Leithart
INTRODUCTION
This section of Proverbs focuses on issues of image, wealth, work, and treatment of employees (vv. 8-12), and ends with two verses that deal again with the use of the tongue (vv. 13-14). The final verses connect this section to the preceding section of this chapter (12:1-7). Thus, the section on wealth and labor is surrounded by instruction concerning speech. Speech is interwoven with all areas of human life, and the Proverbs manifest this by returning to this theme in a variety of different contexts.
WISDOM, REPUTATION AND IMAGE
Verse 8 is a general statement about the relationship between wisdom and reputation. The word for “insight” or “prudence” here (Heb. sekel) refers, according to one scholar, to “the ability to grasp the meanings of implications of a situation or message, the ability to understand practical matters and interpersonal relations and make beneficial decisions.” It refers not merely to an ability to reason and formulate arguments, but to a kind of intuition about situations, persons, and how best to handle them. Someone who displays prudence or insight of this sort is highlight regarded by the community of the wise and the righteous – he is “praised” according to his wisdom.
In contrast to this, v. 8 talks about the man with a “perverse heart,” a heart that is crooked, twisted, or bent in some fashion. It might be translated as a “confused heart or disturbed mind.” Ultimately, this kind of twistedness or bentness is the result of resistance to God, a refusal to fear Yahweh and follow His commandments. When we do not listen to the Word of God, we cannot think straight, cannot evaluate situations and persons accurately, because our hearts are not in line with reality. Our thoughts and judgments will always be going off the track. But there are many specific ways that our judgments might be twisted: Hatred, envy, ingratitude, discontent, anger, and other attitudes of the heart bend and twist us so that we cannot see straight.
The proverb says that the one who has a perverse or twisted mind will be despised. Elsewhere, the Proverbs recognize that bent persons might enjoy the plaudits of the crowd for a time (Proverbs 28:4), and Solomon knew that a wise man might be forgotten (Ecclesiastes 9:15). We have abundant confirmation of this in the gospel: Jesus, who is the incarnation of the Wisdom of God, who had insight into the hearts of men and the cunning wisdom to act well in every situation, who enjoyed the praise of many, ended up on a Roman cross. Twisted men murdered the wisdom of God, and triumphed. But only for a time, and only in appearance. God’s folly proved wiser, and outfoxed the crooked.
While v. 8 makes a direct connection between prudence or insight and high reputation, v. 9 reminds us that appearances can be deceiving. A man of low reputation (“lightly esteemed” or “reputed as worthless”) may in fact be in a preferable situation to one who has a high reputation (one who “honors” or “exalts” himself). High reputation can mask poverty and want, while a man of low reputation may actually be in a materially better condition. Reputation is important, but reputation must be founded on the right sorts of things. What the Proverbs recognizes as a good reputation is founded on wisdom, prudence, faithfulness, loyalty, mercy and kindness. Efforts to establish a reputation through amassing wealth is folly. And it is better to maintain a “front” of poverty and actually have something than it is to devote yourself to maintaining a show of wealth.
Verse 9 captures one of the most dramatic realities of contemporary economic and social life. Drive through any large city, and you will marvel at the beauty, design, and sheer number of massive, truly gigantic homes. What do all these people do? How can so many people make so much money? Or, drive through any large city and pay attention to the number of luxury cars that pass you on the highways. (This has been much more striking to me since I moved to a small town where seeing a Ferrari is an event.) Cities present an image of wealth that can take your breath away. But what is really behind the façade? How leveraged are the people in those homes, and how much did they have to borrow to drive that BMW? Few, I suspect, “lack bread,” but many are far, far poorer than they appear to be. To paraphrase: Better is a man who owns his Honda outright than he who drives a Lexus minivan and is mortgaged to the eyeballs.
Our society is set up to encourage spending resources, effort, and time on creating an image of wealth. This comes from all sorts of directions. There’s the “keeping up with the Joneses” aspect to it: How can you stay in the neighborhood if your neighbors all have professionally manicured lawns and you have your 13-year-old pushing a lawnmower? To maintain market share in your business, you have to compete to provide goods and services. But in the contemporary economy, competition is as important on the consumption side as the production side: You have to compete with other consumers to maintain the image of wealth. There are other dimensions to this demand for creating and maintaining an aura of wealth. If you want to succeed in business, you have to look successful. Nobody wants a home mortgage from a man in a polyester suit who wears a WalMart watch, drives a beat-up Ford, and lives in a modest home in an older part of town. Nobody will buy success from a loser. Proverbs 12:9 warns us about the economics of image-making by stressing, among other things, that it is wasteful.
EMPLOYMENT AND LABOR
God created all animals, and pronounced them all good. Human beings were created as the image of God to rule and subdue the creation, but Scripture shows us from beginning to end that this does not mean that we are free to destroy living creatures at a whim. God not only saved Noah in the ark, but every kind of animal; He revealed His sovereign mercy to Job by reminding him that He feeds the wild beasts; He had compassion on Nineveh not only because of the thousands of human beings there but because of the animals (Jonah 4:11). When Isaiah imagines a new heavens and new earth, he does not imagine a world cleansed of animal life but a world where animals are at peace. The Torah instructed Israel on the proper care of animals, requiring the Israelites to allow the ox to share in the product of its labor and demanding that the Israelites to give their animals as well as their laborers Sabbath rest. When Jesus talks about the proper application of the Sabbath commandment, He uses the illustration of a distressed animal – an ox in the ditch.
The animal rights movement is wrong-headed in many respects. It tends to blame Christianity for all the evil treatment of animals; it blurs the created distinction of animals and people (by attributing “rights” to animals); it is evolutionary and sometimes pantheistically-inclined. Yet, the instinct of the movement is right. We should shudder at the way that animals are treated in many sectors of the food industry.
Proverbs 12:10 is fully in keeping with this. The word for “life” (Heb. nephesh) often means “soul,” and refers specifically to the center of desires and appetites. Thus, the first line of the proverb might be translated as “the righteous man knows the desires of his beast.” He not only cares for the animal as a “tool” that increases the productivity of his farm. He pays attention to the animal’s desires. When the animal’s soul is thirsty, the righteous man gives water; when the animal is hungry, he gives food. Paul makes it clear that the animal laws of the Torah are not merely about animals (1 Corinthians 9:9-10). If we are to pay attention to the soul/life o
f our animals, how much more human employees (and children and church members). And the Proverb implies that we should pay attention to them not only to ensure that they will serviceable to us; we are to pay attention to their needs, desires, appetites. One application might illustrate: We should be attentive not only to our children’s behavior, but pay attention to their desires and wants. Those desires and wants need to be trained, but they are God-given in themselves and shouldn’t be ignored.
On the other hand, the “mercy of the wicked is cruel.” There are a couple of ways to take this. On the one hand, it might refer to the merciful attitudes and feelings of the wicked. Wicked people might have a kind of compassion, but it is sentimentality more than genuine mercy. A mercy for homosexuals, for instance, that tolerates sin is a cruel mercy (of course, a cruelty toward homosexuals that has no room for mercy is equally, if not more sinful). On the other hand, it might refer to the merciful actions of the wicked. They see an injustice or suffering, and they attempt to deal with it, but since they are not guided by God’s standards their attempts to alleviate suffering end up increasing it. Charles Murray’s studies of the adverse effects of the War on Poverty provide a dramatic illustration of this point. The Pharisees thought they were compassionately saving Israel from a false teacher; but the mercy of the wicked was cruel.
Verse 11 encourages us to accept the work in front of us rather than pursue worthless, empty things. The first line emphasizes that a man should till his own land, and if he does he will be satisfied with everything he needs. Though it assumes an agricultural setting, the same principle applies to any sort of labor. Are you a student? Your field is to finish your assignments; get busy. Are you a salesman? Your field is to sell; get busy. Are you a builder? Your field is to build; get busy. In contrast is the dreamer who is constantly neglecting the work in front of him to pursue other fields that are not his. This doesn’t mean that we cannot work and plan to improve our lives, to get ourselves into a field for which we are more suited. We are to be content and labor diligently where we are; if the Lord opens an opportunity elsewhere, we are free to take it. But if we neglect the field we have because we are dreaming of a field we might someday have, we have no sense.
FRUIT OF LIPS
Skipping to verse 14: Many proverbs speak of the benefit that a righteous man brings to others with his words. Here, we are told that the righteous man who speaks edifying words will also receive a benefit for himself. He is a tree of life to others, and he will be fed with the fruit of his lips. So also the deeds of a righteous man will double back to bless him. God has built the world so that serving others (a wife, for instance) is the best form of self-service.
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