JEWELS IN SNOUTS OF SOWS
TEXT: Proverbs 11:22
Proverbs 11:22 KJV As a jewel of gold in a swine's snout, so is a fair woman which is without discretion.
Proverbs 11:22 MOFFATT A golden ring in the snout of a sow, and a pretty woman without sense!
Proverbs 11:22 TAYLOR A beautiful woman lacking discretion and modesty is like a fine gold ring in a pig’s snout.
Proverbs 11:22 MSG Like a gold ring in a pig's snout is a beautiful face on an empty head.
I. INTRODUCTION—WORD PICTURES IN THE PROVERBS
A. Thomas Watson and His Word Pictures
-A few years ago I found a book written by Jack Hughes who did an indepth study of the sermons of the old Puritan, Thomas Watson. In that study, Hughes pointed out how powerfully that Watson used words to paint pictures. It was if he could use a single sentence and conjure up a picture in your mind that was unforgettable.
-Here are some of the examples that he used for affliction:
A sick-bed often teaches more than a sermon.
God intermixes mercy with affliction. He steeps his sword of justice in the oil of mercy. There is no night so dark but Israel had a fire in it. There is no condition so dismal but we may see a pillar of fire to give us light.
As the hard frosts in winter bring on the flowers in the spring, and as the night ushers in the morning star, so the evils of affliction produce much good to those that love God.
-Here are some examples that he used for bad company:
Take heed of coming into infected company, lest you take the infection; the wicked are devils to tempt to sin. Lot was the world’s wonder that lived in Sodom when it was a pest-house, yet did not catch the disease.
The breath of sinners is infectious. They are like the dragon which ‘cast a flood out of his mouth’ (Rev. 12:15). They cast a flood of oaths out of their mouths. Wicked tongues are set on fire by hell (James 3:6). The sinner finds match and gunpowder, and the devil finds fire.
-Here are some examples that he used for parenting:
Correction is a hedge of thorns to stop children in their full career to hell.
A child indulged and humoured in wickedness will prove a burden instead of a blessing.
A good piece of ground bears not only an early-crop but an after-crop. He who is godly does not only bear God a good crop of obedience himself while he lives, but by training his child in the principles of religion, he bears God an after-crop when he is dead.
The soul of your child in in a snare and will you not pray that it may ‘recover out of the snare of the devil’ (2 Tim. 2:26)? Many parents are careful to lay up portions for their children, but they do not lay up prayers for them.
-There is something about this speech of this man that reaches out and grabs you because he can paint a picture with words.
B. Word Pictures from the Proverbs
-But long before Thomas Watson was working on his word pictures, the writers of Proverbs were doing the same thing.
-From the wisdom of the Proverbs, there are a multiplicity of word pictures. It is almost as if one sentence has enough punch for a whole sermon. In fact in the past I have made reference to some of the Proverbs as being “sentence sermons.”
-All through the chapters of Proverbs you find words that paint pictures. Proverbs 9 shows us the difference between wisdom and folly by the way that wisdom builds a house. Here are the word pictures:
• A house that Wisdom built—v. 1
• It has seven pillars of wisdom in it—v. 1
• The house has been prepared—food and drink for a set table—v. 2
• Gives an important announcement from the news center of the town—v. 3
• Promises to give understanding to the simple—v. 4
• Forsake foolishness for the way of understanding—v. 5
• Instruction and correction are important components of learning—v. 9
• The highest way to learn is by fearing the Lord—v. 10
• Days and years are added to those who are wise—v. 11
-When you read those words, you find that there is a higher life to be attained. But catch the word picture the wise writer of Proverbs uses to describe the way of folly:
Proverbs 9:13-18 ESV The woman Folly is loud; she is seductive and knows nothing. [14] She sits at the door of her house; she takes a seat on the highest places of the town, [15] calling to those who pass by, who are going straight on their way, [16] "Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!" And to him who lacks sense she says, [17] "Stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant." [18] But he does not know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of Sheol.
II. THE TEXT—PROVERBS 11:22
-Now we come to our text and actually if you wanted to include the next verse in this, the reader finds that there are examples given of things that are out of place. It is a description of wasted effort and confused values. Nothing would look more foolish that a jewel in the snout of a sow. . . a pig.
-The writer of the Proverbs placed a very high value on discretion. This is the quality about being careful about what you do and say so that your actions and words do not confuse the observer and hearer into thinking something less about you than what they should. It is making responsible decisions.
-What the writer of this proverb wants us to see is that there can be good things in bad places but the bad place takes away the value of the good thing.
-I realize that this proverb is making a comparison of a woman who is far less than what she ought to be. If we are honest we have seen women and men who have fallen into this same category of being beautiful and handsome but living their lives like an airhead. So even those this verse is gender specific it is not just limited to a single gender but rather the behavior of both men and women.
-The first half of this verse is what really captures my attention. The reality of the matter is that we are a bit disgusted by the impression that is being given here. The combination that is described here is something that we should do our very best to stay away from.
-A pig wallowing around in the mire is not something that you would ordinarily want to spend time with even if there was a very valuable ring of gold in its snout. That is what the Bible is really driving home for us. It wants us to see the sin and foolishness of the man who gives himself over to the fascination of a worthless heart even though it is covered by beautiful skin.
-So there are pigs that we can take and place our most valuable talent, gifting, or personal values and put our own “gold” so to speak in something that God never intended for us to do.
Charles Swindoll—The greatest waste of our natural resources is the number of people who never achieve their potential. Get out of that slow lane. Shift into the fast lane. If you think you can’t, you won’t. If you think you can, there’s a good chance you will. Even making the effort will make you feel like a new person. Reputations are made by searching for things that can’t be done and doing them. Aim low: boring. Aim high: soaring.
-So we need to spend some time with the pigs. It is only when you see the pigs that you realize how far that you may have fallen to a lesser slope of life.
Luke 15:15-16 KJV And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. [16] And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him.
-Pigs have a way of waking us up!
A. The Sow of Wavering
-There are many times in life that we can put a ring of gold in the sow’s snout of wavering. Another way that we could say it would be indecision, indifference, timidity, or hesitation.
-We do ourselves great injustice when we waver and do not follow through with specific goals we want to accomplish and to specific paths we long to travel.
-One of the first steps we have to come to understand is that we cannot change our behavior just because we have some little emotional moment or catch some little idea that we might like to do something about our lives. I wish there was a magic pill that I give people so that they would get out of their predicament. But there is not one. . . In fact you need to know that if you are going to kill the pig of wavering, indifference, and indecision it will take you sacrificing that pig and take your life to a higher level.
-Jesus commanded for us to seek first the Kingdom of God and that word seek gives an implication that there is a pursuit that is involved in it.
J. B. Phillips—Set your heart on. . .
Amplified—Aim at and strive after. . .
Greek Text—Keep on continually seeking. . .
-Success is earned and you have to keep on seeking after it. Far too much belief is placed in the idea of genius. Those who are genius have discovered that they have about 10% talent and 90% persistence and work.
Press on. Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common that unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are important.
-When the goal you are seeking is good and the motive is pure, there is nothing more valuable to have than persistence, determination, and grit.
-Far too often people are led to believe that success solely depends on talent, brilliance, or education. There are others who think that it is getting the breaks, pulling the right strings, having the right personality, being in the right place at the right time, knowing the right people, or waiting for their ship to come in.
-What makes for greatness is determination and persisting in the right direction over the long haul. There are some things that this entails:
• Knowing it is a long and arduous process.
• Being unappreciated at times.
• Being misunderstood at other times.
• A willingness to sacrifice.
• It is having a vision that never flickers out.
-All of us have had dreams at one time or another. We have also watched the dreams come to pass in the lives of others because they stuck with their ambitions. They refused to be discouraged. They never let their disappointment get the upper hand. Challenges spurred them on to a greater effort.
-If you are going to master something, you will have to be determined that what you are pursuing is not about fame or fortune but rather working to get the absolute best out of who you are as an individual. If you will pursue the mastery, then everything else has a way of taking care of itself.
-This kind of drive will motivate you as nothing else because you are not seeking to please the world but you are intent on the mastery of a certain character quality, a specific skill, or a necessary task. Determination will cause you to endure mockery and ridicule. It will help you to turn a deaf ear to the critics.
W. A. Criswell, long-time pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, used to tell about an evangelist who loved to hunt. The man bought two setter pups that were topnotch bird dogs. He kept them in his backyard, where he trained them. One morning, an ornery, little, vicious looking bulldog came shuffling and snorting down the alley. He crawled under the fence into the backyard where the setters spent their days. It was easy to see he meant business. The evangelist’s first impulse was to take his setters and lock them in the basement so they wouldn’t tear up that little bulldog. But he decided he would just let the creature learn a lesson he would never forget.
Naturally, they got into a scuffle in the backyard, and those two setters and that bulldog went round and round and round! The little critter finally had enough, so he squeezed under the fence and took off. All the rest of that day he whined and licked his sores. Interestingly, the next day at about the same time, here came that same ornery little bulldog—back under the fence and after those setters. Once again those two bird dogs beat the stuffing out of that little bowlegged animal and would have chewed him up if he hadn’t retreated down the alley. Would you believe, the very next day he was back! Same time, same station, same results. Once again after the bulldog had had all he could take, he crawled back under the fence and found his way home to lick his wounds.
“Well,” the evangelist said, “I had to leave for a revival meeting. I was gone several weeks. And when I came back, I asked my wife what had happened. She said, ‘Honey, you just won’t believe what’s happened. Every day, at the same time every morning, that little bulldog came back in the backyard and fought with our two setters. He didn’t miss a day! And I want you to know it has come to the point that when our setters simply hear that bulldog snorting down the alley and spot him squeezing under the fence, they immediately start whining and run down into our basement. That little, old bulldog struts around our backyard now just like he owns it.”
-We are not bulldogs or pigs. . . We are saints of God that have a high and holy calling about our lives and it is crucial that we quit putting our gold on sows of wavering and indifference. We need determination!
B. The Sow of Failure
-If there is the sow of wavering then there is another sow called failure. There will be times in your life that you are going to fail. In fact, the longer you walk the path of life the more inclined you will be to believe that failure is something that plagues all that you may attempt to do.
Proverbs 24:16 KJV For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief.
-Here is what takes place in the moment of failure. We get some idea in our mind or some direction of life that we choose to take and the reality is that we have chosen to do a hard thing. If you are going to do something great, you have to deal with the necessary failures that come with it.
-Anything worth accomplishing in life is going to be hard. If it was easy then everybody would be doing it. What is so funny is all the people who can tell you how to run the church but have never pastored a church before! You can hear it is the barber shop from people who are about two months from being evicted from their house, losing their car, and maybe even losing their job can tell you how the church ought to be run.
-Not only have I heard wisdom as to how to run a church in the barber shop but I have also heard how we can fix the economy, take care of the educational system, fix the welfare problem, and get America back on a moral path. . . . Barbershop wisdom is something else! All coming from people who have given up on accomplishing anything worthwhile in life except. . . you fill in the blank.
-But the Bible indicates to me that men who are inclined to doing hard things will have an uphill climb and there are some falls along the way. . . but you rise again from that moment of failure. Don’t put your gold on the pig of failure. . . get back in the race!
-Choosing a life of difficulty and accomplishment over a life of comfort and ease needs to be the choice of God’s people! The rewards, the growth, and the sense of accomplishment are enough to trade off all the times you fail the test, have a setback and have to reprogram the direction of life.
• Take difficult classes.
• Do difficult projects.
• Read difficult books.
• Run longer than you can.
• Push harder than you can.
• Try new things that will stretch you.
-When you struggle with failure it is during those times of your life that you ought to seek out things that have inspired you in the past. Whatever brought you inspiration or whoever brought you inspiration, seek those things out once more so that it will help you to be an overcomer.
-Most of the people that we look at as successful in life were failures before they started. Michelangelo wasn’t a painter, he was a sculptor but the Pope wanted him to paint the roof of the Sistine Chapel. It took him four years to do it and he had to develop a complicated scaffolding system so he could lie on his back while he painted. After the four years, his back was in terrible shape and his eyesight had been sorely compromised but there are twenty-million tourists every year that travel through the Sistine Chapel to admire his work.
What can you do in the next four years?
-I think that is a worthy question for all of us to ask ourselves.
III. CONCLUSION—HOW DO I GET THERE?
-Some might way that this has been an inspiring deal but how do I quit taking the gold of my giftings, talents, callings, and purpose of life and stop putting it in the snouts of pigs?
• Work hard. . . Genius is less about genetics and more about practice.
• Know that personal and spiritual growth always comes at the expense of comfort.
• Determine to give yourself to doing something great.
• Be willing to start today! This may mean that when you get home tonight that you get out a journal and write some things down that you want to be different in. It is the little changes that make the most difference over the long haul.
-Something that I read this past week about victims. . . Victims have a higher quotient for entertainment while masters trade that time for development. . . They do this by reading, journaling, scheduling, and spending time with people who are lifters and not limiters.
-Summer is on the way! If school is not out, it will be shortly. What if you decided to read your way through this summer instead of wasting ungodly amounts of time on social media, entertainment, and just wasting time in general? I have a feeling that if you put yourself on a personal growth plan, you would become a more influential person at the end of the year.
Philip Harrelson
May 22, 2014
