RIGHT AND WRONG CHOICES
Proverbs 12:6, 13, 26 NKJV
6 The words of the wicked are, “Lie in wait for blood,”
But the mouth of the upright will deliver them.
13 The wicked is ensnared by the transgression of his lips,
But the righteous will come through trouble.
26 The righteous should choose his friends carefully,
For the way of the wicked leads them astray.
When we see the word wicked today, the images that come to mind are pretty drastic. The wicked witch from The Wizard of Oz. People who do horrendous things. If you are from Boston, wicked is a slang term that means awesome, go figure.
But for the majority of us, people who are wicked are the very evil people in society. But when the Bible refers to wicked the meaning is different from our usage. Wicked, in the book of Proverbs, literally means someone who is guilty or in the wrong. When we consider that it is God who is inspiring the scriptures, someone in the wrong is someone opposing God’s way. So, in this twelfth proverb, we see a contrast between the wicked, someone in the wrong, and the righteous or upright, which is someone who is in the right. Right being those who are right before God.
Now, we come to the different choices made by those in the wrong and those in the right. The words of those in the wrong who are not going God’s way lie in wait for blood. The CSB version says their words are a deadly ambush. Those in the wrong speak words that trap them in a bad way. But the words of those in the right will deliver or rescue them. The Bible places a different emphasis on words than we currently do in our culture. From God’s perspective, our words can contain life and healing or death and pain. Do a study on words, lips, tongue, and mouth in the book of Proverbs, and you’ll find many scriptures that give insight into how important words are. Remember, the One who made us knows how we are to operate. As a general rule, don’t talk about your fears, negative emotions, inabilities, and weaknesses. Sure, these all do exist to some extent, but we need rescue from these things. We don’t want to strengthen negatives in our life.
Verse thirteen underscores this Biblical principle. The wrong get entrapped by their words, but those in the right will come through trouble. Don’t become entrapped by constantly talking about what you don’t have, don’t know, and can’t do. Use your words to chart a path through your troubles. God is helping me. The Holy Spirit is showing me what to do. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Better choices, in our words, create better environments in our lives.
The last choice of those in the wrong versus those in the right is to choose carefully who you spend your time with. This is not talking about those relationships that you have no choice in the matter, i.e., who you work with, people on your team, or in your class. This is talking about your friends. Choosing friends who are going away from God and His ways is not a good call. Those friends can lead you down their wrong path. We are called to reach the lost world, but we’ll never reach them by being just like them.
Choose your words. Choose your friends. Better choices lead to a better life!