Do Not envy a man of violence and
do not chose any of his ways. 

Proverbs 3:31

Not only does Proverbs exhaustively speak about fathers and mothers, it also has much to say about mankind; or in our modern speech humankind or humanity. The whole purpose of the Bible is God speaking not just to humans, but into the humans He created. He wants us humans to know Him and then in knowing Him, know ourselves as we truly are! And Proverbs gets right down to the nitty gritty about being human. Proverbs tells us in living color what we are without God and what we can be with God in His mercy and grace!

We meet two varieties of humans in this one verse and Solomon pleads with his son to not emulate either of these two members of mankind! His plea is personal. It is practical. It is precise. It is a prediction.

First, we meet a man (either a man or woman: a human) who is not only violent, but is ‘of violence’. It is not just having a violent action now and then. This human, is violence. They think violently. Their first thought to solving any issue is to use violence and in our modern age of the worldwide web this human of violence can initiate all kinds of ruin towards another human: physical, financial, character assassination, etc… In our day we call it: Being Canceled! 

The motto for this person is: ‘Survival of the Fittest’ and the fittest will be him or her! Anything or anyone who gets in the way of their survival will be met with some form of violence. 

Second, we meet a human who actually envies the ‘man of violence’. That seems so bizarre, that you may wonder how I come to this deduction. It stands to reason, actually. If Solomon is warning his son not to envy a ‘man of violence’ then there must be humans out in the world who do envy the men and women of violence. Stay on social media for very long and we will see this tendency is all over our news and media feeds! Cancel Culture is everywhere with many lives in utter ruination and often through just one false accusation with millions of views and likes! Even physical violence is applauded as often the perpetrator (the human of violence) is depicted as the victim. 

Remember, this is personal for Solomon and his son. The father isn’t just giving a speech here to a crowd. He is pleading with his own son. They may not have had social media in ancient Israel, but they were still full of human depravity and, according to this verse, people of violence were envied. Very practically, Solomon tells his son, do not envy the violent man…or woman. Nip that ugly trait of envy in the bud immediately. Don’t think on it. Don’t dream about it. Don’t let that envy of violence fester!

The plea is also precise. It doesn’t keep his son speculating, “Well, just how do I keep from envying a violent man?”  Solomon tells his son to not choose any of the violent man’s ways. Not any!! He tells his son that success in this area is found in the details, in the small things, in the subtle facets of a violent person’s way of thinking and acting. 

And, finally, this plea is predictive. By warning his son that he should not copy any of the violent human’s thinking or behavior, Solomon is predicting for his son, that if he does choose any ways of violence (and the Internet has so many!) that he too will become a ‘man of violence’! 

So much personal, practical, precise and predictive advice in just this one small verse of fifteen words from God to all of mankind; to all us humans! We will discover many more nuggets in the

31 Days we spend in Proverbs learning All About Mankind!