The words of the wicked lie in wait for blood, but the speech of the upright rescues them. – Proverbs 12:6

Today’s Scripture Reading (April 5, 2013): Proverbs 12

In the late 17^th Century, the Beaver Wars (a conflict between the Iroquois Nation and New France) was drawing to a close. The Iroquois had been winning and their nation had expanded its borders. But it was at this time that the French are rumored to have developed a new tactic. The North American Indians had been taught the meaning of the white flag of truce – and they had agreed not to attack when the white flag was flying. The new French tactic was to invite the Iroquois to a meeting to discuss peace under a white flag – and then attack. It is thought that it is this tactic that entrenched the idea on Native Americans that “White men spoke with a forked tongue” – it was the idea that the white man was a natural born liar.

The idea that what we say and what we do are not necessarily connected is not a new idea. We know how easy it is to say something that we really do not believe – and we do it more often than we probably want to admit. But this proverb does not attack the words themselves, but rather the reason behind the words. Evil words are simply defined as anything whose purpose is to cause harm to another person. It would definitely include the words of the White Man during the Beaver Wars – but it also would include the gossip that often leaps so easily off of our tongues in daily conversation. The idea is this – if the words are intended to hurt, then they are evil.  

On the other hand the Proverb also addresses good words. Upright Speech will always have as its end goal the restoration, healing or encouragement of someone. Upright speech is always used to strengthen the people around us. Its intention is to build up and never to tear down. Maybe one of the most unfortunate things about the Christian church is that we have become a very critical organization. We profess to be People of the Book (meaning the Bible) and yet we seem more intent on tearing people down than we are about being an encouragement and building them up. Jesus said that we are called to be salt and light, but the church seems more intent on becoming the sour of the earth. Somehow we need to understand that sour is outside of our job description.

If the rumored action of the army of New France during the final years of Beaver Wars is true, what is maybe one of the saddest commentaries on the situation is that the deception was carried out by a culture that professed to believe in the God of the Bible (and the God of Proverbs). And yet their words were better characterized as the words of the wicked – words that laid in wait and quite literally waited for blood. And that is something that we should never be.     

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Proverbs 13 

Note: The VantagePoint Community Church message "The End" from the series "Blood, Sweat and Tears: Death on a Friday Afternoon" is now available on the VantagePoint Website. You can find it here.