We should not do these things.
[Proverbs 30:10-17]
What kind of people should we really be? One day, I once wrote something like this under the title ‘I shouldn’t be this kind of person …’: We should not be someone who misunderstands too quickly rather than to understand, someone who is quick to criticize rather than sincerely praise, someone who gets angry too easily rather than to be patient, someone who is too busy to assert herself rather than to listen to what others have to say and so on. What kind of people should we really be?
I would like to receive a lesson by meditating on 7 things we should not do as Christians, focusing on Proverbs 30:10-17.
First, we should not slander.
Look at Proverbs 30:10 – “Do not slander a slave to his master, Or he will curse you and you will be found guilty.” I read an article on the Internet with the title, ‘How to get rid of a talkative coworker’ (Internet). According to the article, ‘There is one thing that is a source of conflict in many workplaces.’ It's called ‘the constant chatter of co-workers who share too much privacy.’ According to one survey of 514 professional and corporate workers, three out of five workers said they had at least one co-worker who shared their personal lives too much, at least once a week. These gossips often interfere with the work of their co-workers and risk putting their careers as well as the careers of others at risk. If you have one of these chatty coworkers around you at your workplace, what would you do if that coworker went to your boss and chatted about you and then slandered you? What would your relationship be with you and your boss if the colleague laughed at you and slandered you at your boss? How would you feel if your boss looked bad at you because your financial situation is difficult and you have to keep working at that job, but your co-worker goes to your boss and criticizes you? What would you do to your co-worker if your boss heard slander about you from a co-worker and fired you, so you can no longer work and you becomes more difficult financially?
In Proverbs 30:10, the Bible says, “Do not slander a slave to his master ….” In other words, we must not criticize someone else’s slave against his master. If the slave is serving his master as a servant, and another person comes and slanders his master against him, what will happen to that slave? Wouldn't that slave suffer a disadvantage from his master? In particular, what if the slave’s master believes the word and views the slave not only suspiciously but also badly, despite the fact that the slander is false accusation? This is what Dr. Yoon-sun Park said: ‘Anyone who insults a slave to his master is an evil act that cuts off the master's love for him. A slave’s livelihood depends on his master, and if the master hates him, he becomes miserable. Therefore, whoever blasphemes him in front of his master is not only committing the sin of blasphemy, but also the cruel sin of trampling on the weak’ (Park). The Bible Deuteronomy 23:15 says, “If a slave has taken refuge with you, do not hand him over to his master.” Here, the reason the slave fled from his master is because his master is an unjust master. So if the slave ran away to you, the Bible says not to hand him over to his master. The reason God spoke this word to the Israelites through Moses about a slave who wasn’t treated as a human at that time was because God, who is righteous, thought about the slave who was treated unjustly by his master. But, contrary to God's heart, what will the slave do toward the person who slanders his master? Look at Proverbs 30:10b – “… Or he will curse you and you will be found guilty.” That slave could not only curse a man who made false accusations against his master, but he could also make him pay the price. And the cost will be high. In other words, the cost of false accusations (slander) against the slave can be great for the master. Therefore, the Bible says, “Do not slander a slave to his master” (Prov. 30:10).
These days, we see countless comments on social media that slander many people, including famous celebrities. Because of the slanderous comments, it seems that famous celebrities and others suffer from extreme stress and depression. What I still remember is that through Internet news, a famous entertainer filed a criminal complaint against a case of defamatory posts/comments such as dissemination of malicious false information related to him on online SNS, personal attacks, and sexual harassment, and filed a criminal complaint in Gangnam, Seoul. I heard the news that it was submitted to the cyber investigation team of the police station (Internet). It seems that we have entered an era where every word in the comments on the Internet is killing and saving people. When I saw an article posted by someone on the Blue House website in Korea, it said: ‘Those who lead people to suicide by criticizing and slandering are truly killers through language.’ We who are living in these times, I think we should be more careful with our mouths. In particular, we should be careful about talking about others (I'm talking to myself because I'm not very good at it). In particular, we should not criticize/blame/slander others. In Romans 14:4, the Bible says: “Who are you to judge someone else's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.” The Bible says, ‘Do not judge someone else’s servant.’ The Bible says in Romans 2:1 – “Therefore you have no excuse, everyone of you who passes judgment, for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things.” Also, the Bible James 4:11 says: “Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it.” We must not judge and slander others (Prov. 30:10), whether they are co-workers, brothers or sisters in Christ, or even family members. If we don’t, we will be cursed and will be found guilty (v. 10).
Second, we should not curse.
Look at Proverbs 30:11 – “There is a kind of man who curses his father And does not bless his mother.” I think that the age we are living in is no longer an age to honor our parents. It seems that this time is no longer the time to be filial to parents. The biblical basis for this I think is 2 Timothy 3:1-2: “But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy.” This is terrible times and time to suffer. One of the signs of these terrible times in the last days is disobedient to our parents. People of this generation don’t obey their parents. Not only are they disobedient, but people of this generation even curse their parents.
In Proverbs 30:11, the Bible says, “There is a kind of man who curses his father And does not bless his mother.” Actually, according to this word, aren't there many children who curse their fathers even now? Some of the sisters in Christ I have known have very bad relationships with their fathers. Some members end their relationship with their father. The reason is because they have suffered great wounds from their father. To that extent, there are brothers and sisters in Christ here and there who have a very bad relationship with their father. Then, considering how the relationship with the mother is, in general, the relationship with the mother seems to be better than that with the father. However, I have doubts when I think about whether they are blessing their mother. In Proverbs 30:11, there is something interesting. The interesting thing is that the writer of Proverbs, Agur, uses both the words ‘curse’ and ‘blessing’. Why did Agur say, “There is a kind of man who curses his father And does not bless his mother” instead of saying, ‘There is a kind of man who curses his father and mother or his parents’? I think Agur’s intention was to let us know that our parents are not the object of a ‘curse’ but a ‘blessing’. Therefore, the lesson is that we should bless our parents, not curse them. The Bible Leviticus 20:9 says this: “If anyone curses his father or mother, he must be put to death. He has cursed his father or his mother, and his blood will be on his own head.” Also, this is what the Bible Matthew 15:4 says: “For God said, 'Honor your father and mother' and 'Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death’” (Note: Mk. 7:10). In this way, the Bible says cursing parents is a mortal sin. That is why God wants us to honor our parents. We must bless our parents in the name of Jesus.
Primarily, we know that parents should bless their children. For example, like a book titled ‘Bless your children once a day,’ we parents think it is good (precious) to bless our children once a day. But perhaps we haven't been thinking that children have to bless their parents once a day. If the Bible says, “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse” (Rom. 12:14), shouldn’t we bless our loving parents instead of cursing them? As the Bible says in Luke 6:28, “bless those who curse you,” we should bless our parents even if they curse us.
Third, we should not be pure in our own eyes.
One day, while I was exercising at YMCA, a woman was having a conversation with a man. She was talking so loudly that I could hear her. I was concerned about what she said because she kept on using the “F …” word while having conversation with the man. At that time, in my mind, I thought, ‘That woman's mouth is ugly'. A few days after that, I was browsing the internet news and saw a famous, devout Christian basketball player who said the “F…” word in last year's NBA basketball western final. The news said that he was rebuked by his mother. After that, I shared that internet news article on the Facebook page that I am running along with my short writing about not to say the bad word even in our minds. I said that we Christians who believe in Jesus need to purify our our hearts and lips when we see even Christians saying “F…” word and other bad words as well. Of course, this is only talking about bad words, but that doesn't mean that we are only saying bad words and not committing other sins. I saw this writing in a Bible study material called ‘5 principles to teach new families’ at a church in Korea: ‘… We sin a lot in our hearts. The Bible says that just having lust is the same as committing adultery, and hating our brothers in Christ is like murder. How then are committing filthy and ugly sins as adulterers and murderers?’ (Internet) That is why we often think of praying to a holy God and referring to ourselves as 'these filthy and ugly sinners'. If you have never confessed (acknowledged) that you are 'this filthy and ugly sinner' in prayer to God, then you have probably heard other people pray to God like that. Why do we pray to God like that?
Look at Proverbs 30:12 – “There is a kind who is pure in his own eyes, Yet is not washed from his filthiness.” What kind of people do you think consider themselves clean? Who do you think when you think about a man who is pure in his own eyes yet isn’t washed from his filthiness? Don't you remember the Pharisees who justified themselves? In Proverbs 30:12, those who consider themselves clean refer to those who justify themselves like the Pharisees. There are four characteristics of these people (Park): (1) Those who justify themselves focus on external religious regulations and neglect the state of their hearts (Mt. 23:25-27), (2) Those who justify themselves are exalted as if their whole character was perfected by one or two things well done (Lk. 18:12), (3) Those who justify themselves regard others as inferior and discriminate (v. 11), (4) Those who justify themselves are arrogant because they think they are right, so they don’t fully believe in the atoning Christ. What do you think of these 4 characteristics?
The righteousness that the Pharisees, the religious leaders of Jesus' day, sought was “self-righteousness.” Here, “self-righteousness” refers to the attitude to stand before God by relying on one’s own religious conduct. This is righteousness by observing the law. This “self-righteousness”, that is, the righteousness by observing the law, can never be justified by God (Rom. 3:20; Gal. 2:16). The reason is because a person can be justified not by observing the law, but only by faith in Jesus Christ. Therefore, he who believes in Jesus and is justified considers his own righteous acts like filthy rags (Isa. 64:6). The “righteousness” Jesus spoke of is “the righteousness of God” (Rom. 3:21-22). “The righteousness of God” is the righteousness based on the redemption of Jesus Christ. God has forgiven all our sins and set us free from our sins on the basis of the blood of Jesus (Acts 13:38). Therefore, we receive the forgiveness of sins through the atoning death of Jesus Christ on the cross, and we are justified by the resurrection of Jesus (Rom. 4:25), so we depend only on the righteousness of Jesus imputed to us (3:22).
We must not rely on our own righteousness. We must depend only on the righteousness of God, the righteousness of Jesus. Although the instinctive 'selfishness' within us to seek 'self-righteousness' makes us constantly self-glory and 'self-idolatry' to this day, we should worship only the Lord, boast of Him, and live a life of selfless love and service like the Lord. The reason is because Jesus died on the cross for all our unclean and ugly sins and rose from the grave on the third day to justify us (Rom. 4:25).
Fourth, we should not be haughty.
Look at Proverbs 30:13 – “those whose eyes are ever so haughty, whose glances are so disdainful.” Don't we have a desire to be exalted in front of people? When I think of this instinct within us, I think of a biblical figure named King Saul. Of course, when we think about King Saul, we will think of the famous Bible verse “To obey is better than sacrifice” (1 Sam. 15:22). But if we look back at this word in the context of the Bible, King Saul should have destroyed all their possessions without leaving any when they defeated the Amalekites in the war (v. 3). But he disobeyed God's command. And the reason of his disobedience to God's command was pride. How can we know this? Rather than truly repenting of his sin after hearing the rebuke of the prophet Samuel, King Saul asked Samuel: “I have sinned. But please honor me before the elders of my people and before Israel; come back with me, so that I may worship the LORD your God” (v. 30). How could Saul, even after sinning against God and being rebuked, ask Samuel to exalt himself before the elder of the Israelites and before Israel? I think the reason was that King Saul, who was humble enough to consider himself small (v. 17), has turned into the proud man. And I think there are at least two reasons for that perversion:
(1) The reason of the perversion from humility to pride is because we don’t walk by faith, but by sight.
Many times we walk by what we see with our physical eyes rather than by faith. Especially when we are in an emergency situation, we are often caught up in the urgency of the situation and are led by the situation rather than acting in faith. King Saul was like that. When we look at from 1 Samuel 13:6, we see that the Philistines, as many as the sand of the seashore, were encamped at Michmash (v. 5). When the Israelites saw that their situation was critical, they all trembled in fear (v. 7), scattered (v. 8) and hid here and there (v. 6). Seeing the people of Israel scattered before him, and seeing the multitude of Philistines gathered at Michmash (v. 11), King Saul didn’t keep what God had commanded him (vv. 13, 14). Instead of waiting for Samuel to come, he himself offered burnt offerings and peace offerings to God (vv. 9-10, 12). King Saul committed the sin by offing the sacrifices that should be offered only by the priests. It was the disbelief and pride of King Saul who disregarded the sacred sacrificial law (Park).
(2) The reason of the perversion from humility to pride is because we see our own glory rather than the glory of God.
It seems that we often steal the glory of God. It seems that we often don’t glorify God, but rather glorify ourselves, especially in situations where we deserve glory. King Saul was like that. He didn’t glorify God. Instead glorifying God, he built a monument in his own honor (1 Sam. 15:12) in the circumstances of his victory in the battle against Amalek. How could he build the monument in his own honor? Rather, shouldn't King Saul have built an altar to God after winning that battle? (Note: 14:35) Why did he act so foolishly? The reason was that King Saul already had pride in his heart. So he glorified himself rather than glorified God. What is surprising is that even though King Saul disobeyed God's command, God gave him victory in the war. And yet he didn’t glorify God, but glorified himself.
This is what Proverbs 30:13 says: “those whose eyes are ever so haughty, whose glances are so disdainful.” The phrase “eyes are ever so haughty” here refers to the prideful eyes (6:17) or “a proud heart” (21:4). The proud people with such haughty eyes are the prosperous wicked spoken of by the psalmist Asaph in Psalms 73:3. They wear pride as their necklace (v. 6), their eye bulges from fatness (v. 7), and they mock and wickedly speak of oppression (v. 8). To a certain extent they speak arrogantly, while they have set their mouth against the heavens (v. 9). They said, “How does God know? And is there knowledge with the Most High?” (v. 11) In Proverbs 29:8, the Bible says, “Mockers stir up a city ….” Here the “Mockers” refers to ones who are proud and angry. And these proud and angry ones blow the flames of contention and stirs up the city (MacArthur).
When I think of my own pride, how can I know if there is pride in me? I can know it by seeing myself not listening to the advice of a mature believer who loves me because I hate his rebuke. Furthermore, my arrogance is such that I hate the one who loved me and rebuked me. The arrogance in me makes me despise and reject the teachings and reproofs of the truth. And that arrogance makes me hear too quickly the sounds of the world's foolishness and temptation. I should hear the voice of wisdom. That’s why the Bible says, “Do not rebuke a mocker or he will hate you …” (9:8).
Pride is something God hates (Prov. 6:16). That is why the Bible says that God doesn’t tolerate a man with haughty eyes and a proud heart (Ps. 101:5). The Bible says that God will bring low those whose eyes are haughty (18:27). We must be humble. We must imitate the humility of Jesus. Just as He humbled himself and came to this earth to serve rather than be served, we must humble ourselves and live a life of service.
Fifth, we should not exploit others to pursue our own profit alone.
Have you ever heard of the term ‘exploitation of the gap’? One of the words we often hear in Korean news is ‘Gapjil’. When a contract is concluded in Korea, Gap (甲) and Eul (乙) always appear at the beginning of the contract. A letter simply indicates the contracting party. The letter that simply indicates the contracting party Gap is usually the contract giving party and Eul is the contract receiving party. So, in general, the Gap is stronger one. Therefore, the contract is written in Gap's advantage, and even if Gap makes an unreasonable request, Eul has no choice but to follow. This kind of tyranny seems to be called “Gapjil”. It would mean acting arrogantly (Internet). One of the arrogant acts of Gap to Eul is exploitation. Exploitation of Gap is when a person in Gap’s position infringes on the rights of a person in Eul’s position and exploits the labor force or share to be distributed (Internet). A exploits numerous Eul's, but by doing things like labor exploitation, Gap exploits even money because he doesn't pay the promised money from Eul's who are weaker and less powerful than him.
In the Bible, exploitation of Gap is found in Psalms 73:6. The Bible says that “they clothe themselves with violence”. This means that all actions and expressions of the wicked are tyranny, oppressing and exploiting others (Park). But not only the wicked did this exploitative act, but in Nehemiah 5:7-9, we can see what the leaders of Judah did to their own people: “I pondered them in my mind and then accused the nobles and officials. I told them, ‘You are exacting usury from your own countrymen!’ So I called together a large meeting to deal with them and said: ‘As far as possible, we have bought back our Jewish brothers who were sold to the Gentiles. Now you are selling your brothers, only for them to be sold back to us!’ They kept quiet, because they could find nothing to say. So I continued, ‘What you are doing is not right. Shouldn't you walk in the fear of our God to avoid the reproach of our Gentile enemies?’” Nehemiah pointed out that the ordeal was made worse by the unjust exploitation of the people by the leaders of the day. He also pointed out the lack of a ‘brotherly consciousness’ that used these difficult times to lend money and enslave the children of those who could not pay. He also pointed out that Gentiles were looking at us, and if we live in this way, we would hide the glory of God. In other words, all the problems occurred because they didn’t fear God (Dong-won Lee).
Look at Proverbs 30:14 – “those whose teeth are swords and whose jaws are set with knives to devour the poor from the earth, the needy from among mankind.” Here, the phrase “those whose teeth are swords and whose jaws are set with knives” is a poetic expression that compares cruelty (Park). In other words, it refers to the cruelty of those who exploit the poor and needy. These people are greedy people who don’t have pity on the poor, but cruelly exploit them for their own profit. A good biblical example is Ahab king of Israel. In 1 Kings 21, King Ahab coveted the vineyard of Naboth, a loyal citizen, and eventually killed Naboth, who was innocent in order to take Naboth’s vineyard. Another example is that in the days of the prophet Isaiah, Israeli shepherds pursued their own interests only to fill their stomachs through covetousness. Look at Isaiah 56:11 – “They are dogs with mighty appetites; they never have enough. They are shepherds who lack understanding; they all turn to their own way, each seeks his own gain.” The Israeli shepherds were living today and tomorrow, seeking pleasure while drinking wine and strong drink. They loved to sleep (v. 10) and were covetous (v. 11). Still, there was no awakening and they led a selfish life (v. 11). They got drunk and took pleasure in their own affairs (vv. 11-12).
We should not live a life that only looks after our own circumstances and pursues our own interests. This is because, as 1 Corinthians 13:5 says, love isn’t self-seeking. Rather, we should seek the good of our neighbors. This is because Jesus commanded, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Mt. 22:39). The apostle Paul loved his neighbor as Jesus commanded. He sought the benefit of his neighbors, the Ephesian church members. The apostle Paul, who gave his last farewell sermon in front of the elders of the Ephesian church, while serving the brothers and sisters of the Ephesian church for three years, taught them whatever was beneficial to them, whether in public or in each house, without hesitation (Acts 20:20). It was about turning to God in repentance and have faith in Lord Jesus (v. 21) that he didn’t hesitate to preach anything that would be helpful to them. This was the mission of the Apostle Paul. His mission was to testify to the gospel of God’s grace. And he considered his life worth nothing in testifying the gospel of God’s grace (v. 24). Also, Paul loved the Corinthian church members. According to 2 Corinthians 11:9, when he was with the Corinthian church members, he needed something. But he wasn’t burden to anyone. He kept himself from being a burden to them in any way (v. 9). Nevertheless, Paul was misunderstood. There was some misunderstanding among the Corinthian church members who cunningly said that Paul had exploited them (12:16). How did Paul feel at that time? Although he was very careful not to be burden to the Corinthian church members because he loved them, how must Paul have felt when he thought of them who deceitfully said that he had exploited them? The Korean hymn “O Master, Let Me Walk With Thee” verse 1 comes to my mind: “O Master, let me walk with Thee In lowly paths of service free Tell me Thy secret, help me bear The strain of toil, the fret of care.” I hope and pray that we will humbly serve our neighbors with love with the strength that the Lord gives us, and seek the interests of our neighbors rather than our own.
Sixth, we should not be dissatisfied. We should guard ourselves against covetousness.
Our hearts cannot be fully satisfied with any love in this world. Our hearts can be completely satisfied only with the eternal love of the Lord. Look at Psalms 90:14 – “Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.” The reason is because God has given us a heart to long for eternity. Look at Ecclesiastes 3:11 – “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” Our longing for eternity can only be satisfied with the eternal love of the Lord. Our satisfaction comes only from God: “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God” (2 Cor. 3:5, KJV). Our self-satisfaction is never complete. So we will be dissatisfied again. And this dissatisfied heart seeks futile things (Eccle. 5:10, 11).
Look at Proverbs 30:15-16: “The leech has two daughters. 'Give! Give!' they cry. "There are three things that are never satisfied, four that never say, 'Enough!': the grave, the barren womb, land, which is never satisfied with water, and fire, which never says, 'Enough!'” Here, “a leech” or “two daughters” of a leech, or “the grave,” “the barren womb,” and water and fire are all things that don’t know they are enough. So the Bible says, “… never satisfied … Enough! … never satisfied with ….” In a word, the point the writer of Proverbs is talking about is that all of these are talking about greed, wanting and insatiable (Park). For example, an annular animal called a “leech” is only 3-4 cm long, but has suckers on both ends of its body to attach to the flesh of other animals and suck blood (Internet). But the leech has two daughters whose names are “give give,” which means that it isn’t enough to suck blood constantly (Believer’s Bible Commentary). Dr. Yoon-sun Park said that “the grave” swallows the dead and doesn’t get cold even after swallowing it, “the barren womb” always wants to conceive, “land” permeates as soon as water is poured, and “fire” continues to supply fuel and burn it all and it burns more (Park). The leeches, the two daughters of the leeches, the grave, the barren womb, the land that cannot be filled with water, the fire that aren’t enough are unsatisfactory. The Bible teaches us to be very wary of dissatisfaction with covetousness.
In addition to all these, there is another thing in Ezekiel 16:28-29 that we don’t know that it is enough, which is “harlot”: “Moreover, you played the harlot with the Assyrians because you were not satisfied; you played the harlot with them and still were not satisfied. You also multiplied your harlotry with the land of merchants, Chaldea, yet even with this you were not satisfied." The Bible says that there is no satisfaction in the eyes of man except for lust that isn’t enough (Prov. 27:20). In other words, the lust of the eye isn’t satisfied. Our human eyes are full of fornication and we sin constantly (2 Pet. 2:14). That is why Pastor Lloyd-Jones said in his book “Darkness and Light” focused on the words of Job 31:1, “I have made a covenant with my eyes; How then could I gaze at a virgin?” like this: ‘Your eyes are the problem. When you see something, the mind follows it. … If there is anything that makes you tempted, don't look at it! ... Don't let your eyes covet anything. Don't let go of looking straight ahead. ... Make a covenant with your eyes and look straight ahead. Pay attention only to the direction God directs, holiness and heaven’ (Jones). If we have greed in our hearts, we cannot be satisfied with that desire. Man's greed knows no satisfaction. Just as the sea will never be filled with flowing water (Eccle. 1:7), it seems that man's greed is endless. In order to satisfy his endless greed, he pursues things in this empty world, but in the end he is not satisfied. According to Ecclesiastes 2:10, King Solomon, who wrote Ecclesiastes, didn’t forbid anything that his eyes desired, nor did he refuse his heart pleasure. He saw and enjoyed everything his heart desired. He thought it was the reward for all his labor (2:10). But he confessed: “Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.”
If we have greed in us, we commit the sin of complaining and murmuring in dissatisfaction like the Israelites at the time of the Exodus. Dissatisfaction makes us complain. Why are we dissatisfied and complaining? The reason is greed. Greed like this is terrifying and very dangerous. Not only that, greed is harmful to us. The reason we fall into foolish and hurtful greed is because we don't have the sufficiency of not knowing what we already have. It is also because even though we know the truth that we cannot take anything with us because we brought nothing into this world, we don’t know it with our hearts. Therefore, we who is greedy wants to be rich by loving money in covetousness (1 Tim. 6:6-10). And in the process, it causes quarrels with others (Prov. 28:25). We must live contentedly with the Lord alone. The benefit and meaning of life is to walk the path of salvation through faith in Jesus alone, and to live content with the Lord alone. There is only Jesus who can satisfy our souls while living a shadowy life. The reason is because our soul longs for eternity, so only the eternal Jesus can satisfy our soul.
Seventh and last, we should not mock and despise our parents. We must obey them.
I read an article titled ‘6 Regrets Every Time I See My Parents Growing Older’ (Internet): (1) Saying hurtful things to my parents, (2) Indifference to my parents, (3) Failure to properly express affection, (4) Not spending much time together, (5) Not being financially helpful, and (6) Not taking care of parents’ health in advance (Internet). We see our parents are suffering from diseases as they get older. In the meantime, we see our parents caring for each other and loving each other. Even when we see our father or mother at the crossroads of life and death, we cry as we blame ourselves. Still, we often struggle with things that we cannot help when we think realistically. Can we really not regret having to let our beloved parents go?
Look at Proverbs 30:17 – “The eye that mocks a father And scorns a mother, The ravens of the valley will pick it out, And the young eagles will eat it.” What does it mean when a child mocks his father? Looking at the Naver dictionary, the meaning of the word 'to mock' is 'to ridicule or make fun of' (Internet). The original Hebrew meaning is to ridicule another person to the point of disparaging it (DBL Hebrew). An example of this is, as Proverbs 17:5 says, “He who mocks the poor ….” The Bible says that to ridicule the poor is to despise the Lord who made him (v. 5). So how could the child mock his father? Of course, the child can ridicule his father by disparaging him. In other words, the child will be able to ridicule his father by making derogatory remarks. However, I believe that words don’t necessarily mean that the child mocks his father. The reason I think so is Isaiah 37:22 – “this is the word that the LORD has spoken against him: "She has despised you and mocked you, The virgin daughter of Zion; She has shaken her head behind you, The daughter of Jerusalem!” This word was spoken by God through the prophet Isaiah that the people of Judah would despise and ridicule the king of Assyria. When we see the second half of this verse “…She has shaken her head behind you, The daughter of Jerusalem!” I think that the child shakes his head at his father. For example, if a father speaks to his child and the child turns his back to his father and shakes his head as he walks, what non-verbal behavior is the disrespect and contempt of the father? The reason is because the child doesn’t honor his father. Obviously, the Bible says, 'Honor your father and mother' (Ex 20:12; Deut 5:16; Mt. 19:19; Eph. 6:1, 2). But the child who mocks his father ignores this word so he ignores, despises and ridicules his father. More specifically, the foolish child who mocks his father mocks him because he doesn’t fear God (Lev. 19:32) and doesn’t honor his father. The foolish child despises and ridicules his father because he doesn’t fear God and therefore doesn’t fear his own father (see Mal. 1:6).
Then why does the child hate to obey his mother? Why does the child despise his mother? The reason, of course, is because the child is proud. When we are proud, we don’t obey the word of God and despise it. So we despise our mother and hate to obey her. Not only that, if the child isn’t wise (Prov. 11:12), or foolish (23:9), he despises his mother and hates to obey her word. Such proud and foolish child doesn’t fear God's word and despise it (13:13). So he disobeys God's word, and doesn’t honor and obey his mother. The Bible says that child who hates to obey his parents, but ridicule and despise them will surely be rewarded. What is the reward? Look at Proverbs 30:17 – “The eye that mocks a father And scorns a mother, The ravens of the valley will pick it out, And the young eagles will eat it.” Can you imagine the birds in the air eating dead bodies? Especially can you imagine that a crow or an eagle finds a dead body while flying in the air, and come down and climb onto the corpse and peck at the life of the corpse? When we think of that scene, we need to realize how terrifying the end result of a disobedient child who doesn’t honor or obey his parent, but rather despise and ridicule them.
This is what Proverbs 23:22 says: “Listen to your father, who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old.” We must not despise and ridicule our parents. Rather, we should honor and obey our parents. This is a command from God (Exod. 20:12; Deut. 5:16; Mt. 19:19; Mk. 10:19; Eph. 6:2). By obeying this command of God, may we be able to please our Heavenly Father and also our parents.
As Christians who believe in Jesus, we need to know clearly what to do and what not to do. We learned 7 things about what we should not do based on Proverbs 30:10-17: (1) We should not slander (v. 10). (2) We should not curse (v. 11). (3) We should not be pure in our own eyes (v. 12). (4) We should not be haughty (v. 13). (5) We should not exploit others to pursue our own profit alone (v. 14). (6) We should not be dissatisfied. We should guard ourselves against covetousness (vv. 15-16). (7) We should not mock and despise our parents. We must obey them (v. 17). I hope and pray that we will be obedient to these words of God.