No one likes a con man, especially if you
are on the wrong end of his or her deal. Con artists are out to take what is
not theirs. They often work in teams. They get us to ignore our gut reactions,
our gut instinct and trust them anyway. I want to say that our gut gives us
very powerful information that we can weigh in our decision making, just like
our other five senses. We can pay attention to it and be right.
Our text today deals with someone who is not
as subtle as a confidence artists. They don’t really try to hide their work. It
is there for everyone to see, if we are just willing to work. This person’s
mouth, what they say, is far from godly. Their body language will give them
away. Their mouth, eyes, feet and hands will all give away what their heart is
plotting.
We know from the poker tournament TV shows
that people have “tells”,
ways that they signal what kind of hand they have. Detective shows like “Lie to Me” centered on these
kinds of very small signals that we give off that tell our heart intentions. Anyone
who is married knows that their spouse signals things without words.
I almost hear some of the pre-election “protests”
in verse fourteen, always stirring up conflict. Any group that needs conflict
to get its message out is suspect. Conflict is not a valid means of delivering
a godly message. That does not mean that when we deliver a godly message
conflict won’t arise from those who oppose the Truth, but we do not use
conflict as a means to raise the profile of our message. Truth does not need it
profile raised, and certainly not with an evil means.
In verses 16-19 we read a list of seven
things that summarize what it is about this kind of person that is opposed to
the character of the LORD. This kind of list reoccurs numerous times in
Proverbs. The pattern is this: there are X number of things the LORD hates, X +
1 things that are detestable to him. It is a literary device used in part to
signal an easy way to remember the main points of a previous section is about
to be given.
Notice the repeated words and themes: eyes,
mouth/tongue, hands, heart, feet, conflict, lying/deceit, and plot/devises.
Are we engaged in any of these kinds of
activities? Are we plotting to gain something for ourselves at the expense of
someone else? Are we bending the truth, or not including part of the truth when
we sell ourselves or a product? Is our customer getting a fair price, or is the
markup excessive?