Give Me A Light

Proverbs 6:23 says, “For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is a light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life.”

Walking through Hezekiah’s Tunnel was a welcomed treat after walking the hot streets of Jerusalem. The cool water was waist deep. The winding cave was narrow. The ceiling was low, sometimes allowing only a few feet of air space. The tunnel is over a quarter of a mile long. Fifty-five of us walked through it in a long string. I am usually a little claustrophobic, but not that day. We all had flashlights. To make the same trip in total darkness would have been horrifying. When we had completed the exploration, our Rabbi encouraged us to give our flashlights to the beggars who resold them.

Solomon is telling us that the commandments and the law are a light. Some people don’t like the law. “Those who love the law are legalistic,” they say. They point to the Pharisees and teachers of the law as the example of law lovers. Jesus called down the Pharisees as hypocrites. He also told His disciples to do as they say, not as they do (Matthew 23:3).

In Matthew 5:17, Jesus said, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.” Not only did Jesus come to fulfill the law; we are also to fulfill the law. Romans 8:4 says, “That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”

Paul had much to say about the law. Mainly that it shows us that we are sinners. Solomon saw the commandments as a way of life. When we are reproved, or corrected, we don’t like it. If we accept correction, we soon see our pathway leading in a better direction than we would have chosen. Solomon said these words to his son to keep him from falling into the trap of a strange woman—a prostitute. Strange women were the downfall of Solomon. He certainly knew what he was talking about.

The first law that God gave to man was, “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Genesis 2:17). Man had not eaten of the forbidden fruit at the time that God gave this law. This law was not to show him that he was a sinner. The law was given to spare Adam and Eve from falling away from the holy life that they enjoyed with Him.

From the bleachers at a girl’s high school basketball game, I watched a coach call timeout and bring his players to the bench. He began to jump all over them. He pointed his finger in one girl’s face and humiliated her in front of the whole crowd. The girls returned to the floor with tears in their eyes and lost the game. This is a picture of the law pointing out that we are sinners. I watched another coach from a little school that had short, untalented girls. When he brought a girl into the bench, he kindly showed her a fundamental move, and sent her back into the game with a pat on the back. He had a winning team. Both coaches were going by the laws of the game. One condemned. One cared. 

I can see Jesus, calling us aside and saying, “Try my special new commandment here; love one another. Now get back in the game and win.” Commandments, laws, and reproofs are the way of life. Light our lamp, Jesus!