“The way of a guilty man”
[Proverbs 21:5-8]
One of the books that I’m reading these days is Oswald Chambers’ “The Philosophy of Sin”. The reason I bought this book, was because of the author of the book was Oswald Chambers even though the title of the book got my attention. He is the author of the book “My Utmost for His Highest”, which has become a classic among Christian classics, loved all over the world. Regarding the common nature of all sins, he said: ‘The common nature of all sins is a departure from the love of God. The desire to depart from God's love and achieve a selfish goal set by a man rather than a goal set by Him is a common attribute of the trend of the world (the general flow of thoughts of an age) and the fundamental sin of mankind’ (Chambers). What do you think of this statement? Do you think that the general flow of thoughts of this time and the common nature of mankind's fundamental sin is not desiring and pursuing God's goal but to achieve the selfish goal? One of the clear and sure works of Satan is 'exchange'. What does Satan change? Satan changes God's goals into our selfish goals. Therefore, Satan is making us sin against God. How can we know this work of Satan? We can be found in Romans 1:23, 25, 26: “and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures” (v. 23), “For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen” (v. 25), “For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural” (v. 26). Satan exchanges what is the natural function of man and woman for that which is unnatural. Therefore, Satan is making us to sin against God.
I would like to receive the lessons that God gives to us while meditating on the four sins centering on the words of Proverbs 21:5-8.
First, we should not be hasty.
Look at Proverbs 21:5 – “The plans of the diligent lead surely to advantage, But everyone who is hasty comes surely to poverty.” Do you know anybody who is hasty? Have you ever thought that hastiness could be a sin? Once, I talked to a person whom I got to know through Facebook about “hastiness” and I shared the words of 2 Timothy 3:4 – “treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God--.” Then, when he saw the word “rash”, he said that he had never known that rash or hastiness was a sin. What do you think? Do you think rash or hastiness is a sin? In Proverbs 21:5, King Solomon says, “… But everyone who is hasty comes surely to poverty.” What does it mean? If people are hasty, they cannot prosper at work or in business because they cannot continue to do one thing (Park). The Bible tells us that those who are hasty not only cannot prosper, but also comes surely to poverty. Perhaps one of the reasons is because the hasty people may often err on the job since they work hastily by relying on their own understanding and trying to earn a lot of income in a short period of time rather than working diligently. That's why Proverbs 19:2 says, “Also it is not good for a person to be without knowledge, And he who hurries his footsteps errs.”
Why does the Bible say that “he who hurries his footsteps errs”? What do you think is the reason? Maybe that's because, in my opinion, the hasty man hurries with no knowledge of passion. In particular, the man who is hasty in business may ruin the business rather than earning money and enriching it because he hurries his footsteps with no knowledge. That's why Proverbs 28:20 says, “A faithful man will abound with blessings, But he who makes haste to be rich will not go unpunished.” What does it mean? He who wants to get rich quickly will be punished. Also, Proverbs 28:22 says: “A man with an evil eye hastens after wealth And does not know that want will come upon him.” It means that he who is in a hurry to acquire wealth will become poor. We must be wary of being hasty. One of the reasons is because if our minds are hasty we are at high risk of speeding. In other words, when our hearts become hasty, there is a high risk of wrongdoing God's work because it will overtake God's speed and push forward with our speed. For example, if a Christian businessman is hasty and wants to get rich quickly, he will certainly use tricks to make more money in a short amount of time rather than diligently planning and working faithfully. At that time, the problem that I think is really serious is that at first it seems like our business is going well according to our plan even though we do business with such tricks. If the business isn’t going well, we would look back at ourselves and think at least once and say, 'Oh, I'm not doing business well because I used tricks.' But when our business goes well, then we will become proud and will justify ourselves of using tricks for the business. Therefore, we should wary of being hasty. And we must pursue the attitude of diligence (Prov. 21:5) and loyalty or faithfulness (28:28). The reason is because the plans of the diligent, not the hasty, lead to profit (21:5). And “A faithful man will be richly blessed” (28:20).
Second, we should not make fortune by a lying tongue.
Look at Proverbs 21:6 – “A fortune made by a lying tongue is a fleeting vapor and a deadly snare.” Do you believe that if you don’t lie and do business honestly, you will gain wealth? Clearly, Proverbs 21:6 says, “A fortune made by a lying tongue is a fleeting vapor and a deadly snare”. What does it mean? To collect wealth by lying means that it will eventually be like a fleeting vapor and will soon disappear. Also, it is a trap that leads us to death. Although at first it may seem like you are making a lot of money by doing business by the lying tongue, in the end, the money you earn will disappear quickly. That's why Proverbs 23:4-5 says, “Do not wear yourself out to get rich; have the wisdom to show restraint. Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle.” Can you imagine a scene where wealth spreads its wings and flies like an eagle in the sky? Not long ago, when I looked at the online Chosun Ilbo (Korean newspaper), there was an article titled ‘Foreclosure Min-jong Kim, investment-fraud, I signed, but the money I saved for 25 years was blown away… Confession’. So I read it for a while and a Korean actor Min-jong Kim said, ‘There was money but not anymore. There was something I earned, but somehow it all disappeared’ (Internet). This is what Proverbs 27:24 says: “For riches are not forever, Nor does a crown endure to all generations.” Riches cannot last forever. In particular, all wealth that we earn by lying, not only will not forever, but also it will disappear in an instant. In addition, it is said that the wealth earned by lying will only end up driving the person to death (21:6). This is because lies are the devil's method (Jn. 8:44) (Park). In other words, as John 8:44 says, those who are born of the devil do according to the greed of their father, the devil because the devil “was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” Therefore, it is by no means our Heavenly Father's way for a business owner to earn money by lying to deceive others without having a way out of the desire to collect wealth. It’s the devil’s way. So in the end, it will be woe to him. The reason for this is because the devil is a being who only tries to bring woe to humans (Park).
The Bible clearly says “Ill-gotten gains do not profit” (Prov. 10:2). Also, the Bible clearly says, “Wealth obtained by fraud dwindles” (13:11). What does it mean? It means that wealth gathered in dishonest or unrighteous ways is useless and diminishes. Therefore, we Christians must work honestly and do business in a righteous way. When we work according to God's will for His glory, God will also give you the power to obtain riches (Deut. 8:18).
Third, we should not imitate the violence of the wicked.
Look at Proverbs 21:7 – “The violence of the wicked will drag them away, Because they refuse to act with justice.” As a Christian, who would try to imitate the violence of the wicked? But what we need to think about is that Asaph, the psalmist, was envious of the prosperity of the wicked (Ps. 73). That means we won't try to imitate the violence of the wicked in the first place. But when our economic situation gets very bad, we can be envious and jealous of the prosperity of the wicked. Especially as a business Christian, if his financial situation is getting worse and worse, if he sees unbelievers around him earning more money dishonestly and in unrighteous ways, his envy and jealous mind can develop more. And eventually he can be tempted to take others' money in an unrighteous way. Proverbs 21:7 can be translated into Hebrew, the original language, as follows: ‘The robbery of the wicked destroys themselves, because they refuse to do justice’ (Park). When I meditate on this word, the Scripture that comes to my mind is Matthew 21:13 – “’It is written,’ he said to them, My house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of robbers.” Who made the temple, the house of God, a den of robbers? It is all those who buy and sell in the temple, money changers and pigeon sellers (21:12). They turned the holy temple of God into the den of merchants, that is, the den of scammers who extort people. These were none other than religious leaders at that time. They dominated their financial income centered on the temple. For example, the Sadducees who ran the temple handed over the rights of the beast market to their own people (the Sadducees), and then collected tremendous wealth in the center of the temple through them (Internet). Upon seeing this, Jesus entered the temple and “drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves” (v. 12). And then Jesus said to them, “It is written, … ‘'My house will be called a house of prayer,' but you are making it a 'den of robbers’” (v. 13).
Although God's temple should be the house of prayer now, has it been transformed into the den of robbers like the temple of Jesus' day? Aren't our church leaders now attracting great wealth through the church? We must be wary of those who want to get rich. What is the reason? Look at 1 Timothy 6:9 – “But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction.” The reason we should be wary of those who want to get rich is because they can fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires. And the result is that greed desire gives birth to sin when conceived, and death when sin is full-grown (Jam. 1:15). Rather, we should like to do justice. In other words, we should enjoy doing what is right in the sight of the Lord (Prov. 21:8). As righteous people who believe in Jesus and are justified, it should be a pleasure for us to do justice (v. 15). But now, as in the days of the prophet Habakkuk, the wicked surround the righteous. Therefore justice comes out perverted (Hab 1:4). Therefore, the law is now ignored and just is never upheld (v. 4). Therefore, we Christians should strive to do more and more justice. We must walk in the path of righteousness and in the midst of the paths of justice (Prov. 8:20).
Fourth, we must not walk on a crooked way.
Look at Proverbs 21:8 – “The way of a guilty man is crooked, But as for the pure, his conduct is upright.” Personally, the way that comes to mind when I think of the crooked way is San Francisco's Lombard Street, the most winding road in the world. It is said that this road consists of 8 hairpin courses at intervals of 5 meters on a road of about 400 meters. I remember driving down that road once slowly. It's because it's too winding. In my memory, in addition to this winding road, there seems to be a straight down hill road in San Francisco. But I remember that it was so inclined that I was very careful to drive. I think there are two kinds of paths in our lives. There are straight roads, and there are also winding roads in our life path. If we apply these two kinds of paths to our spiritual life, we can think of the right path and the crooked path. We Christians know that we must walk the right path that Jesus walked. But the problem is that Satan doesn't want us to walk the right path. That's why Satan is tempting us and making us to walk on the crooked path. In order to do so, what Satan does first is to make our hearts crooked. As a result, even we who call ourselves Christians are walking on the crooked path with the crooked hearts. The world in which we live is “a crooked and perverse generation” (Phil. 2:15). People in this world aren’t walking on the straight and the right path that God has commanded. Instead, they are walking on the crooked path. Still, they think that the crooked path is the right path. The world denies (rejects) the absolute truth of God and regards lies as truth. The mind is also crooked. Because the heart is crooked, both words and actions are crooked.
In Proverbs 21:8, King Solomon says, “The way of a guilty man is crooked, But as for the pure, his conduct is upright.” The translation of this word into the original Hebrew is as follows: ‘The deeds of those who have sinned are bent and strange, but the deeds of the clean are honest’ (Park). Of course, the term “those who have sinned” here refers to a natural human being who is not born again. And unregenerated natural humans are false because they belong to darkness (Jere. 17:9). Therefore, they make an effort to conceal their actions. That is the ‘crooked’ behavior (Park). There is a woman who walks along this crooked path and acts crookedly in the Bible, and that person is “an adulteress”. Look at Proverbs 5:6 – “She gives no thought to the way of life; her paths are crooked, but she knows it not.” King Solomon says that the adulteress doesn’t realize it even if her way is crooked. And her feet go down to death and her steps lead straight to the grave (v. 5). This is what Isaiah 59:8 says: “The way of peace they do not know; there is no justice in their paths. They have turned them into crooked roads; no one who walks in them will know peace.” What does it mean? The Bible says that we don’t know peace if we walk on a winding road without justice. In other words, the crooked road is not the path of peace. So Proverbs 10:9 says, “The man of integrity walks securely, but he who takes crooked paths will be found out.” If we walk in the right way, it will be peaceful. But if we walk in the crooked way, we cannot but find peace.
We must walk in the right way (Prov. 10:9). We must walk on a straight path (21:8). We must walk the path of the clean man. Walking the path of the clean man means that we must be honest. Rather than trying to conceal our sinful acts like those who commit great sins, we must make honest confession for what we have done wrong as clean people (Park).
We can only become hasty when we have the common attribute of all sins we have already contemplated: the desire to leave God's love and achieve a selfish goal that we have set rather than the goal He has set. And we will accumulate wealth with deceitful words, and will imitate the violence of the wicked. Further, we will walk on the crooked path. What must we do? We must dwell in God's love. And we must move toward the goal set by God. Also, we must obey God's commandments. In Proverbs 21:5-8, the commandment that God gives us is not to be hasty, do not collect wealth by the lying tongues, don’t imitate the violence of the wicked, and don’t walk in the crooked path. Rather, what God is commanding us to do is to work diligently and to accumulate wealth honestly. God is commanding us to do what is right in His sight. And God is commanding us to be honest as we walk in the right way. May we all obey this Lord's word