GOD’S WISDOM FOR YOU
PROVERBS 21:27-29
27 The sacrifice of the wicked is detestable–
how much more so when it is brought with evil intent!
Place yourself in an Old Testament frame of mind. There you are, maybe as a child, walking with your parents toward the tabernacle; you are leading a goat, and your mother is carrying a basket with cakes, salt, oil and other offerings. Your father makes sure you have a good tight hold on the goat’s lead rope. But then up ahead you see a man from your village who lives in an open sin—maybe he’s a thief, or he cheats people, or he influences judgments in the city gate with silver paid on the side, or any of the other more common and lucrative sins. That man’s sacrifice is detestable to God, not because he’s a sinner. We’re all sinners. His sacrifice is detestable because he’s an unrepentant sinner.
How much more, then, if he brings his sacrifice with some evil intent! For example, maybe the priest who is officiating at his sacrifice will be taking part hearing a case at the city gate later on. So the wicked man brings a sacrifice for a thank offering—the kind that doesn’t get burned up—so that his goat skin can be given to the priest, and most of the meat of the offering, too. He is using what should be an offering to God to get away with some crime. He will be judged for it by God.
And so we should think about the offerings we bring to the Lord. Are they the Lord’s business, and no one else’s? It’s not wrong to give a thank offering in memory of someone, but we should take care that our intentions are in the right place. The word of God is living… it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart (Hebrews 4:12).
28 A false witness will perish,
But the man who listens will speak forever.
This is a hard verse to understand, especially since after the clear first line the passage seems to veer off into an altogether unexpected direction. Translations struggle with the way we should take the second line (compare your NIV and its footnote). The translation here is fairly literal.
We must take the verse at face value. The man of the second line might be the one who judges. If he truly listens to everyone who brings testimony, and if he gets to the truth of a matter, then his judgment will stand. Another possibility is to take this proverb with the one that follows in verse 29, and then the one who listens is simply every upright man who does not bear false witness. He listens before he speaks, and takes care what he says.
A third possibility here is that the man who listens (the word is ish, the common Hebrew term for a man) is the Son of God. He will judge all in the final judgment. His judgments are true and just; he will make no mistakes nor be swayed by any false witnesses, and his judgments will endure forever.
29 A wicked man puts up a bold face,
but an upright man considers his ways.
When I was in high school (“We’re loyal to you, Poynette High…”) our choral teacher Mrs. LaFave used to say, “The one who sings the loudest will seem to be right.” That’s because that singer (I think she was talking about me) will belt it out with confidence, even if he comes in two measures too early, or starts singing the wrong verse. To the audience, he will seem to be right.
So it often is with the wicked man. He learns that if he puts up a bold front, he will bluff his way through many situations. But an upright man will choose the right path, even if it costs him time, money, reputation or even friends. On the one hand, that will mean that an upright man might inspire more confidence and loyalty from people who truly know him. But on the other hand, and most importantly, it means he will be following God’s path, and not an easy path or a powerful path. He will do what must be done because that’s the will of God.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Archives by Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel: http://www.wlchapel.org/worship/daily-devotion/
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota