Proverbs 14:11-12
Often things are not what they appear. The
outside often hides the inside. And there is incongruity between the two. The
outside and the inside just don’t match. We might say it this way, “Things don’t
add up.”
Our first proverb contrasts a house and a
tent. On the surface the house seems like a much more permanent structure.
Normally it would be. Tents are made to be transient, temporary structures.
They are meant to be moved. And in the culture of the Scriptures, they would be
moved regularly to provide water and grazing for livestock. They would also be
moved to facilitate trading of raw goods for other necessities.
So when the writer says that the tent is the
more permanent structure, the one that will flourish, it seems
counterintuitive. The real secret to the structure’s durability is the
character of the inhabitant. The wicked and the upright have very different
outcomes to their life choices. Even though we don’t see it, the wicked will be
destroyed.
For some segments of society, wealth and
culture have protected the wicked from much of the negative consequences of
their actions. But this life is not all there is! God’s timetable does not end
when a name is engraved on a tombstone. The wicked will pay for their
wickedness.
What appears to be a right way may in fact
be wrong. If we don’t have the LORD’s perspective, His view of the world, we
can easily get fooled. We look at the outside and make a judgment based on the
appearance of something. Our perspective is very limited. We only know here and
now, and even that knowledge is limited.
So when we are making judgments about the
things we see in life, we must step back and look at the character of the
people. Something may look good on the outside, but when we step inside and
take a look around, we find something very different. So, we need to slow down
in our decisions, not making decisions based on the externals. The externals
lie.