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Welcome to today’s Daily Scripture Reading and Meditation covering Proverbs 27:12 wherein we discover the distance between the prude and the simpleton, carefully defining those terms.
The prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it.
Awhile back, some old friends and I reminisced about our high school days together and some of the crazy things they did. I say they because even though I was often with them when these things occurred, I tended to be the one who watched from a distance while they performed what were usually harmless pranks. One might say I was prudent, but chicken is probably just as good a description…at least on most occasions. But imagining that they were true troublemakers, I can get a good picture of what this verse is speaking of.
There are many situations in life that hold danger even though they might not include activities that would appear harmful. Think for example about gambling. Not everyone who gambles is addicted to it, but the prudent know that it does far more to make fools out of people than it does to protect them. Or how about wild partying? Like gambling, it is very much an “in the moment” excitement, but in the end leads to a headache at best. What about business practices that reek of pyramid scheming? They can sound appealing at first because of the income they promise, and the simple or ignorant might dive in to find out that they have invested time and money and relationships into something that doesn’t work…partly because the prudent won’t join. The people at the pinnacle of such schemes have learned this which is why you hear their underlings pitching, “This is not a pyramid scheme.” The worst is the Christianized version: “This is really a ministry.”
And so, if we don’t want to be simple sufferers and desire the same good outcome for our friends, conscientiousness, responsibility–prudence…is called for. The apostle Paul had words for Timothy that would help him in this endeavor. Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you (2 Timothy 1:13). It is this guarding Paul spoke of that would help Timothy to know, even when danger wasn’t completely obvious, when something just didn’t quite “smell right.” In other words, knowledge in and practice of basic truths would lead to the kind of exercised wisdom that you find in the prudent. Take care not to stumble over this word, picturing the kind of prude that we might imagine, the one with hair pulled high and tight, a slight scowl on her face, and a long gray dress that couldn’t possibly be any more nondescript. No, don’t let her steal the word and it’s beauty. Prudence is about being in the right place at the right time and doing the right thing at the right moment. It is about hiding from the kind of danger that feeds off of stupidity and avoiding the kind of suffering that comes to the blind. To be sure, prudence will often call for more courage than than the simple and foolish would ever dream of walking in. It could perhaps even be argued that Jesus was killed in part for His lifestyle of prudence. Let Him start defining such terms and walk in the steps of that courageous, wise, and holy Prude.
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