How To Have Your Best Life Now

*Treasuries built *upon the labor of *a deceptive tongue *were the vain pursuit *that plunged him *into the snares of death. (mast)

Proverbs 21:6 (NKJV)

Getting treasures by a lying tongue Is the fleeting fantasy of those who seek death.

*[Treasuries built] literally, the manufacturer of storehouses. Therefore this is speaking of the creation of goods with the ability to distribute them (2Ch.31:14-19; Neh.13:13; Acts 6:1; Rom.12:13). But as we shall see, it speaks more directly to rewards that are stored up by distributing these goods (1Tim.6:3-9), whatever your imagination may be of the goods (Job 21:17; 1Tim.6:10). It applies to anything the mind can create and sell for a profit (Job 22:2; Pr.14:23; Isa.44:10). So in the ‘absolute’ state of the feminine counterpart of the construct, the word defines the acquisition of the labor more than it defines how (that is, the labor by which) the treasures are achieved. The traditional translations leave open to the imagination how these treasures are acquired, but the adverbial counterpart to the construct, which joins the two construct clauses together prepositionally, broadens the definition with the ability to manufacture or ‘to make.’ Under the traditional translation, it could be imagined that the labor spoken of here could be to acquire these treasures by ‘mining’ for them out of the earth, but then that requires a deceptive scale that weighs out these goods (Pr.10:2; 11:4). And that may be true and plausibly applicable. But it is not likely the context for that as Solomon already addressed the dishonest scales in the previous chapter (Pr.20:23). So that leaves open the door to create these goods on the foundation of a deceptive doctrine (Is.44:9; Jer.2:11). The use of this Hebrew noun, manufacturer, in its constructive, genitive state is more adverbial in its purpose, conjunctively with the preposition that joins the clauses, which is why the traditional translators interpret it as ‘getting’ or ‘acquiring.’ Therefore, the labor spoken of here, in its foundational purpose, is to build or to make these storehouses (Pr.2:7; 10:14; 13:22; Gen.41:35; Dt.14:28; 32:34). They are the treasuries of what this manufacturing profited after it was distributed through these false promises (James 5:4; Amos 3:10; Acts 20:20). Therefore we should be careful not to judge laboring towards this purpose (1Cor.16:2; 1Tim.6:19), but rather judge the motivation of its purpose and the method of labor administrated for this purpose (Lk.12:16-21). God has created two treasuries or ‘storehouses’ if you will in the plan and purpose of the present creation (Rom.9:21-23); for God has promised to destroy the heavens with the earth and cast the whole universe into the lake of fire (2Pet.3:10-13), rendering to each one the reward of his deeds (Rev.20:11-15). But there is also a place of rest called Heaven that Christ is preparing with various eternal rewards predestined for us to walk in through which we were taught obedience (Mk.9:41; Lk.6:23, 35; 1Cor.3:8, 14; Rev.22:12).

*[upon the labor of] prepositionally conjunctive of the manufacturer. It is through labor that these storehouses are built, but they are built upon a particular motivation of labor, which is defined more clearly in the following set of verb constructs. So this preposition sets the flow and direction of those motivations forward, joining all the clauses conjunctively, and projecting the image of the treasures contrastively upon the climax of the proverbial judgment of these motivations. Therefore the motivations pursue with the natural eye, but the proverb judges them with the spiritual eye. Therefore this conjunctive preposition acts as the mirror that puts the natural motivations “into” the spiritual personification of the judgment (Jn.6:27; Lev.25:37). The spiritual reality in the proverbial mirror of these treasures is the face of Death, but the natural reality is the power that the treasures hold upon the desires of a self-deceived heart. Therefore they are rightly judged as snares according to the ESV, though against the plural contrast of the storehouses (Job 36:13; Rom.2:5). But, again, we don’t have to fear death if our labor is motivated by the eternal rewards promised to us through offering ourselves as a living sacrifice upon the altar of Christ’s atonement, for the rewards are in him (Lk.12:33).

*[a deceptive tongue] literally, a betraying tongue. This speaks to a breach of promise in the view of the buyer. More literally, it is a breach of faith. A deceptive tongue betrays trust. Therefore this tongue speaks of a man who perceives himself as wise because of his riches, but others have a very different perception of him because of his practices (Hab.2:18). He betrays his contracts and breaches trust. His word is worthless because his promises become vain (James 4:13-17). The fruit that he sells is rotten because he keeps them too long in his treasury (Lk.10:1, 17; 12:21). It has a good appearance on the surface, but when you bite into it, there is nothing of value (Matt.7:15-20; 12:33-37). He betrays the confidence of the buyer, moving from town to town so that his name won’t become too familiar. But when his fame becomes sour to the buyer and comes back to him (James 4:13), he puts his treasuries under a new name and moves on again in the surety of his treasures (Pr.22:1; Ecc.7:1). A betraying tongue breaches the law of liberty (James 1:25). Rather than using his tongue to look in on the trouble of the fatherless and the widow, he sells his product at an inflated rate to burn what liberty they have to the ground (James 3:6). He makes the orphan his slave and the widow his surety to promote the charity of his own name (James 1:27), but his tongue leaves them all under the fire of the pangs of death because his evil invention is the source of his life (James 1:26; 2:19), which is the root of his boasting (James 3:5; 4:16). The orphan and the widow come to him to buy liberty, but he sells them slavery (Acts 16:16; 1Kgs. 18:17).

*[were the vain pursuit] figuratively, the breath of death. This noun in its proper state is the name of Abel, who was Cain’s brother (Gen.4:4). But in the conjunction of the Nifal stem of its reflexive verb participle with the deceptive tongue, it is describing the action of the verb with this adjective to the previous noun construct. Literally, a deceptive tongue is vain, but the reflexive verb stem is antecedent with the preposition that is adverbial to the actions of the tongue. This tongue is a vain thing. It is rooted in a breathless mouth that bears no fruit to God (Jer.10:14; Ecc.3:19; Hab.2:19). It is a tongue that is dried out and voided by empty lungs in the mind of God (Ps.135:15-18). Since lies have no place in the life of God (Eph.4:18; Tit.1:2; Rom.3:4), it is a tongue of a carcass (Isa.40:17; 41:24; Dan.4:35; Jn.6:63). In God’s mind, the breath of a man’s life doesn’t even exist (Eph.2:1, 5). Since it is a breach of faith, it is a spiritually dead faith (Heb.6:1; 9:14). It’s not merely a fleeting breath (James 2:17). It has no breath at all (James 2:20, 26). Now, again, since this is reflexive with the Nifal stem, it is also in construct with the Piel stem that immediately follows as the verbs work back to back in the passive reflexive and the participle relationship of the two stems. The participle action from the Piel stem in combination with Nifal brings about the state of affairs to the passive absolute. The action of ‘seeking’ is what renders ‘him’ in the passive state. So he is acting upon himself in the reflexive of pursuing the treasures, but the action renders ‘him’ void of his first intent. Truly, it is (a vain pursuit). To pursue treasures for the glory of this present life is to seek for death (Pr.18:21; 8:1, 36; 2:1-5, 10-12). God hasn’t rendered the man under these state of affairs if the purpose of this life is store-housing treasures of the earth. If this is your heart’s disposition, then your best life truly is now (Lk.16:25) because eternal life will not be rendered to you in the next (Lk.12:20). Therefore “Your best life now” is nothing more than a vapor of death (James 4:14). You are like the frozen water on Mars, all alone on a foreign planet. You don’t know how you got here, and you don’t know how to get where you’re going. You can’t warm yourself up, not even to thaw yourself out (Lk.22:55-57). You’re nothing but an empty void of life (Lk.5:8). No, I am not telling you there’s a chance of life in yourself, but I am telling you there is hope in Jesus Christ because life in him is eternal life (Jn.3:15).

*[that plunged him]literally, to thrust down. The reflexive stem of the verb expands the definition. The verb in its basic Qal stem means to drive down. Therefore this man was driven down to death by the deceptive tongue. So ‘breath,’ here, is a figurative representation of the spirit that plunged Adam into the state of death. It is representative of the spirit of the serpent that deceived Eve, of which Adam was responsible for guarding against through the breath of life that was bestowed upon him in the grace through which he was to lead (Gen.1:26-27; 2:7; 1Cor.11:3, 7-10), but he willfully surrendered his headship and conscience to the serpent (Gen.3:6), the lesser creation possessed by the cunning of the Angel (Ezk.28:12-15; Gen.3:1). Why is the devil referred to as a murderer but because he snuffed out the breath of man like a fleeting vapor (Jn.8:44)? Yet, the breath of Heaven cannot be snuffed out (Jn.1:5), which required Christ to come down from Heaven to breathe eternal life into the life Adam (Gen.3:22), by putting the life of the flesh to death through the likeness of his light of life (Jn.8:12; 3:13-15; Rom.6:8; 2Tim.2:11). Therefore it is Adam’s own deceitful heart represented by this tongue that is cast down to death (Rom.3:13; Gal.6:3; 1Tim.2:14; 2Tim.3:13). It is a self-deceived heart captured by the snares of riches (Jer.5:27; Mic.6:12; Matt.13:22; Mk.4:19; Rom.11:12), which Adam exchanged the grace of life for in the pursuit of the earthly riches (Matt.16:26; Rom.1:25), leading himself away by buying into the lies and false promises of the devil (1Cor.3:18; Eph.5:6; 1Jn.1:8; Rev.20:10). It has an illusion of life but is the hard labor of a soulless death (Matt.11:28-30). Its object of affection is without the Spirit of God (Rom.1:22-23, 25; 8:5-11). It is a heart that loves death (Pr.8:36). Its treasure is in the face of the dust (Matt.25:24-30). So the verb has a reflexive meaning that is moving forward again by the motivation of the adverbial preposition mirroring the treasures contrastively into the image of death in conjunction with this reflexive verb. The verb also being masculine, singular, and absolute is passively rendered ‘him’ as the reflexive action is acting upon ‘him.’ “Him” therefore can only be antecedent to the subject of Solomon’s theology, which is centered on Adam’s headship as our representative of sin (Rom.5:14). Therefore, in application, we are all rendered into this spiritual condition of ‘the breath of Death’ as sinners (Rom.5:19). The life of sin and the breath of pride is a vapor. Imagine a steam geyser that blows up out of the depths of the earth and floats away as a midst in the air dissolving into nothing. This is the life of a man plunged down into the spirit of death. It is a wayward and worthless sight to think upon the life of such a man. Truly, he is vain, a empty breath (Isa.59:4; 1Cor.15:14; 2Pet.2:18).

*[into the snares of Death] figuratively, to seek the face of Death. But, again, this is not talking about someone who is alive to the reality of this face of Death. Rather it is antecedent with the face of the treasures, or you could say the ‘beauty of the earth.’ Nevertheless, the verb is a plural participle and correlates directly to the treasures or riches stored up through this man’s labor. But it is a deceitful image displayed in the mirror of this man’s imagination of those treasures (Ps.52:7). He tells himself that it is good to store up these things (Gal.6:7). He sees that these things soften his image of himself through the honor that it buys from others (Pr.14:20). But this is a great conspiracy as the same Piel verb stem is used in the context of Est.2:21, where a conspiracy arose to seek to kill the king. Also, in Ex.2:15, Pharaoh sought to put Moses to death, from whose face Moses fled. Those who see with spiritual eyes understand the image (and likeness) of Death (1Cor.2:9-16). Pharaoh is that representation from whom Moses fled. But what was the motivation in Pharaoh’s heart but the storehouses of Egypt’s riches (Ex.1:11)? Nevertheless, Moses saw his face as the face of Death. That is the spiritual reality of these earthly treasures! Therefore the ESV rightly interprets this as the ‘snare of Death.’ However, the participle is plural. It speaks to the ‘snares of Death.’ It literally reads faces in correlation to the illusion of the treasures. 1Chr.16:11 tells us to seek for the face of Yahweh (2Tim.2:26). Again, this is the same verb stem. But these treasures are snares that prevent that! They have an appearance of life with promises, but they never fulfill nor satisfy the promises and desires of that life (Lk.21:34-36). They are sins that corrupt the face of life with Death (Pr.23:7; Rom.11:9; 1Tim.3:7; 6:9). The harder you pursue them, the faster life vanishes in the vapor of your death. So Solomon is presenting them to us in their true image and likeness in the mirror of spiritual truth (1Cor.2:12-16). And it is a conspiracy because no man can know the depths of his own death that stares him in the face every time he clothes himself in the honor of these riches when he should be seeking Christ (Jer.13:23; 17:9; 1Cor.2:10-11).