Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

A bribe is seen as a charm by the one who gives it;
    they think success will come at every turn.
Whoever would foster love covers over an offense,
    but whoever repeats the matter separates close friends.
A rebuke impresses a discerning person
    more than a hundred lashes a fool.
Evildoers foster rebellion against God;
    the messenger of death will be sent against them.
Better to meet a bear robbed of her cubs
    than a fool bent on folly.
Evil will never leave the house
    of one who pays back evil for good.
Starting a quarrel is like breaching a dam;
    so drop the matter before a dispute breaks out.

• Proverbs 17:8-14

Proverbs 17:8 present. ”This refers to a bribe that brings prosperity to its recipient (v. 23; 15:27).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

As for the photo, the one in the middle causes twice as much strife as the other two combined. He is finally realizing that problem, but old habits are hard to break, and old wounds are hard to heal. Those thoughts go with these proverbs.

The company that I last worked for had a no-bribe policy, but they wanted to obtain a monstrously big job in a country that worked the bribe system to perfection.  We hired a guy who sat in a hotel in that country for months.  The bribes kept getting bigger and bigger, but we never got to the person who made the decisions.  With hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes getting us nowhere, we cut off the chase to get that major job.  With information that readily reached us from interested parties, the company that got the job had major losses.  In reading over the contract, I saw how we might have had the same losses.  But notice the wording of Proverbs 17:8, the recipient is happy, but the giver is left with false hope, at least all but one are left with false hope, and the other may regret what they get.

Not that bribes are not evil, most of these proverbs in this set are concerning the dangers of evil.

Proverbs 17:9 speaks of showing love.  When the other person knows that we love, they might overlook an offense, but when the offenses come early and often, it is better to create space than become a punching bag.

Again, we look at a discerning person accepts rebuke.  They may not welcome it, but they know it is for their own good.  But regardless of the punishment, rebuke, or guidance, the fool remains a fool.

C.S. Lewis quoted John Henry Newman in saying that the sinner is more of a rebel who needed to lay down his arms.  We might find ourselves, even those who love the Lord, having our moment of rebellion.

They tell you when you go to national parks to not get close to the bears, and never step between a bear and her cubs.  It will not end pretty.  And being around a fool bent on folly is worse than that?  I have known many Christians that went on trips of folly, thinking they could correct the fool, but they barely came out of the folly with their lives.  You know those stories that end well only because you survive, but you tell the story as if it was courage rather than being scared out of your wits.

And when you pay back evil for good, evil will haunt you.

Have you studied an earthen dam?  There is a spillway, sometimes built as a tower in the lake, but there is also an emergency spillway.  In larger dams, the emergency spillway is covered with concrete.  When the flood comes and the spillway cannot handle the flow of water into the lake, the water will rise until it reaches the emergency spillway, but at this point, there is so much water that the water over the emergency spillway will erode the dam, sometimes causing a major catastrophe, with the entire earthen dam washing away.  But if the emergency spillway is reinforced with concrete, it is less likely to have that result.

Think of the dam eroding away as you sense a discussion becoming a heated matter that causes disagreement.  It is better to change the subject than to cause massive harm to a relationship.

And now let us sing.

The following song is Good Fight.  This is sung by Unspoken.  These proverbs revolve about how we live in a broken world with evil on every side.  The final proverb in this set admonishes us to avoid a quarrel.  Just step away.  But how do we fight the good fight.  This song may be hard to sing along with, but it focuses on that one issue, fighting the Good Fight.

Closing Prayer

Dear Lord,
We need Your wisdom.  I especially need to learn when to back away from an argument.  As I told the Sunday school class a year ago, “When my wife died, I lost my shin kicker.”  She would do things, including kicking my shin to tell me to change the subject.  I should never respond when the one bent on evil goads with how they won the argument because I backed down.  Help us to respond in love.
In thy Name we pray.
Amen

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.