Whoso Diggeth a Pit
Turn to Pr 26:27. Here we find the words of the wisest of all men save the Lord Jesus Christ, giving account of a plan that was designed, it was well though out and yet it failed. At first glance at this verse I think of the oddest image in my mind. I think of a cartoon. The verse at first glance seems comical, very much like the sly coyote. One that is scheming and designing and laying out a trap for what he though was an unsuspecting pray. Much effort was placed in to the digging of that pit. Much toil went into the labor of rolling stone. With every shovel of dirt, the coyote thinks, “I’ve got him this time!” With every sweat filled inch the stone is turned, he thinks, “I can almost taste him. He’s mine!” But in the end, the result is the same. The coyote is distracted, drawn away, or duped, and it is not long before he finds himself looking up from the bottom of his own pit or squished in to a funny paper thin shape. But just as soon as the disaster takes place, we find him in the next scene, doing the same thing all over, lighting a fuse that will explode in his own face or painting a wall that he himself will run straight into. Just the other day my five-year-old son laughed until he was out of breath at the antics of the foolish coyote. But as I read the verse again, I am shaken to my core by the thought that this is the Word of God! This is no fairy tale painted in the colors of the Sunday funnies. This is no laughing matter. No! this verse is drawn with the hard cold dark lines of reality! “Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein: and he that rolleth a stone, it will return upon him.” The verse depicts a man feverishly laying a trap for an adversary. One who is desperately, with all his might, putting into place a stone that will roll down and crush his enemy. But the plan backfires, the tables turn and now he finds himself the pray of the work of his own hands. Wise king Solomon gives these words of wisdom in a cautionary tone. I say to you tonight, take care that you heed these words and forsake not the council of the scriptures. Notice…
The Character Of the Verse
When I say “character” I mean the nature of the verse or what the verse is about. Plainly the verse is about a person performing certain tasks in order to get an intended result. The person digs a pit. The person rolls a stone. This scenario is easily seen today. It is the stuff of movies. Just like the cartoon, one makes a plan and it backfires on them. Take for example Romeo and Juliet. Juliet had it all planned out. She would fake her own death and there by attain her true love. But the plan backfired, and instead of two embraced in romantic joy, be find two lifeless bodies. Do you have well laid plans? The implication is that pit was dug and the stone was rolled to entrap and destroy an enemy. You say, “Bro. Ronnie, I have no enemies. I’m not planning to murder some one.” But dear friend, if you have not come in to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus, then God is your enemy. Psalms 7:11 God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day. You say, “But the t-shirts and the bumper stickers say that God loves me! And the song my momma taught me as a child said that “Jesus loves me this I know…” Yes, God is a God of infinite love. He gave his only Son to be beaten and butchered at the hands of sinful man because of His great love for a fallen creature. But God is just. That means he passes right judgments. This is a tune we often sing in out world today. “Where is justice? I have been wronged, who will make it right?” Be assured that justice will prevail. Psalms 9:8 And he shall judge the world in righteousness, he shall minister judgment to the people in uprightness. But what is the law by which he executes His judgments? Where is his standard of measures? The scale of the justice of God lies in the Law of God. The Law of God, the height of God’s holiness, the rules of God’s righteousness, the pinnacle of God’s perfection. Here is where every man will be weighted. Here is where you find yourself at odds with God, the enemy of God. “Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.” Deuteronomy 27:26 Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them. Jeremiah 11:3 Thus saith the LORD God of Israel; Cursed be the man that obeyeth not the words of this covenant, Ezekiel 18:4 …the soul that sinneth, it shall die. Romans 3:19 Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. James 2:10 For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. With guilt comes judgment. So there you find yourself: Guilty with judgment approaching. This begins the action. Men dig a pit. Men roll a stone. They try to lay a snare for God to fall in. Notice firstly…
The Deep Pit of Sin
Our text begins with a man digging a pit. Digging a filthy hole in the ground. His intent is to lay a snare for his enemy. With each shovel of dirt he mumbles to himself: “I’ll take care of him. No one is going to do that to me and get away from it.” As he feverishly works at his pit, it becomes deeper and deeper. This ever-deepening pit reminds me of many a man’s life; a life that is filled with shovel full after shovel full of sinful indulgence. His conscience is seared with his own arguments of his mind: “This is my life. I’ll live and do what I please. No one is going to tell me how to live my life. There is no God. There is no Judgment day.” These arguments swirl in the mind as he digs and digs into his sinful desires, much like the cries of a man standing on the railroad tracks of life with his eyes squeezed tightly closed saying, “I don’t believe in trains, I don’t believe in trains.” They love their well-laid plan. They love their pit. They think, “God does not know of the pit I’ve laid for Him. I’ve got this God thing figured out. I’ll dig my pit and get away with it!” The pit of sin! Have I uttered the innermost thoughts of your heart? You ask, “How do I know these thoughts?” I know them because; these were my thoughts at one time. I began digging my own pit at one time. We are not so different. Are you digging your pit of sin? But the verse goes on… Not only do we see the Deep Pit of Sin in this vs. but…
The Heavy Stone of Works
You may not be playing that game: Closing your eyes to a Holy God; ignoring His coming judgment. You may very well see that the dirt of sin will never dig a pit deep enough for God to fall in. Oh, no! A pile of sinful dirt will never tip the scales of God’s justice in to your favor. No it is my good deeds! That will do it. You set a trap for you enemy by rolling the stone. In the latter half of the verse we find a man pushing a heavy stone up an incline in hopes that when the stone is in place then he can roll it down on his enemy and crush him. Can you see him pushing this immensely heavy stone in to place? Toiling in sweat and dust to move this great stone into place. Heaving with tense muscles thinking, “If I can just get in up to the top of the hill. I’m almost there. I see here a picture of a man, not in the depths of the dirt of open wicked sinfulness, but a man depending on his efforts, his behavior, his good deeds, his moral life to inch him right up in to heaven. Oh, I’ve heard it time and time again, “Well I think that if you try to keep the Ten Commandments or make good decision, or go the right direction in life, or go to church, or be baptized, why, I’m sure God will let me in, then I’ll make it to heaven.” Oh but how many good deed’s must you do? How many times must you attend church? What if you break the Ten Commandments? What if in a moment of temptation you make one wrong decisions? How many good deeds does it take to make up for one bad decision? Oh, you toil and strain at the heavy bolder of works. You push and try and you move it one inch but then fall back two. Up that hill! I’m gonna make it. Oh no my hand is slipping! Here is the Character of the Verse…
The Climax Of the Verse
As the drama unfolds we ask the question: What is the outcome or the climax of the labor of these men? What is the end result of their clever plans? What becomes of their enemy? Did the enemy stumble and fall into the pit? Was the enemy crushed by the rock? Of course not the verse plainly tells us that the creator of the trap found himself captive of his own plans. First we see the climax of this verse…
The Sudden Reality
When I was a child, my father was going through all his old military stuff that he had saved from years ago. My dad served in the Navy Seabees in Vietnam. As he was showing me this and that, he came across a little handbook. It was small enough to fit in your pocket and it had all kinds of fascinating things in that book. Tips on just about every thing that a soldier might need to know. On of the most important parts of the book was on the typical booby traps that the enemy would lay out. There were ones that were for land mines, one for hand-grenades, and ones for just knives and sharp sticks of bamboo. The little had sketches would show how the trap looked below the ground. Often it would show how the trap would react when it was triggered or stepped into. When they would show a trap under the ground there was usually a line that showed the ground level. Now when these traps were placed there was not just an open hole where all the components would be seen. No the trap would be covered with grass or limbs to disguise it. Our verse describes one that is making such a trap. When the trap is laid then it is covered up. And the sudden reality of this verse is that the man fell into his own trap. The man had forgotten that pit or he would not have fallen into it. It was sudden and unexpected. He fell! Remember Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death. Numbers 32:23 …be sure your sin will find you out. Speaking of soldiers, I heard of soldiers that were captured be the enemy, that were going to be executed, were forced to dig their own graves. The Hebrew word here for pit is often translated a grave. The sudden reality of the pit is that as you feverishly dig it, you are digging your own grave!!!!! Stop don’t dig any more. He is a God that sees all and knows all. He sees the pitiful trap you have set. Also see the sudden reality of the stone. The verse seems to indicate that as the man was placing the stone, it rolled back on him. This weekend I was working on my house and had a large piece of plywood that I was trying to lift about 5 feet off the ground and put into place. I heaved and hoed and got it up there when all of a sudden my weight shifted and I realized that this thing is going to fall and that I was right under it and there was nothing that I could do. Have you been there? That moment of panic when you realize this thing is going to fall? Down it all fell! Oh that same is true with you sinner friend. Your works will come crashing down on you. Titus 3:5 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, Your plan will backfire! The eternal perfect law of God will come crashing on to you and crush you! And it is sudden: Proverbs 6:15 Therefore shall his calamity come suddenly; suddenly shall he be broken without remedy. Proverbs 29:1 He, that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy. When you least expect it you will fall into your pit. When you least expect it, the tide will turn and you will not be able to bare up under the load of works!
The Sad Results
I go back to my opening remarks about my son watching the coyote cartoon. He’d never seen the roadrunner being chased by the coyote. They don’t show those cartoons much any more. But I’ve seen them all. But my son sitting there watching what was happening was doubled over in laughter. How that the stick of dynamite meant for the tasty bird ended up exploding in his own face. My son could hardly take a breath when the rock that was meant for the roadrunner hit the coyote square on the head. Oh, the sad result is that their demise was of their own making. Their own hands dug their grave. Their own sweat formed their destruction. Is any one laughing? Oh I think the devil will be laughing. 2 Corinthians 4:3-4 But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. All the while the devil has been whispering, “Oh have another shovel full! Dig a little deeper. Oh push that stone up the hill. You can do it. I know you can. Just think positive and you will make it.” But when the sudden reality hits, the stone falls, the pit is filled, he laughs and laughs, “Ah you fool! You fell in your own trap.” Don’t be a fool! The end to the story of sin and the story of works is always a sad is always a sad one. This leads us to our final thought. In this text we have seen the Character of the Verse and the Climax of the verse…
The Cancellation Of the Verse
I pray at this point that you realize that you are digging a pit of sin that will be your own grave. I hope that you realize that the weight of good works is too heavy to bear a it will over come your strength and crush you. If you are at that point, you may be asking, “What do I do? I’ve already started digging my own pit I’ve already started trying to push that stone into place. What do I do now? How do I cancel this verse so that I can avoid these sudden and sad results?” First you need to:
Realize that the Pit Has Already Been Filled
I told you earlier to stop digging. But to simply stop digging is not enough. Something has to be done with that pit. That pit must be removed. If must be filled. You weren’t digging your trap for God in a corner where God could not see you! Remember what I said about the word pit. Often times it is translated grave. Someone has to fill your grave.
Oh I remember the night when I realized what I was doing. I’d been digging my own grave of sin. There I was standing over my own pit, “What am I going to do?” Then I called upon the name of the Lord Jesus. I embraced the death of Jesus, the good news of Jesus. How that Christ died for my sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried in a grave for my sins. I ought to have fallen in my own grave, but I came to Jesus and asked him to forgive me of my sins and fill my pit! Not only must you Realize that the Pit Has Already Been Filled but also…
Realize that the Stone Has Already Rolled
When I think about that great stone of our text, all I can think about is the stone that was rolled in front of the tomb of Jesus. In those days people would bury their dead in caves, rooms that were carved out of stone. When the body was placed in the tomb, a large stone was placed in from of the grace to seal the tome. Some say that the stone was so large that it took some 20 men to move it. In Mark 16:4 the stone that sealed Jesus tomb was described as a “very great” stone.
Oh there I was pushing my stone. Realizing that I can’t bare this load. Something must be done with the stone of the Law. It is going to crush me. But in Mark 16:4 it says: And when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away: for it was very great. Luke 24:2 And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre. Jesus rolled the stone away! Romans 4:25 speaking of the Lord Jesus says, “Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.” Jesus was not only delivered up on the cross and died from my sins, he filled my pit, but he was raised up from the dead. He rolled away the stone of my grave. Hallelujah! Hebrews 7:25 says that “he ever liveth to make intercession for them.” He lives! He lives and because he lives I can live! Jesus cancelled this verse for me!
