Last time, we concluded Proverbs 5 on adultery and marriage. As in chapter 5, Proverbs 6 continues the practical outworking of keeping (or guarding) our hearts taught in chapters 3-4. This keeping of our hearts for singular loyalty to God is to be done in every area of our lives, whether it refers to maintaining sexual purity, or as we will see in chapter 6, putting up financial security for another, maintaining good stewardship, or watching even our speech and way of life. So, the topics of sexual purity, finances, stewardship, and conduct are all areas that we need to be careful to guard our hearts for the Lord practically and diligently. All of these areas—even all of life—are included in living out the wisdom of God, which is built on fearing the Lord, obeying His commands, and cherishing His Word in our hearts for as long as we live.
The first subject we will cover is about putting up financial security for another (Prov. 6:1-5). The passage is as follows:
1 My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor, have given your pledge for a stranger, 2 if you are snared in the words of your mouth, caught in the words of your mouth, 3 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. 4 Give your eyes no sleep and your eyelids no slumber; 5 save yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the hand of the fowler.
The kind of financial security spoken of here is more than just risking the loss of a garment or one’s cloak, but can include everything that a person owns. Hence, even if a person is otherwise acting wisely with the resources that God has given them to steward, because of their foolish pledge, another now controls or determines what happens to their belongings. In other words, even if a man may govern his possessions wisely, work with his hands, and be diligent, the other man who has his financial security guaranteed for him can act foolishly and have another pay for it. The one putting up financial security for another, he is, in reality, simply preventing the consequences of foolish choices or actions of the other by risking his own livelihood. The effect is that he is making himself a slave that is, in all likelihood, controlled by the conduct of a fool. Even if a person wanted to help another who lost much financially, it is better to help them in such a way that would not risk one’s own livelihood. Why subject ourselves and our household to the conduct and choices of another?
By the time of Solomon, the Jews were very much exposed to foreign trade, which often charged large sums of interest for loans. However, the Law prohibited charging interest to fellow Jews:
35 If your brother becomes destitute and cannot sustain himself among you, you are to support him as a foreigner or temporary resident, so that he can continue to live among you. 36 Do not profit or take interest from him, but fear your God and let your brother live among you. 37 You are not to lend him your silver with interest or sell him your food for profit. 38 I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God (Lev. 25:35-38).
Given this command, one can see how foolish it would be to be security for another’s loan, which, by Solomon’s time, would have been with interest (especially at high interest, as was common at the time). The result can easily lead to oneself likewise becoming destitute. Rather than “support[ing] him as a foreigner,” taking this pledge would just make oneself subject to the unjust and prohibited system of taking high interest loans—loans which were designed to enslave and take advantage of the poor. Such a one thus becomes a partaker in that enslavement, both perpetuating it and becoming enslaved themselves.
Why should we give over our responsibility for godly stewardship to another? In doing so, we take responsibility for the consequences of those actions. Rather than giving up our responsibilities to another, wisdom dictates that we perform those duties before God ourselves, so that we can be godly managers of what God has given to us. In this respect, this teaching applies to all, since all have been given specific roles and responsibilities before God, and God will hold us accountable for how we manage them. For instance, if parents give responsibility for raising their children to another (or to an institution), they are no less responsible before God for how they are being raised. If we do not pursue our own spiritual growth (or the growth of those under our care)—viewing it, for example, as the responsibility of a pastor or teacher—then we are likewise shirking that responsibility and God will hold us to account. Rather, whatever the responsibility God has given to us, we will be the ones responsible and the ones required to give an accounting before God. Why, again, would we ever want to give that to another? Why become enslaved to another’s foolishness? Why become enslaved to our own foolishness in doing so? No, rather, “Give your eyes no sleep and your eyelids no slumber” until we are right before God and before men. In this way, we come to guard our hearts in holy and reverential fear before the Lord, with regard to all that He has given to us for responsible stewardship. That would be living out the wisdom of the Lord in this area.
Next time we will be looking at biblical teaching on sloth.