Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Adult Sunday School Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/bb/bb20000416.htm

PROVERBS: ALIGNING TO GOD'S FIXED MORAL ORDER
Part II: Sparking The Reader's Motivation To Heed God's Fixed Moral Order
I. Motivating YOUNG MEN To Adhere To God's Fixed Moral Order To Avoid Harmful Divisiveness
(Proverbs 6:12-19)
  1. Introduction
    1. Destructive divisiveness is a very difficult, unhappy and unwholesome matter to experience. We humans are constructed by God to need cooperation with others, so destructive divisiveness is an evil.
    2. Solomon revealed that such divisiveness is a characteristic typical of a particular kind of person who is not aligned to God's Fixed Moral Order. Such a personality must not only be understood, but avoided and that party's characteristics need to be avoided as well.
  2. Motivating YOUNG MEN To Adhere To God's Fixed Moral Order To Avoid Harmful Divisiveness.
    1. As we have often noted before, Solomon structured the book of Proverbs after the Egyptian sboyet, a literary genre designed to train young princes to adhere to an observed fixed moral order for success.
    2. Since princes become kings, and must rule groups of people, it is best that they themselves not be or act divisively, and certainly that they discern and deal with divisive people who tend to undermine a monarchy. Proverbs 6:12-19 describes and then motivates young princes to adhere to God's fixed moral order on discerning and avoiding divisive people and their characteristics in themselves (as follows):
      1. We discover from the text that Solomon's remarks expose the character of a divisive person as follows:
        1. The party involved is said ultimately always to stir up dissension, Proverbs 6:12-14.
        2. In the numerical proverb that follows in Proverbs 6:15-19, through use of the "x plus (x+1)" form we understand that the final description [(x+1)] is the quality most stressed by the author, cf. Bible Knowledge Commentary, Old Testament, p. 917. That quality here is divisiveness, Prov. 6:19.
        3. The characteristics in Proverbs 6:12-14 are similar to those in the numerical proverb of 6:15-19.
        4. Thus, Solomon has as his subject throughout this section the divisive party and his characteristics.
      2. Solomon thus called the divisive one a man of "Belial," a worthless, evil man, Z.P.E.B., v. One, p. 513.
      3. His characteristics were described by Solomon as follows (Proverbs 6:12-19):
        1. A divisive man uses deceptive speech to mislead others to his liking, Proverbs 6:12, 14, 18a, 19a.
        2. A divisive man uses excessive body language to manipulate others to his liking, Proverbs 6:13.
        3. A divisive man habitually creates division among other people, Prov. 6:14b.
        4. A divisive man exhibits conceit, Proverbs 6:17a.
        5. A divisive man is heartlessly cruel and destructive to those who are helpless before him, Prov. 6:17c
        6. A divisive man wastes no time in recklessly rushing into evil, Prob. 6:18b.
        7. A divisive man will pour forth lies even in a public hearing if it serves his ends, Prov. 6:19.
      4. Because the Lord most hates the discord a divisive man creates in relationships among brethren, God will bring sudden punishment upon him without remedy, Prov. 6:15-16. Thus, it is very wise to avoid the promotion of any of the divisive man's characteristics along with promoting the party himself, and God can be trusted to counter the destructively divisive party's efforts!
Lesson: (1) Destructively divisive people spoil good relationships, so it is BEST discerning who they are and taking a complete stand against their efforts. (2) They are characterized by (a) deceptive speech and excessive and hence deceptive body language, (b) habitually creating divisions, (c) being conceited, (d) exhibiting cruel behavior against unsuspecting, vulnerable parties, (e) being swift and reckless to practice evil and (f) practicing blatant lying even in a public hearing if it serves their purposes. (3) Be sure that their divisiveness is a special aversion to God, so (a) trust that abusers who divide will be judged by God. (b) Also, be sure to AVOID developing ANY of the divisive party's characteristics if WE OURSELVES would want to avoid God's sudden, disastrous, non-remedial punishment ourselves.

Application: (1) Accordingly, we should do all in our power to AVOID divisive people, or to LIMIT their effectiveness upon a group, and (2) we should certainly avoid tolerating any of a divisive party's characteristics in ourselves!