Sunday, November 11, 2018 - Proverbs 22:13
We Should Not Make Excuses to Excuse Ourselves
from Life.
Grace Fellowship Church
Pastor/Teacher, Jim Rickard
www.facebook.com/GraceDoctrine
Proverbs 22
1. The wise discipline themselves to follow
God in everything, vs. 1-16.
2. Wisdom tells us
when to speak and when to be silent, vs.
17-21.
3. The wise ones care for and protect the poor, vs. 22-29.
Vs. 13
Prov 22:13, “The
sluggard says, ‘There is a lion outside; I will be killed in the streets!’”
We have seen in vs.
10-12, and will in vs. 15,
pertinent moral instruction, a theme of this unit. The contrast between
gracious lips, vs. 11b, and
treacherous words, vs. 12b, is
exemplified on the negative side in the speech of the sluggard, vs. 13, and unchaste women, vs. 14, that brings to prominence once
again the role the sluggard and harlot have had in both Collection I and II, Prov 6:6-11; 2:16-19; 5:3-6; 6:24-25;
7:5-27. Here, the lazy person makes absurd excuses for not working or
participating in society. This verse humorously portrays the sluggard as not
going out because he might be eaten by a lion in the streets, cf. Prov 26:13.
“Sluggard,” is
the Hebrew Adjective ATSEL, עָצֵל used for a Noun here that means, “slow, idle,
lazy, sluggish, useless, or slothful.” It is synonymous with the less used word
REMIYAH used in Prov 10:4; 12:24, 27;
19:15. It represents lazy people who always fail because of laziness that
becomes moral failure, Prov 6:6, 9.
It is primarily used in the Wisdom literature of the OT for lazy individuals and
indolent behavioral patterns.
These types crave for things within their souls, yet they
get nothing, Prov 13:4, primarily
because they take no initiative in life, Prov
19:24; 26:15, do not do their job or tasks on time, Prov 20:24, and will not work, Prov
21:25.
In our verse, we see that they create imaginary excuses so
that they do not have to work or tend to their societal responsibilities, Prov. 22:13, and later we will see that
their wealth and health deteriorate as a result of not even taking care of
their own needs, Prov 24:30-34, yet,
they consider themselves wise, Prov
26:13-16. And finally, they irritate those who employ them because of their
lack of production, Prov 10:26, “As
vinegar to the teeth, and as smoke to the eyes.”
In our verse, the sluggard uses his words to avoid the
responsibilities he has in life. “Says,”
is the Verb AMAR, אָמַר in the Qal Perfect that means, “to say, to call, or to
think.” In our verse, it has the meaning of what he thinks, presented as the
spoken words that detail what he is thinking. It pictures the excuses he makes
to convince himself that certain things and dangers are lurking outside, so as
to avoid doing what is necessary in life. In this case, the sluggard is
deceiving himself into thinking “‘There
is a lion (ARI) outside (BE
CHUTS); I will be killed (RATSAH) in (BE) the streets (TAWEK RECHOB, in the middle of the square)!’”
RATSAH, means, “to murder, slay or kill.” Here it is in the Niphal (passive) Imperfect (future).
Elsewhere it denotes taking innocent human life by another human being either
intentionally, murder, or unintentionally, manslaughter, Ex 20:13; Num 35:6, 11, 16, 30. In fact, the Septuagint changes it
to “murderers in the street,” to form a better parallelism, possibly because
RATSAH is used only of humans in the Bible. Yet, here, it is uniquely used of
an animal, probably as a hyperbole and/or a metonymy.
This excuse making sluggard is seen again in Prov 26:13, where there he says, “the young lion is in the road,” and “a loin is in the open square.” It
represents excuse making in emotional revolt of the soul to avoid certain
situations in life. In that verse, the sluggard repeats himself. In our verse,
he explains his excuse in terms of the dread of losing his life.
By absurdly claiming there is a lion in the street that will
kill him, he excuses himself from leaving the comforts of his home and his free
meals, which others have provided, to venture out into world to perform the
hard work that builds a community. Where no dangers or difficulties exist, he
imagines them. Where they really are, he exaggerates them to such a degree that
they appear to be insurmountable. Any excuse, no matter how ridiculous, serves
his purpose to avoid doing what is necessary and right in life.
As my old High School football coach use to say, “Excuses are like rear-ends, everyone has
one and they all stink.” Although I have toned down the actual language he
used. As such, there is no excuse that truly excuses you from performing the
normal things of life. No excuse excuses you from walking in righteousness
inside the plan of God for your life. Therefore, the way we speak says a great
deal about the way we think; we are not to make excuses that excuse us from
life.
But unfortunately, we see from this passage that frivolous
excuses satisfy the indolent man’s conscience. And, the irony is that laziness
impoverishes and ultimately destroys itself, Prov 10:4; 20:4; 21:25-26, a lion is not necessary.
Prov 10:4, “Poor is
he who works with a negligent hand, but the hand of the diligent makes rich.
Prov 20:4, “The
sluggard does not plow after the autumn, so he begs during the harvest and has
nothing.
Prov 21:25-26, “The
desire of the sluggard puts him to death, for his hands refuse to work; 26All
day long he is craving, while the righteous gives and does not hold back.”
In the application of our verse in Chapter 22, we see the sluggard making excuses as to why he does
not have to participate in society, especially inside the legal system to bring
the truth to light. In our passage, the Hebrew says, TAWEK RECHOB, “in the middle of the square,” which was
an open area near the gates of the city where legal matters where heard and
decided. So, this sluggard may be afraid that he will lose in his or someone
else’s trial, so he makes an excuse as to why he should not participate.
The assumption here is that truth and justice will not
prevail as a result of the sluggard’s avoidance of the situation. A principle
is, if you do not stand up for and participate in the truth, the lie will
prevail along with injustice.
With the other theme of wealth and poverty, the poverty of
the sluggard is used to illustrate the truth that choices have consequences.
The purpose is not to describe the origins of all poverty but rather to warn
against a life of folly that can lead to poverty. Neither the poor nor the rich
are idealized in this chapter, because both stand as equals before their maker,
vs. 2. Both can hear the call to
wisdom and fear of YHWH, and both can choose to shut their ears to it. Poverty
and wealth are extreme situations of life that can lead people away from God, Prov 30:7-9.
Prov 30:7-9, “Two things
I asked of You, Do not refuse me before I die: 8Keep deception and
lies far from me, give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food
that is my portion, 9That I not be full and deny You and say, ‘Who
is the LORD?’ Or that I not be in want and steal, and profane the name of my
God.”
The sluggard is represented here as finding fantastic and
preposterous excuses to demonstrate that no idea is too odd or fantastic to him
to keep him off welfare. And, the fact is, his life and the community are not
in danger from his phantom lion in the streets but from his lazy life-style.
Sluggards also use fear as an excuse for further laziness.
They will do anything to avoid doing anything, even proclaiming danger where
there is none. People who are gripped by laziness will not attempt to achieve
any kind of goals because of their fears. Likewise, people who are gripped by
fear will not dare to try to achieve anything in life because of what might
fantastically happen to them. As such, they fear the lions of failure,
difficulty, getting sick, the opinions of others, etc., etc., etc. The list is
endless. God knows about our fears. So, we must always remember the Lord
enables us to overcome our fears so that we may serve and live our lives for
Him, 2 Tim 1:7, “For God has not given
us a spirit of timidity, (nervousness, fearfulness, shyness, etc.), but of power and love and discipline.”
The one who approaches life in the strength of faith finds
the lions have been rendered powerless to destroy him. Contrast the slothful
man of this verse, with Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, one of David’s mighty men,
2 Sam 23:20, who “killed a loin in a snowy pit.”
As such, from a spiritual sense, we
could add that this individual constantly makes excuses as to why he does not
have to go to church or learn and apply God’s Word in his life. He makes
excuses or “fools himself” into thinking that he does not have to serve God, he
does not have to worship God, and / or he does not have to apply His Word to
his life. This excuse making individual always has something else in his mind
that is more important than performing in his relationship with God.
This excuse making is very subtle.
He many times will not think he is outright avoiding and rejecting God by his
thoughts or actions, and many times will not even think those thoughts
directly. But, by the subtlety of making other things more important, even to
the point of life and death issues, he places those things above his
relationship with God without even realizing it. Therefore, the excuse making
sluggard is one full of self-deception that results in scar tissue upon the
soul that leads to spiritual blindness, or black out of the soul that is
vanity, Eph 4:17-19. And ironically,
the sluggard acts like a prophet, that he may palliate, (mitigate the
intensity, excuse things that are bad, or alleviate the guilt of) his
slothfulness.
The Sluggard will have many
problems.
1. As Prov 6:6, 9 told us, they will always fail in the spiritual life,
because their laziness results in moral failure.
2. Prov 13:4 showed us that their souls want nothing in terms of Bible
Doctrine, and therefore they get nothing.
3. In Prov 19:24 we saw that because they take no initiative to learn
God’s Word, they will not fulfill God’s Plan for their lives, Prov 20:4.
4. They will not “do their job” as
professional Christian soldiers, ambassadors, and priest in the spiritual life,
Prov 21:25.
5. They always create imaginary
excuses for why they cannot do this or that, or why they did not do this or
that for God, Prov 22:13.
6. Their spiritual prosperity and
physical health will deteriorate, Prov
24:30.
7. Due to the arrogance within
their soul, they consider themselves wise or a spiritual giant, Prov 26:13-16, when in fact they are
not.
In addition, from the context of this chapter, in this
satire that depicts a sluggard industrious enough to concoct a far-fetched
story in hopes of avoiding life, we see that although few real excuses are as
wild or transparent as this one, it reminds us that YHWH can tell whether our
thoughts and words come from knowledge or deception, vs. 12.
So, we have seen that speech that mocks in pride is not the
gracious speech that wins the king, vs.
10-11; likewise, faithless words and lazy excuses will not please YHWH, vs. 12-13. Those who turn from God’s
way will be vulnerable to what is most dangerous of all, words of seduction,
which is the theme of our next verse, symbolized by the mouth of the
adulteress, a pit, a trap that destroys. Therefore, these two proverbs
exemplify two kinds of words by the treacherous; that of the sluggard, vs. 13, and of the harlot, vs. 14. The sluggard will be tempted
to find easy money and the harlot offers easy sex.
As such, we see that the way we speak says a great deal
about the way we think, and we are not to make excuses that excuse us from
life.
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