Proverbs 25:6 ¶ Put not forth thyself in the presence of the
king, and stand not in the place of great men: 7 For better it is that it be
said unto thee, Come up hither; than that thou shouldest be put lower in the
presence of the prince whom thine eyes have seen.
Practical advice for the ancient Israelite not
to put on airs and attempt to place themselves on a par with the powerful men
for it is better to be humble and be lifted up than to be arrogant and brought
low. Come into the presence of the king in humility without the pretension of
the “great” men. Let him raise you up. Do not put yourself in a position to be
knocked down several notches.
The Christian faith is one of denial, humility,
and the diminution of Self.
Romans 12:3 For I say, through the grace
given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more
highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath
dealt to every man the measure of faith.
1Peter 5:6 Humble yourselves therefore under
the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: 7 Casting all your
care upon him; for he careth for you.
James 4:10 Humble yourselves in the sight of
the Lord, and he shall lift you up.
When you come to God, acting as if He’s very
fortunate to have you on His “team” then God will need to knock your legs out
from under you. And don’t think that if you’re so meek and miserable that you
are humble. There is a tyranny of the so-called weak, where they become the
center of the universe, and direct others not through command or threat but
through emotional manipulation and pity. You can be very arrogant without
seeming so on the surface. And arrogance, lifting yourself up, is ungodly behavior
for a Christian. Tell me, something, whether you seem to be a tough guy and
“all that and a bag o’ chips” or if you are meek and mild and just a doormat
for everyone to wipe their feet on, are you proud?
Psalm 10:4 The wicked, through the pride of
his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.
If you have pride in Self, whether it be a vain extolling
of your own accomplishments and your man or womanhood, or if you be a behind
the scenes emotional manipulator demanding that everyone kowtow to you, you are
proud and therefore, in God’s eyes, acting as one of the wicked unsaved
persons.
Proverbs 16:18 Pride goeth before
destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.
Look around you at the people you love. Look
carefully. Who will God have to take away from you in order to get you to look
up and quit kissing the mirror? Come before God in humility so that He can lift
you up. In these verses lie one of the three times the words “Come up hither
(here)” are used in the Bible. The other two times are;
Revelation 4:1 After this I looked, and,
behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as
it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will
shew thee things which must be hereafter.
Revelation 11:12 And they heard a great voice
from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in
a cloud; and their enemies beheld them.
This is the foundation for some Bible
commentators saying that there will be multiple “translations” or what are
popularly called “raptures”. At least one, Dr. Ruckman, insists that there will
be a “rapture” of the church before the Tribulation begins and one of the
believing Jews during the Tribulation with the first “Come up hither” referring
to Christ’s ascension and the resurrection of the dead Old Testament saints in
Jerusalem (Matthew 27:52). These things are interesting to discuss but I would
not make them issues for argument. Pride tends to creep into arguments and then
we forget to keep the main thing the main thing, which is our relationship with
Jesus Christ.
Just believe on and trust in the Lord Jesus
Christ so that some day God will say to you, “COME UP HERE!”.
Proverbs 25:8 ¶ Go not forth hastily to strive, lest thou
know not what to do in the end thereof, when thy neighbour hath put thee to
shame. 9 Debate thy cause with thy neighbour himself; and discover not a secret
to another: 10 Lest he that heareth it put thee to shame, and thine infamy turn
not away.
Don’t be in a hurry to get in a fight. You have
no idea what the outcome might be. Talk things out with the person with whom
you have a conflict and don’t be telling tales out of school. It might get back
to the person you’re trying to work things out with and make things worse. Many
a person I’ve heard say they were trying to work out a problem with someone
only to find that their talking about the problem to someone else got back to
the first party and ruined everything.
In parts of the South there is a word called
“politickin” where, let’s say a husband and wife have a falling out, as in, he
cheats on her. Then, he, as he proclaims he’s repented of his sin and is sorry
for what he did, goes around to the wife’s family and friends without her and
tries to make himself look repentant. Now, what he’s doing is politickin and
doing it behind her back, getting her family and friends to side with him or at
least have pity on him. He’s gotten the wife’s family to betray her because in
her highly emotionally charged state that’s what she feels, that they are
taking his side. He also makes it unlikely she’ll forgive him.
This kind of backstabbing goes on in politics,
business, and sports as well as the personal. In religion, you might have a
popular Pastor caught in a sexual sin or even a crime go around to churches and
get some pulpit time to declare either his repentance or his innocence when,
after all, our Lord, when innocent, spoke nary a word in His own defence. This
is politickin. You have to be suspicious. The old saying goes, if you are
innocent don’t confess to something you didn’t do, but if you’re guilty you
better cut a deal with the prosecutor. The only person who needs to say
anything other than “I didn’t do it” is the guilty party.
In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Act III, Scene II it is
said, “The lady doth protest too much, methinks”, which is often misquoted as
“me thinks thou doth protest too much”. This means that you are so emotional
about your innocence you sound guilty.
Commentators agree that this set of verses mean,
and let me repeat, don’t be in a hurry to get into a public argument or even go
to law with someone, you don’t know how it’s going to turn out, talk it over
only with the party involved lest they hear about your politickin and you wind
up with egg on your face that you can never wipe off. I’ve seen families hurt
by ignoring this advice, marriages ruined, and friendships ended. With regard
to legal matters, Jesus says this;
Matthew 5:25 Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou
art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the
judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison.
26 Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou
hast paid the uttermost farthing.
Much of the problem with disputes going too far
has to do with our worship of Self. We demand our “propers”, as they say and
are very sensitive to any perceived disrespect. Many people, partly due to
their own temperament and partly due to our culture’s “me first” mentality,
can’t allow their personal worth or importance to be put to the test in a
dispute. These Proverbs cut you down a notch and make you think that perhaps
the victory isn’t worth pursuing, I could lose, who is to say, and either way,
my reputation may be tarnished forever. I only wish I had known this truth
forty years ago. My entire life until the age of 46 was involved in spending
too much time getting into drama, the results of which either “boomeranged” on
me or just made me look worse even when I won. Think carefully before you
strive. Some battles just aren’t worth winning.
No comments:
Post a Comment