Pro 26:27 Whoever digs a pit will fall into it, and a stone will come back on him who starts it rolling.
When considering our ability to accomplish a task, we often estimate poorly.
I’m a big fan of the DIY television shows. I often scan through Netflix to see if there are any new ones that have come out. There is just something about the DIY spirit that is enjoyable to watch. Quite understandably there is often a large gap between the watching and the doing. For some reason, watching what others do gives me the impression that I am able to do the same, often with grievous miscalculated results. I think Solomon observed the same in others.
A slight miscalculation of ability.
Our proverb for consideration describes two instances of someone miscalculating their physical ability.
Who would ever dig a pit, only to fall into it? It doesn’t sound very smart. Surely someone wouldn’t plan to fall into their own freshly dug pit. It seems that something else is in play for us to understand the proverbs intention. Over my lifetime I have been known to handle a shovel quite often. Having dug a few ditches there are a few things you learn over time. Here is what I learned. There comes a point when digging that you can no longer stand outside the ditch and remove dirt. That is the tipping point. I think the picture Solomon is describing is a fellow who doesn’t want to get ‘dirty’ in the pit so he decides to stay on top and dig as deep as he can. What he doesn’t count on is the tipping point where he overestimates his ability to balance himself or underestimates the depth of the pit. Either way, he ends up falling in the pit.
The second picture Solomon describes is the man rolling a stone. I find this picture humorous since I have found myself in similar situations. It seems that we find the man taking on the task of moving a stone from one location to another. We arrive on the scene when the man has made a startling discovery. He may have overestimated his strength and thought he could move the stone by himself. Or he may have underestimated the weight of the stone. Perhaps he did not factor the terrain as he is moving the stone uphill. All of these taken together have now placed the man in danger as the stone is about to roll back on him.
Taken together this proverb warns to carefully consider our actions. It is easy to over / under estimate the situation at hand. We might say, “Look before you leap”. We live during a time when people demonstrate their miscalculations in ‘fail’ videos. Funny as they may seem, many of them end before we see the consequences of their actions. We are spared the broken bones and bloody noses.
As serious as this can be in a physical sense, it is much more serious in a spiritual sense. We are prone to overestimate our spiritual resolve and underestimate the power of temptations in our lives. This leaves us vulnerable to dangers without and within. Developing realistic expectations can be hard earned. Falling into a pit is a memorable event and we soon decide not to take the trip again. A stone rolling on us might be survivable but we would not want to risk taking the chance. Spiritually speaking, do you take on unnecessary risk? Do you play fast and loose with your soul? We should take Solomon’s advice, assess the situation and make a fair estimation of our ability to handle the outcome. Regardless of whether it is a physical or spiritual event, we should take care to avoid foreseeable dangers. The wise person sees the danger and takes precaution. Do you?
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