Moral Wounds
Doing wickedness is like sport to a fool, and so is wisdom to a man of understanding. Proverbs 10:23 NASB
Sport – The world laughs at morality. Being moral is so ludicrous. First, morality simply interferes with personal fulfillment. Second, it’s expensive. When you worry about the welfare of others, you shortchange your own gains. And what matters most, anyway? You, of course! Finally, what good does morality really do? Whatever you thought you accomplished by upholding some ethical principle is undermined by the next guy to come along. The world is constantly teetering on the edge of collapse because people are ruthless. Morality gets in the way of doing what has to be done to save those who are worthy of saving. All the rest are going to be swept away by some force or another, so why get sucked into the sewer of good intentions. No, better to laugh in the face of those who think they can make a difference. They are the real fools. In the end, has anyone really made a difference to the steady downward decline of the human race? Are we all heading for the grave? Isn’t the planet doomed? So why get your soul bent out of shape. Take what you can while you can, and let the others figure it out for themselves.
ṣāḥaq. The Hebrew root of the word translated “sport” by the NASB, could just as easily be translated “laugh.” It’s the basis of a familiar name: yiṣḥāq (Isaac). Laughter. Of course, we already know that his name could be the result of laughing with Sarah or laughing at Sarah. The double edge. Maybe it’s the same with this verse. Who’s the fool? The one who laughs at wickedness or the one who laughs with wickedness? I am sure we have all experienced that twinge of ethical discomfort when someone in our presence is deliberately insulted under the cover of a jest. Is that laughing with or laughing at? It feels like both. That’s why I don’t like it.
Maybe this proverb is not simply an indictment of the wicked. Maybe it’s an indictment of wickedness in us. In those times when we laughed at someone. In those times when we dismiss another’s value to God, when we derided them privately, when we drew implication about character or motive without really knowing the facts. Maybe the double edge of ṣāḥaq cuts us. We might not use all the excuses provided in the first paragraph here, but I’m pretty sure we can find some rationalizations of our own. Something to deaden that little twinge.
They say laughter is good medicine. It’s good medicine when its objective is healthy. But it seems that even good medicine can be turned into addictive destruction. Do you know what I mean?
Topical Index: ṣāḥaq, laughter, sport, joke, Proverbs 10:23
Hello another good word. This is something we all have in common whether we are Spirit born or not.
The way the regenerated person copse would be to store up Treasures in Heaven. Yahweh is a one it doesn’t matter what the others think. We are to build one another up. Even if we are a so-called Silent Witness..
Just thinking it. We may be the only scriptures people they ever see… The fruit of the spirit always reap more fruit. And if we truly trust and obey it will reproduce in other people. not just us. Closing seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness… I had made translational errors.. .I’m in the mood to be corrected, and. taught..
“Laughing with wickedness” is where we flush the heart of God down into that sewer. “Weeping with those that weep” is where we resurrect it back up again.
To walk with God is to walk in all the places His heart is. We pray to align ourselves with the heart of God and then wonder why we end up suffering so much at the hands of the wicked; why we are called to stand with others who are suffering, too, but where else are we to find His heart?
I was the butt end of vicious jokes for most of my childhood. Cruel sport was how those around me kept from having to reach out to me at the expense of where they were, because to acknowledge – much less to fix my problem – would be to expose theirs. I married a stuck person who continued the practice of re-fracturing the brokenness he had no power to fix. I think the real reason people attack others by making fun of them is because they don’t have any way to help them, and, because there are just two positions possible in this world (“all who are not for Me are against Me”), they really have no choice. We embrace what we cannot change. We continue to break what we cannot fix, for to acknowledge the brokenness of others is to admit our part – our end – of that fracture.
I think the flesh is tempted to stand with sin because it has no way to stand against it. But, in my experience, I now can see that perhaps the surest way to get the flesh out of our lives is to have to face the world; to be on the butt end of its cruelty, for it is there that we can learn why cruelty is wrong; why cruel people are weak; but, most of all, HOW to love them – to reach across the great divide – and forgive, and thus to touch them where they are stuck the most.
I think a person who is wronged by others is in a place of potential power and purity that is simply not possible to achieve any other way. Injustice done against me has the potential of causing me to be even more bitter and unjust against others (for hurting people hurt people) but it also has the greatest potential of burning out of me the inclination to be unjust to others; to learn just how to hate injustice with perfect hatred.
At that point, I find myself lined up with the heart of God and sharing His power (perfect hatred) against sin. At that point, I can stand and laugh at the fractures of this world, for to possess the ability to forgive sin (yes, we are called to that ability – we are directly COMMANDED – to be like our heavenly Father, and forgive like He does) is to possess the power to resist it, too. We are called to forgive, for forgiveness returns us to the power of love we were created to share with God. This world gives us plenty of opportunities to reveal that power! We can either throw in the towel and laugh with those in despair, or we can shout “Amen!” and roll up our ever- forgiven’ shirt sleeves and show the world our heavenly muscles.
TO MAKE “SPORT” OF WICKEDNESS – to make wickedness “a source of amusement or entertainment”.
Imagine that! That we as people would actually try to find some amusement or entertainment in wickedness. What is the matter with us? How could we be so extremely different from the Creator, from our Heavenly Father? He is so wise, so good, so beautiful, so kind. so merciful and gracious, so wonderful! And then there’s us, choosing wickedness…..FOR SPORT!
It’s so sad and disgusting! How does He tolerate it as much as He does? How have we become so deceived and why haven’t we learned more from history, even our own personal history, or made much if any progress as people in terms of moral decency? It’s incomprehensible that we still actually make wickedness a sport, a source of amusement and entertainment! We are so lacking in discernment and wisdom! We are so utterly foolish and deceived!
Someone play a dirge! Let us mourn until we are healed of our moral wounds and make wisdom a sport! I want to vomit! It almost makes me want to hate myself, hate people, hate life.
But then there is HIM…..THE FOUNT OF WISDOM…..Who gushes forth with His Words of faith, of hope, of love, of truth, of LIFE ETERNAL!
In the midst of the darkness that man innately loves,
came one Man destined to enlighten the course of history.
And He succeeded!
In every age, scores of unlikely believers live lives that God
works through, quietly cascading light on unsuspecting souls
and continuing His work that’s always changing the world.
Not so surprisingly, only those of us with eyes that “SEE” can
see any measure of success. Are we not all so grateful to be among
those selected to be light bearers!? (And how in the world did that happen???)