Proverbs 29:21-24 says,...

Today's verses are Proverbs 29:21-24, which read,

v.21 - He who pampers his slave from childhood will in the end find him to be a son.

The Bible recognizes slavery as a reality but much of the slavery spoken of in the Bible is that of servants who were employed to do household chores.  They were able to receive an education and had opportunities to rise from the servant position to other stations of life.  They were allowed to have property and also educated in viable trades.  Many were slaves or servants because they needed to be and not forced to be like our history of the slave trade prior to the Civil War.  

We have a man who has a servant who is young but he is pampered instead of instructed on the work of servant.  The servant is treated differently, looked upon differently, and handled differently with a fondness growing between master and slave.  The outcome is a difference in the servant or slave's life.  He is seen more as a son than a servant.  I have also heard of this proverb in the negative that this type of action produces someone who could be arrogant and demanding rights that are rightful not his.  Because he has been pampered he assumes more of taking from life rather than giving to it and the master has someone to deal with of his own making because proper instruction was not given.

I guess this is a flip of the coin proverb to take it in the negative or the positive for its interpretation.

v.22 - An angry man stirs up strife, and a hot-tempered man abounds in transgression.

A good cross reference of this proverb is Proverbs 15:18 which reads,

A hot-tempered person stirs up conflict, but one slow to anger calms strife.

This proverb just gives the negative.  The angry man stirs up strife or conflict and the hot-tempered man abounds in more sin or increases its growth in rebellion against God.  The point being that unresolved sin does not stay put.  It has an agenda to do more harm and to grow in its affect on others.  It is not something that is just hurting you and no one else if you don't deal with it properly but it will rear its ugly head to accomplish more destruction.

Anger can be an emotion that drives us to action to change things to be more holy because what we are angry about is something unjust in our world or anger can drive us to seriously hurting others if it is about us and getting our way.  This proverb is talking of the latter.  Beware when your anger is used as a tool to serve your personal purposes rather than to advance the holiness of God.

v.23 - A man's pride will bring him low, but a humble spirit will obtain honor.

Solomon addresses another sin of man.  He goes from pampering that could be being lazy with teaching responsibility to anger that is used to cause harm to pride which places us above others rather than serving others.  There are so many verses in Proverbs and the rest of the Bible about the sin of pride and the call for us to be humble.  Actually if you are prideful, God will humble you and if you are humble, God will raise you up.  This is another irony of the Scriptures that what our world promotes in pumping ourselves up to be someone great at the expense of others is the opposite of God's instruction to live a life of service to others to show honor to our God who served us and gave us His Son as a sacrifice and an example to follow. 

2 Samuel 22:8 are some words of King David to the people of Israel as instruction from the Lord.  It says,

You rescue an oppressed people, but Your eyes are set against the proud--You humble them.

Isaiah gives this truth of the proverb three times in rapid succession in chapter 2, verses 11, 12, and 17 which read,

The pride of mankind will be humbled, and human loftiness will be brought low; the LORD alone will be exalted on that day.  For a day belonging to the LORD of Armies is coming against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up--it will be humbled...The pride of mankind will be brought low, and human loftiness will be humbled; the LORD alone will be exalted on that day.

We are given again this God binding principle that the proud will not stand but be brought down by Him and the humble who are serving will be raised up by Him.  

v.24 - He who is a partner with a thief hates his own life; he hears the oath but tells nothing.

If you are partnering with a thief then you are covering up for his crime.  You are not telling the whole truth to the oath that you have heard to speak of truthfully.  You stand there knowing better but you say nothing because you believe the thief is going to get you farther along than the truth.  You have made a judgment that going with sin is better than going with holiness.  

You have become a false witness by Leviticus 5:1 which reads,

When someone sins in any of these ways:  If he has seen, heard, or known about something he has witnessed, and did not respond to a public call to testify, he will bear his iniquity.

You are in the practice of hiding sin and in the process sinning yourself.  You are prolonging the administration of justice and in the mean time sin is allowed to do more destruction.  We have bought into Satan's scheme that it would be better to live with a little sin, partner with it, rather than be forgiven of it and allow a holy life to speak of a holy God.  

Solomon gives us some common sins to watch out for today.  Don't get lazy in giving Godly instruction for life; don't let anger be your "go to" to get your way; don't let the picture of pride dominate your actions in life; and don't side up with a little sin lingering which gets you numb to the truth.  All four of these are common sins of our day as they were in his.  Let us pray.

"Lord, sometimes we seek out another route that we think is better or maybe more effective than Yours.  Help us to see that it is a trap of Satan to get us to think and act upon ungodly actions.  May we be diligent in Your instruction and wisdom; may we reserve anger for holy causes; may we live a life of humility that honors You; and may we partner with the truth and not the thief.  Amen."

Pastor Adam