The Compelling Need To Avoid The Enticements Of Sinners Motivated By Greed (Proverbs 1:10-19).
Solomon now vividly portrays the dangers of greed and violence, two things which often go together. The one who responds to God's wisdom will avoid such enticements. The ideas are presented in chiastic fashion:
A My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent (Proverbs 1:10).
B If they say, Come with us, Let us lay in wait for blood, let us lurk secretly for the innocent without cause (Proverbs 1:11).
C Let us swallow them up alive as Sheol, and whole, as those who go down into the pit (Proverbs 1:12).
D We will find all precious substance, we will fill our houses with spoil (Proverbs 1:13).
E You shall cast your lot among us, we will all have one purse (Proverbs 1:14).
E My son, do not walk in the way with them, refrain your foot from their path (Proverbs 1:15).
D For their feet run to evil (Proverbs 1:16 a),
C And they make haste to shed blood (Proverbs 1:16 b).
B For in vain is the net spread In the sight of any bird, yet these lay wait for their own blood, they lurk secretly for their own lives (Proverbs 1:17-18).
A So are the ways of every one who is greedy of gain; It takes away the life of its possessors (Proverbs 1:19).
In A sinners seek to entice, and in the parallel it is greed that entices. In B they lie in wait for blood, and lurk secretly for the innocent, and in the parallel they lie in wait for their own blood, and lurk secretly for their own live. In C they want to bring men to death, and in the parallel they make haste to shed blood. In D they seek ill-gotten gain, and in the parallel their feet run to do evil. Centrally in E they call on the young man to follow them and in the parallel wisdom tells him not to walk in their paths.
‘My son, if sinners entice you,
Do not consent,
If they say, Come with us,
Let us lay wait for blood,
Let us lurk secretly for the innocent without cause,
Let us swallow them up alive as Sheol,
And whole, as those who go down into the pit,
We will find all precious substance,
We will fill our houses with spoil,
You shall cast your lot among us,
We will all have one purse.'
Others besides their fathers and mothers will seek to ‘guide' them. And to them they are not to give consent. For in contrast to the instruction and discipline of father and mother, will be the influence of some of their contemporaries more their own age, who will seek to lead them astray. These will entice them by seeking to arouse their greed, and by offering close companionship. They are described as ‘sinners', that is people who have wrong intent, and ‘miss the mark' and turn men in the wrong path.
Peer pressure and gang cultures were just as prevalent in those days as they are in some quarters today, and we must remember that a ‘gang' (peer group) today might equally be a group of sophisticated people united in a common bond. They can equally get up to, and inculcate, mischief. Thus there is the warning against mixing with and ganging up with the wrong people. There will always be those who seek to ‘entice us' and lead us astray from God's instruction, and encourage us to be dishonest, and even violent, and they are to be avoided.
The people described here were the kind of people who would encourage violence with the aim of dishonest gain, lying in wait for innocent people in order to rob them. The intensity of their evil is brought out by the vividness of the description. They delighted in sending people into Sheol and ‘the pit'. Sheol was the shadowy underworld of the grave to which the dead went, the great unknown, the place of darkness and forgetfulness (see Psalms 6:5; Isaiah 14:9-15; Ezekiel 32:21; Ezekiel 32:27). ‘The pit' was another way of describing it. They were places which were empty of life. They were thus by their actions robbing people of their futures as well as of their goods.
Their aim was dishonest gain, and the motive was greed. They wanted to ‘fill their houses with spoil'. They wanted to possess possessions. But an equally special appeal lay in the comradeship arising from all sharing in the one pot, of all being one together. By heeding the ‘advice' of their peers they would be ‘accepted' among their contemporaries. ‘You shall cast your lot among us.' Each would participate in the excitement of the division of the spoils by lot. ‘We will all have one purse'. They would be all one in purpose, and in the sharing of the spoils. All this would make them feel that they were ‘independent' of parental control and that they ‘belonged' in the group. But they would in practise simply have replaced the godly authority of their parents, who were concerned for their good, with the ungodly authority of the group whose only concern was dishonest gain. The principle equally applies of course to any attempt to gain from others by underhand means, and any gathering together which leads to wrongdoing. Today men and women simply do it in a more sophisticated way. It is equally possible to destroy a man by ruining his reputation, or holding him up to ridicule.
‘Let us lay wait for blood.' Note the emphasis on blood in the passage. ‘They scurry to shed blood' (Proverbs 1:16). They ‘lay wait for their own blood' (Proverbs 1:18). They were bloodthirsty days, and Solomon is using an extreme example to get over his point. Violent death was a common experience in days when men went about armed and there were no police. It is significant that in the prologue it is violence and illicit sex that are the two major sins inveighed against. Times have not changed.
‘My son, do not walk in the way with them,
Refrain your foot from their path,
For their feet run to evil,
And they scurry to shed blood.'
As a surrogate father he pleads with ‘his son' not to ‘walk in the way with them', in other words not to ‘walk in the counsel of the ungodly' (Psalms 1:1). Rather he is to refrain from following in their path. He is to resist their enticements. And that is because their feet run to do evil. Thus we are to beware of allowing our contemporaries to lead us into what comes short of the best. In mind here is an extreme example. They are so eager to shed blood that they scurry along in order to do so. Others may be eager for lesser sins, as the book will go on to show, but their ways are still to be avoided.
‘For in vain is the net spread,
In the sight of any bird,
But these lay wait for their own blood,
They lurk secretly for their own lives.'
The writer then points out the folly of all this. He ‘considers their end' (Psalms 73:17). For, he says, what they are doing will in the end rebound on themselves. They are in essence setting a trap for themselves. They ‘lay in wait for blood' (Proverbs 1:11), but do not realise that they are in essence ‘lying in wait for their own blood'. They ‘lurk secretly for the innocent' (Proverbs 1:11) but do not thereby realise that they are lurking secretly for their own lives. They fail to recognise that inevitably their actions will bring evil consequences for themselves.
The point behind the illustration is that, very foolishly, they are by their actions setting a trap for themselves, or throwing a net over themselves, in full view of themselves. (Inscriptions picturing hunters creeping up on birds in order to cast a net over them have been discovered in Egypt). They may be hidden from others in their hiding place, but they are not hidden from themselves. They are fully aware of what they are doing. How foolish therefore they are, for only the foolish person lays a snare or casts a net in full view, so that it is obvious, with the consequence that he does it in vain. A sensible person, when seeking to ensnare birds, does not make his net or his presence obvious. He disguises both so that the bird will not know they are there. (Indeed, that is why these people wait for their victims in ambush. They do it so that they will not be discerned). But what they foolishly do not realise is that they are in fact laying an ambush which will finally trap themselves, and one thing that is sure is that they cannot hide from themselves. They are setting what will finally trap them in full view of their own eyes. Thus they are being doubly foolish. They are doing wrong and they are behaving as no sensible person would do. And the end of their behaviour can only be their own loss when in some way or other they are brought to account. They are by their actions in fact ‘lying in wait for their own blood'.
‘So are the ways of every one who is greedy of dishonest gain,'
It takes away the life of its owners.'
And why do they behave in this way? It is because they are greedy to obtain wealth though wrong methods. Their hearts are full of covetousness and greed. They will do anything for money. As Paul would later point out, ‘the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil' (1 Timothy 6:10).
But such an attitude can only in the end take away their lives (as they themselves have taken away the lives of others). It takes away their lives daily as it results in a spiritually impoverished life and a destruction of their finer feelings. And it will destroy them in the end because they will be brought into judgment. Thus unknown to them greed will take away their lives from them, even though outwardly they may appear to prosper from it. We can compare the Psalmist's words concerning such people, ‘then I considered their latter end' (Psalms 73:17). We all need to consider, not only what we do, but also its final end.