Grace & Peace: Proverbs 20:12

At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore (Ps. 16: 11)

“The sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold; Therefore shall he beg in harvest, and have nothing” (Prov. 20:4).

The sluggard in this proverb only offers one excuse. It was too cold to be out there plowing. Why didn’t you plow? Because it was too cold. Seems straightforward, and maybe it was too cold. But given the way it usually goes in the book of Proverbs, probably not.

Only one excuse is offered here, but the inventiveness of the sluggard makes it likely that he has a bag full. It might be too hot next time. Or the plow needs to have some adjustments made. Or he twisted his ankle. Or he had to visit a sick friend. There is always something.

Now the reason that sluggards offer these kinds of excuses is that it often works on their supervisors. The boss frequently doesn’t feel right about cracking down on the person who is a perpetual slacker. Okay. It should be warmer tomorrow.

But the import of this proverb is that there is a supervisor behind the supervisor, and this one—he goes by the name of reality—cuts no slack at all. He just plain doesn’t care.

The harvest gives us no reason why it didn’t come up. It doesn’t know. The seed doesn’t know whether the day for plowing was too hot or too cold. It knows nothing whatever about twisted ankles or sick friends. It just knows that it can’t grow if it is not there, and actually, it doesn’t even know that. It just doesn’t grow, not being there.

And so it is that the sluggard will have to go begging, hat in hand. Just as he gave excuses at the time, he now gives others a string of post mortem reasons. He had a string of unfortunate circumstances conspire against him.

He stuck his finger in the fire, and calls the consequences “bad luck.”

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At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore (Ps. 16: 11)

“The words of a talebearer are as wounds, and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly” (Proverbs 18:8).

We have a saying that is comparable to this. It takes two people to really hurt you. First, an enemy must say something awful about you, and secondly, a friend must come and tell you about it.

The talebearer’s faulty assumption is that more people need to hear about something than actually do. The distinction between a gossip and a talebearer is a subtle one, and there is some overlap. A gossip is someone who whispers secret and juicy details, and the emphasis is on the secretive nature of the information being shared.

A talebearer is one who circulates the story—he is the distribution platform. When a talebearer is involved, the information may have been secretive early on, but it does not remain that way for long.

A gossip shares the secret with another person. A talebearer goes from person to person. This is why a talebearer is more of a troublemaker—when you get rid of him, the strife goes away (Prov. 26:20). A talebearer reveals secrets while, by way of contrast, an upright person keeps things quiet. The idea is that the talebearer reveals secrets across territory (Prov. 11:13).

And of course, when a faithful man “conceals the matter,” he can always be accused of participating in a cover up. And then that allegation can be industriously circulated.

Coming back to the point of our proverb, a talebearer can circulate the story to all sorts of people, of course. But he can also decide to bring the story to the main character of the story, just to see his reaction. “Did you hear what so-n-so said about you?” All of us need to think twice before engaging in that kind of courier work.

There really is a temptation that the talebearer faces, which is the idea of promoting an approach that says, “let’s you and him fight.”

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At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore (Ps. 16: 11)

“Whoso rewardeth evil for good, evil shall not depart from his house” (Proverbs 17:13).

This proverb is a solemn warning against the sin of treachery. The set up is that someone has done someone else some good, and the second person repays that kindness with evil. What happens then?

Well, the treacherous person goes home, and when he walks through the front door he soon discovers that there is a snake in his house. The fact that he is that snake does not alter the fact that there is indeed a snake in the house now. Wherever you go, there you are.

As long as he is in his house, then evil will not depart from it . . . because he is that evil. His punishment is that he has to go through life being . . . him.

Not only is there evil in his house because he is there, following closely after him will be the consequences of being treacherous. Treachery is not a barren sin; it produces many litters of many puppies.

The fact of your treachery gets around, and so no one trusts you with anything. In addition, others feel free to be treacherous toward you because your behavior has indicated that you believe such conduct to be just fine. Your reputation has been sullied, and the Bible teaches that a good name is to be preferred to great riches (Prov. 22:1). To be respected in your own home is a priceless treasure, but disrespect is natural now because other family members have had to partake of the shame.

All of this is true, and then some, if the treachery has been treachery against the home itself—whether through adultery, or porn, or financial dishonesty.

It would seem that there is no way out. And while it is quite true that carnal wisdom can find no way out, it is not true that that is no way out. What is impossible for men is possible for God.

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At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore (Ps. 16: 11)

“Better is little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble therewith” (Proverbs 15:16).

We should first address the teaching of this proverb, which is quite straightforward, and secondly, we should look at the method of reasoning.

A man should prefer to be poor and one who fears God, on the one hand, than to be a very rich man who has abundant wealth alongside abundant troubles. When God gives wealth for blessing, He gives the ability to enjoy that wealth alongside the wealth. When God grants wealth apart from the spiritual resources to enjoy it, the net result is not a blessing at all. “And he gave them their request; But sent leanness into their soul” (Psalm 106:15).

Think about it. What would you rather have? A world class chef, a high end kitchen, a full pantry, a huge rack of exotic spices, imported wines, and rich desserts . . . and no taste buds, or a bag of baby carrots and the ability to taste them?

As we have gone through the book of Proverbs, we have had occasion to remark many times on this distinctively biblical approach to keeping your priorities where they ought to be.

The method of reasoning is this: it is better to have X and not Y than to have not X and Y. This presents us with two options, even though we recognize that logically there are four options. You could have both X and Y, and you might miss out on both. But the way Proverbs presents the choice helps us to rank things the way we should.

It is better to be poor and good looking than to be rich and ugly. If we rush to say that what we really want is to be rich and good looking, we are missing the point of the lesson. And if people who reason that way wind up both poor and ugly . . . well, we tried to warn them.

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