemporaries. A seer is a person who predicts the future.
So here is
what this proverb is saying: when there is nobody bringing God’s Word to their
contemporaries, people cast off restraint.
When nobody is willing to rise up and talk about God’s Word and the
importance of it in our lives, people are led to believe that they can do
whatever they want. Where there is no
focus on God’s will, people are abandoned to their own desires. This proverb is the sociological and
theological ancestor to the first two chapters of Paul’s letter to the
Romans! The less we publically say about
God’s Word in our communities, the more we should expect people to “do as they
please.”
I am
reminded of the reasons that trouble came to the Hebrew people in the time of
the Judges. “There was no judge over
them, and people did what was right in their eyes.” If you ever want to remember an easy place to
see an example of this, read the last verse in the book of Judges.
God’s
point? When we who are God’s people fail
to talk about God, people become their own judges. When people become their own judges, evil
ensues. We must take our calling as the
priests of God seriously (See Revelation 1:4-6). We – lay and ordained alike – must learn how
to speak meaningfully about the Word of God in every circumstance. When we fail, we fail the people around
us. When we fail, sin and corruption
abound.
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