Proverbs 17:14, A Hole In The Dike!
November 12, Proverbs 17:14
Matt. 5:21-26; Luke 12:58-59 “Don’t strive for defence of self, but for defence of saints.”
A Hole In The Dike!
Strife is so evil that if not quickly remedied it will burst the dam, and carry everything before it.
1. Begins So Slight: The beginning of strife is as when one lets out water. It may be just a damp spot on the dike wall at first, then a trickle, then a rivulet, then an unstoppable torrent! Truly, is not this an apt description of what happens when personal quarrels break out among us? The cause may be some slight point, a careless word or innocent gesture, but how quickly it can lead on to an all out war, between individuals or even nations! If neither side yields, feelings harden, things escalate and the break becomes fixed. One drop leads to another till it becomes a mad, rushing torrent. When the dam goes, it lets loose devastation, more terrible than anyone can predict, much less control!
2. Ends So Severe: We cannot imagine life on earth without water. It is essential for life, and as long as it stays within its canals and pipes, it is a precious boon. When, however, it gets out of control, it is the second greatest catastrophe that can happen to us. It is a wonderful servant but a deadly tyrant! A hole in the dike can be ever so slight, a child’s finger might stem the flow, but ignored, all man’s wisdom, art and philosophy are helpless to contain it. Therefore, abandon, forsake, this kind of contention before it demolishes you. Don’t be meddling with it! Meddling, used only here and in Pr. 18:1 and 20:3, means to burst out, or expose oneself by unnecessary quarrelling. One example of causeless strife was the unreasonable quarrel of the men of Ephraim with Jephthah (Judges 12). Another was the response of Rehoboam to the reasonable overture of the men of Israel with the result that his kingdom was split in two (Kings 12)!
3. Vigils So Strategic: But is there not a cause? Scripture enjoins us to contend earnestly for the faith. A booklet entitled, A Hole in the Dike (1977), sets out “Critical Aspects of Berkouwer’s Theology.” G.C. Berkouwer was a professor at the Free University of Amsterdam. He had great influence on “evangelicals” the world over. The booklet’s author, Carl Bogue, traces the shift in Berkouwer from “the absolute authority of Scripture” with which he began, to his changed Neoorthodoxy and pro-Catholic stance! “Berkouwer may well be the hole in the dike through which a flood is coming,… It will be a flood whose damage will be far more difficult to repair” than any natural floods in the history of Holland (pp. 25-26). Now, twenty plus years later, that flood is in full spate! One observer of the religious scene speaks of “raging storms” and “galloping apostasy.” Are we contending earnestly? These warnings go largely unheeded in our day of “consumer-driven” evangelicalism. Spurgeon cried, “The old gospel is the only gospel. A new gospel is no gospel, for what is true is not new, and what is new in theology is not true.”
Thought: “Still water and still religion freeze the quickest” (Anon).
Prayer: Lord, for grace to know the difference between personal rage and holy anger.