Proverbs 18:9, Brothers In Crime!
November 28, Proverbs 18:9
Matt. 12:22-30; 12:23-36 “If any man serve me, let him follow me.”
Brothers In Crime!
Bad work is destroying work! Kidner quotes, “He who leaves a work undone is next of kin to him who destroys it.” The “slothful in his work” shows himself to be slack (Jos. 18:3) or faint (24:10). His hands are slack and hang down, not from physical exertion, but from sloth! His brother, is a great waster, literally, a lord or master of destruction. “The one gets nothing. The other spends what he gets” (Bridges). John Calvin, speaking of the failure of man, said, “The whole life of man until he is converted to Christ is a ruinous labyrinth of wanderings…. He who disregards his calling will never keep the straight path in the duties of life.”
1. Mr. Fainter is he also that is slothful in his work (v.9a). “A man with half an eye may see that the prodigal will soon reduce himself to husks” (Lawson). He that is idle, neglecting his work, is as sure of poverty as the prodigal. Solomon reminds us frequently of the tragic results of sloth. To be lazy, do shoddy work, to take the easy way out, is to court disaster. Work is not the great evil of life, indolence, or idleness, is (Heb. 6:12). Woe to the family that has a fainter for a father. What tragic spiritual, as well as material, costs follow! It is such an insidious evil that, if left unchecked, it undermines the foundations of life. Matthew Henry reminds us that to trifle in our prayer life leads to not praying at all. The best of intentions, not acted on, are nothing but empty dreams, like a tree diseased at the roots; it must rot. It is significant that the same word is used to encourage Joshua, when God says, I will not fail thee nor forsake thee (1:8). In the beautiful Psalm 46, God says, Be still, and know that I am God (v.10). God’s afflicted people are to Be still, to cause their hearts not to faint because trusting the Lord. God is no Fainter, nor does He permit His people to faint, either (Isa. 40:28-31).
2. Mr. Waster: Mr. Fainter is brother to him that is a great waster (v.9b). They are of one and the same spirit. Waster was either thriftless with what he earned, or reckless in using what he made or inherited. Oh, the moral guilt that is his in either case! If laziness is sin, so is wastefulness. How does he differ from his brother who wastes his time and talents (Mt. 25:26; Lk. 16:1)? What a pitiful pair they are! The “slothful and the prodigal” (Henry) are in the same family. Both are rebels against the will of God and wasters of His providence. Mr. Waster has broken a sacred trust. He forgot he was only a steward not an owner of what God entrusted to him. He has a Master’s Degree in Wasting that he must acknowledge to his shame before men, and to his condemnation before God. “Omissions of duty, and in duty, are fatal to the soul as well as commissions of sin” (Henry). How tragic to see a good estate, or a promising life, fall into wreck and ruin because its “lord” wastes it by neglect or reckless extravagances! Is not extravagance the common disease of our times?
Thought: Stewardship means that everything we touch belongs to God.
Prayer: “Take myself and I shall be ever, only, all for Thee.”