Proverbs 6:12-15, The Schemer Expunged!
March 8, Proverbs 6:12-15
Rom. 6:13-23; Heb. 2:1-3; Matt. 22:1-7 “There is no fear of God before their eyes” (Rom. 3:18).
The Schemer Expunged!
Watch your body language! The eyes, feet and hands all are trademarks of these scoundrels, these worthless persons. The saying “actions speak louder than words” is applicable here in a negative way. It is not only what a person says, but how he says it that proves the true import of words. Gestures, tone of voice, facial expressions are the true indicators of what the words really are intended to mean. Body language is significant!
- Sows Stormy Discord: a. Sneaky Signs (v.13): Not only the tongue, buy eye, foot, and hand are instruments of falsehood. He winketh (Pr. 10:10). So Eliphaz accused Job (Job 15:12). It is a familiar way to set some evil deed afoot. To win in fun or favour, is one thing, but to deceive is evil (Ps. 35:19). “The eye obeys exactly the action of the mind” (Emerson). He speaketh with his feet, shuffling or stamping to show anger or to warn. The Bible sums up the whole character of a man in his “walk”. Teacheth with his fingers, pointing, giving signs. This can be used of a good teacher, or of communicating with the deaf, but here it is always for bad ends. It is common today to give someone “the finger” as an obscene gesture. In these ways the Schemer conceals what he does and hopes he is unsuspected. “He is cunning. He has a language by himself which an honest man does not desire” (M. Henry). b. Spiteful Motives (v.14): The word froward is different from froward in verse 12. This is outright perversity, malice! “He is continually devising one mischief or other, purely for mischief sake” (M. Henry). The sneaky signs are outward, but deep within his perverse heart “lies the laboratory of evil, teaming with greater and yet greater abominations” (Bridges). What a deceitful thing the unregenerate heart of man is! Devise means to engrave or plough. His wickedness cuts deep. c. Spreads Strife: He sows discord, dissention, a familiar word in Proverbs. Fifteen of its eighteen uses in the Bible are in this book. Literally, it means to let loose strife, to throw out dissension by the handfuls, as a sower sowing seed. This is surely the devil’s work, and the Schemer is his accomplice.
- Reaps Speedy Doom: Two different Hebrew words used for sudden serve to heighten the swiftness and unexpected nature of the punishment such naughty persons will receive (v.15). His doom is sudden, certain, and severe. God’s moral government of the Universe and His Word ensures his final disaster. It is without remedy, literally, without healing. There is no cure. It is fixed, unalterable! “Such a pest to society brings on himself his own ruin, suddenly and without remedy” (Bridges). “The suddenness does not arise from want of warning, but the neglect of it” (Thomas). Paul likewise warns, “How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?” oh, the peril of drifting until the point of no return irresistibly takes us over the cataract! Those invited to the Marriage, believed the invitation was genuine, but they made light of (neglected) it, and reaped a speedy doom!
Thought: “The power of man can never reverse the sentence of God” (Moore).
Prayer: Lord, keep me ever sensitive to Thy warnings and pleadings.