Proverbs Pt. 21 Wisdom helps us avoid poverty in practical ways.

Beautiful weather continues for us and we are very grateful for mild temps and low humidity. 

Today we begin Proverbs 6 and we will see the blessing of wisdom is going to be illustrated differently. King Solomon demonstrated financial wisdom to his sons in a very practical way. He taught them the wisdom of avoiding certain kinds of financial entanglements and the wisdom of bring productive workers.

Wisdom tells us to always avoid being a cosigner for a debt. 

Proverbs 6:1-5  My son, if thou be surety for thy friend, if thou hast stricken thy hand with a stranger, 2) Thou art snared with the words of thy mouth, thou art taken with the words of thy mouth. 3) Do this now, my son, and deliver thyself, when thou art come into the hand of thy friend; go, humble thyself, and make sure thy friend. 4) Give not sleep to thine eyes, nor slumber to thine eyelids. 5) Deliver thyself as a roe from the hand of the hunter, and as a bird from the hand of the fowler. 

Do not be a co-signer! Solomon begins with another tender plea from a father to his son. He then spoke about a certain kind of loan where you are a co-signer. That is what the word "surety" means. The main idea is that less creditworthy people were charged exorbitant interest rates and this situation should be avoided at all costs. 

In our culture a co-signer is needed when one party attempting to obtain a loan does not have a credit history or has bad credit. They must seek a co-signer who has good credit in order to obtain the loan. However, it also means that if the original party defaults on the loan, the co-signer is obligated to pay it off. 

Solomon told his sons that a co-signer on a loan either verbally agreed or shook hands to authorize being a co-signer. Thus they "struck hands" or were snared by the words of their mouth.

Deliver yourself from the agreement! This was Solomon's advice to his children if they had become a cosigner (or surety) for another person's loan. The word "deliver" means to snatch it away, to recover something of value, to rescue yourself or to strip it off. King Solomon advised his children to do this right away. It is a strong imperative because the potential for a financial loss if the primary borrower defaulted on the high interest payments. 

Do not fall into the hand of your friend. The phrase "come into the hand of thy friend" refers to the fact that as a cosigner the repayment is out of your hands. Keeping this loan out of default rests in the hands of your friend and his ability to pay. Agreeing to be "surety" for your friend's debt is a path that may lead to financial stress. 

The word "humble" has the idea of stamping oneself down into the dust or being trampled underfoot. The words "make sure" is the idea pleading urgently with your friend about nullifying the situation. He urged his children to go to the friend that they cosigned for in great humility and seek to get out of the arrangement. The cosigner must humbly go and plead relentlessly, even to the point of being obnoxious, in order to extricate himself from the snare of potential default. 

King Solomon told his children not to go to sleep until they have delivered themselves from the burden of being surety for a loan. Once again the king used common example to illustrate his point. A bird caught by a "fowler" will struggle with all its might in am effort to get away from its captor. Likewise a deer will fight valiantly when caught in the hunter's snare. 

He wanted his children to make the most intense effort to get out of being a cosigner as if their lives depended upon being free from the obligation of debt. 

Wisdom tells us to avoid high interest loans from cosigning.

Leviticus 25:35-37  And if thy brother be waxen poor, and fallen in decay with thee; then thou shalt relieve him: yea, though he be a stranger, or a sojourner; that he may live with thee. 36)  Take thou no usury of him, or increase: but fear thy God; that thy brother may live with thee. 37)  Thou shalt not give him thy money upon usury, nor lend him thy victuals for increase. 

The law of God put restrictions upon charging interest for a loan. Loans at no interest were permitted among the Jewish people and they were allowed to charge non-Jewish people interest for a loan, but not exorbitant rates. (See also Exodus 22:25). The reason for this is that high interest rates often led to financial injustice in the eyes of God (See Nehemiah 5:1-11). 

Another aspect of loans involved putting up security.  This happened when the person who needed a loan would put up security, or collateral as we would say today, in order to get the financial help that he needed. We will see this topic discussed in later chapters but it is mentioned about 6 times in Proverbs. 

Proverbs 6:6-11  Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: 7) Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, 8) Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest. 9) How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep? 10) Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep: 11) So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man. 

Wisdom teaches us that there is another path to poverty besides making bad decisions on high interest loans. King Solomon introduced the "sluggard" in the text above. Wisdom teaches us that laziness or indolence can lead to poverty and the sluggard is told to go and observe the ants.

Here are a few fascinating facts about ants. They are very social insects and the divide up the work among different kinds of ants. For example, the queens only function is to lay eggs and there are male ants whose function is to mate with the queen. Some worker ants take out the trash, some defend the nest, some take care of the larvae and some find food tor the colony.

Ants can lift up to 50 times their body weight and working as a group they can lift even more weight! Ants are the longest living insects. Ants hold the record as being the fastest moving in all the animal kingdom. There is one species of ant that can close its jaw to kill prey at 140 miles per hour! Ants leave a chemical trail for other ants to follow when they find food. When the food source is depleted then they stop leaving a trail. 

What is a "sluggard?" A sluggard is a lazy person who is not motivated to work or be a productive member of the family or society. If you read the narratives describing King Solomon's reign you would never call him a lazy king because he accomplished so many things. He certainly did not want his children to be sluggards as his admonishment demonstrated. 

Wisdom tells the sluggard to go and observe the ants. They are small in size but great in number and can get much work done in a short amount of time. Ants can lift 50 times their body weight yet the sluggard folds his hand in sleep. Ants organize tasks to be done and then various groups of ants complete certain tasks. The sluggard wastes his life away by sleeping too much. Ants store up food for themselves while the sluggard's food supply dwindles down to nothing.

Thoughts to Ponder...

King Solomon was a good father and he attempted to impart the wisdom of God to his children so that they could benefit from it. He taught us several important truths today that are very practical.

First, he warned about the dangers of being a cosigner for a friend seeking a loan. It is not good because your finances could take a loss if your friend cannot make the payments. Loans involving a cosigner usually involve high interest rates and this is a specific problem God singled out in His law. 

Poverty will come through becoming a cosigner on a loan.

Second, he warned his children about the dangers of being lazy. The sluggard is an embarrassment to his family. The Bible says that we are worse than an unbeliever if we fail to provide for our families. 

The sluggard is compared to a one armed man who can do very little and what he can do is very limited. The sluggard is lazy and stands out in contrast to the industrious ants. 

Poverty will come when someone is lazy like the sluggard. 

The takeaways for us? Do not cosign for anyone and be a hard worker. God made us for work and it is good for us. Practical advice based upon wisdom from God that will help us live a better life until he calls us home. 

Bob