DEAL WITH THE GODLY

Proverbs 6:1-5 My son, if thou be surety for thy friend, if thou hast stricken thy hand with a stranger, (2) Thou art snared with the words of thy mouth, thou art taken with the words of thy mouth. (3) Do this now, my son, and deliver thyself, when thou art come into the hand of thy friend; go, humble thyself, and make sure thy friend. (4) Give not sleep to thine eyes, nor slumber to thine eyelids. (5) Deliver thyself as a roe from the hand of the hunter, and as a bird from the hand of the fowler.

In the ancient Nuzi society, in the days of the patriarchs, a covenant, an agreement, or a treaty between two people was considered the same as the marriage bound between a man and a woman. They endorsed each other’s name, as well as each other’s assets and liabilities. They even entered each other’s former treaties and warred aginast each other’s enemies. It was a bound only breakable by death, but their children entered it by choice at the age of responsibility.

A Jew was meant to live a life of holiness, to be set-apart from the world. Therefore he couldn’t marry a stranger neither enter a covenant with non-Jews. Borrowing money from a stranger put him in a position where he could end up being owned by that stranger, which would profane him. Moses instructed that if a Jew went bankrupt, his relatives were to help him. They were to lend him money, employ him or even buy his assets to be returned to him on the day of jubilee. For Jew to therefore ‘strike hands’ in a binding treaty with a ‘stranger was forbidden. It would pollute him.

Sounds archaic? Do we forget that Paul, a Jew, taught the same thing? In fact, there are no moral or spiritual difference between biblical Judaism and biblical Christianity. The latter is the fruit of the former, and a fruit embodies the properties of the tree that produced it.

Paul also teaches us to live a holy, or a ‘set-apart’ life. He teaches us to not even go to non-believers courts to settle private arguments, and instructs the church to care for its own poor. If such was done today, our people would not have to ‘strike hand’ with ungodly powers and governments to get the help they need.

When we make a promise, when we make a deal, we are bound by the words we have agreed to. If we break the contract, if we don’t make the agreed payments, if we don’t keep the conditions of the covenant, someone gets upset and imposes on us unwanted consequences. Let us therefore be discerning about the people with whom we ‘strike hand’ with; whether it be concerning a business deal or even a friendly commitment. The people we ‘deal’ with, become part of us.
Let us owe no man anything but to love them, and let us certainly not put ourselves at risk of being owned by ungodly popwers.