A righteous person who commits wicked acts is like a tainted brook, disappointing those who depend on him. The speaker urges listeners to seek Christ's forgiveness, repent, and become trustworthy again, actively restoring relationships with those they have harmed.
Chapters
So we are in Proverbs 25 today, and it's following the little tidbit from yesterday on the sluggard. But today it's talking about what happens when you've got a righteous man that chooses to do wicked things and how he's like a tainted brook or a muddied spring. And the saddest thing with that is, if you think about it, it's not as much about the man in this instance as it's gonna be about the people around him in his life that need him. His family. his friends, his people close to him. Imagine somebody who's thirsty and in need, and they come across a brook or a spring or a well, and they go to draw water from it, and all that comes out of it is tainted. It's not just that there was that promise of hope, there was— they thought that they had reached a place where they could rely on something that they could satisfy something that they needed. It's that hope that they had was completely dashed, and what could have been something great was wasted instead. And there's an awful lot of this where, as a man, you're out there and you're, you're trying, but these wicked things that you do, you slip up. We've all got sin in our lives. We've got these things that we just trip up on. And you can see that hope dashed where people came to you for a fresh drink of water and instead they got a muddied spring. And it takes a toll. Now, The thing that you can be thankful for on the other side of this is that Christ gives us that ability to become clear water. We can seek forgiveness. We can seek Christ's work in our life again and repent from that thing that we had done and come back to being a man of righteousness, come back to doing those right actions and being fresh water to people around us. But this one really stuck with me today of that idea of think about those things that you've done in your past, those actions that maybe you weren't so necessarily proud of, that we What would you go back and change? What would you do differently? And think about the people that it affected. And then picture somebody trying to draw from a well, thirsty, absolutely thirsty to the point of death. They needed a drink of water and instead they got a muddied spring. Just take the time and consider how you're going to change that in your actions today moving forward. Maybe even go back and reach out to those people that you didn't give clear water to before in the past and see if it's not possible to fix that area. But really, really amazing picture here of what it can be like for not just the, the man that does the wicked deeds, but those that, that, those that depend on that man, the people that need that man. So if you're spewing muddy water right now, go to the Lord, ask for forgiveness, repent, move away from it, come back to the right actions, the right deeds. For those of you that are doing well, bring that fresh water into your lives. Amen.
