The Bible Study Podcast, episode 467. Today, the Bible Study podcast continues the study of Proverbs with chapter 6.

Welcome to the Bible Study podcast. I'm your host, Chris Christensen. We continue proverbs with

warnings about folly. 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. So do this, my son, to free yourself. Since you have fallen into

your neighbor's hands, go to the point of exhaustion and give your neighbor no rest. Allow no sleep

to your eyes, no slumber to your eyelids. Free yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter,

like a bird from the snare of the fowler. It's an odd verse or odd series of

verses here. We've gotten ourselves in trouble here, and it looks like we've gotten ourselves

in trouble in terms of a promise that we've made. We've put up security. We've shaken hands

and pledged. We've made a bad deal. We basically put up our guarantee, and it was for a stranger. It was somebody we can't trust, and it was for something that we really shouldn't have done. And he's basically saying, get out of it as soon as you can. And I think of this right now as one of the things that people are dealing with is they're dealing with credit problems. And I think that's the same sort of thing where you've made a bad deal. You've made

some bad decisions. And it's basically saying don't rest until you get out of this situation.

You put yourself in a tough situation. Don't rest until you get out of it until you have

rectified this particular issue. And a lot of this particular

set of verses we're going to see have to do with that don't rest thing. And it's interesting because

this is titled, not by the original author, but by people who've come through later as in

warnings against folly. But it goes on, for instance, to say,

go to the ant, you sluggard, consider its ways and be wise. It has no commander, no overseer,

or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest.

You've heard the old parables of the ant and the grasshopper, and this is one of those things along the same fashion that's talking about.

Look at the industrious ant, who even though it doesn't have a ruler or an overseer, stores its provisions.

And so we're encouraged also to not be sluggards.

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