Popular Proverbs Not in the Bible

By Pastor Marcia Sietstra

Jan. 28, 2007  Crestwood UCC

Luke 4:21-30

This morning I want to begin with a little quiz on proverbs. Proverbs are short, pithy sayings that express common, folk wisdom.  There’s a whole book of them in the Bible.  Now since we live in a culture shaped by Christianity, it’s natural that some of the proverbs found in the Bible have become part of common usage.  But not all proverbs you hear come from the Bible.  So for fun, I thought we’d see if you can identify whether my list of proverbs come from the Bible, or not.

First, Spare the rod and spoil the child.  How many of you think that’s from the Bible?  It is, in Proverbs 23; it says Do not withhold discipline from your children; if you beat them with the rod, you will save their lives from Sheol.  Sheol, by the way, was the shadowy place where ancient people thought all dead souls went.  Later it was replaced by the concepts of heaven and hell, so this is a very ancient proverb indeed.

Now just a word of caution: the Bible’s proverbs are popular folk sayings from people who lived thousands of years ago, not rules given by God, so you need to sift them for what’s wise and what’s not.  To people who would quote this verse in support of beating children, I would point out that, just as later ideas replaced the idea of sheol, so later knowledge proved that beating children with rods was not the best form of discipline.   Proverbs were just practical folk sayings, shared in the temple, which eventually were added to scripture, thousands of years ago.  Now back to our proverbs quiz… 

Here’s another one:  Don’t take any wooden nickels.  Raise your hand if you think that’s in the Bible.  No, not there.  How about:  Pride goeth before a fall.  How many think that’s in the Bible?  It is, Proverbs 11 reads: When pride comes, then comes disgrace.

How about this one—I will say the first part, and then you finish it:  God helps those…That’s right.  God helps those who help themselves.  Raise your hand if you think that one’s in the Bible.  No, it’s not.  Many people assume it is but it’s not, not anyplace.  In fact, this is a proverb that Jesus would have stood on its head, I think.  Jesus did that kind of thing a lot.  Look at our story today—Jesus made his hometown crowd really angry by quoting one of their favorite proverbs and then turning it upside down.

So now, let’s leave the quiz and look at the story.  Here’s how it happened:  the hometown crowd was surprised to hear Jesus declare that the Spirit of the Lord was at work through him.   But some of them had heard about the amazing effect he’d had around the countryside as he preached and healed.  So maybe Jesus would have gotten by with saying that, if he had ended his speech right there, but instead Jesus went on to say this:

“Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Doctor, cure yourself!’  And you will say, ‘Do here in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum [where you were filled with the power of the Spirit]…[But] I tell you, no prophet is accepted in his hometown…the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah… and a famine over the land; but Elijah was sent to none of them except one widow in Sidon.” 

Oooo—ouch!  He just told them that the power of God’s Spirit was bypassing his listeners, the hometown folks, just like God sent Elijah not to the widows of Isreal, but to a widow outside of Israel instead.  Who did Jesus think he was, contradicting their proverb and their assumption that they are God’s chosen people?  The hutzpah of  suggesting God might show favor to others and skip them? 

It was a pattern that Jesus would repeat often during his ministry—taking a popular way of seeing life and then reframing it to point out the error of their assumptions.

Which got me thinking…maybe we should take a closer look at some of our assumptions.  So I’m going to take just one of the proverbs I mentioned earlier:  God helps those who help themselves, which I remind you is not from the Bible, but if it were, is likely one that Jesus would have questioned.  What does it mean to say God helps those who help themselves?  If you think it means God helps those who are not lazy, why then I can find a number of texts in the Bible to support your idea,  since the Bible often condemns being lazy.  In fact, sloth, which is another word for laziness, is listed as one of the seven deadly sins, along with greed, sexual immorality and murder. The Bible comes down hard on sloth and praises those who work hard for righteousness.

But is that really what people are saying when they say, God helps those who help themselves?  I think often people mean, “God approves of my efforts to get as much as I can for myself and my family. It’s OK to concentrate on helping myself.”  Because God helps those who help themselves.

Jesus, on the other hand, knew that taking care of ourselves was already our first instinct, so he often said just the opposite!  He said, get the focus off yourself and onto the needs of others, and he often reminded folks to look at life in a way that concentrates our attention on caring for others.  He never said, “God helps those who seek to save their own skin.”  What he said was, “If you seek to save your own life, you will lose it.” (Mk. 8:35).

Of course, let’s not take this to the extreme.  I don’t see any sign that Jesus was recommending an ascetic life of self-denial, but rather a life of balance, in which we care responsibly for ourselves but at the same time give other people’s needs as much attention as our own.  Our natural tendency is to be way too concerned about ourselves, and Jesus knew it.  Today he might say: if you gain the whole world, win the lottery, rise to the top of your profession, but do not care as much for others, your hands will be empty and so will your heart. 

There is a third way people understand this little proverb.  Picture a coin:  on one side it says, God helps those who help themselves.  What will the other side of the coin say?  God does not help those who do not help themselves ?  That is a short leap to saying, “If people appear to be unsuccessful in life, it implies that God refuses to bless them,” and so why should I?  They apparently haven’t helped themselves enough.” It’s poor logic, I know, but it’s the way a lot of people think.   

This flies in the face of reality, of course, since many people are “unsuccessful” in the world’s eyes, not because they are lazy, but because they had the misfortune to be born in a different place, a different economic situation than those of us who, by accident of birth, were born into a world of better resources.  Whole ethnic groups suffer at the hands of leaders at war, and are not to blame for their dire circumstances.  Some of our close neighbors have, through no fault of their own, suffered misforturne, illness, and tragedy.

There are all sorts of problems with this thinking, not the least of which is a false assumption of what success is, and yet it is so widespread in America.  Instead of blessing people who need a hand, we often blame them instead.  Do you see the unconscious assumption at work here?  That people’s hardships are their own fault, because they didn’t work hard enough to get God’s blessing.  That’s the kind of interpretation of this proverb that Jesus would have critiqued.  He didn’t blame people for their poverty or their illness or other misfortune.  He never judged them, not knowing what their lives were like.  Instead, he extended mercy, and offered them God’s love without judgment.

Jesus became well-known for saying If you seek to save your own life, you will lose it, but if you lose your life for others, you will find it. I suggest to you that instead of repeating the old proverb, God helps those who help themselves, we should offer a new version that goes like this:  God helps those…who help God...help others.  Now that’s a proverb Jesus would have liked. God helps those who help God help others.  May that be a proverb we live by.  Amen.