The Proverbial Journey 26

Proverbs Chapter 26

In this chapter we have a tremendous amount of warning against people who have not received or heeded wisdom (the fool).  We also find more language admonishing us to be careful with our words and our heart’s intent.

Just a passing reminder here.  I had mentioned in an earlier post on our journey through Proverbs about the power of words.  I talked about “Deed Word Theory”.  It is the idea that God does what He says and says what He does.  His word is power. The book of James tells us that the power of life and death are in the tongue.  These two major subjects in this chapter, listening and speaking, are paramount for us.  We must be listening to God and speaking the things of God wisely.

I wanted to focus on verse 17 today.

17 Like one who seizes a dog by the ears
is a passer-by who meddles in a quarrel not his own.

The advent of instant communication has been a powerful tool for the Kingdom and a powerful tool for the enemy as well.  We can now touch the hearts of people with the Gospel on the other side of the Globe in seconds.  We can also now carry the weight of the worries of the world on our shoulders in seconds.

In Jesus’ day, people were not aware of much news beyond their own villages and towns.  If there was a major catastrophe in another country, they might never know of it.  One of the things our mass communication has allowed the enemy to do to us is to get us to worry about things we have no impact on other than prayer.  We get consumed with the never ending evolving drama of distant places and become numb to the important priorities the Lord has placed in our lives right around us.  We run too and fro with our eyes off in the distance, our minds seized with anger and worry over far away things, and the enemy succeeds in distracting us from obeying God right where we are.

I’m not saying we should not be globally aware or give and serve in missions or be politically active.  What I am saying is we need to pay the most attention to the things and relationships the Lord has given us direct impact and stewardship over.  We need to be wary of jumping in on fights and issues that take us away from our “homestead”.  We live in a culture where people will fight for something in a distant place and neglect to fight for their marriage, children, or starving neighbors.  We also, because of our flesh, want to jump into juicy gossip things that are no business of our own.  When we do, we just make things worse and find ourselves in sin also.

This verse tells us if we jump in on things that the Lord has not given us to do, that, like grabbing a dog by the ears, we might get bit.

Any thoughts?