ReverendRockstar

Great Post! I love that line from Say Anything and I love this proverb.

Can you explain what you mean by “It is not prescriptive”. It seems to me like it is VERY prescriptive. There is not much room for freedom to pick and choose how to please God in these verses. The first part of poem sells us on pleasing the Lord, but the punch line (verses 7 and tell us EXACTLY how to do that. We please the Lord by making peace with our enemies and by creating justice (righteousness, right treatment of others, balanced scales v.11). The whole chapter seems to echo that sentiment.

Poor use of words on my part…I did not clearly convey the message. I recognize the genre is prescriptive and the writers are giving clear instruction, however not a “prescription” that is overly legalistic/fundamental- there is still a loose element of freedom depending on our current context for applying the timeless wisdom.

A note on justice: verse 6 is fascinating:

“By steadfast love and faithfulness iniquity is atoned for,
and by the fear of the Lord one turns away from evil.”

The wording here is not referring to a cosmic redemption (i.e. Christ’s redemption of humanity), but rather an interpersonal reconciliation. Verses 7 and 8 expand on this further:

“When a man’s ways please the Lord,
he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.
Better is a little with righteousness
than great revenues with injustice.”

Best of all, these concepts are sandwiched between verses that convey an total dependence on a Sovereign God (vv. 1, 9)

“The plans of the heart belong to man,
but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord” (Prov. 16:1).

“The heart of man plans his way,
but the Lord establishes his steps” (Prov. 16:9).

My concern is that when people try to read a “loose element” into the story, then you end up with people who justify all kinds of injustice when it suits their purposes. They ignore the origianal meaning of this very political text and personalize the message. It gets watered down into a cute message about loaning your neighbor a cup of sugar. They twist the idea of peace into premeptive war to protect our comfortable lives. They turn the idea of justice into cutting taxes for the rich while refusing to supply healthcare for single mothers and children.

But hey, as long as they can blame God for all the injustice in the world under the banner of “divine soverignty”, they can do whatever they want to “the least of these”.

It’s amazing to me how you can go from sugar to war in two sentences. The book of Proverbs is highly wisdom dealing with family: from a father to his child. Of course, there are many political, social, and spiritual implications throughout the text because the culture of the original audience viewed life more holistically than our western culture (that tends to compartmentalize more).

Who are the “they” that blame God for the injustice in the world? I recently connected with an organization called “International Justice Mission” (www.ijm.org) and I am reading a book by it’s founder, Gary Haugen. He has seen and worked at alleviating much injustice worldwide. Someone asked him about his faith in God as he witnesses such atrocities. He replied that he no longer asks “where is God?,” but rather “where are God’s people?” It’s a compelling book, and wonderful organization.

As for Proverbs in regards to plans and priorities: I believe Solomon’s wisdom (and the authors purpose of writing it down) was to stress that a life with the Lord at the center will be different. Encountering the Gospel cannot be compartmentalized- the effect permeates all of life: our marriages, family, business, politics, and yes, our sugar lending habits. On these points I think you and I are in agreement.

“They” is anyone who champions war instead of peace, greed instead of justice, revenge instead of forgiveness, violence instead of compassion. I don’t think you do those things. I’m really interested in ijm.org. I’ll check it out more.

Jeremy, I don’t want to get into so much of a critique and take away from how great your post is. This is probably my favorite posts I’ve read by you. I really do love it, even if our debate veered off topic (entirely my fault). You mentioned justice, transformation away from selfishness, and blessing others. That is wonderful. That really lights my fire!

I’ve heard soverignty used in reformed circles so often to justify the current systems of injustice and let us off the hook when we should accept OUR responsiblity to make God’s will done on Earth. That is what I was getting at.