Proverbs 26:23-28 says...

Today's verses are Proverbs 26:23-28, which read,

v.23, 24 - Like an earthen vessel overlaid with silver dross are burning lips and a wicked heart.  He who hates disguises it with his lips, but he lays up deceit in his heart.

Solomon gives us a really good word picture here.  You have a vessel that looks like a fine silver crafted piece that the assessors of the Antique Road Show would go "ooh" and "aah" over.  But the reality is that they would scratch it a little bit and find it a fake.  It is really an earthen vessel, a clay pot, that have been overlaid with the dross of silver which is the run off of impurities from the heating of silver to get to the pure product.  It looks like silver because of its color but is very inferior and full of other materials.  It is not only a fake but it is a fake made with inferior materials.

The fool is one who can use his lips and his words to cover up what is really so.  He or she can make it look good when really it is just a clay pot with a silver like coating and a forged stamp on its bottom.  The Bible says it is better just to be that earthen vessel in the hands of the potter, our Creator, than to dress it up with our own devices.  Those who are wise let God take them as earthen vessels, these clay pots, and form them into something that is authentic and pouring out of His love.  The fool is one who puts on a show on the outside but his lips are waiting to burn someone and his heart is wicked with deceit to harm someone else and ultimately himself. 

v.25, 26 - When he speaks graciously, do not believe him, for there are seven abominations in his heart.  Though his hatred covers itself with guile, his wickedness will be revealed before the assembly.

There is coming a time when the expert on the Antique Road Show reveals that it is a fake, a forgery, a fumble on finding something of try value.  The fool looks like a fine silver vessel but really is just an earthen vessel covered in silver-like dross and is giving you a line that sounds gracious.  Solomon lets us know that behind that gracious line is seven abominations in his heart.  Seven is the number of completeness in the Bible so he is saying that the fools heart is complete or perfect in its motive to do wickedness in the sight of the Lord.

The good part of the proverb is that this wickedness will be revealed before the assembly.  God is going to protect His people.  We call it church discipline and it is not at all fun to enforce but so necessary within the church to maintain.  God gives discernment from His Word and also a procedure to follow so that anyone who is dressing up as a silver vessel who really isn't and bent on harming others will be exposed.  Their silver pride would be humbled to show that they are just a clay pot like the rest of us but not allowing the Potter to fashion them with His words and ways.  God builds His Church and protects His Church from silver-like looking imposters.

v.27, 28 - He who digs a pit will fall into it, and he who rolls a stone, it will come back on him.  A lying tongue hates those it crushes, and a flattering mouth works ruin.

I have seen this before.  Someone comes complaining about something or someone and it is the exact same thing that they are doing.  I once had someone speak to me about how they hated lying and wrote people off who were not truthful with them but they would lie themselves to get their way and make some seemingly legit excuse for it.  They made their lying holy.  Solomon tells us that this type of action will come back to haunt us. 

We dig a pit for someone else to fall into and we find ourselves falling into it.  We roll a stone to a vantage point to roll on someone else to harm them and it ends up rolling on us.  It is like putting that bucket of water on the top of the door for the next un-expecting victim and then you, the one who put it there, walk through the door.  That would be for a joke but this is no joking matter because the fool hates others with his lying tongue and works ruin unto others with his flattering mouth.

The good part of the proverb is that God makes them fall into their own pit and have the stone roll back on themselves but we are the fool at times.  We are the fake.  We are the one who is putting on a show spiritually.  We who should be loving others is waiting for them to fail or maybe even setting it up for them to fail.  As we are warned by Solomon about others we need to take a look at ourselves and ask the question what would the expert of the Antique Road Show say about us in relationship to our Creator.  Would he or she see a clay pot with His stamp on us or would they see something shiny of our own accord but really just a very poor coating over who were really are?  Let us pray.

"Lord, so many warnings are given to us to protect us but the greatest warning is to not be this person who doesn't follow after You.  May we be fashioned by Your hands at Your wheel and any embellishments come from You as pure silver and not some imitation that we can mix up.  May our lips and hearts be filled with seven admonitions of You.  Amen."

Pastor Adam