Let's make a deal

DEVOTION

PROVERBS

LET’S MAKE A DEAL

Prov 22:26-27

26 Do not be a man who strikes hands in pledge or puts up security for debts; 27 if you lack the means to pay, your very bed will be snatched from under you.

NIV

The idea here is not about owning a debt, but promising our home as security, in a contract, in order to buy something we cannot afford. The lack of means to pay is the point being make here. That could be simply seen as a warning not to live beyond our means. But it has deeper implications because of the striking our hand in a pledge or putting up security for debts. Of course we always strike our hand in pledge whenever we sign an agreement of any kind, whether that be a bank credit card, or financing a new car or home. However, we surely need a place to live, and even if we rent a place, we are striking our hand in a rental contract. But the idea is not just buying a home or a car or even having a credit card, but striking those deals in which we have no means to pay them. It would seem today that is not possible for we would not be approved to purchase anything on a “pay over time” method, or incurring a debt, unless our credit score is acceptable. In the time of Solomon there was no such system of keeping score of a person’s reliability or ability to pay. A man’s word was his bond, a handshake consummated the deal. Failure to pay because of not being able to pay, was being a liar and whatever possessions a person had were taken as payment. We might consider that to occur in some sense when something is repossessed because of failure to pay, or when filing for bankruptcy, although many possessions are not taken.  Yet how do we make sense of this in order to make any applications for our lives today. Our culture would almost make it impossible for us to incur a debt we cannot afford to pay. Now we could see this in a spiritual sense. Striking our hand in a pledge with the world, or let us say the prince of the world, might apply here.  Have we made a deal with the devil? Surely we would not put up our soul as security in order to gain the things of the world. Certainly we would not make such a deal. However, have we adopted his methods in pursuit of material gain? Just a thought, but it would seem this is directly related to material debt and the incurring of more debt than we can pay.  Again, it would seem the world system would not allow that to happen. So then because of transcultural truth, we must be able to apply a truth of this saying to the lives of all people in every culture and in all times throughout the past, present and the future. It is also true that according to hermeneutics we have to see the truth based on the time and in the culture it was written or to the people it was written to in order to see the truth for us today. Both methods are true, yet we are still left with the fact we need to live within our means. That may be the one main truth of this saying. We also have to be careful in making any deal.