Proverbs 1:10-16 depicts the type of person who violates at least four of the 10 commandments, including the law against murder. King Solomon warns,
My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent.
If they say, "Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood, let us ambush the innocent without cause; let us swallow them alive like Sheol, even whole, as those who go down to the pit; we will find all kinds of precious wealth, we will fill our houses with spoil; throw in your lot with us, we shall all have one purse."
My son, do not walk in the way with them. Keep your feet from their path, for their feet run to evil and they hasten to shed blood.
Solomon has painted a graphic, even cartoonish, picture of people who will tempt his son to covet a neighbor’s wealth (10th commandment), steal his possessions (8th commandment), and kill anyone who gets in the way (6th commandment). Sinners will also tempt a son to ignore wise parental advice and so to dishonor mom and dad (5th commandment). And, as in the commandment, the result of dishonoring parents will be a shortened lifespan (Prov. 1:17-19).
Crimes against personal property and the pro-life ethic are placed in the context of unholy fellowship. The sinner entices the unwary to “come with us,” “throw in your lot with us,” and “share one purse.”
Fake fellowship
Sin is attractive because it brings with it a certain type of companionship. The more who are involved in a nefarious plot the better because the fewer there will be to condemn.
People want to belong as much as, or perhaps more than, they want to be rich. It’s a basic need. How powerful... how comforting is the allure of being known by other sinners and understood as a fellow-sinner. Lustful desires are validated and inflamed—untamed lusts that echo deeply in the young person’s own heart (Mark 7:20-23; James 1:14-15).
The wise parent demonstrates real, godly fellowship before his children and warns them about counterfeits, as well as about behaviors that lead to the taking of human life.
Unholy alliances oppose the fellowship of saints through mimicry. They involve not commemoration of the precious blood of Christ that atones for sin but the shed blood of innocent victims that binds violent people to secrecy. Rather than appealing to God for forgiveness, as believers do around the Lord’s Table, sinners entice their friends to feast on the spoils of crime so as to lock them into their conspiracies.
What is the end for the one who throws in his lot with violent, wicked people? Proverbs 1:20-32 portrays it as a lonely demise, full only of regret. The entire passage fleshes out what we read in Psalm 1—
How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,
Nor stand in the path of sinners,
Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!
...the way of the wicked will perish.
Rather than unholy alliances, the wise person chooses God and His word as a friend.
The linkage between envy, murder, and strife is also found in the New Testament:
What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. —James 4:1-4
Proverbs 1 and abortion
Few set out to kill or be violent, but if one’s aim in life is selfish, beware the person who gets in the way! If what I want is more important to me than you are, watch out!
People don’t set out to have abortions, but they may behave in a manner that makes it a possible or likely choice. People who pursues pleasure and companionship without regard for God or the life of innocent victims may find themselves tempted by abortion. We can and must order our lives so as to avoid the temptation or lessen its power.
We can also be grateful that God provides a way back for those who have chosen the wrong path or followed the wrong companions. David—the father of Solomon and the man who had his mother’s first husband killed—wrote these encouraging words in Psalm 32:
How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered!...
Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but he who trusts in the Lord, lovingkindness shall surround him.
Next: What is bloodguilt?
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Image credit: The Thieves Robbing the Man from The Good Samaritan, after Jan Brueghel the Elder (Netherlandish, Brussels 1568–1625 Antwerp), published by Assuerus van Londerseel (1572–1635), https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/415722.
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