The following is a guest blog from Billy Claunch. He is a C-12 member (www.c12group.com) with Matt Winstead and me. He leads Brindlee Mountain Fire Apparatus, LLC (www.firetruckmall.com). Call them when you are ready to buy a firetruck – you know for the kids. As a successful, local executive he writes about the dangers of materialism.

Proverbs 1:19

“Such is the end of all who go after ill-gotten gain; it takes away the lives of those who get it.” (NIV)

My name is Billy Claunch. I was born in Huntsville, Alabama on August 31, 1976 to two great parents who today still live where I grew up. Today, it’s May 28th, 2006. I am 29 years old, married to Paula for almost 6 years, and father to James for 3 years, and Henry for almost 1. Proverbs 1:19 has been a favorite verse of mine – I like its practicality.

I have heard it said the scriptures are “shallow enough that a child can wade in it comfortably, but deep enough that the most learned cannot plume its depths.” This is certainly true of Proverbs 1:19. It speaks so simply to something that so permeates our lives. We will dissect the verse itself, see how it flows with other verses in Scripture, and see how it condense so much of God’s teaching into one statement. Finally, we will look at the application of this verse in my life particularly, which I believe you will find similar to your own.

Let’s look at the book itself first to gain some context on what the writer is saying when they wrote Proverbs 1:19….

Proverbs was written by several authors, and most were written by Solomon, who is regarded by most people as the wisest man who has ever lived. Proverbs is regarded as one of the Books of Wisdom in the Bible, and the word “proverb” in our language today is synonymous with a statement taken by most people as wise and true. Proverbs 1 is the first of the “…proverbs of Solomon, son of David, the King of Israel.” The first 9 chapters of the book of Proverbs is a discourse between two women, the personified characters of wisdom and folly. Verse 19 in the first chapter closes the first section of Solomon’s “exhortations to embrace wisdom”., which is a warning against the enticement of sin. Chapter 1 is made up of two main section; Prologue: Purpose and Theme, and Exhortations to Embrace Wisdom. There are two parts of Solomon’s Exhortations – Warnings against enticement, and Warnings against rejecting wisdom. Chapter 1 opens with the assumption that we as the reader know the benefits of seeking the Lord through wisdom… the Prologue reads:

The Proverbs of Solomon, son of David, King of Israel:

For attaining wisdom and discipline;
For understanding words of insight;
For acquiring a disciplined and prudent life;
Doing what is right and just and fair;
For giving prudence to the simple,
Knowledge and discretion to the young –
Let the wise listen and add to their learning
And let the discerning get guidance –
For understanding proverbs and parables,
The sayings and riddles of the wise.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge,
But fools despise wisdom and discipline.

The writer begins by assuming we want these attributes: wisdom, discipline, understanding, a prudent life, justice, fairness, discretion, guidance. The last verse of the Prologue gives the first piece of light on the path we are to follow, then sets the tone for the Exhortations that make up the remainder of Chapter One:

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.

OK, so no one wants to be a fool, right? And everyone wants to be wise? Good, let’s keep going… remember, we are reviewing the verses leading up to Proverbs 1:19 to give us a framework of what the intended lessons are in the text:

As we stated earlier, verse 19 closes the first section of Exhortations, the Warning against enticement. The opening of the section is more of an Exhortation:

Listen, my son, to your Father’s instruction
And do not forsake your mother’s teaching.
They will be a garland to grace your head
And a chain to adorn your neck.

Then the warnings begin…

My son, if sinners entice you,
Do not give into them.
If they say, “Come along with us”
Let’s lie in wait for someone’s blood,
Let’s waylay some harmless soul;
Let’s swallow them alive, like the grave
And whole, like those who go down to the pit…

Then comes the perceived benefit offered by sin:

We will get all sorts of valuable things
And fill our houses with plunder;
Throw in your lot with us,
And we will share a commons purse –

Then again, the warning, the facts about what they are doing, an observation of their actions, then our subject verse:

My son, do not go along with them,
Do not set foot on their paths;
For their feet rush into sin,
They are swift to shed blood,
How useless to spread a net
In full view of all the birds!
These men lie in wait for their own blood;
They waylay only themselves!

*** Such is the end of all those who go after ill-gotten gain,
It takes away the lives of those who get it.

So, what is Solomon trying to convey through this Chapter? The author wants us to learn how to “attain wisdom and discipline.” The key verse tells us the “fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge”, and the author obviously has the reader’s best interest in mind and cares deeply enough about them to affectionately address you, as the reader, as “My Son”. Solomon wants your life to be benefited from his words… to be the best it can be. Solomon does not want the reader’s life to be “taken away”, (verse 19), so he gives the warnings surrounding it, with the hope the reader will accept this wisdom and seek the disciplined life promoted in the first section.

Let’s break down verse 19, talk about the components that make it up, then look at what other specific verses in scripture address the same issues.

To get an accurate view of the verse, we must look at the two previous verses as well.

The first thing to note about verses 17 – 18 is that they both end in an exclamation point. The author wants us to pay particular attention to these. Verses 17 – 18 are observations about the futility of the sinful life described earlier, with verse 19 being the capstone of advice bringing application to our lives. Verses 17 – 18 are two analogies which say the exact same thing:

How useless to spread a net
In full view of all the birds!
These men lie in wait for their own blood;
They waylay only themselves!

These verses speak to the heart of truth about deception. Deception at its core involves one person lying to another. Whenever a lie is uttered from one person to another, that relationship is at risk of destruction, and trust will very likely be damaged or destroyed at the point the deception is unveiled. So, Solomon is pleading with us as we read – the exclamation point speaks volumes as we can almost see and hear him… arms outstretched with his palms turned up, a look of yearning on his face for us to understand and reflecting a burden on Solomon’s heart to keep us away from this sinful life:

How useless to spread a net
In full view of all the birds!
These men lie in wait for their own blood;
They waylay only themselves!

I can imagine today, he may have said:

“Come on guys… can’t you see that signing up with what is bad and wrong will kill you!?! You’ve got one life to live – listen to me – learn from my wisdom and don’t mess with this stuff – it is a dead end street. Follow God – that is the only way.”

So, let’s break this verse down:

“Such is the end…”

What is the end? “… lie in wait for someone’s blood.”

“…waylay some harmless soul.”

“…swallow them alive, like the grave.”

“…whole, like those who go down in the pit.”

“…swift to shed blood.”

You guessed it! The end is your destruction and death, which isn’t good.

“… of all…”

Who is all?

You guessed it again!! Great job. Its you, and its me.

”… who go after…”

What does it mean to go after something? It means to pursue, to chase, to focus all your energies on attaining one goal. What is ill-gotten gain? There is only one other place this particular phrase is mentioned in the Bible… Proverbs 10:2:

“Ill-gotten treasures are of no value, but righteousness delivers from death.”

That’s pretty strong – no value. That means nothing. Zero. Complete absence of anything. Empty. Flat. Nothing.

So, what exactly is ill-gotten gain? There is two ways to answer that – in the direct sense of “ it is x, it is y”… or in the negative sense, “it is anything that’s not x or y”.

To illustrate, let me tell you why I wrote this. My wife, 2 children and myself just moved from a 3,000 square foot, 4 BR, 3 ½ BA house on a golf course with 1,000+ square feet of additional storage, plus garage, plus crawlspace, to a 2 BR/2 BA 1,000 or so square foot apartment with not much storage. During the move, we liquidated, gave away, “dropped” on the street, set on our neighbor’s doorstep, donated, or otherwise disposed of an unbelievable collection of absolutely useless items we had collected in our nearly 6 years of marriage. I was stunned at how much stuff there was. A dozen or more sets of bed sheets. Enough towels to move a small ship across the ocean if sewn together. Enough toys to entertain an entire generation of children 100 years ago. Pictures, unread books, trinkets, entire end caps of junk from Wal-Mart, unused furniture, forsaken projects, dishes, clothes, clothes, clothes, and yes, clothes. A ridiculous amount of material for anyone to manage.

Don’t miss part two when Billy brings it home.

–
David Thew
Sojourn Founding Pastor

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David Thew
Sojourn Pastor
Thewblog
twitter.com/davidthew