Daily Bible Study: Proverbs 10:11

The mouth of the righteous is a well of life,
But violence covers the mouth of the wicked.

Proverbs 10:11 (NKJV).

How many people have ever died for an ideal? Sacrificed their own lives in pursuit of some goal, some state of being?

Now, how many people have died for someone else's ideal? Sacrificed their own lives in pursuit of someone else's goal, someone else's state of being?

The contrast here is highlighted by Jesus Christ, who died for the sake of humanity, for the ideal of God to reconcile us in a way which we could never possibly do on our own.

The rest of us?

We only aspire to such sacrifices, or at least, we do so publicly. We want the social credit of being so loving, but without actually making the sacrifices that make such a response justified.

The wicked sell all sorts of paths to salvation. Get rich quick, get revenge on someone who wronged you, enjoy yourself and then skip out on the bills. Deny God and live in sin and resist the calling of the Holy Spirit in your heart, the true and only unforgivable sin.

In each case the sinner is taking action, and the actions are destructive. Adultery, fornication, murder, theft, all of them acts of aggression, justified in various ways, but all different types of violence.

In the original language, here are the various ways that the word "covers" is translated throughout the Bible in the NASB:

closed (2), clothed (1), conceal (1), conceals (8), cover (50), covered (51), covering (4), covers (20), engulfed (3), forgive (1), hidden (1), hide (2), keep (1), made a covering (1), overwhelm (2), overwhelmed (2), take refuge (1).
Notice the connotation, and apply it back to the passage. "Actions speak louder than words".

Where the wise speak and their words bring life, the wicked are silenced by their own actions.

Who cares about the "equality" in economic and social status if it requires the death of millions to sustain it?

Who cares about the "freedom" from parental burdens if it requires the murder of the unborn to attain it?

The wicked are quick with the tongue, but their feet and hands are quicker, and they sow only destruction in their path, hating all that is "good", all that is "wise", not being content to leave well enough alone and pursue their own ends, they must also seek validation from others to compensate for the nagging realization that they are terribly wrong and terribly damned and nothing they do can change that.

The immoral woman, referenced earlier in Proverbs, lured ignorant men in with empty flattery and wordplay like "honey". Desirable, lofty, something that one would want.

But to achieve such ends requires violence. It requires hostile, action be taken, and in due time no amount of empty rhetoric can distract from the natural consequences of those actions.

Be wary of the wicked, and in keeping company with them, for you cannot protect yourself from them with the same empty words that they use, but through the capacity for and strength to resist the violence they would seek to bring upon you to suit their ends.

While we can dream of being so strong, in the end only God is infinite in this regard, which is why it took an act of God to provide a path of reconciliation, and it's only by acts of God that our hard hearts are softened to understand truth.

Do not resist the work of God, and do not look away from the violence caused by the wicked. Understand where it comes from and why, and flee from those who do evil in the name of doing good.