Seven Delights – May 6-8, 2023 (130/365)

Interesting how Proverbs 6 has the Title ‘Practical Warnings’ in the English Standard Version.

My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor, have given your pledge for a stranger,

if you are snared in the words of your mouth, caught in the words of your mouth,

then do this, my son, and save yourself, for you have come into the hand of your neighbor:

go, hasten, and plead urgently with your neighbor.

Give your eyes no sleep and your eyelids no slumber;

save yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the hand of the fowler.

Proverbs 6:1-5

Consider your state when you borrow money from someone else. Or, rather, consider the power and the consequent responsibility you have when you lend money. The borrower is in your hand, as a gazelle; You are as a fowler holding a bird – the borrower is at your mercy.

Of course, this is if you even consider that the money you give is a loan in the first place. Just so that there isn’t any sort of imposed power, you would probably do well to prioritize giving what you have, or helping under the guise of giving as gifts, and not loaning.

If you can, just give without expectations, and give, as mentioned, with a cheerful heart.

There are six things that the LORD hates, seven that are an abomination to him:

haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,

a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil,

a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.

Proverbs 6:16-19

It’s May 8 now and I’m just picking up from what I started here. But I think my motive for pointing this set of Scripture out was to point out the other side of this coin: That is, that which the LORD loves, as seen through Christ.

I mean, Pastor Joedy once pointed this out in the so-called ‘Love Chapter’ from Paul’s first Epistle to the Corinthians. In it he mentioned what we’re used to hearing a lot from in Christian weddings: Love is patient, Love is kind…; However, he had us consider replacing ‘Love’ with ‘Christ’ just so we have a picture of His character towards us. So now, we say Christ is patient, Christ is kind.

And let me keep going here. Christ does not envy or boast. He is not arrogant or rude. Christ does not insist in His own way; He is not irritable or resentful. Christ does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but He rejoices with the Truth.

So far, so good, I suppose. But to top it all off, we read: Christ bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. Christ never ends.

I have a feeling you could forget the first two-thirds of what we just read and stick to that last part. Just to picture our Savior bearing, believing, hoping, and enduring all things – Well, it just gives me the idea that true Love is divine; as in, we as created beings have no hope in truly loving is we were to bear, believe, hope, and endure ALL things; I mean, we couldn’t even do as much for the things within our limited perspective – how much more impossible would it be for us to perfectly handle ALL things?

No, folks, because Christ never ends, so Christ is willing and able to love… and to TRULY love. This gives us even more reason to trust in Him.

But, okay. Let’s go back to those Proverbs and see a possible perspective to Christ for us. And it’s starting off pretty exciting. See, I’ve had to look for meanings, synonyms and antonyms for the word ‘haughty’, and I ended up with seeing how we, before Christ, had ultimately disdainful, and arrogantly superior eyes; and when we talk about ‘eyes’ I’m assuming we’re talking about our own perspective of others, our own view on ourselves and other things; Like we’re disdainful of others while having an arrogantly superior assessment of ourselves.

I just have to mention: We’ve certainly seen, in the past 2 years, just how disdainful we could be against others, and especially towards others who do not share the same perspectives as we do… I also feel that too many of us have given in to how the isolation had the tendency to amplify our arrogantly superior assessment of ourselves – Like it became so much easier for a good number of us to be so reckless and irresponsible with their words online.

Left on our own, our eyes certainly have the tendency to be haughtier. But hey, it’s during times of loneliness that we ought to appreciate just how faithful the Holy Spirit is to us; for I believe that it’s in those moments that we see the futility of our own efforts to handle said haughtiness and/or the exact opposite – that is, how Christ, who God loves, consequently has humble eyes with which to see all that is created, and modest eyes with which He sees Himself.

And I think I need to point that out – It’s because Christ is fully aware and appreciative of His Father’s love for Him, that He has a modest and humble perspective of others, and a view of Himself and all things. The true love is where it all started for Him, I suppose…

…and just as we’re unable to truly love, so we’re unable to address the haughty eyes we have, with our own efforts. We know it’s bad, but we could do nothing good to correct it. No, we see here that just as it’s Christ and His finished work that brought us true love in all its extraordinary and supernatural properties, so it’s also Christ who causes us to consider looking at ourselves and the world, in proper humility, and true modesty.

And so it is with the other ‘things’ that the Lord hates. In fact, for the sake of time, and for the sake of wrapping this all up, I think we could bring in what we can learn from 2 Corinthians 5:21 into the picture, just so we have an idea of our common traits as a people made new through Christ’s finished work.

Christ became sin in order for us to be His righteousness.

Christ took on the lying tongue, in order for us to have His truthful tongue.

Christ took on hands that murdered and shed innocent blood, in order for us to celebrate with His hands of reconciliation and restoration.

Christ took on the heart that devises wicked plans, in order for us to have His heart whose thoughts are only of life, continually.

Christ took on feet that make haste to run to evil, in order for us to have His feet, beautiful on the mountains, as He proclaims peace and salvation.

Christ became as we were – false witnesses who breathes out lies, in order for us to be as He is – straight, honest, upright, and truthful.

And Christ became as we were – sowing discord among brothers – so that we would be as He is – reconciled, He reconciles, and we reconcile as well.

That was short, and I see that as I was going through that, we could certainly do more elaboration… but I think I’ll leave it here for now. Let me see if I can get more done this Monday evening.

Until the next post, God bless us all.