Proverbs 18:4-5

The words of a person’s mouth are like deep waters,
and the fountain of wisdom is like a flowing brook.
It is terrible to show partiality to the wicked,
by depriving a righteous man of justice.

Verse 4

I don’t know about you, but I’m not a great swimmer. I can get the job done, but I’m horribly inefficient in the water (and on land for that matter). Because of that, I’ve never been much for wanting to actually swim. I like getting in the water to cool off. I like doing the backstroke a little bit. However, I’d much rather float around in an inner tube or something.

As a non-swimmer, I’m kind of cautious about how far I go out into deep waters. Because I know if I go out there too far, there’s a pretty good chance I’m not coming back.

This is the picture we get for a person’s words today. That a persons words are like the deep waters. It’s hard work swimming through there, it can be dangerous. You don’t know what’s in the water, they could be shark infested for all you know. If you find yourself in it, you may be gasping for air instead of being refreshed by the water. It can be overwhelming, and there’s more than you know what to do with.

But the fountain of wisdom is like a flowing brook. It is refreshing on a hot day as you can cool yourself off. And you can drink from it without drowning. There just enough water to get what you need. Not too much, not too little. Just right.

Verse 5

I hate favoritism. Absolutely hate it. I try as much as I can to be fair in all circumstances. I don’t want to be guilty of showing favoritism towards someone. But in the case of this proverb, it is even worse.

It’s kind of like the end of the Movie, National Treasure. Ben has stolen the Declaration of Independence, and after having discovered the treasure, he is ready to return the declaration and turn himself in. He’s having a discussion with agent Sandusky who says, “someone’s going to prison.” At that point Ben says, if you’ve got a helicopter I can help you with that.

If you watched the movie, you know that Ben stole the Declaration of Independence, and part of his reasoning was to protect it from Ian who was just a treasure hunter. Since they both broke in to steal it, they were both guilty. In this case, the right guy went to jail, because Ben gave the treasure back to the people of the world when Ian would have kept it for himself. But, if Ben had gone to jail and Ian went free, that wouldn’t have felt like a very just ending, would it?