Proverbs 6:1-19

Order of Service

• Call to Worship — Psalm 103:1-5
• Prayer of Invocation
• Pastoral Prayer
• Scripture Reading — Proverbs 6:1-19
• Sermon
• Benediction

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Sermon Title: Three Portraits of Folly

Scripture: Proverbs 6:1-19

I. The Foolish Giver — Proverbs 6:1-5

A. The situation: acting as a surety

1. A surety is a third party who vouches for a debtor before a lender, taking on the debtor's responsibility if the debtor fails to pay
2. The surety has pledged himself for a stranger — someone unvetted and untrustworthy — putting his family in serious economic danger
3. The practice was common throughout the ancient Near East (Hammurabi Code, Babylonian, Assyrian, and Palestinian texts), yet Israel's law (Exodus 22; Deuteronomy 24) is notably silent on third-party sureties, suggesting God's people should be trustworthy enough not to need them

B. The call to urgent action (Proverbs 6:3-5)

1. Strong, piled-up verbs convey urgency: save yourself, go, hasten, plead, give your eyes no sleep
2. Every available avenue must be exhausted immediately to escape the situation
3. New Testament parallels: the persistent widow (Luke 18), the friend at midnight (Luke 11:5-8), leaving your gift at the altar (Matthew 5)

C. A deeper form of sluggardness

1. The sleeplessness commanded in verse 4 contrasts with the sleep condemned in verse 9 — there is a sluggishness of avoidance, not just of laziness
2. Shoving problems under the rug — relational, marital, financial, parental — is its own form of folly
3. Scripture's consistent call: deal with issues today, not tomorrow

D. Wise kindness vs. foolish niceness

1. Foolish niceness: giving people what they want, handing out compliments and money, receiving easy praise in return
2. Wise kindness: helping people get their own house in order — harder, sacrificial, truth-telling
3. The father of Proverbs models wise kindness: he does not rescue the son from consequences but calls him to urgently take responsibility for himself

II. The Foolish Sluggard — Proverbs 6:6-11

A. Learn from the ant (Proverbs 6:6-8)

1. The ant needs no chief, officer, or ruler — she takes initiative without being told
2. The ant prepares in summer and gathers at harvest; barley harvest began at Passover (end of March), wheat harvest concluded at Pentecost (end of May)

B. The urgency of the season (Proverbs 6:9-11)

1. How long? implies the harvest is already underway — decisive action must be taken or judgment (temporal and possibly eternal) will fall
2. The sluggard's answer is a shrug: not now, later, I'll get to it
3. Bruce Waltke: sleep in the plural in Hebrew — for the sluggard, sleep is escapism, a refusal to face the world; it is narcotic, craving ever more sleep to avoid the pain of living

C. Cultural and parenting implications

1. A culture that tells children they can be whatever they want produces adults unprepared for reality
2. Contrast with Proverbs 1–9: a father imparting wisdom so the son can live a self-sufficient, responsible life
3. The church must resist cultural foolish niceness and practice the sacrificial wise kindness that calls people to responsible living

III. The Foolish Troublemaker — Proverbs 6:12-19

A. Portrait of the troublemaker (Proverbs 6:12-15)

1. The Hebrew word for person (rather than the typical adam/man) suggests his wickedness has forfeited what it means to be truly human
2. Crooked speech: deceptive language that distorts truth for personal gain
3. Wicked non-verbal cues: winking eyes, signaling feet, pointing finger — malice expressed even without words
4. A perverted heart: he schemes and devises evil, then acts on it — sowing division in households, friendships, and communities
5. Parallel to the false teachers in Crete (Titus 1) who overturn households for personal gain

B. Seven abominations to the Lord (Proverbs 6:16-19)

1. Haughty eyes — pompous self-exaltation, denial of God's authority
2. A lying tongue — deceit spoken with ease
3. Hands that shed innocent blood — deliberate murder of the innocent
4. A heart that devises wicked plans — significantly placed at the center of the seven, the hinge on which all wickedness swings; all evil flows from the heart
5. Feet that make haste to run to evil — zeal for wickedness, not accidental sin
6. A false witness who breathes out lies — perjury, lying under oath
7. One who sows discord among brothers — the culminating social destruction

C. Sin is never solitary

1. Commentator McKane: these behaviors are all disruptive, characterized by self-assertiveness, malice, or violence, and they break the bond of confidence and loyalty between people
2. Sin always radiates outward — affecting families, communities, churches, and generations
3. The fall of Adam and Eve: not only devastates their own relationship but unleashes generational consequences — Cain kills Abel; Lamech glories in murder (Genesis 3-5)
4. The father writes not just for the son before him but for generations of sons — righteousness and sin both expand beyond the individual
5. We are called to righteous living not only for ourselves but for those we love now and for generations to come