‏ Proverbs 6:1-19

Introduction

Pro 6:1-19 of this chapter interrupt the father’s speech to his son about the strange woman. Yet the issues he discusses in these verses are related: they deal with sins that, like adultery, lead to deep poverty (Pro 5:9-11).

Never Become Surety

A good father is also concerned about his son’s financial position. He speaks of this in Pro 6:1-5, where he specifically warns against becoming surety for someone (Pro 6:1). The son is naive when he becomes surety and has “given a pledge”, literally “clapped your palms”. The father is not so naive as to think his son incapable of doing so. He assumes that his son may be tempted to become surety.

No one is obliged to be surety. Being surety for another is something very different from the usual and permitted way of providing help by lending money to someone in financial need (Mt 5:42). To become surety means that he signs for it – which is done symbolically here by the confirmation with “clapping the palms” – that he assumes the responsibility to pay the debt of another if the other person fails to pay. To this end, he acts as surety.

It is wisdom not to assume such a responsibility. This danger is warned of more often in Proverbs (Pro 11:15; Pro 17:18; Pro 22:26). It is a wrong use of the money God has made available to use for Him.

Whoever gets another to become surety for him has ensnared the other in his words and made him a prisoner of those words (Pro 6:2). It is foolish to become surety, because then you have become a slave to another by your own actions. The person for whom you have become surety will abuse your surety. Gullibility and misplaced generosity can result in the son being a lifelong slave of the person for whom he has become surety.

Whoever is surety has “come into the hand” of his neighbor (Pro 6:3). Therefore, the father’s urgent advice sounds to free oneself from this at all costs. How urgent it is is echoed in addressing his son once again explicitly as “my son”. He must ensure that he is released immediately from the grip of the person for whom he has become surety. He must get himself out, or else he will perish. That is how deadly the danger is.

This will mean that he will do everything he can to ensure that the other person fulfills his obligations. He must go to the neighbor for whom he has become surety. It may mean humbling himself before him. But anything is better than perishing. Let him swallow his pride and let the other trample on him, if only he delivers himself from the grip of his neighbor. He must sacrifice his sleep for it (Pro 6:4; cf. Psa 132:4-5), for delay is fatal. Therefore, he must do it with the speed of a gazelle fleeing from the hunter and of a bird trying to stay out of the hand of the fowler (Pro 6:5). Those animals see the danger and lose no time in getting out of the danger zone.

There is one good surety and that is God Himself (Psa 119:122; Job 17:3). The Lord Jesus is surety of the new covenant (Heb 7:22). He is its fulfillment. We could not fulfill the conditions. The Lord could, He took the conditions upon Himself and fulfilled them. He took our obligations upon Himself, allowing us to partake of the blessings of the new covenant.

The Sluggard

Laziness (Pro 6:6-11), like surety (Pro 6:1-5), is a path to poverty (Pro 24:30-34). Surety results in unnecessary loss of money; laziness does not bring in any money at all. The father strongly warns the son about it. It seems that at some point he saw that his son was lazy. Therefore, he urges him to “go to the ant”, that is, that his son should take a good look at that little animal (Pro 6:6). Just as he can learn from the gazelle and the bird in Pro 6:5, he can learn from the ant (Job 12:7). Let him see how her ways are, how she is busy, what her habits are. By this he will be able to become wise.

The ants need no incentive, no stick, to work. There is no “chief” who leads them in their work and whom they can follow to see how he is doing (Pro 6:7). Nor do they have an “officer” who watches over them and corrects them. Nor do they have a “ruler” to whom they must be obedient. Humans, on the other hand, need “the eye of the master”, for otherwise they slack off. But ants work diligently and well together without any urging and accomplish much work without anyone prompting them. Nor is there an ant that does nothing.

The example of the ant is specifically about the zeal with which she works. Added to this is the fact that she works for the future. She prepares food at the appropriate time, which is “in the harvest” (Pro 6:8), in the summer, when it is still warm, and “gathers” food when there is much food to be gathered. This allows her to stockpile food for the time when it is cold and she cannot find food anywhere. Joseph is an example of one who acted in this way (Gen 41:28-36; 46-49; 53-57).

After the lesson of the ant comes the application in Pro 6:9. The father calls his son to order by confronting him in a reprimanding way with his laziness. The boy just lies down. He is neglecting his duty, because he should be at work. All he is doing is resting. That alone counts. He doesn’t think about the future, he doesn’t worry about it.

How long will he remain so inactive? You never know when a real sluggard will wake up from his sleep. If you think he is waking up, he turns around again. How wonderful it is, we hear the sluggard mutter, to have “a little sleep” and “a little slumber” and lie down with “a little folded of the hands” (Pro 6:10).

There is an increase in unwillingness to get up and get to work. If “a little sleep” is no longer possible, then “a little slumber” is so wonderful after all. And if that no longer works and you’re wide awake, then “a little folding of the hands to rest”, your hands behind your head or on your chest is so nice, too, after all. Who knows, if they leave you alone, you may still be able to slumber a little again, and maybe you’ll even manage to sleep a little again.

All these ‘littles’ do yield a lot, namely a lot of poverty. The hands are not folded to pray, but make it clear that he has no intention to roll up his sleeves and using them (Ecc 4:5). He does not want to work with his hands.

We often excuse or condone a wrong act or lifestyle by saying that it’s just “a little”. Do you need to talk about such a little something? What do those few minutes of delay matter, those few pennies overcharged, that little lie? But for God, there is no such thing as ‘a little’ deviation from the path of obedience. Disobedience is disobedience.

The son does need to realize that because of his laziness, “poverty” comes upon him “like a vagabond” (Pro 6:11). A vagabond is not in a hurry, but steadily proceeds toward his goal. That poverty causes “need” to come upon him “like an armed man”. An armed man is a bandit bent to overpower him.

Every generation needs to hear these words about the sluggard again. This is certainly true of today’s generation. More and more young people are sinking into aimlessness, hanging around and doing nothing. Laziness is becoming a habit. We see it in society, but we also see it in the kingdom of God. There are lazy Christians. Every free evening is for themselves. They think they have a right to be lazy and do nothing for a change. The Lord Jesus tells a slave to whom He had also given something to do, but who did not go to work for Him, that he is a “wicked and lazy” slave (Mt 25:26). There is plenty of work in the kingdom of God. We will have an eye for this if we live with God.

A Worthless Person

The third danger, after surety and laziness, that the father warns his son about is “a worthless person, a wicked man” (Pro 6:12). It is a Belial man, as “worthless” can also be translated, that is an evil and at the same time worthless, useless man. Belial is a proper name for satan (2Cor 6:15). A Belial man is a son of the devil. He is associated with laziness and wickedness and is in the power of the devil. He is a man of iniquity; that is his lifestyle. Out of the mouth of such a person only perversity can come. He is a professional deceiver.

Besides the perverse language that comes out of his mouth, he also speaks a dark body language (Pro 6:13). This is evident in what he does with his eyes, his feet and his fingers. Sneakily winking at someone with whom you are plotting to trick someone else. However, this is not an innocent joke, but to harm and hurt someone (Pro 10:10; Psa 35:19). The same applies to giving “a signal with his feet”. He can touch his companion in evil under the table with his feet to say or not say something. He can also signal by a gesture “with his fingers”. His gaze and gestures are insinuating and aimed at deceiving someone.

It is the secret language of darkness understood only by the initiated. It is the language of the man of sin, the antichrist, who is the prototype of “a worthless person, a wicked man”. The antichrist is “the man of lawlessness, the son of destruction” (2Thes 2:3; 10). This man is thoroughly corrupt.

The heart of the corrupt man, the center of his being, is a forge of perversity (Pro 6:14; Mt 15:19). He is constantly plotting plans and devising means to sow fear and misery among men. He is “full of deceit and fraud”, a “son of the devil” and an “enemy of all righteousness” (Acts 13:10). What comes out of his heart “spreads strife” (cf. Pro 6:19b) in the most intimate relationships. “Strife” are the messengers he sends out. Where strife is found, He is present and at work. Strife, quarreling, is the opposite of the harmony and unanimity that should be among believers.

This troublemaker and strife maker, bent on the fall of others, will suddenly, without prior warning, be beset by calamity (Pro 6:15). Thus the antichrist will be suddenly struck by Christ’s judgment, as will all who follow him (1Thes 5:3). Instantly he will be totally broken, with no chance of healing (cf. 2Chr 36:16; Pro 29:1; Jer 19:11).

Things Which the LORD Hates

These verses connect to the previous verses about the perverse man and especially to Pro 6:14. To present some of that man’s vices to his son, the father uses for his teaching the form of a number proverb, “six ... yes, seven” (Pro 6:16; Pro 30:15; 18; 21; 24; 29; Job 5:19; Ecc 11:2; Amos 1:6; 9; 13; Amos 2:1; 4; 6; Mic 5:5). This means that the vices he lists are not an exhaustive enumeration of them. Sexual sins and stealing, for example, are not mentioned. What the LORD “hates”, what is “an abomination to Him”, are things that are totally foreign to Who He is.

The seven things the LORD hates, and therefore we should also hate, are specific personal attitudes and behaviors.

1. “Haughty eyes” (Pro 6:17) are eyes with a proud look that betrays arrogant ambition. It is a “haughty gaze” (Isa 10:12-14).

2. “A lying tongue” is a misleading tongue, a tongue that speaks words that create a false impression in the listener, leading him astray. We see this with the false prophets, who mislead God’s people (Jer 14:14). A false tongue causes injury (Pro 26:28), but it will one day silence (Pro 12:19).

3. “Hands that shed innocent blood”, are killer hands that killed an innocent person. King Manasseh “shed very much innocent blood until he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another” (2Kgs 21:16; 2Kgs 24:3-4).

In these three characteristics – pride, lying and murder – we see the deadly sins of satan who fell into pride and is therefore “a murderer of men from the beginning” and “a liar” (Jn 8:44).

4. “A heart that devises wicked plans” (Pro 6:18) is another abomination to God. It is in the heart that deliberations take place. Other people do not see these, but God does. He abhors when people devise sins in their hearts.

5. “Feet that run rapidly to evil” (Isa 59:7; Rom 3:15), testify to a dark enthusiasm and devilish speed to carry out the evil contrived and cause suffering in others.

6. “A false witness [who] utters lies” (Pro 6:19), we can connect with the previously mentioned false tongue (see 2.). No body parts are now used to denote persons, but it concerns the whole person. Here we are concerned with violation of the ninth commandment: “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor” (Exo 20:16).

7. “Who spreads strife among brothers”, is a general description of one who causes and stirs up division and strife (cf. Rom 16:17-18). Possibly this is a depth of things the LORD hates.

In Pro 6:16 we can see in the phrase “yes, seven” the special emphasis placed on this seventh evil. Strife among brothers is the result of the foregoing. The abominations 1-6 culminate in this.

The counterparts of these seven hateful abominations are (1) humility, (2) speaking truth, (3) preserving life, (4) pure thoughts, (5) being zealous to do good things, (6) honest witnesses, and (7) peaceful harmony.

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