Straightforward

Greetings everyone. Let’s pick up our Bible Study through the book of Proverbs by turning to Proverbs 11. One of the most meaty chapters in the whole book is right here in chapter 11, a tremendous amount of substance and spiritual food. So let’s begin in chapter 11:1:

1 A false balance is abomination to the Eternal: but a just weight is his delight.

Now, there’s more to this than just a deceptive weight or an inaccurate stone, which is what they used to use to weigh things. This whole principle found in verse 1 has to do with fraud. It has to do with taking advantage of someone else. In other words, it’s deceit and lying and fraud. It is stealing in actual fact.

If you go to the supermarket and someone says you bought ten pounds of meat and you only bought eight, and they charge you for ten pounds of meat, they stole from you and that’s fraud, and that is an unjust weight. That is a false weight, and that is an abomination to God. But an accurate weight, or an accurate transaction, then that is His delight.

Why is He so against a false weight? Well, because it’s stealing and it’s lying and it’s deceiving, and therefore He hates that because that is not treating others properly. So there’s a lot in verse 1, and you have to understand the principle there that it has to do with fraud. And now what do we see today? We see fraud on a magnitude that’s unbelievable, involving millions and millions of dollars in the corporate world and on the stock market and in other ways, where almost on a regular basis on the news, we hear of captains of industry, not all but some, who have risen to the top and who draw huge salaries and end up defrauding the stockholders of their company to the tune of millions and millions of dollars by deceptive bookkeeping and by maneuvering and orchestrating this, that, and the other trick in order to take people’s money—quite often, elderly people’s money—and even rob them of their savings and of their pensions. God hates that. He says it is an abomination to the Eternal, here in Proverbs 11:1.

2 When pride comes, then comes shame: but with the lowly—

or with the humble

2 —is wisdom.

And what do we see all around us today? We see a society, we see a world that is based on pride. Pride of country, team pride, individual pride. People are taught that they must have pride. National pride, it’s cultivated. Well, you know what God says? When pride comes, then comes shame. But with humility is wisdom. So some people say, “Well, if we don’t have pride, we’re not going to do our best.” No, that’s not true. God says, whatever you do, do with your might. So instead of having pride, have an attitude of doing our very best. Have an attitude of excellence. Have an attitude of accomplishing and fulfilling everything that you can to the very best of your ability. That’s different to pride.

Pride has to do with personal promotion. Pride has to do with vanity. Pride has to do with getting from somebody else. But doing the best we can, doing everything we do with our might—that has to do with honoring God and serving others, and a humble person will live life like that.

3 The integrity of the upright shall guide them: but the perverseness—

or the deceit

3 —of transgressors shall destroy them.

In other words, as we try to do things right, and as we try to have integrity and have principles and have scruples and have values and standards, that’s going to guide us in our life. But those who use deceit, those who twist and lie and distort and exaggerate and are duplicitous, that is simply going to end up destroying them. It always catches up, and sooner or later it comes back to haunt them. You see that in the news all the time, once again.

If somebody tries to take money from the bank where they’re working, they think they’re getting away with it, and first thing you know, they’re caught and then there they are, red–handed. They have been caught deceiving their employer and now they lose everything. There are so many examples that we could mention where verse 3 is true and where we see it coming to pass all around us. What we need to do as we read verse 3 is follow what it says. Practice integrity. Be an upright person.

4 Riches profit not in the day of wrath: but righteousness delivers from death.

In other words, whether it’s a tough time in this life, like the depression or like a war—or a tough time in the future where the great tribulation comes down on mankind, and that is in the Bible referred to as the day of wrath, Satan’s wrath, and then the day of the Lord is referred to as God’s wrath—when those tough times hit, and prophecy certainly shows us that they will, all the money that can be amassed in this world today will not profit the individual one whit.

There could be hundreds and thousands and even millions of dollars in the bank, but when prophecy starts coming to pass and Jacob’s trouble arrives on his doorstep and the western world suffers the great tribulation, money, possession, stuff—all of that won’t do any good whatsoever. But righteousness, obeying God, doing what is right, obeying His commandments, which are referred to as righteousness—it says it right in Psalms 119:172,“All your commandments are righteousness.” —righteousness delivers from death. That’s where real security will always come from, obeying God. Not from possessions that we might amass and gather and collect to ourselves.

5 The righteousness of the perfect—

Or the blameless. Nobody is perfect, but we are trying to grow in perfection, and we’re trying to grow toward perfection, and so the righteousness of those who are trying to do that and are blameless

5 —shall direct his way: but the wicked shall fall by his own wickedness.

Fall of his own weight. Sooner or later, breaking God’s laws and being wicked incurs a penalty which ends up being very painful and even actually destroying the individual who keeps on breaking those laws and won’t repent and change. What’s the lesson here in verse 5?

Obey God and that will lead you, that will direct us. Disobey God and it’s going to come back on us and it will cause us all kinds of trouble and even destroy us. The wicked shall fall. What? By someone else’s hand? His own ways will end up destroying him and he’ll fall by his own wickedness. Once again, whatever you sow, you reap.

6 The righteousness of the upright shall deliver them: but transgressors shall be taken in their own naughtiness.

Or another translation says, “in their own lust.” People lust after other people. People lust after money. People lust after power and gain and promotion and recognition. But you know what? If a person continues to pursue that—that naughtiness, that lust—that, once again, will be the downfall of that individual.

But obedience, serving God, walking with Him, following Jesus Christ, trying to do what the Bible says, and when we make mistakes, trying to repent and be forgiven. But the attitude is one of: I want to do the right thing. I want to love God. I want to love neighbor. I want to obey what God says in living my life, in all facets of my life, in my marriage, in my home, with my job, toward my employer, toward my neighbor, toward the man on the street. No matter where I am or whatever I’m doing, I’m going to try to do the right thing in a low key, humble, but firm way. That will deliver the individual who has that attitude and who is moving his life down that path.

7 When a wicked man dies, his expectation shall perish: and the hope of unjust men perisheth.

So in other words, that’s all they have to live for. Whatever they can do to titillate the flesh, whatever they can do to get a rush, to get some kind of fleeting, passing, physical pleasure, and then when they die, that’s it. It’s over. It’s finished. That’s all there is to it. Unless there was a resurrection later when they would get their first opportunity to understand the truth and do what God says, which is in the second resurrection.

7 —and the hope of unjust men perisheth.

They have no hope. They only have hope in this life. Hope for more pleasure, hope for more gain, hope for more fleeting power, etc. Well, when they die, that’s it. They’re not hoping any time past this life because all they think about is the here and now and themselves and get while the getting is good.

8 The righteous is delivered out of trouble, and the wicked comes in his stead.

Verse 8 is a wonderful verse and a very encouraging verse. It tells us that when we try to do the right thing, we’re going to be delivered out of the trouble. But you know what? It also tells us that even though we’re trying to do the right thing, we can still end up in trouble because human beings are tested and tried and we make mistakes. And so first thing you know, we have created some trouble for ourselves. Or we might be doing the right thing but somebody else has created some trouble for us. But that’s not the end, because look what it says here in verse 8.

8 The righteous is delivered out of trouble—

God will not let us languish in trouble and be consumed by trouble. He’ll let us learn some lessons and patience and faith, but He will deliver us out of trouble. Now notice what the rest of verse 8 says.

A better translation is this: It comes to the wicked instead. The trouble that the righteous might have fallen into and then are delivered out of comes to the wicked instead, and they’re not delivered out of it. That trouble that the wicked fall into or create or they are confronted with, instead of being delivered out of it, they suffer it and it continues with them quite often until they are destroyed or until they are total failures, until they hit rock bottom.

9 A hypocrite with his mouth destroys his neighbor: but through knowledge shall the just be delivered.

You know, a hypocrite, no matter if it’s a next door neighbor or no matter if it’s a family member, or no matter if it’s a fellow worker, in the broadest sense, our neighbor is anyone else. And so a hypocrite, a duplicitous person, one that lies, one that pretends to be one way and is actually another goes about trying to destroy others. And one of the ways that they do that is not necessarily with a weapon, but they can do it with their mouth.

I mean, words are very potent, powerful things. So if they start telling lies about the other individual, if they start leveling false accusations against the other individual, if they start undercutting their neighbor, if they start spreading rumors about the neighbor, before long, trouble starts for the neighbor and they can end up actually destroying another person just by the words that come out of their mouth. That’s what hypocrites do.

But the anecdote or the defense to something like that is knowledge—godly knowledge, true knowledge, right knowledge, real knowledge. Through knowledge shall the righteous or the just be delivered, and therefore the hypocrite won’t be able to destroy them. But if we’re just winging it on our own, we can end up being brought down by a hypocrite and be at his or her mercy—just by the words of their mouth.

10 When it goes well with the righteous, the city rejoices: and when the wicked perish, there is shouting.

Now, we should not rejoice over the wicked that perish, but there can be happiness over being delivered from the pain and suffering and from the agony that the wicked can bring on a family, on a neighborhood, on a city or even on a nation. This tyrant Saddam Hussein, for instance, we don’t even know how much wickedness and pain and suffering he inflicted on the nation of Iraq.

So there’s the principle. People are happy when righteous people succeed because it’s good for everybody. The common, decent folks are happy when the righteous succeed and they’re happy when the wicked perish in the sense that they no longer can inflict misery on the population.

11 By the blessing of the upright the city is exalted: but it is overthrown by the mouth of the wicked.

It’s talking about leadership here. You have an excellent leader in a family or in the neighborhood or in the city or in the state, or in the whole nation, and if they are people who are upright and people who are trying to do the right thing—you can read about this in the Old Testament. When a king was righteous, the nation prospered, the nation was at peace, the nation was blessed.

But when the wicked prospered and there was a wicked king, that king brought misery and suffering on the population. He mistreated the population. He would usually raise taxes. He would send them off to war. He would bring invasions from other nations into that nation. And eventually, if not sooner, the wicked would get that nation or that city enslaved by the enemies.

So that’s why it says in verse 10, when it goes well with the righteous, the city rejoices—the family rejoices, the neighborhood rejoices, the church rejoices—and when the wicked perish, there is shouting.

11 By the blessing of the upright the city is exalted:—

It is successful. It’s run well. It has good commerce and good relations with others.

11 —but it is overthrown by the mouth of the wicked.

Enemies are developed and trouble starts and before long, or somewhere down the road, the city can actually be overthrown, isolated, and end up in wrack and ruin really.

12 He that is void of wisdom despises his neighbor: but a man of understanding holds his peace.

Someone who is silly and foolish will not treat the neighbor right. In fact, they will mistreat the neighbor, or they will cultivate hatred with the neighbor, or they will develop a very unhealthy relationship with someone else because they don’t have wisdom. They’re empty–headed, they’re foolish, they’re selfish, they just think of themselves, and so they will end up despising their neighbor and treating them in a despicable way.

But a man of understanding won’t do that. A man of understanding will know when to keep quiet. A man of understanding will be a peacemaker. A man of understanding will cultivate appreciation for others and good relationships with others, and then others benefit from that relationship, and the man of understanding benefits from it. So we need to love our neighbor as the great commandment says, and love our God.

13 A talebearer reveals secrets: but he that is of a faithful spirit conceals the matter.

A talebearer just loves to go around gossiping and loves to go around spreading all kind of rumors, and loves to come up with real salacious, juicy tidbits about others. I mean, there’s a whole industry in our society today of people who do nothing else except write about and speak about and talk about, and dig up gossip. It’s just disgusting and it’s just amazing how they love doing that and how they make so much money doing that, and how other people just can’t get enough of it. Well, what a disgusting, unchristian, unbiblical, miserable way to live, and what a rotten attitude that is.

Notice this. Here’s what the decent, right, Christian person will do. Last part of verse 13:

13 —he that is of a faithful spirit—

Someone who has maturity, someone who has smarts, someone who has depth, someone who has class, they won’t go around spreading all of this gossip and all of these tales and all of these rumors. They might hear something and they might have to report it to the proper authorities, but as far as spreading it around—no. They will conceal it. They will keep it to themselves and they will handle it in a proper way. They’ll either go to the person if they feel like they need to and talk to them about it and get it changed that way, or go to the proper authorities and let them take care of it. But they will not try to spread this information all around to others in the form of gossip. That is a shallow, cheap, uncaring individual that does that. Someone who just doesn’t have that much smarts and that much awareness. Certainly someone who has little or no character.

14 Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counselors there is safety.

In other words, someone who just thinks he knows everything, he’ll figure it out himself. He doesn’t need to ask advice, he doesn’t need to get input, he doesn’t want feedback. He just simply is so knowledgeable that he can handle it himself. So he makes the decisions and he launches the project, or he launches the battle, or he starts up the company, or he makes the decision. He’s a lone wolf. Then what happens is, it falls apart quite often. And when it falls apart, not only does he suffer but other people suffer too. But notice what the last part of verse 14 says:

14 —but in the multitude of counselors there is safety.

No, not just anybody should be your counselor or our counselor, but we should get good counselors and we should get a pretty good variety of counselors so that we can get good feedback. We can’t think of everything, and so if one person is trying to think of everything, he’s going to overlook something. But if several people who can be trusted and who give good counsel and who are careful in the feedback they give are thinking of the same thing, and then give good, well–thought–out, well–crafted input and counsel back, and then the individual who’s making a decision or starting the project puts all that counsel together with how he or she feels and summarizes it, and distills it, and brings it down to the bottom line, a much better decision will be made and it reduces the risk greatly. And as it says here, “In the multitude of counselors there is safety.”

15 He that is surety for a stranger shall smart for it: and he that hates suretiship is sure.

Once again, Solomon is repeating how cosigning, mortgaging things, going on the note for somebody, it better be thought out very carefully, and you better not do it unless you’re prepared to pay the whole thing because you may end up having to do just that. And so he said here, “If you are a guaranteer for a stranger, you’re going to suffer for it, and if you don’t like pledging a guarantee, then you’re going to see that you end up on safer ground and more secure.” Just be very careful about guaranteeing someone else’s house, someone else’s car, someone else’s bank note, someone else’s decision. Be very, very, very careful about that because you could end up really suffering for it.

16 A gracious woman retains honor:—

And that’s certainly true, and where do we find gracious women today who are honorable women, who are really, really wonderful and who are very feminine, who are virtuous? Well, there are some, but they’re hard to find. But when there are gracious women in our families and in our neighborhoods, she’s going to be honorable and she’s going to be looked up to and she’s going to be respected.

16 —and strong men retain riches.

In other words, another translation reads, “But ruthless men retain riches.” A gracious woman wants to retain honor, but ruthless men, all they’re interested in is riches and power, and so you see as we go through this book of Proverbs, especially in chapter 8 now, we see these contrasts in each verse. These two contrasts—this is right, this is wrong, this works, this doesn’t work, this is the way to be, this is the way not to be, choose this way, don’t choose that way. And in this chapter here of verse 11, it’s there in tremendous detail:

16 A gracious woman retains honor:—

That’s important to her. Ruthless men, they retain riches. That’s what’s important to them. It’s obvious which is the most important. Honor is way more important than riches.

Okay, so, we’ve run out of time here as we go through chapter 11. We don’t want to rush this. It is more of a survey, an overview. We want to keep moving but we don’t want to move too fast and overlook some of the tremendous gold nuggets, spiritually speaking, that are in these verses. So we’re going to stop there at verse 16 and pick it up with verse 17 next time.

This is Charles Bryce with the Enduring Church of God.