Help!

“Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.” – Proverbs 27:6

I recently watched a video of a bee that had fallen into the hive’s honey store and had gotten itself hopelessly stuck. IT HAD MESSED UP, and it was going to pay the ultimate price! It ‘cried out’ for help – bees don’t actually “cry”, they secrete pheromones – and other bees paid attention, leaving their jobs to help the one. They took the time to remove all of the ‘sticky death’ from their friend. And, pretty soon they were all back working at the job of the hive.

We all ‘need’ sometimes.

HELP!

The Hebrew language – the language in which today’s verse was originally written – is a pictographic language. There are no wasted words. Each one is important in conveying meaning. And the beauty of the text suffers when translated into English.

The words ‘friend’ and ‘enemy’ are nouns in English. However, in Hebrew, they are verbs.

A more accurate translation of the verse is –

‘Wounds given by loving are better than kisses given by hating.’

Friends ‘wound’ us when they know that difficult action needs to be taken.

They don’t take any pleasure in the wounding.

They see the need for an intervention – a correction – a warning about something they see. They call attention to it to prevent problems, not cause them.

They see that the wound is necessary in the short term – because greater damage will result in the long term without it.

Because of that motivation, they take action … risking misunderstanding, risking offense, risking making us angry.

They see that not taking action and not wounding would be even worse.

In fact, not taking action would be the most unfriendly, unloving thing they could do.

It’s wise to distinguish between the wounds of a friend and the kisses of an enemy.

HELP!

“Help I need somebody

Help not just anybody

Help you know I need someone

HELP!

Help me if you can, I’m feeling down.

And I do appreciate you being ‘round.

Help me get my feet back on the ground.

Wont you please, please help me?”

The Beatles didn’t get everything right (some would argue this point) but, they nailed this one.

When my youngest son was 3-4 years old we were walking between 2 large, lifted trucks in the WALMART parking lot. I could see the traffic-filled lot over the trucks. He couldn’t. He did everything in his power to slip my grip. I finally looked at him and said “Son, I will break your hand before I let go.” He still couldn’t see the danger but something in my tone registered and the struggle stopped. Just a few steps further his eyes got big as he saw the danger.

Love sees the danger and takes action before the needy one even cries out “HELP.”

Who are you helping today?

Who needs you?

Who do you need help from?

HELP!

You have been prayed for today.