Proverbs 26:17-28: a reflection

17Like one who grabs a dog’s ears is one who passes by and meddles in a quarrel not his own. 18Like a madman who shoots torches, arrows, and death, 19is the man who deceives his neighbor and says, “Am I not joking?” 20For lack of wood a fire goes out. Without gossip, a quarrel dies down. 21As coals are to hot embers, and wood to fire, so is a contentious man to kindling strife. 22The words of a whisperer are as dainty morsels, they go down into the innermost parts. 23Like silver dross on an earthen vessel are the lips of a fervent one with an evil heart. 24A malicious man disguises himself with his lips, but he harbors evil in his heart. 25When his speech is charming, don’t believe him, for there are seven abominations in his heart. 26His malice may be concealed by deception, but his wickedness will be exposed in the assembly. 27Whoever digs a pit shall fall into it. Whoever rolls a stone, it will come back on him. 28A lying tongue hates those it hurts; and a flattering mouth works ruin.

This cluster of proverbs is largely about the tongue and the trouble it makes, and one image is especially vivid: For lack of wood the fire goes out, and where there is no whisperer, quarreling ceases. Gossip, the proverb says, is fuel; it is the wood that keeps the fire of conflict burning. Remove the gossip, the whispering, the passing along of inflammatory words, and the quarrel dies down for lack of fuel.

Notice the mechanism the proverb exposes. Conflicts and quarrels are often kept alive, and inflamed, by the carrying of words, the whispered report, the passed-along complaint, the juicy morsel that goes down into the innermost parts. Gossip feeds strife the way wood feeds fire. And the corollary is hopeful: without that fuel, the fire goes out. Much conflict would simply die if people stopped feeding it with their words.

That gives us a concrete way to be peacemakers, or troublemakers. We can be the wood that keeps fires of conflict burning, carrying reports, whispering, passing along inflammatory words, or we can starve the fire by refusing to gossip, declining to carry the morsel, letting the quarrel die for lack of fuel. Ask yourself which you are. Do your words feed conflicts or starve them? Refuse to be the wood on the fire. Where you could carry gossip and inflame a quarrel, hold your tongue instead, and watch the fire go out for lack of fuel.

Lord, your proverb says that without the whisperer, quarreling ceases, that gossip is the wood that keeps the fire of conflict burning. Show me where my own words feed fires of conflict rather than starving them. Keep me from carrying gossip, whispering, passing along inflammatory words. Help me be a peacemaker who refuses to be the wood on the fire, letting quarrels die for lack of fuel. Guard my tongue, and make me one who quiets strife rather than feeding it.