Proverbs 19

While reading proverbs, I sometimes feel like I am reading off of a sheet of fortunes before they are clipped and baked into a Chinese fortune cookie. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to the structure; the proverbs are not grouped into any kind of like minded categories, but instead proverbs concerning different topics are sprinkled liberally throughout the book and each individual chapter. For example, the 29 verses in chapter 19 address 12 very different themes:

• Righteousness
• Patience
• Money
• Justice
• Power
• Characteristics of wisdom
• Family
• Laziness
• Poverty
• Anger
• The Lord's providence
• Benefits of education

Solomon's all over the place here! Even so, he essentially repeats the same proverb twice within the span of 4 verses:

A false witness will not go unpunished,
and he who pours out lies will not go free. (Proverbs 19:5)

A false witness will not go unpunished,
and he who pours out lies will perish. (Proverbs 19:9)

What I want to know, is how did someone sit down and decide that these 29 versus should make up a chapter and these other 33 versus should make up another chapter, and so on. Why isn't Proverbs simply one long run-on chapter?

I realize that today's blog is nothing more than a sophomoric rant and is a clear demonstration of my lack of wisdom :) But it's Friday and I am loosing my focus.

Peace.

Proverbs 18

OK, one last comment on the whole bribery thing and then I'm done. There are 2 standard definitions for bribery from Merriam-Webster:

1. money or favor given or promised in order to influence the judgment or conduct of a person in a position of trust
2. something that serves to induce or influence

The first definition of a bribe would fall under the umbrella of subverting justice: it is not your argument to logic and reason that sway the opinion of the person in trust. However, the second definition of a bribe is a little less devious in nature. When I tip the cocktail waitress a dollar for a two dollar well drink it is no longer a tip for services rendered, but a gift to encourage quality service in the future: "treat me right and there will be more in it for you". This is simply greasing the wheels of the machine. When I bring in flowers for the secretaries in the office, this is a gift for their services on one level, but on another level I expect the gift to encourage cooperation and assistance in the future. A retailer provides discounts on their merchandise in order to influence your spending habits and encourage your future patronage of their establishment. All three of these examples of "bribes" are akin to what Solomon is talking about in Proverbs 18:16

A gift opens the way for the giver
and ushers him into the presence of the great.

And again, as with Proverbs 17:8, there is no condemnation of the action, simply a description of causation.

So we come back to the thoughts I was entertaining the other day regarding bribery and how it stands outside of a legalistic framework (at least that's what I was thinking about; if this came through in my writing is suspect:). I say that a gift with a hidden agenda (or even an acknowledged second agenda) is a bribe. Does such behavior jive with Christ's behavior? Does gifting with the hopes of influence (i.e., the second definition of a bribe) demonstrate loving our neighbor as our self?

Such gifting is a form of manipulation. Does Jesus manipulate to obtain his goals? Is manipulation a demonstration of our love? My first response to either question would be 'no'. But then I quickly backpedal: when I give presents to my son, it is to bring him joy and to make him happy. But that's manipulation! I am giving in order to manipulate his emotional state. This influence over his emotions may be motivated by love but is manipulation none the less. So what does that mean. Should all of our actions with the world be both altruistic and ambivalent? I would be hard pressed to get out of bed if I lived my life under such a structure.

So that leaves us no better off than where we started. In fact I might have lost some wisdom through that thought process :)

Proverbs 17

I've never been real good at keeping up with a journal and it seems I'm no better with a blog. It's been 2 to 3 weeks since I last posted, but I have been called back again to diligently put my musings out into the cyberverse. I might be more inclined to blog if I wasn't become so bored with Proverbs and continual listings of how to distinguish between the good and the wicked. I know that that statement is a bit flippant and clearly places me in the company of the unwise, but I must acknowledge my foibles in order to strengthen my character, no?

Two related verses on bribery piqued my interest:

8. A bribe is a charm to the one who gives it;
wherever he turns, he succeeds.

23. A wicked man accepts a bribe in secret
to pervert the course of justice.

It would seem that these two versus are at odds. However, the verse 8 is describing the benefits that will befall the man who does the bribing and verse 23 describes the wickedness of the man receiving the bribe. This reminds me of the double standards my friends in high-school and I held toward sexual promiscuity: kudos to the guy who could get some tail but any girl who saw a little action was a slut. Is this same kind of double standard at work here in Solomon's proverbs? That doesn't sit well with me, so I dug a little deeper. There is an interesting transcript of a commentary from the radio show "Stand to Reason," with Gregory Koukl in which Mr. Koukl expounds on these two verses and the ethics of bribery (http://www.str.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=5670). In short, Mr. Koukl explains that bribery in and of itself is not evil or sinful, but that when bribery is used to pervert justice, then wrong has been committed. You see it is justice that must be maintained; when bribery is simply used to grease the wheels, so to speak, then there is no harm done. Of course, this is a fairly legalistic interpretation of bribery and we should be looking to Christ for an example. Unfortunately I don't know of any example where Jesus employed or condemed bribery. However, Mr. Koukl's argumnet of using bribery in order to obtain a higher good sits well with my model of Jesus: "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them." Mathew 5:17