In our homeschool co-op I am teaching through the book of Proverbs during our chapel time. I usually share each lesson here on my blog, but life’s been a little crazy and I haven’t been doing that this year. However, before I delete this one out of our presentation software I thought I would share it… Last week our lesson was from Proverbs 3:29-32.
The lesson began with this cartoon while everyone was getting their snacks and finding their seats.
What we see in this cartoon is a dog, a cat, and a mouse… all who live in the same house. They are always trying to basically kill one another. Yet we do see, that when they choose to, they can live together peacefully.
In the lesson I asked the kids what caused them to fight again. They hollered out, “the steak!” I then said, “wait a minute, a steak is a steak, it can’t do anything good or bad, it wasn’t the steak’s fault… what caused them to fight?” They then hollered out, “they were being selfish!”
Yes! They each wanted their own selfish desires met. When they were choosing to put the others needs before their own they were able to live peacefully, but the moment selfishness began to rule… the fight was on.
It appears that Tom and Jerry and the Dog needed a lesson in the Proverbs…
Do not devise harm against your neighbor, while he lives securely beside you.
Proverbs 3:29
This is how I transitioned into personal application… a bully is never a stranger. A bully is always someone you see on a regular basis… someone you may not even be able to avoid even if you wanted to. They could live in the same neighborhood as you, go to the same school as you, work in the same office as you… even live in the same house as you. A bully is always someone you know.
Do not contend with a man without cause, if he has done you no harm.
Proverbs 3:30
Usually the victim of a bully has done nothing to the one who is bullying. Many times all they have done is happen to share the same space on the planet at the same time with this person, breathing the same area of oxygen.
Here’s the warning to all of us. Do not be the bully. I can almost bet that at some point in time in all of our lives we have been both of these boys. It might have happened all the way back in Kindergarten… when he just didn’t make it to the bathroom in time… or when she just didn’t happen to have a mother at home who would make sure she had on clean clothes and wash her hair and braid it all pretty down her back like yours.
There was a point when you were the one pointing and I bet there has been a point when you were the one being pointed at… how you responded after the realization that you were here is what matters.
Do not envy a man of violence and do not choose any of his ways.
Proverbs 3:31
Here we are. It’s pretty easy to see we have one who is hurting and three who are laughing. I guarantee only one of the three started the laughter and the other two had a choice… join in or stand up. As you can see… they chose to join in. Some have realized that there is kind of a cycle to bullying…
You of course have the victim and the bully. Now here is where the challenge comes in for everyone else… if you are not the victim and you are not the bully… what part will you play? You have a choice of many:
You could be person B, the one who follows the bully, his right hand man, his back-up… a perfect example of this person shows up on our television screens every Christmas.
You could be person C, someone who doesn’t really follow this particular bully… but you are taking notes and cheering him on… you probably even think it’s pretty funny… and your laughter at the spectacle proves it.
You could be person D, inside you are laughing, you are probably even thinking the victim asked for it… for being weird or whatever other reason you can come up with… outwardly you would never do this to another person because it would ruin the rep you are trying to make for yourself in this world… but hey this person should be doing something to better themselves then this wouldn’t happen to them… right?
You could be person E, yeh you see… but it has nothing to do with you… so you keep walking.
You could be person F, you see… you hate it… you think it’s cruel and mean and you might even run up to the victim after the coast is clear and tell them that… however you will do nothing to try and stop it when it is happening, nor will you do anything to try and keep it from happening again.
You could be person G… the one who sees it, hates it, and does something about it… either by stepping in yourself or going to get someone who can.
The question is which one will you be?
For the devious are an abomination to the Lord;
But He is intimate with the upright.
Proverbs 3:32
I think I know which one the Lord would prefer us to be. I know He most definitely would not want us to be the bully nor join in with the bully and take on his ways. He has already pointed that out to us in Proverbs 3:29-31. Here in Proverbs 3:32 is the hammer driving the nail home… Not only does God tell us not to devise harm with our neighbor while they dwell securely by us… He says the devious are an abomination to Him.
Devious in the Hebrew is luwz and is pronounced looz. That’s right… when you picture the person with the hand making the letter L on their forehead calling someone a looser… this is who God calls a looz… the devious. This word in the Hebrew means to depart, to go wrong, to turn aside, to go crooked.
Abomination in the Hebrew is tow ebah. In the Hebrew it means a disgusting thing.
So those who turn aside, who go wrong, who go crooked are a disgusting thing to the Lord. So if we treat people in this way the Lord finds us disgusting… and if we claim to be His children and think that we can treat others in this way and believe that He is walking with us…
Whether it be our spouse… whether it be our children… our siblings… the waitress at the restaurant… the guy checking us out at Wal-mart… the umpire calling out in the field at our kids little league game… that kid in our class that’s just a little different…
We love, because He first loved us. If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also. Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome.
1 John 4:19-5:3