A good day to all reading this! Today's reading is Psalm 10:7-11 and Proverbs 6:1-5:
Psalm 10:7-11
His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud: under his tongue is mischief and vanity.
He sitteth in the lurking places of the villages: in the secret places doth he murder the innocent: his eyes are privily set against the poor.
He lieth in wait secretly as a lion in his den: he lieth in wait to catch the poor: he doth catch the poor, when he draweth him into his net.
He croucheth, and humbleth himself, that the poor may fall by his strong ones.
He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten: he hideth his face; he will never see it.
Here the Psalmist continues to describe the wicked. In previous verses, they're described as ignoring God due to their pride. In these they're described as predators, preying on the innocent poor, who are weaker than themselves. The wicked delude themselves into thinking that God either doesn't notice or doesn't care about the poor being preyed upon. But God does notice and care, and He has promised to punish their wickedness.
"And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible." (Isaiah 13:11
"Thus saith the LORD; Execute ye judgment and righteousness, and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor: and do no wrong, do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, nor the widow, neither shed innocent blood in this place. " (Jeremiah 22:3)
"Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow." (Isaiah 1:17)
Proverbs 6:1-5
My son, if thou be surety for thy friend, if thou hast stricken thy hand with a stranger,
Thou art snared with the words of thy mouth, thou art taken with the words of thy mouth.
Do this now, my son, and deliver thyself, when thou art come into the hand of thy friend; go, humble thyself, and make sure thy friend.
Give not sleep to thine eyes, nor slumber to thine eyelids.
Deliver thyself as a roe from the hand of the hunter, and as a bird from the hand of the fowler.
Surety was a promise to pay someone else's debt, probably something like co-signing a loan. It could be done out of mercy, when a friend or relative was in trouble, but it could also be done to secure an unnecessary loan, in which the borrower just wanted the money for his own purposes. Solomon warns against becoming surety for a friend, and advises someone who's done so to go to his friend and plead to be freed from his pledge to repay the loan, which could mean losing all a person has, and even he and his family being sold into slavery to pay the debt.
God's Word has much to say about slavery, including the bondage of Joseph and later of the Israelites in Egypt, but most of all, on the slavery of sin. Just as the Lord delivered both Joseph and the Israelites from their slavery, He is the one that can deliver us from our slavery to sin, if we trust in Him and allow Him to.
"Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin."
(John 8:34)
In dying to pay for our sin, Jesus became our surety.
For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:7-8)
"For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." (2 Corinthians 5:21)
"When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost." (John 19:30)
Our sin debt is finished, teleó - that is, it has been paid in full on the cross by Jesus, acting as our surety.
Later in the New Testament, Paul, Peter and James describe themselves as slaves (bond servants) of Christ, because He paid our debt that we couldn't so that we may have eternal life.
God bless you!
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