Proverbs (Part 008) - Pro 1:13-15

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13. Pro 1:13 - "We shall find all precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoil:" A. Here we find the true motivation of these brutal men: money. i. Their inspiration for conspiring to lurk secretly and lay wait for the blood of the innocent was the insidious sin of covetousness. ii. They were so "greedy of gain" that they were willing to "[take] away the life of the owners thereof" to get it (Pro 1:19). iii. Evil men will stop at nothing to fulfill their lusts. iv. The eyes of man are never satisfied (Pro 27:20). v. As Matthew Henry so eloquently wrote commenting on Lev 11:43-47, "Nature is content with little, grace with less, but lust with nothing." B. The love of money is the root of all evil (1Ti 6:10). i. Wicked men should consider their ways and ask themselves if filling their houses with spoil is worth losing their own souls (Mar 8:36). ii. Life does not consist of the abundance of possessions (Luk 12:15). iii. The most important things in life are not things. iv. It's better to make a difference than a fortune. v. We cannot serve God and money, and if a man tries, he will end up hating one or the other (Mat 6:24). vi. Walking straddled over a fence is sure to end in pain. C. The desire to be rich will ruin a man (1Ti 6:9; Pro 28:22). i. If a man wants to fill his house with precious substance, he should seek to do so by living righteously and faithfully and working hard (Pro 3:33; Pro 28:20). ii. He should not do so by plundering his neighbor, whether on the street corner or at the ballot box (Exo 20:15). D. Even if these thugs were successful in pillaging the innocent and robbing them of their substance, it would be short lived (Pro 10:3; Pro 13:22). i. They may succeed in spoiling their innocent victims, but the LORD will "spoil the soul of those that spoiled them" (Pro 22:22-23). ii. You reap what you sow (Gal 6:7), and "they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same" (Job 4:8). 14. Pro 1:14 - "Cast in thy lot among us; let us all have one purse:" A. Let us all have one purse. i. In other words, let's make all of our collective wealth commonly owned. ii. It should come as no surprise that these men who secretly conspired to band together and plunder the wealth of others by any means necessary, including murder, are communists. iii. If only those who followed Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, and all other wicked communist leaders had read and heeded Solomon's warning. consented not (Pro 1:10), and refrained their feet from their path (Pro 1:15), tens of millions of innocent lives would have been spared. iv. Communists always promise equality for the masses. a. They repeatedly make good on their pledge, for the masses invariably end up being equal indeed, all sharing nothing. b. On the other hand, the rulers enjoy the national wealth for themselves which they expropriated from the producers in society. c. "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." (George Orwell, Animal Farm) v. Even a communistic system of shared profits set up by the most well-meaning of men will fail because of human nature. a. Human nature always looks out for itself and is inclined to avoid the pain of labor and enjoy the fruits of others when possible. b. When profit is not proportional to labor, the incentive to work is diminished. c. The pilgrims who landed at Plymouth Rock in the seventeenth century learned this lesson the hard way. d. At first, they tried a communal system where all worked to gather and grow food, and all shared the produce equally. e. After nearly starving to death, they decided a system of private property and "every man for himself" was much more conducive to human flourishing. f. The early Jerusalem church tried a system of communal living (Act 2:44-45). (i) Notice a few things about this communal system. (ii) God did not command them to do it. (iii) It was voluntary to distribute one's goods, not compulsory (Act 5:4). (iv) It doesn't appear to have worked out very well for them (Act 11:29; Rom 15:26). B. Cast in thy lot among us. i. Lot n. - 1. a. An object (app. usually a piece of wood) used in a widely diffused ancient method of deciding disputes, dividing plunder or property, selecting persons for an office or duty, etc., by an appeal to chance or the divine agency supposed to be concerned in the results of chance. The ‘lots’, each bearing the special mark of one of the competitors, were placed in a receptacle (in Homeric Greece a helmet); according to Greek procedure the vessel was shaken, the winning lot being that which fell out first; in Scandinavia the winning lot was drawn out by an uninterested party. a. When a man casts in a lot with others, he is taking a chance. b. These socialists, therefore, are letting poor, unwitting dupes know that they are taking a gamble by joining themselves with them. c. Unfortunately, many are too simple to recognize it. ii. The very nature of a lot demands that when it is drawn to divide the plunder, the result will not be equality. a. If equality was the goal, a simple division equation would suffice. b. As at the casino where the odds are always in favor of the house, so it is when making deals with collectivists: probability predicts a loss. iii. If the blood of millions in the last century is not reason enough to keep the simpleminded from joining those who want us all to "have one purse", hopefully these wise warnings of Solomon will be. 15. Pro 1:15 - "My son, walk not thou in the way with them; refrain thy foot from their path:" A. Solomon was a wise teacher. i. He first warned his son to not consent when enticed by sinners (Pro 1:10). ii. Then he gave him a detailed example of what the enticement might sound like (Pro 1:11-14). iii. Next, he reiterated his warning to walk not with them and refrain from their path (Pro 1:15). iv. Finally, he told him why to steer clear of such sinners: for their end is destruction (Pro 1:16-19). B. An important lesson can be gleaned from the order in which Solomon instructed his son. i. It is essential to do what God commands us before we endeavor to understand why He commanded it. ii. Once we do what God commands, then we can seek to know the Lord's reason for issuing the instruction. a. For example: it's not necessary for a Christian to understand exactly why God commands him to not fornicate (1Co 6:18), before he decides to keep himself from premarital or extramarital sex. b. After he has done what God said, he then is free to philosophize about why God may have given that precept. iii. Children of God too often act like the children of parents who question the reason for their father's command before consenting to do it. a. God doesn't put up with that type of rebellion and neither should parents. b. Delayed obedience is disobedience. C. Walk not thou in the way with them; refrain thy foot from their path. i. These bloodthirsty communists (Pro 1:11,14) are so dangerous that a man dare not even walk with them, nor put his foot on their path. ii. Solomon later warned his son to not so much as get near the wicked, but to turn from them and pass away (Pro 4:14-17). iii. "To keep from falling over the edge of the precipice, one should move as far back from that edge as possible." (Jay Adams, Competent to Counsel, p. 134) iv. Be very careful who you follow, for there are many that walk the broad way that leadeth to destruction (Mat 7:13-14). v. Following the wrong crowd could cost you your money (Pro 28:19), your wellbeing (Pro 16:29; Mat 15:14), or even your life (Isa 9:16).