Proverbs 6:12-19

Hey, welcome to Coffee and Devotions this Tuesday morning. It's so good to have you here today. Today we are at Proverbs chapter 6. Let's see, we're at verses 12 through 19. This is a particularly interesting set of Proverbs here. Why don't we go ahead and have some coffee, pray, and we'll get into God's Word. Let's pray.
Father, we thank you so much for this day and we thank you for your word. We thank you for the wisdom that's contained in it. God, we pray that we would examine our own hearts to see where there is sin in our lives. We pray that by your Holy Spirit, you would convict us of that sin and turn us away from it. Lord, we pray that we would repent of these things that might be true in our lives and that we would walk in your paths. Please let us hear your wisdom in Jesus's name. Amen. All right, here we go. Proverbs chapter 6, verses 12 through 19.
A worthless person, a wicked man, walks with a perverse mouth. He winks with his eyes and shuffles his feet. He points with his finger. Perversity is in his heart. He devises evil continually. He sows discord. Therefore his calamity shall come suddenly. Suddenly he shall be broken without remedy. These six things the Lord hates. Yes, seven are an abomination to him. A proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift and running to evil, a false witness who speak lies, and one who sows discord among brethren.
Oh, what an a very illustrative passage we have for us. We need to ask ourselves, A, what is this about? B, what's the best verse to summarize this? And C, what do we call the dude in response to this? So A, what is this about? Well, the first portion is verses 12 through 15.
A dude you don't want to associate with. The book of Colossians says, do not be deceived. Bad company corrupts good morals. And this son is telling his son here, hey, there's a dude you need to watch out for. This is a solemn writing to his son. You're going to be king someday, and there's a shysty guy, a son of the devil, that you need to stay far away from. You need to know who this type of guy is and not be associated with him.
What's this guy like? He's a worthless person, a wicked man, walks with a perverse mouth. Later Jewish literature would talk about this person as a devilish human. This is someone who, he winks his eyes, he speaks in both verbal and non-verbal communication in a way that shows he's crooked in his heart, who's always trying to kind of He's just, he's slimy, right? He's a betrayer with his mouth.
He'll say one thing and, you know, and we think of winking in our culture as like a fun thing, right? Here it's, he winks with his eyes, but perversity is in his heart, right? It's like when somebody says, Oh yeah, we should really protect the orphans and the widows, right? No, they're trying to get across. He's shuffling his feet, right?
The king gives him a command and he's slow to do what he's supposed to do. He points with his fingers, right? You know this type of person, always saying, but my sister did that or but that guy didn't do his things. Or when he gets a command, he says, oh, that person would be better equipped for that type of work. or points his finger in an accusatory way at people. That's the guy who you should put to death. That's the guy.
And it's always those people, that person, those things over there, and never me. It's never pointed at himself, but it's always talking about other people. There are some commentators who will talk about this and they'll say that it's possible this is the type of guy who's also dealing with witchcraft and enchanting. I'm not so positive that that's what this is talking about, but I don't want to rule it out entirely.
But the point is perversity is in his heart. He's crooked in his ways. In his very soul he wants to go in twisted ways. He devises evil continually, right? At all times this dude wants to get into trouble. He's always doing things that are for destruction. He sows discord.
You know that type of person, right? That toxic person in your life who's just always gossiping, always slandering, always just somebody's got something wrong and they just always want to tear people down with their mouth. They're sowing discord. The father here is saying, boy, there's people like this. Stay away from them.
Suddenly he shall be broken without remedy, therefore calamity shall take him suddenly. This is a wise instruction to this guy. His downfall is going to happen. People like this always, I shouldn't say always, sometimes they'll rise, but their reign ends eventually.
You can only tear down so many people, ignore so many people. Just be slimy in your ways without falling down. The Father's saying, hey boy, listen up. If you associate with this dude, you're going to fall too. I'm warning you. You might think, oh, if I follow this guy, I'm going to rise to the top. He seems like he's got a pretty good thing. He's going to fall. You'll be taken down as collateral damage. Stay away from him. Pardon me. Stay away from him. And then the first of the numerical proverbs come. We're going to see this time and time again, especially in the later part of Proverbs, but here we get our first numerical proverb.
These six things the Lord hates, yes, seven, are an abomination to him. A proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift in running to evil, a false witness who speak lies, and one who sows discord among brethren. When we have these, oftentimes what's going on is at the very end, the last thing is meant to be the one that should be underlined or bolded, right? And so there's these treacherous people, these people who will tear down a kingdom that a son of the king, a prince, as he's going to become a man. You need to know these types of people, right?
Six things Yahweh the Lord hates. right what are the what are the ones that he hates seven are abomination that he wants to spit out of his mouth a proud look a lying tongue god hates a lying tongue hands that shed innocent blood right the lord is a god of righteousness his king is uh lord almighty He's the ruler of the armies of righteousness. He hates those hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans. The Lord is one who is holy and righteous and pure and just and good in all his ways. He will not take pleasure in those whose heart devise wicked plans, feet that are swift and running to destruction or running to evil. Don't go that way. Son of God hates it. A false witness who speak lies.
Interestingly, some of these are duplications of what's above. And one who sows discord amongst his brethren. Psalm 133 talks about how blessed it is when brothers dwell together in unity. Right? There are people who are going to just, they like to just sow discord. They want to rip people apart. They want to destroy the harmony. And the father's saying to his son here, stay away from them.
God hates this type of stuff. And Sinclair Ferguson once said, more churches have been ripped apart because of gossip and slander than because of heresy. And it's true. And God hates it. The denominations, the churches that split because of gossip and slander and stuff like that, God hates it. It's a mar. God is a God of peace and of righteousness, and there's going to be people who will try to rip that apart.
So we need to ask ourselves, right? This is a good point of reflection. Has any of this described me? The Proverbs, we should be careful. We could think about this as people out there, but is it me? Do you need to be told by Ephesians chapter 4, let no unwholesome word or let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth but only what is good for necessary edification that it might build up those who hear? Are you imparting grace with your words or are you sowing discord? Are you proud? Are you always pointing the finger? Or are you humble, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner?
Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day, and we thank you for the wisdom of your word. We pray that we might walk in it today, that you would let us be wise, not in our own eyes, but humble before you. In Jesus's name, amen. All right, well, I'll see you tomorrow. I hope you have a great day, and may you rest in Jesus Christ. Bye.