Proverbs 6:1 My son if you have put up security for your neighbour, have given your pledge for a stranger,
My first drum kit was a Tama five-piece kit with the hi-hat, crash and ride symbols. It was the start of a thirty-year relationship with the drums. I loved playing them.
My landlord was kind enough to go guarantor for my drum kit, which I think cost around nine hundred dollars in today’s money. I earned around fifty dollars a week then. The debt was at least eighteen times my weekly pay. Then of course there was interest, which was at an exorbitant rate in the 1970s.
I think it was a two-year agreement. It was a struggle every week. I had not really thought this through, it was an impulsive purchase.
I had a motorbike, so moving the drums to practice or to a venue required extra income, for a taxi (with a patient driver) or a friend with a big car/van.
Practising in the apartment was causing stress on my neighbours. I put towels over the drums to deaden the sound or only practised when the building site next door was in full noise during the day. Even then neighbours would bang on the door and ask me to stop.
So many times I nearly defaulted on the debt, but the thought of disappointing my landlord was too hard, so even when it meant going without some basics the debt was paid.
Our first “gig” was for a small church funnily enough. It was such a big deal for us as a group of friends. When I think back on it now I can see how gracious our hosts were that night. Fond memories though, and a lesson learned about impulsive purchases born from short term thinking, as I had a couple of years of pain as a result.
KNOWLEDGE
In those days a handshake would be enough to do the deal.
You have the chance to be the “big man” and help another with fewer resources, or perhaps you are easily convinced to enter into a scheme where you risk your assets for another’s benefit. Maybe you have even convinced yourself that this is the Christian thing to do?
God does not want you to make poor decisions in haste, or to lose what you have worked for helping someone else’s poorly thought plans.
Jesus paid the price for us, and he had the ability and the right position and resources to do that. There may be moments in life where we take some of the pain for our children’s decisions. We may even at times help a stranger.
The counsel we will read here from Solomon in the inspired word of God is really to do with wisdom in stewardship.
I have heard it said that we should not lend anyone anything unless we are willing not to get it back. I personally think that’s quite a good principle to adopt as it puts in boundaries that will protect both us and our friendships.
So if you are tempted to lend your name to something, or risk your assets, but can’t reconcile with the possibility that you may lose all, then please press pause right now.
I ask myself a new question today as a result of thinking on this verse – who am I in agreement with right now – passively and actively – and what is the likely fruit of this agreement?
UNDERSTANDING
Let’s pick one word from this verse to look closer at and see if that can help us gain a deeper insight into how God would love us to live?
The word used for “pledge” in Hebrew is pronounced as “kap” and this word appears 195 times in the Old Testament. In the ESV this word is translated into English words, such as hands; socket; plates; palm; dishes; paws; branches; sole; grasp; hollow; reach; and, pledge.
When we read Chapter six, verse one, this word “kap” carries the sense of offering our hand to seal an agreement.
WISDOM – what agreements have you shook hands with God on?
STRENGTHS THOUGHT: Responsibility, loves to say yes, but is best empowered when wisdom establishes our “no”.
Allan’s Unauthorised Version – [my dearest child, if you have made a pledge or a guarantee for a friend, a companion or an associate, have struck hands in agreement, the full palm of your hand has taken you astray, or turned you aside.]
PRAYER: Father, thank you for today. Help me to understand the power of agreement and to take great care in how I position myself in agreement and who I position myself in agreement with. Thank you.
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