Episode Transcript
All right, we are in Proverbs chapter 10 and verse 10.
Proverbs chapter 10 and verse 10.
When I'm going to preach in place of the pastor, I always ask him, where are you going to finish?
And that's where I begin.
So we do verse by verse, even when one of us isn't here.
The other one picks it up and runs with it.
And I'm thankful to be able to do that.
So far in chapter 10, we've studied single verses that each contain opposing truths.
One truth describes doing good and its result.
And the other truth in the verse will describe doing evil and what its result is.
And tonight's verse departs a little bit from that trend because we're going to see one evil thing and its result followed by another evil thing and its result.
Now let's read the verse first.
Proverbs chapter 10, verse 10, if you're just tuning in.
He that winketh with the eye, causeth sorrow, but a prating fool shall fall.
Now, if you didn't know anything about what it means, winketh with the eye, what that means or what a prating fool is, but you knew that a fall is no good and sorrow is no good, then you'll see that these two truths are not opposing one another.
I was very surprised that there was one translation, which I've sometimes consulted, that made the second part of this verse into something positive.
And I don't know how that happened.
I just whizzed on by it.
That's not what I'm understanding from the Hebrew language.
And so we're going to look at this word, winketh.
Now, as is the case with many words in the Bible, the way they were used in the day that this text was translated by the King James translators and the way we use it today are sometimes different, aren't they?
And so when you look at the word winketh, what's the first thing that comes to your mind?
Some of you are probably doing it.
You're practicing it right now.
It's that one-eyed wink, right?
Okay.
Well, it comes from a Hebrew word that means to pinch or to nip.
And the idea would be pinching a loaf of bread off.
And to do that, your hand has to close and pull, doesn't it?
In our culture, a wink can mean many things.
If it's done with one eye, as we normally think of it, it could be a sign that you're recognizing someone from a short distance, but you're not wanting to make a big scene.
Rather than waving at one of my grandchildren, if we go up for Grandparents Day or some special event they have at school, and they come out of class and go to the cafeteria, they're single file.
I don't know if you can say single file Indian style anymore without offending someone, but they're single file and they're supposed to be quiet.
And they're supposed to have their hands down by their sides or behind their back.
So they're not touching anyone.
That's what you have to do with little kids sometimes.
And so if I wanted to greet one of my grandchildren, well, I don't want her to break the rules.
So I don't say, Haven, Haven, look, I'm here.
I might just go like this and just give her a wink.
Now that's not a bad wink.
That is me showing her affection, saying, I recognize you, and you're doing a good job being quiet and staying in your line.
A lot of things are communicated with that sort of a wink.
Sometimes a one-eyed wink is flirtatious.
If a man is winking at his wife while he's showing her affection, maybe even flirting with her.
Now if a man winks at another man's wife, he's asking for a bloody nose.
So you wink at your wife.
Don't wink at someone else's wife.
I don't think that we have to say that, but I did.
Now looking at the Hebrew word, it doesn't tell us that the wink is with one eye or two eyes.
But it does tell us how the wink is done.
So whether it's done with one eye or two eyes, it's the pinching of the eye or the eyes together, perhaps even without closing them.
They're different levels of a pinch, aren't they?
There's just a real subtle pinch, and then there's the kind that my mother knew how to do.
And I knew to obey that one because the next thing was outside the church, and I didn't want to go to that conference, so I obeyed the pinch.
And that's the same way with a wink.
There are different kinds of winks.
So what we're going to look at tonight is not what we think a wink is, but what the Bible says it is, and try to stay true to the original language here.
So just a little bit different than what we might assume.
In fact, if we wink with two eyes, we might call that squinting or blinking.
So just keep that in mind.
All of it goes together here with the word wink.
Now let's look at where else winking is used in the Bible so we can learn a little more about it.
In fact, we have an advantage tonight because about a year ago, and yes, we've been in Proverbs over a year, and we're going to be in Proverbs over another year.
I can promise you that if the Lord allows.
But in Proverbs 6, verses 12 through 13, we read, A naughty person, a wicked man, walketh with a frowered mouth, he winketh with his eyes, he speaketh with his feet, he teacheth with his fingers.
And we noticed in there the phrase winketh with his eyes.
So we learned there that winking is not limited to one eye because it says eyes.
But it just as well may be done with two eyes.
And what we also learned from that teaching that helps us tonight is that winking with the eyes was one of the behaviors of a naughty person, a wicked man.
So this isn't cute when it's done in the Bible.
This is wicked and it's naughty.
The Psalmist David, who is the father of the earthly author here, Solomon, the Psalmist David wrote, if you'd like to write down Psalm 35, verses 19 through 20, Psalm 35 verses 19 through 20, David wrote, Let not them that are mine enemies wrongfully rejoice over me, neither let them wink with the eye that hate me without a cause, for they speak not peace, but they devise deceitful matters against them that are quiet in the land.
So it's very clear that David was writing about his enemies and David's enemies are God's enemies.
The Bible tells us David was a man after God's own heart.
And we know from studying typology that David was a type of the Lord Jesus Christ.
If you've been with us very long in the church, you've heard some teaching on that.
If not, hang around, you'll hear some more of it.
So in that Psalm, in that passage, there were three things that accompanied David's enemies who winked the eye at him.
One, they hated him without a cause.
In John chapter 15, Jesus was teaching the disciples about the world and about how when they went out, they would be shamefully treated.
They would not be treated as heroes.
There would not be parades for them.
And some have the wrong view of the Christian life believing that it's going to be a glorious time.
It won't be on earth.
It will be in our hearts.
Our glorious time is awaiting us.
But down here, Jesus said, you're going to suffer.
You're going to have tribulation.
So hang on.
And that's what he was teaching them in John chapter 15.
And he taught them that they would be shamefully treated by the world.
And it wasn't about them.
It was because the world hated Jesus.
In fact, in verse 25 of that passage, John 15, 25, Jesus said, But this cometh to pass that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law.
They hated me without a cause.
Well, who wrote that?
David wrote that in that Psalm that I just read to you.
So David's words in Psalm chapter 35 and verse 20 were prophetic.
They were prophecy as the enemies of David, who was a type of Christ, hated David without a cause.
So they would hate Jesus without a cause as well.
And the second thing we learned from that 35 Psalm verses 19 and 20 was the ones who winked with the eye, hated David without a cause, and they did not speak peace to him.
Now, that's what you need to remember.
Somebody who winks with the eye the way the Bible describes it does not come seeking peace.
They don't come bringing peace or speaking peace.
And Jesus' enemies also did not speak peace to him.
They set out to destroy him.
So the ones who wink with the eye do not bring you the message of peace.
The Apostle Paul described those unbelievers in Romans chapter 3 and in verse 17 he wrote, And the way of peace have they not known?
And then a third thing we learned from David's Psalm, which helps us understand the wickedness of one who winks the eye, because that's what we're looking at, is that the one who winks the eye devises deceitful matters.
They devise deceitful matters.
So that same winking of the eye that could convey affection to one can also be used to commit deception against another.
Between the two of us, Brother Fulton and I have probably over 50 years of combined experience in interviewing and interrogation of criminal suspects.
And I can tell you from the thousands of criminals I've interviewed in my career that their bodies give them away long before their mouths give them away.
And we look head to toe for certain types of changes in behavior.
Everybody's nervous when they're interviewed by the police.
That's okay, but we're looking for behavioral changes.
And some of those changes happen in the eye, in the mouth, in the nose, in the face, and they're called microfacial tremors.
You don't notice them unless you're trained to look for them.
And so that winking of the eye is just one of a laundry list of things we look for, for people who are being deceptive.
And when David's enemies winked with the eye, and this is the most nefarious part of it, is that they winked with the eye and tried to convince him everything is okay.
How many times did Saul try to kill David with the javelin?
He said, play that harp for me, David.
David thought, good, I'll play this harp and it'll soothe my king.
And the next thing you know, here comes a spear flying across the room.
But David's enemies were many.
And when they saw him and winked with the eye, they weren't showing him affection or love.
They were showing him contempt and hatred.
They were giving him what we might call the stink eye.
I'll tell you who had the best stink eye of all time, Festus from Gunsmoke and Richard and Say Amen.
I can hear it all the way from Indiana right now.
I've seen that stink eye before.
And the persons who give it don't even know they're doing it.
It's very subtle, but it's very noticeable if it's being done to you.
The difference between the stink eye or this wink, this contemptible wink, is not much.
All you've got to do is squint just a little bit to do the stink eye.
When I had a private business, I was speaking to a civil attorney.
Some people call them ambulance chasers.
I just call them civil attorneys.
About how some attorneys are despicable if they use deception to win their cases.
Now, I'm all for having a good attorney.
If you ever get in trouble, you get you a good attorney to make sure your rights aren't violated, to make sure you get due process of law.
You have all those rights.
But the line gets crossed when an attorney, and it doesn't matter if it's a prosecutor or a defense attorney, crosses the line and does something unethical, uses deception to try to win the case, to get a guilty verdict or to get a not guilty verdict.
And so I was talking to this attorney about how attorneys who use deception to win their cases and to win large amounts of money, that they're despicable.
And you know what he did?
He gave me the stink eye.
He didn't even know he was doing it.
He squinted those eyes just a little bit, and I knew I'd hit a nerve.
And then he answered my statement by saying, well, maybe some of those attorneys have gone too far to turn back now.
He didn't realize he just confessed to me that he does it and why he does it.
And I didn't continue on with it.
He probably didn't realize what he had just done.
All right, well, having studied the deception and the hatred behind this wink, let's see if there's any good that could come from winking with the eye in the way the Bible describes it, the way the Hebrew language tells us, or how it tells us our context.
It's not the affectionate wink, in other words.
Looking back at your text in verse 10, Proverbs 10, 10, it says, He that winketh with the eye causeth sorrow.
Well, that's no good at all, is it?
Of all the words available to describe the outcome of winking with the eye, we read that it causeth sorrow.
And the word sorrow is also translated as the word wound in one verse, and that's found in Psalm 147.
3, where it says this about the Lord.
He healeth the broken in heart and bindeth up their wounds.
Or you could say bindeth up their sorrow.
Well, what is one of the things that causes sorrow?
One who winketh with the eye.
The Lord has thankfully and graciously bound up many wounds that people had, wounds that you can't see, they're not physical.
They are sorrow caused by people who winketh with the eye.
When a wicked person winks with the eye, he causes wounds.
He causes spiritual wounds, emotional wounds, sometimes even physical wounds.
He winks with the eye to try to convince his victim that what he's saying is okay, but he knows it's not.
He really despises his victims and takes advantage of them.
David wrote about sorrows, the same word used here in Psalm 16 and verse 4.
Psalm 16 and verse 4, where he said this about the evil people.
Their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another God.
Their drink offerings of blood will I not offer nor take up their names unto my lips.
Do you know what leads people to hasten after other gods?
We're reading about it in our study in 2 Kings.
It's the false prophet or preacher who winks with the eye and leads them astray.
Winking with the eye is hatred and deception more than it is just a facial movement, and it's the indicator of a wicked heart.
Now let's look back in our text.
In verse 10, the second part says, but a prating fool shall fall.
Now we have the great advantage of having studied the prating fool last week.
The same phrase, but a prating fool shall fall.
And although the word but is used here, don't think that it's contrasting winking with the eye with the prating fool as being one is good and one is evil.
However, I believe the argument could be made that the one who winketh with the eye is a prating fool, and a prating fool is one who winketh with the eye.
They're both negative.
They're both evil.
And one very well may lead in to the other.
After all, the one who winketh with the eye and causes sorrow doesn't suddenly spout words of wisdom out of his mouth, because those don't bring sorrow, and they don't bring a fall.
They're both sins.
And this verse, if you want to make a separation in the two phrases here, he that winketh with the eye causes sorrow, but a prating fool shall fall.
Here's what you might write in your notes, or this is how you might describe it.
The verse tells how winking the eye causes harm to others.
But here it shows how a prating fool causes harm to himself.
It says he shall fall.
Not only is the person who's wounded by this one who winks with the eye going to have sorrows, but this prating fool shall fall if they are the same person.
And I believe a prating fool is also one who winks with the eye, although that's not his only characteristic.
And these are the same words we learned about last week in verse 8.
Remember, just to refresh your memory, we learned that a prating fool was one who talks too much.
He's a know-it-all and will not receive instruction.
He puts himself out there as an authority figure on something over which he has no authority.
And the English word prating is used only twice in the King James translation in the Old Testament, and both of those uses are in this chapter.
However, the Hebrew word for prating is used a bunch of times in the Old Testament.
And it's usually translated as the word lip, and I think you remember that from last week.
It's also translated as the word brim, B-R-I-M, edge, E-D-G-E, and brink, B-R-I-N-K.
And while there are several other English words that are used in place of that Hebrew word, let's think about a prating fool in terms of the words brim, and edge, and brink.
These words give us the idea of coming right up to the edge of a boundary, but not crossing it.
And even the word lip, which is used more often than the other words that I just mentioned, the lip is a boundary.
It's the gate between what's outside your mouth and what's inside your mouth.
And a prating fool doesn't keep that gate closed very often.
The words just come out.
They cross the boundary, and the problem is they're not true.
But along with other things we've learned about the prating fool, we may learn that the prating fool's words come right up to the edge of the boundary of truth.
So they've come out of his mouth, and they come right up to the edge of the boundary of truth.
In other words, they almost get there.
Who does that sound like in the Bible?
It sounds like the devil, doesn't it?
The worst counterfeiter, but the most successful counterfeiter, at least in his own right, that we've ever known of.
And the prating fool's words may even contain some truthful statements in them.
That's what makes them so evil.
But as a whole, the prating fool's words come up to the border of truth without actually crossing and being truth.
The prating fool occupies pulpits all over the world, telling people there are many ways to be accepted by God.
What's the truth of his statement?
The truth is that we have to be accepted by God.
We're not just automatically accepted by God.
Something has to be done for us to be accepted by God.
But the prating fool says there's more than the one narrow way.
He says, oh, no, no, no, no.
No, Jesus is good.
He's good.
But there are these other ways that you can come to God too, depending on what your religion is.
That's the prating fool.
His words come right up to the edge of the boundary, but they're not all true.
And after all of that prating, after coming with his words to the border, the brim, the brink of the truth, but not crossing into the truth itself, something happens to that prating fool in the end.
He falls.
Look back at your text as we begin to wrap it up.
It says, the prating fool shall fall.
Now, he doesn't just fall over from exhaustion.
That word actually means thrust down.
It's not a passive fall.
He's going to be thrown down.
In fact, I'll give you a good Bible example of what will happen to the prating fool.
Jesus tells us about it.
He doesn't use the word prating fool, but we've learned enough about prating fools to make the application here.
Now, listen.
He said, not everyone that sayeth unto me, Lord, Lord.
Now, what do we see there?
We're talking about people who are telling him something.
They're speaking.
These are prating fools because he said, not everyone that sayeth unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name?
And in thy name have cast out devils.
And in thy name done many wonderful works.
And then I will profess unto them, I never knew you.
Depart from me ye that work iniquity.
So they're going to talk to Jesus.
They're going to tell him things, but how is he going to see them as those who speak truth?
No, as prating fools.
Because they said all of those things they did, and yet they only came up to the boundary.
They never received the love of the truth.
They never put their trust in him.
They did all of these things in his name, and that's the problem with most religions today, especially right here in the United States.
We're doing this in Jesus' name and that in Jesus' name and these things in Jesus' name.
But they're not what Jesus commanded.
And those prating fools are not just going to fall down.
Remember, the word fall is to be thrust down.
But according to Revelation chapter 20, it says those who weren't found written in the Lamb's Book of Life, death and hell are all going to be cast into the lake of fire.
Did it say they're just going to fall aimlessly into the lake of fire?
No, it said death and hell shall be cast into the lake of fire, and this is the second death, and that is the end of the prating fool.
Thank God.
We'll never have to put up with him again.
All right.
Let's be dismissed in prayer.
Father, we're thankful for the good attention of those who were here and those who were online.
And Lord, above all things, we desire to be fed by Your Word and to the extent that was done tonight, Lord.
We're so thankful.
And Lord, I pray if there's any confusion, any misunderstanding, Lord, that'd be cleared up.
And You'd take away from us all things that are not useful and just leave us with the truth of Your Word that we've read tonight.
And we pray it in Jesus' name.
Amen.
