The Bible Says THIS Is Like Playing With Fire: Proverbs 6:1-35

Show Notes

Episode 562: 
In this episode, we delve into Proverbs chapter 6, where we explore King Solomon's practical wisdom. We discuss the importance of hard work, using the ant as a metaphor for diligence, and the dangers of laziness. Solomon's vivid imagery, such as comparing the consequences of adultery to playing with fire, serves as a stark reminder of the potential fallout from poor choices. We also examine the seven things that the Lord hates, discussing how these behaviors—like pride, deceit, and discord—can tear apart the fabric of society.

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You're listening to the Bible, guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun in practical ways. Hey, everybody, welcome to the Bible. Guys. We are here, and we are very excited. We are here and not somewhere else. That's completely true. If you remember the DJ rick Ds. You listen to the radio as a kid, apparently not Okay. Anyway, Rick D's he had he had a saying he said, wherever you go, there you are. Okay, That's that's what you just sort of said. That's I just said that. Yeah, something something like that, something like we're here, right. That's so funny. Contemplating industries of the universe right now. So if you had no TV growing up and. I listened to Christian music though, oh you didn't. Listen to just an average radio or whatever, you're just all at all at all. So so if we were to like like turn on a station like I love the eighties, you'd be like, not really. What they would be familiar because of like being in the mall or something, or at work. People would be listening to music. Wow, it wasn't forbidden, it was just a choice. Or was it forbidden? Both. It was both okay, wow, okay. I never listened to Christian Christian music until I obviously became a Christian. Your wife started listening to it in the car when you get in and before you can scramble as fasty can and change. The chal she introduced me to it. She did. She was she loved Jesus. She was my Christian friend who liked Christian music. But I became a Christian my sophomore year of high school, and uh, I was exposed to Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith, Sandy Patty, all those guys. Anyway, here we go. We're going to dive into a segment called one Must Go, One must go this Thanksgiving coming up in a few days, which one stays and which one goes away forever? So you and I just have to choose. And by the way, we decided this is for the. World, okay, and that's this or that essentially. Escally yeah yeah, yeah, this one or that, but but it goes away for the world, for the world forever. Okay. So we're choosing this on behalf of humanity, not for ourselves. Right, I guess. Okay, all right, So here we go. Which goes away forever Jeff Turkey or Ham. That's a tough one. I love both. This is the hardest one on this list. Yeah. Well, all the Jews would say yeah Ham. Yeah, but I love him. I think I'm gonna say ham. Ham will go away? What? Yeah? Why because it doesn't say all the rest of the pork products, So you'd still get the benefit of turkey. What. It doesn't say all the other pork products. It just says ham itself. It just says bacon. No, bacon doesn't come from the ham. Ham is a cut of meat. Oh wow, you would know this. You're a week guy, that's right, right, You're you're You're still be able to you still be able to have you're GRIBs protein. You'd be able to have ribs and bacon and pulled pork sandwiches, all that stuff. You just couldn't have the ham. Okay, fine, you've convinced me. I was one hundred percent going to say, but I think I agree. Now you get both, Okay, all right? Good hang out with wise friends and you become wise. That's right. And yes, speaking of it, Yeah, yesterday, that was yesterday. Ye it could have been yesterday, all right. Number two cornbread or stuffing. Which one goes? Corn bread? Yeah, corn bread yeah, corn bread. Yeah. Stuffing is too good. Number one, too good. But also way more popular than corn bread. I found a recipe last night at eleven something at night, I was looking at recipes and I found a recipe for a new kind of stuffing I want to make. That looks incredible. So yeah, wow, yeah, I just I just wait watching the lions, and then she says it's time to eat, and then I'm like, oh, this is really good stuffing, baby. That's it? Yeah, okay, right, sweet potato mash or mashed potatoes. Oh, there's no competition here. I really like sweet potato mash. But come on, you can't get. Rid of mashed potatoes exactly, exactly, yes, So out with the sweet potato mash. Are we three for three? Three for three? Three for three? Wow? Yeah, that usually doesn't happen. Huh. Right, we're using mostly in agreement, right. Green bean casserole or cranberry sauce. Now, is this green bean castrole like the green beans that are in the in the cream and mushroom soup with the fried onions on top. Well, I would assume so, because that's the typical Thanksgiving green bean. Castral yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, so green bean casserole or cranberry sauce. Okay, so green bean castro doesn't mean that you'll do with green beans on the. Side, No, just as that casserole that. Castrole right, all right, So it has to be the green bean casserole. Well, I mean, think about it. I love cranberry sauce, down cranberry sauce. Well, I love jellied cranberry sauce, which is unpopular, right, like they can the one in the jelly, Like, I don't think you understand how much I love. To shake it out and it just stands at like a can on top of the late. So my wife, who's listening right now, she would chime in right now and say, Jeff, you have no idea how much my husband I think if if the cranberry sauce is forgotten, the entire Thanksgiving meals from a ten to. A two, well, it's not a Thanksgiving, right, Okay. That's how much I love. Do you eat it the rest of the year? No, just with just with that meal with turkey, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes. Yeah, and by the way, I've gone to I've gone to Cracker Barrel and I've ordered their Thanksgiving feast or whatever. And I've also gone to bob Evans because they have a really good Thanksgiving to fine establishment to fine establishments. And when I ordered cranberry sauce, it's always the obviously not the jellied because because who would ever serve that, right, right, right, which I don't like the other I don't like this real stuff that much. Okay, pumpkin pie or wait wait wait you never answered, Oh, I would do away with the cranberry sauce, so we disagree with Yeah, yeah, go ahead. Now I like cranberry sauce. I do. I made a burger Thanksgiving feast burgerry with turkey, so it was ground turkey with all the the flavors that you put on a turkey, you know, rosemary, time sage, it's really really good, and then melted a provolone on that and had a little bit of stuffing and uh, cranberry sauce on it. Believe or not, it sounds odd. It was really on a breoshe bun. It was so good, wo so good. Yeah. Anyways, so I like cranberry sauce. But you're making me hungry. But I like green bean castrole better. Okay, So now now the big one, pumpkin pie or apple pie? Which one has to go forever? Well, I'll tell you I already have an answer. Apple pie is America itself. Yeah, mom, right, it's mom, it's everything that, it's Baseball's right, it's everything. So the patriotic answer is, yes, you. Have to get a pumpkin pie. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So although I love pumpkin pie, but do I order it as much as apple pie? Not even close? Yeah? So on this one, yep, I don't care because I don't like pie. What I know, I know? What do you mean you don't like pie? Yeah? So, of the two, I would prefer a good apple pie over pumpkin pie. But I'm not normally a pie person. I've never chosen a piece of pie. I'm almost offended, except I love pecan pie. Well that's pie. But I know, but of of those two and name all the other pies, I also like, like a French silk right, but I don't like I for the most part, I don't ever order a pie. I've never went you know what I mean? I want I want to pie There's there's a famous pie company here in an area called Akets, right, and my wife is always like, let's pulenty get a pie. And I'm like, okay, wow. I love cake. I love brownies. I love chocolate chip cookies. So when it comes to this, you and I are radically opposite. Yeah, I don't love for pie. I don't like cake, I know, but I love pie. I know. So I were friends. That's right. More for me? Right, if I have pie, somebody brought me pie with the little scoop ice cream or something. Yeah, I eat it. I mean I'm not against it. Look at me. I don't say. Note a lot of things right, but yeah, all. Right, all right, we're time to move on. I'm ready. Wow, okay, wow, super exciting this man speaking of being uh oh jeezh you have. An hour one on this one. I didn't look ahead. Well. One of my favorite things about the great, big giant Thanksgiving dinners. When you're done, you just go out and pass out in front of the TV, right right. Being lazy. Yeah, and the one of the verses here is talks about being a lazy bones. That was a terrible transition. But I didn't have which is the goal. That's the goal. Anything work on that. Listen, we apologize to our viewers, and tomorrow we will be prepared for the better transition. Will we will we though, Okay, we'll see, We'll see. Okay, So we are in Proverbs chapter six. All we're doing is we're trying to trying to inform ourselves of the practical wisdom of King Solomon. And a lot of times, for me as a kid, I felt like reading Solomon was very similar to reading like the clever thoughts of Mark Twain or the clever thoughts of Benjamin Franklin when he was writing Port Richard's Almanac. Or something like that. You know, a penny saved is a penny earned kind of a thing, right, It feels that way, where Solomon just drops these nuggets of really smart things that if you apply them. The difference is Solomon has like the keys to real life, and you know, Mark Twain and ben Franklin seemed to be just clever, and there's a big difference in being wise and being clever. Right, So anyways, Proverbs chapter six, verse one says, my child, if you put up security for a friend's debt or agreed to guarantee the debt of a stranger. If you've trapped yourself by agreement and are caught by what you said, follow my advice and save yourself, for you have placed yourself at your friend's mercy. Now swallow your pride, go and beg to have your name erase. Don't put it off, do it now, don't rest until you do. Save yourself like a gazelle escaping from a hunter, like a bird fleeing from a net. Then he says, take a lesson from the ants, You lazybones, learn from their ways and become wise. Though they have no prince or governor or ruler to make them work, they labor hard all summer, gathering food for the winter. But you, lazy bones, how long will you sleep? When will you wake up? A little extra sleep, a little more slumber, a little folding of their hands to rest. Then poverty will pounce on you like a bandit. Scarcity will attack you like an armed robber. What are worthless and wicked people like? They're constant liars, signaling their deceit with the wink of an eye, a nudge of the foot, or the wiggle of fingers. Their perverted hearts plot evil, and they constantly stir up trouble, but they will be destroyed, suddenly broken in an instant, beyond all hope of healing. There are six things the Lord hates no. Seven things he detests haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that kill the innocent, a heart that plots, evil, feet that race to do wrong, a false witness who pours out lies, and a person who sows discord in a family. My son, obey your father's commands, and don't neglect your mother's instructions. Keep their words always in your heart. Tie them around your neck when you walk. Their counsel will lead you when you sleep, they will protect you. When you wake up, they will advise you. For their command is a lamp, and their instruction a light. Their correct discipline is the way to life. It will keep you from the immoral woman, from the smooth tongue of a promiscuous woman. Don't lust for her beauty, don't let her coy glances seduce you. For a prostitute will bring you to poverty, But sleeping with another man's wife will cost you your life. Can a man scoop a flame into his lap and not have his clothes catch on fire? Can he walk on hot coals and not blister his feet. So it is with the man who sleeps with another man's wife, he who embraces her will not go unpunished. Excuses might be found for a thief who steals because he's starving, but if he's caught, he must pay back seven times what he stole, even if he has to sell everything in his house. But the man who commits adultery is an utter fool. For he destroys himself, he will be wounded and disgraced. His shame will never be erased. For the woman's jealous husband will be furious, and he will show no mercy when he takes revenge. He will accept no compensation nor be satisfied with the payoff of any size. Woo. So being in ministry for so long and you know, will always make fun and say we're old, right, even though we're not old right, you're old, Yeah, you're old. Hey, I'm only six weeks older. Than you, way older, but the uh. But you know, having been a ministry so long, you can see this play out in so many lives. Oh, I can't even tell you the number of people who I've had conversations with in fact, I don't think I even know of a story where adult tree is involved where it doesn't end badly, right, it just ends, it ends. It's always so drama filled and and yes, in some cases could be absolutely dangerous. But you know, I love how Solomon says, can a man scoop a flame into his lap and not have his clothes catch on fire? Can you walk on hot coals and not blitcher his feet? And he's like, so it is, and of course the answer is no. And what he's playing with fire? Yes, he's he's saying, he's saying, do you not understand that it's going to end badly? And he's and then he's making the visual aid comparison of saying, it's just as if you can't do this, yuess, well, you can't commit adultery with an other man's wife. And guess what, he's not gonna forgive and it's gonna you're gonna you're gonna die, basically, and and and and even even compares to this stealing. He's like, hey, he's like even a thief, even a thief can get away with it if he's starving, even though he's gonna have You know, I have a huge consequence. He's gonna pay back seven times if he gets caught. But guess what's gonna happen if you get caught, right, It's it's gonna end badly. So I mean, it feels like there's like ten verses here that uh, you know, really uh warn us against that, you know, just the idea of what God hates. And here's the here's my second thought. My second thought is I always found it super weird that every time I come across this verse where he says there are six things the Lord hates, no, no, no, just kidding, seven seven things he detests, and then he lists seven things obviously that are bad. But then I think, oh, really, God doesn't hate eight things. God doesn't hate nine. So I'm thinking, what's so special about these seven things? You know? Well, all of these things are called an abomination in the Bible, So an abomination means they make God want to vomit. So there aren't very many. There's a couple more that I mentioned in the Bible. So that's a poetic mechanism in Hebrew where he starts off saying they're sixteen, no seven, right, So it's a poetic like get your attention kind of thing. You know what? That runs me of mel Brooks in the Meeting of Life. At the very beginning of the movie, he pretends to be Charlton Heston in that famous movie. He walks down the mountain and he looks just like Tarlton Heston. He's dressed up. Mel Brooks course is just hilarious. He's starting three stone tablets and he goes, God brings you these fifteen and then one falls and drops and he goes, ooh, ten ten comments for all the people to obey, and it's hilarious. It's like it's like six none of seven. Yeah, So that's it's a poetic mechanism that he's using there for that. So, but the things he talks about, the God hates hot haughty eyes, that's just pride, right, that's what he's talking about there. A prideful look is usually what it's translated. A lying tongue, hands that kill the innocent, which in our society that's a pretty significant thing. A heart that plots, evil feet that race to do wrong, a false witness who pours out lies, and a person who sows discord in a family. All of those things tear apart society, right, all of those, each of those things, and so that's what he's going after there. Yeah, yeah, I find it interesting that he says a heart that plots evil, feet that race to do wrong. Those things are connected to you know, the character intention, right, They're connected to the inside of a person. You know, a false witness that pours out lies. I mean, it's just it speaks into like a person who's just not a good person. You know, Well, we can have these things, you know, each of these this idea, there's a lying tongue in verse seventeen, and then in verse nineteen, a false witness who pours out lies. And on the surface, you think, well, those are the same, he's just repeating the same thing. But a lying tongue is somebody who's a liar, Right, You just lie, You make up stories that aren't true, you give answers that aren't legit. Whereas a false witness who pours out lies is that's more of an affirmation of God's view of the value of the rule of law. Right, So in court, somebody who comes in and tells a lie under oath undermines the whole process of justice in a society. Right, So the second. That second one is different. It's not just being a liar. It's upending the process of justice, the rule of law in society. And the only way that the rule of law works is the fact that we choose to believe it does and we follow it. So even when we're in a situation where it doesn't behoove us and it actually might work against us, we still have to if we're going to be civilized people, we still have to choose to under oath give the truth, right, and if not, all of the rest of society breaks down at leads to corruption. If you're willing to shoot a move in court, if you're willing to take advantage of your ability to hide the truth in a public setting like that, that that tears down the fabricous society differently than just being a liar, right, And so that's why those two they seem the same, but they're not. And then it's the same thing. People who what was it heart that plots evil versus the feet that race to do evil? Right? Right, there's some who just love it. So I was always really tempted by friends who go, jeff, I dare you especially they double dog. Dare me sure? Right? I didn't usually think of dumb things to do, right, But if my friends dare me to do dumb things, I did them right. So I was the second one, not the first one. Well, I'll tell you I was. I was both. Would we would have a game amongst ourselves, you know, we would think of crazy things to do and just dare each other. Right, And you have sort of a group of friends like that. It's a it's a really bad thing. Yeah. And then of course you know if you if you don't do it, there's you know, you can't fall out of good standing of being a weal crazy movies. Have you seen where there's some you know, a lot mess Yeah, master mind that is so good at figuring out how to break into the bank, or how to steal a bunch of bitcoin, or how to take advantage whatever. And you look at that character going, if they just applied their mind to I O don't know, you know, solving the problem of cancer, they would change the world. But instead they use all of their intelligence to try to find a way to shoot a move, take advantage, steal something whatever. You just described the plot of ant Man. Yeah, yes, exactly. I'm sure ant Man was what Solomon had in MI. But let me jump to this one because each of these now, in this one, he's writing in little segments. He's writing, like five verse segments, the very first one, my child, If you put up security for a friend's debt, or agreed to guarantee the debt of a stranger, if you trapped yourself by your agreement or caught by your words, do whatever it takes, follow my advice. Get out of that. What he's saying is don't co sign. That's what he's saying, right, And he's not saying don't help a friend out, don't help a family member out. He's saying, don't go on the hook for somebody else's debt because it'll ruin their life, their life, and your life. Right. And so he's warning here, and there's multiple times in the Book of Proverbs where he warns his children don't be a co signer for any reason. And so that's what he's talking about there, And he said, don't put it off, do it now. Don't rest until you get out from underneath that, right, because the potential is if you're a co signer, the other person doesn't pay and it's on your credit, you've got to pay, and if it doesn't get paid, it's not their credit, it's your credit that's going to get ruined. Right. Do you want to hear a story that is not relevant but very interesting. It's twenty seconds. Yeah, my grandfather, he's since passed away, But my grandfather was talked into co signing. A good buddy of his camee to him in desperation, said he wanted him to co sign for a new car, convinced him. My grandfather signed it, and the next week this guy ended up taking his own life, and he left behind a wife and children. And so my mother talks about that story and says, my grandfather made that payment every month and never spoke a word about it and paid the whole thing off. Well, yeah, you know, if you have the margin to be able to do it. But what he's saying here is you're putting yourself at risk yep. Yeah yeah, But. Isn't that crazy though? It's a crazy story. And then my dad used to call me lazy bones. Did he a little bit as a kid, Yeah, and so that that phrase, yeah, so that that well, we read this all the time. Oh I see, So you know it says go to the end, thou slugger is what it says to King James. You ever read that? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah so sure. But verse ten, A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding the hands, the rest. On a regular basis, I'll roll over, turn off my alarm and go I just can't get up. A little rest, Yeah, a little sleep, a little folding the hands, the slumber. Yep, that's so fun. But he's talking here that procrastinating, not doing the work you need to do today is going to lead you to poverty tomorrow. So there's so many smart things he warns you about, the slick people that wink and nudge you at their foot and always trying to you know, if there's winking and nudging and signals at the table, probably somebody's shooting a move and you don't want to be a part of that either, right. So it's just so smart the stuff he talks about here where he's just trying to set his children up to understand how the world works and the best way to live. Yeah, that's great. Well, hey, that looks like our time. So what a great chapter. And we'll see you hopefully next time on the bibble Gush