Pro 1:11-14 | KingComments | STEP | The first thing the father warns his son about is bad company ( ). He repeats that warning in . This bad company consists of sinners whose life consists of sinning, whose lifestyle is sinning. They do nothing else and are only after that. They do not live by honest labor, but by the proceeds of crime. For this purpose, they seek not only victims, but also new companions. For this reason, they approach young people. They present the young man with a choice between the easy and quick money and the long road of obedience to what his father and mother have told him. The father does not leave it at a general and therefore vague warning. He does not briefly forbid his son from joining a company of sinners, but teaches him about their conduct. He lets him know how they approach him so that he can recognize them when they come to him with their talk to entrap him. The father takes time to talk with his son. Parents should take time to talk with their children. That way they should not talk with toddlers. These should learn to listen and obey what the parents say, even without explanation. Children are often talked with far too young to convince them of anything. This does not work with children and will even cause difficulties later when direct obedience is required. It does work with those who are “sons”, that is, children who already have a certain degree of maturity and are able to consider what is being said. The fact that the first alarm bells ring in the book of Proverbs regarding bad company is an important signal for families with children. Outside the home, children are often in groups, for example: - They go to school with a group of children. - At school, they are part of a group. - There are group assignments. - They are in a sports club or music school. - They go to birthday parties. - Social media has groups. Peer pressure in schools, primary, higher and university, is great. Our children must be made resilient to this. How they will develop depends in part on the company in which they find themselves. Therefore, as parents, we must know who they associate with – also and especially on social media! – and warn them against wrong company. It is folly and self-deception for parents to say that (young) children have a ‘right to privacy’ and they ‘therefore’ do not want to know with whom their children have contacts on social media. Sinners form a company that has no part in the company of God’s children, but seeks to associate with it. The father is not naive and knows all too well that this company is out to tempt his son to sin. Immediately after satan has fallen, he has become a seducer and tempter. The sinners are servants trained by him. All the devil can do is tempt us. He cannot force us to sin. To “consent” is to give in to his temptation, upon which sin follows. Eve consents and then she sins ( ). Joseph does not give in to temptation and does not sin ( ). How important it is for parents to warn their children against bad company and keep them away from it. Many parents make efforts and spare neither time nor money nor energy for their children to excel in, for example, music, sports or social activities. It is hoped that they have the same effort to make their children excel in knowing and obeying the Word of God. Children will only be able to say ‘no’ to evil if they say ‘yes’ to God. The fear of God makes them turn away from evil. Therefore, we must teach them to fear God. It is always easier to follow the crowd than to swim against the current (cf. ). We must have a goal in life to know in which direction to walk. That goal is Christ. Let us present that goal to our children. The young man needs to know two things about sinners. These are 1. the methods they use to entice him to join them ( ) and 2. what their end is ( ). In , the father tells his son how the sinners operate in their attempts to tempt him. He should be aware that they approach him and invite him to participate in a plunder. They are professional criminals who already have the goal in mind. The father uses an extreme, but not unrealistic, example. Most choices in life are at a lower and seemingly minor level. This extreme example makes clear where a first step on the road with sinners ultimately will lead. The sinners present their plan as something exciting and at the same time as something very simple. The son receives the invitation to lie in wait for blood with them. The phrase “lie in wait” has to do with being ambushed with the intention of killing someone ( ) or kidnapping someone ( ). Here it is to shed blood. Violence is one of the two main characteristics of sin. The other main characteristic is corruption. All sins fall under one of these two main characteristics. The first sin committed by man is that of corruption. That is when Eve believes the devil and thereby declares God a liar ( ). The second sin is the sin of violence. That is when Cain kills his brother Abel ( ). Since then, the world has been full of corruption and violence (cf. ). The victim is “the innocent”, someone who gives no cause for robbery (cf. ). These people do not care who their victim is. It also happens today that someone has the misfortune to walk along a group of criminal youth who are out for a diversion. For no reason, he is beaten up and robbed. It is the behavior of Cain who kills his brother Abel even though he has done nothing to him ( ). The sinners add to their proposal that they will erase all traces of their evil deeds beyond recognition ( ). With this portrayal, they want to persuade the son to join them. He need not fear that he will be caught. They will bury their victim untraceable. The language they use here means that they will act like God, Who also causes the rebellious Korach, Dathan and Abiram to descend to the grave alive, so that nothing more can be seen and found of them ( ). But God sees it and will make it public ( ). In , the bait is presented to the son to persuade him to join. The sinners promise the newcomer quick success, that is, quickly obtained wealth ( ). All he has to do is go with them; they have invited him to do so ( ). They ask for nothing more. The sinners envision it as attractively as possible. ‘Imagine what we will find when our victim is devoured and gone. We will find all kinds of precious things and fill our homes with the loot. It’s not a little bit, but a big loot. You can live on that for years.’ The language used by the sinners is that of the countrymen of whom the Lord Jesus speaks in a parable: “But when the vine-growers saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance’” ( ). There is a great temptation from an easy way to get money apart from God. As far as we can see in Scripture, there are three ways to obtain money in a lawful way: 1. by earning it by working, 2. by inheriting it, 3. by someone giving it to us. Getting money through violence is not one of them. The root of this evil of violence is love of money. Paul admonishes Timothy as a father does his child and reminds him to flee the love of money ( ). The sinners promise the young man that he will ‘belong’ to them as a full member of the gang. It aligns with what almost all young people, even today, desire, and that is to be part of the group. They have put everything they have looted into one pot. From that he will get his share as much as anyone else. Really, they will share everything ‘fairly’ with him. Many young people fall for this because it makes them ‘somebody’. They are part of the gang, share in the loot and are recognized by the other gang members. They throw off the oppressive yoke of their parents, who obviously don’t understand their desire for freedom. Then they are free to do as they please. In the process, they also come into possession of coveted luxuries. But it is a false freedom, for they have sold their souls to the devil. When they are no longer needed, they are discarded, cast away or slaughtered. In the application, we need not only think of youth gangs of young people from broken families who want money in a quick way. It also involves white-collar crime, financial fraudsters. People who hold high positions in large companies fill their pockets through all kinds of dubious deals. In doing so, they involve subordinates they need and placate them by promising them a share of the proceeds. The lure of the ‘easy money’ is there in all layers of the population and in all age groups. In , the father warns his son for the second time ( ). The warning “do not walk in the way with them” is contrasted with the sinners’ invitation “come with us” in . In the previous verses, the father has shown his son what the sinners are after and how they operate. That lifestyle should be sufficient warning not to join them and not to accept their invitation. In , he shows his son why he should not join them and keep his foot off their path. For the father also knows the serious consequences for those who join sinners. He holds these up to his son as well. He warns him of what will befall him if he goes along and joins. They envision a pleasant life for him, but the father lets him know that this life leads to the destruction of his own life. Therefore, he commands him to keep his foot from their path. He who keeps God’s Word will not put his foot on the criminal path ( ). No one immediately becomes a criminal or a hooligan. In order not to walk in the road with sinners, the foot must be kept from taking even one step in their path, for “bad company corrupts good morals” ( ). Once the first step is taken, more steps soon follow. So don’t start with the first step. With every step we take in satan’s path, we move further away from fellowship with God. “For” indicates the reason why the son should not join them ( ). It is because their behavior is wrong. It is immoral and violent. The father makes it clear to his son that the gang members are quick to do evil and rush to shed blood (cf. ). Whoever goes on their path is going down a descending path. At some point the walking is so fast that there is no slowing down and stopping. There is speed and haste, no rest. Everyone who finds himself on the sinner’s path is being hunted. The father assures his son that there is a possibility of escaping their way, and that is by heeding his warning ( ). He gives an example from nature. A bird that sees the net stretched in front of it will not fly into it, but over it and thus be saved from capture. The first natural reaction of anyone who sees that there is danger somewhere is to avoid this evil. So it is at least with birds that see the net. This implies that anyone who joins bad company is not only wrong, but also foolish. Sticking with the image of the bird, we can say that whoever rises above the lowly activities of sinners will not be tempted by them or caught in their net. Some people are more stupid than birds. With all their darkened mind and imagined wisdom, they do not react to danger as the animals do, but walk into it with open eyes. They do not realize that they are digging their own graves (cf. ; ; ). They think they are laying an ambush for others, but they are laying an ambush for their own lives. Once their activities are known, they themselves will fall victim to others. A lot of settlements take place on the criminal circuit. A murderer is often also killed himself at some time. In , the father summarizes the warning of (cf. ). Obtaining unlawful gain means the loss of life. Sinful actions seem to bring benefit and profit, which makes one think one can live a more pleasant life, but it is the way of death. When sinners and those who associate with them rob and kill the innocent, they rob and kill themselves. They sin against their own life. Every crime they commit against another, they are in reality committing against themselves. They deprive themselves of life. The only way to escape this is to avoid the company of sinners. An important element of the new life is that it extends into eternity ( ). Opposite this is the visible world with its standards. Power and money dominate this world. From these there is a great attraction that wants to drag us along. Saying ‘no’ is sometimes extremely difficult. The rich young man and Judas Iscariot prove that with greed is always connected the rejection of Christ and the loss of one’s own life: “It takes away the life of its possessors.” It seems that they are possessors, independent, but the reality is that their addiction kills them. One went away sad, the other hanged himself ( ). This is why Wisdom shouts in the next section.

‏ Proverbs 1:11-14

Avoid Bad Company

The first thing the father warns his son about is bad company (Pro 1:10). He repeats that warning in Pro 1:15. This bad company consists of sinners whose life consists of sinning, whose lifestyle is sinning. They do nothing else and are only after that. They do not live by honest labor, but by the proceeds of crime. For this purpose, they seek not only victims, but also new companions. For this reason, they approach young people. They present the young man with a choice between the easy and quick money and the long road of obedience to what his father and mother have told him.

The father does not leave it at a general and therefore vague warning. He does not briefly forbid his son from joining a company of sinners, but teaches him about their conduct. He lets him know how they approach him so that he can recognize them when they come to him with their talk to entrap him. The father takes time to talk with his son. Parents should take time to talk with their children.

That way they should not talk with toddlers. These should learn to listen and obey what the parents say, even without explanation. Children are often talked with far too young to convince them of anything. This does not work with children and will even cause difficulties later when direct obedience is required. It does work with those who are “sons”, that is, children who already have a certain degree of maturity and are able to consider what is being said.

The fact that the first alarm bells ring in the book of Proverbs regarding bad company is an important signal for families with children. Outside the home, children are often in groups, for example:

- They go to school with a group of children.

- At school, they are part of a group.

- There are group assignments.

- They are in a sports club or music school.

- They go to birthday parties.

- Social media has groups.

Peer pressure in schools, primary, higher and university, is great. Our children must be made resilient to this. How they will develop depends in part on the company in which they find themselves. Therefore, as parents, we must know who they associate with – also and especially on social media! – and warn them against wrong company. It is folly and self-deception for parents to say that (young) children have a ‘right to privacy’ and they ‘therefore’ do not want to know with whom their children have contacts on social media.

Sinners form a company that has no part in the company of God’s children, but seeks to associate with it. The father is not naive and knows all too well that this company is out to tempt his son to sin. Immediately after satan has fallen, he has become a seducer and tempter. The sinners are servants trained by him. All the devil can do is tempt us. He cannot force us to sin. To “consent” is to give in to his temptation, upon which sin follows. Eve consents and then she sins (Gen 3:6). Joseph does not give in to temptation and does not sin (Gen 39:8-9).

How important it is for parents to warn their children against bad company and keep them away from it. Many parents make efforts and spare neither time nor money nor energy for their children to excel in, for example, music, sports or social activities. It is hoped that they have the same effort to make their children excel in knowing and obeying the Word of God.

Children will only be able to say ‘no’ to evil if they say ‘yes’ to God. The fear of God makes them turn away from evil. Therefore, we must teach them to fear God. It is always easier to follow the crowd than to swim against the current (cf. Exo 23:2). We must have a goal in life to know in which direction to walk. That goal is Christ. Let us present that goal to our children.

The young man needs to know two things about sinners. These are

1. the methods they use to entice him to join them (Pro 1:11-14) and

2. what their end is (Pro 1:15-19).

In Pro 1:11-12, the father tells his son how the sinners operate in their attempts to tempt him. He should be aware that they approach him and invite him to participate in a plunder. They are professional criminals who already have the goal in mind. The father uses an extreme, but not unrealistic, example. Most choices in life are at a lower and seemingly minor level. This extreme example makes clear where a first step on the road with sinners ultimately will lead.

The sinners present their plan as something exciting and at the same time as something very simple. The son receives the invitation to lie in wait for blood with them. The phrase “lie in wait” has to do with being ambushed with the intention of killing someone (Deu 19:11) or kidnapping someone (Jdg 21:20). Here it is to shed blood.

Violence is one of the two main characteristics of sin. The other main characteristic is corruption. All sins fall under one of these two main characteristics. The first sin committed by man is that of corruption. That is when Eve believes the devil and thereby declares God a liar (Gen 3:1-6). The second sin is the sin of violence. That is when Cain kills his brother Abel (Gen 4:8). Since then, the world has been full of corruption and violence (cf. Gen 6:11).

The victim is “the innocent”, someone who gives no cause for robbery (cf. Psa 35:7). These people do not care who their victim is. It also happens today that someone has the misfortune to walk along a group of criminal youth who are out for a diversion. For no reason, he is beaten up and robbed. It is the behavior of Cain who kills his brother Abel even though he has done nothing to him (Gen 4:8).

The sinners add to their proposal that they will erase all traces of their evil deeds beyond recognition (Pro 1:12). With this portrayal, they want to persuade the son to join them. He need not fear that he will be caught. They will bury their victim untraceable. The language they use here means that they will act like God, Who also causes the rebellious Korach, Dathan and Abiram to descend to the grave alive, so that nothing more can be seen and found of them (Num 16:33). But God sees it and will make it public (Gen 4:9-10).

In Pro 1:13-14, the bait is presented to the son to persuade him to join. The sinners promise the newcomer quick success, that is, quickly obtained wealth (Pro 1:13). All he has to do is go with them; they have invited him to do so (Pro 1:11). They ask for nothing more.

The sinners envision it as attractively as possible. ‘Imagine what we will find when our victim is devoured and gone. We will find all kinds of precious things and fill our homes with the loot. It’s not a little bit, but a big loot. You can live on that for years.’ The language used by the sinners is that of the countrymen of whom the Lord Jesus speaks in a parable: “But when the vine-growers saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance’” (Mt 21:38).

There is a great temptation from an easy way to get money apart from God. As far as we can see in Scripture, there are three ways to obtain money in a lawful way:

1. by earning it by working,

2. by inheriting it,

3. by someone giving it to us.

Getting money through violence is not one of them. The root of this evil of violence is love of money. Paul admonishes Timothy as a father does his child and reminds him to flee the love of money (1Tim 6:9-11).

The sinners promise the young man that he will ‘belong’ to them as a full member of the gang. It aligns with what almost all young people, even today, desire, and that is to be part of the group. They have put everything they have looted into one pot. From that he will get his share as much as anyone else. Really, they will share everything ‘fairly’ with him.

Many young people fall for this because it makes them ‘somebody’. They are part of the gang, share in the loot and are recognized by the other gang members. They throw off the oppressive yoke of their parents, who obviously don’t understand their desire for freedom. Then they are free to do as they please. In the process, they also come into possession of coveted luxuries. But it is a false freedom, for they have sold their souls to the devil. When they are no longer needed, they are discarded, cast away or slaughtered.

In the application, we need not only think of youth gangs of young people from broken families who want money in a quick way. It also involves white-collar crime, financial fraudsters. People who hold high positions in large companies fill their pockets through all kinds of dubious deals. In doing so, they involve subordinates they need and placate them by promising them a share of the proceeds. The lure of the ‘easy money’ is there in all layers of the population and in all age groups.

In Pro 1:15, the father warns his son for the second time (Pro 1:10). The warning “do not walk in the way with them” is contrasted with the sinners’ invitation “come with us” in Pro 1:11. In the previous verses, the father has shown his son what the sinners are after and how they operate. That lifestyle should be sufficient warning not to join them and not to accept their invitation. In Pro 1:16-18, he shows his son why he should not join them and keep his foot off their path.

For the father also knows the serious consequences for those who join sinners. He holds these up to his son as well. He warns him of what will befall him if he goes along and joins. They envision a pleasant life for him, but the father lets him know that this life leads to the destruction of his own life. Therefore, he commands him to keep his foot from their path. He who keeps God’s Word will not put his foot on the criminal path (Psa 119:101).

No one immediately becomes a criminal or a hooligan. In order not to walk in the road with sinners, the foot must be kept from taking even one step in their path, for “bad company corrupts good morals” (1Cor 15:33). Once the first step is taken, more steps soon follow. So don’t start with the first step. With every step we take in satan’s path, we move further away from fellowship with God.

“For” indicates the reason why the son should not join them (Pro 1:16). It is because their behavior is wrong. It is immoral and violent. The father makes it clear to his son that the gang members are quick to do evil and rush to shed blood (cf. Isa 59:7). Whoever goes on their path is going down a descending path. At some point the walking is so fast that there is no slowing down and stopping. There is speed and haste, no rest. Everyone who finds himself on the sinner’s path is being hunted.

The father assures his son that there is a possibility of escaping their way, and that is by heeding his warning (Pro 1:17). He gives an example from nature. A bird that sees the net stretched in front of it will not fly into it, but over it and thus be saved from capture. The first natural reaction of anyone who sees that there is danger somewhere is to avoid this evil. So it is at least with birds that see the net. This implies that anyone who joins bad company is not only wrong, but also foolish. Sticking with the image of the bird, we can say that whoever rises above the lowly activities of sinners will not be tempted by them or caught in their net.

Some people are more stupid than birds. With all their darkened mind and imagined wisdom, they do not react to danger as the animals do, but walk into it with open eyes. They do not realize that they are digging their own graves (cf. Psa 7:16-17; Job 18:8; Est 7:9-10). They think they are laying an ambush for others, but they are laying an ambush for their own lives. Once their activities are known, they themselves will fall victim to others. A lot of settlements take place on the criminal circuit. A murderer is often also killed himself at some time.

In Pro 1:19, the father summarizes the warning of Pro 1:10-18 (cf. Job 8:13). Obtaining unlawful gain means the loss of life. Sinful actions seem to bring benefit and profit, which makes one think one can live a more pleasant life, but it is the way of death. When sinners and those who associate with them rob and kill the innocent, they rob and kill themselves. They sin against their own life. Every crime they commit against another, they are in reality committing against themselves. They deprive themselves of life. The only way to escape this is to avoid the company of sinners.

An important element of the new life is that it extends into eternity (Rom 2:7). Opposite this is the visible world with its standards. Power and money dominate this world. From these there is a great attraction that wants to drag us along. Saying ‘no’ is sometimes extremely difficult.

The rich young man and Judas Iscariot prove that with greed is always connected the rejection of Christ and the loss of one’s own life: “It takes away the life of its possessors.” It seems that they are possessors, independent, but the reality is that their addiction kills them. One went away sad, the other hanged himself (Mt 19:22 ; Mt 27:5). This is why Wisdom shouts in the next section.