“Good sense wins favor, but the way of the treacherous never changes. Every sensible person acts knowledgeably, but a fool displays his stupidity.” (Proverbs 13:15-16 CSB – Read the chapter)
Men are famously bad about asking for directions. It’s a common enough flaw in our programing that it has become its own trope. And when we don’t ask for directions, while we sometimes get where we intend to go, we more likely wind up somewhere we don’t want to be. I remember arriving back at the airport coming home from a long trip late one night with the whole family in tow. We got to the satellite lot to get the car, but I hadn’t written down our stop and got us off at the wrong one…on the complete opposite side of the lot. We had to wait for another bus to come by, dealing our arrival at home by a lot. I still rightly pay for that one. It’s always better to seek counsel than look foolish. Solomon agrees. Let’s talk about it.
We are continuing today in our series, The Beauty of Forgiveness. So far along the way we have talked about the fact that we have forgiveness available to us in Jesus and that forgiveness comes naturally to God. Today we are reflecting for a bit on just what it means that forgiveness comes so naturally to God. And we are doing this through the lens of a passage that isn’t one we might normally turn to for help with…well…anything. Yet every word of the Scriptures is useful for making us over in God’s image, including this one. So, let’s dive in and see just what God plans for when given the chance.
The Picture of Forgiveness
Do you remember the Disney movie, Meet the Robinsons? It was one of the few Disney animated films that came out after they started working with Pixar. It’s about a boy named Lewis who gets caught up in a time-traveling adventure to stop a dastardly villain from rewriting history. The villain in the film—at least the human villain; the main villain turns out to be an evil AI program that wants to turn humanity into its slaves— turns out to be Lewis’ roommate from their orphanage, Goob. At the pivotal moment of the story, Lewis stays up all night working on a big science fair project. His late hours keep Goob from getting any sleep the night before a big baseball game. Because of his exhaustion, he falls asleep in the outfield and misses a critical fly ball that would have sealed the win for his team. Missing it made sure they lost, consigning him forever to a life of shame. Rather than moving on, though, Goob just stews in his anger and resentment toward Lewis until they form a deep-seated hatred and bitterness. This basically stunts his emotional and relational development. Years later, he happens upon an opportunity to go back and get revenge, which is basically how the whole story gets set into motion in the first place. To put all that in other words: Goob planned for vengeance.
Well, given that I’ve posted the previous two parts over the past couple of Fridays, I thought I would complete the set today. We’ve been taking a fresh look at a series on marriage I preached several years ago called Marriage Myths. In each part of the series we unpacked a different myth that our culture often tells us about marriage. Along the way we discovered why the truth is so much better than even the grandest fiction our culture can devise. In this final myth, we’re actually covering ground I covered more recently in the marriage series I preached just a few weeks ago. Marriage isn’t about happiness. Not primarily anyway. Let’s talk about what it’s really about instead, and why that’s better.
“Arrogance leads to nothing but strife, but wisdom is gained by those who take advice. Wealth obtained by fraud will dwindle, but whoever earns it through labor will multiply it. Hope delayed makes the heart sick, but desire fulfilled is a tree of life. The one who has contempt for instruction will pay the penalty, but the one who respects a command will be rewarded. A wise person’s instruction is a fountain of life, turning people away from the snares of death.” (Proverbs 13:10-14 CSB – Read the chapter)
You’ve perhaps heard the phrase, “Absence makes the heart grow fonder.” The idea is that spending time away from someone can allow petty qualms of the past to gradually fade away, inclining our hearts more and more in their direction where perhaps that wasn’t quite as much the case. An absence like this, though, eventually builds hope in our hearts for a reunion. The longer that hope’s fulfillment gets delayed, the greater the hope grows. But hope like this is a kind of weight. The more it grows, the heavier it gets. Leave it to grow too long, and it can start to wear you down. Sometimes a proverb points you to something you need to do better in life; sometimes they simply describe what is true about it. Let’s talk about one of these latter proverbs in this next group.
“The righteous hate lying, but the wicked bring disgust and shame. Righteousness guards people of integrity, but wickedness undermines the sinner. One person pretends to be rich but has nothing; another pretends to be poor but has abundant wealth. Riches are a ransom for a person’s life, but a poor person hears no threat. The light of the righteous shines brightly, but the lamp of the wicked is put out.” (Proverbs 13:5-9 CSB – Read the chapter)
Several years ago, I heard a sermon about generosity. The preacher was talking about the myth that more money will make us happier. He shared some interesting survey data that showed there actually is a point below which more money seems to contribute to overall happiness, but it’s a lot lower than you’d think. This is an easy trap to fall into. We survey our lives, and see all the things we would or could do if we had more money, and conclude that if we had that money, we would feel more accomplished or secure or confident, and happiness would follow in the wake of all that. After eighteen years of ministry, I am in a very different financial place than when I started, yet I can say with confidence that I’m not any happier today specifically because of that. In this next batch of proverbs, Solomon makes this point in a really interesting way. Let’s dive right in.
