My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor, if you have shaken hands in pledge for a stranger, you have been trapped by what you said, ensnared by the words of your mouth. – Proverbs 6:1-2

Today’s Scripture Reading (September 25, 2019): Proverbs 6

Some years ago, I took a Christian personality test. It was not a serious test, but one of those quizzes that came equipped with a pithy phrase bestowed upon the test-taker at the end of the experience. I don’t remember much about the test, but I remember the intent of the phrase I received at the end. It read “You can’t die for their sins; someone else already has that job.”  The sentence was an excellent reminder of who I am and my limitations. Maybe at times we all have a “Savior” complex; we want to be the ones to ride in on our white horse and save the day. But that job already belongs to someone else.

There is a constant theme across the biblical books that God is the holder of tomorrow, not us. The writer of Ecclesiastes makes this idea clear. “Since no one knows the future, who can tell someone else what is to come” (Ecclesiastes 8:7)? Tomorrow is not our domain. Neither is the salvation of tomorrow. And because it is not our domain, we have no right to speak of what is to come.

And it is this idea of guaranteeing the future that is at issue here. Solomon is not talking about loaning someone money, although he does think that that is usually a bad idea. It is also not about co-signing on someone else’s loan, which generally means that the co-signer would be responsible for the repayment of a fixed amount, to be repaid over a fixed period, and with a fixed repayment schedule. Solomon is talking here about guaranteeing someone’s open line of credit. It was a guarantee to pay someone else’s debt without knowing what that debt might become in the future. And Solomon insists that if you are willing to do that, then you are responsible for the trouble that tomorrow is likely to bring to you.

But the danger is not just to the one who guarantees the loan. There is also a high risk of guilt that is borne by the one who potentially ruins the life of a friend. While I have never guaranteed an open line of credit for a friend, I have lent money to them. From my point of view, I never loan more than I feel I can lose. But I have watched the guilt on the part of friends who owe me money and cannot repay. Sometimes that guilt has been so great that they have chosen to break off the relationship with me rather than suffer under it knowing that they cannot repay me. The guilt is real, and the pain it creates is significant. When that guilt is over a level of debt that the guarantor did not know beforehand, the guilt is increased even more.

Even Paul was willing to pay off the past debt of Onesimus, but he did not guarantee any future indebtedness of the slave. In that, he is in total agreement Solomon here. The future is not something about which we can make guarantees, because God has reserved that part of our journey for God alone.  

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Proverbs 7