“Do not testify against your neighbor without cause,

or use your lips to deceive.
Do not say, “I’ll do to him as he has done to me;
     I’ll pay that man back for what he has done.”

Here we have a pair of ‘doughnuts’, I mean ‘Do Nots’.  The proverbial ‘Do Nots’ always stand as warning signs along the pathway to Wisdom’s house.  Only those who wish to avoid the traps and be left for the “Do not” maker’s cart, heed them.  The “Do Not” maker looks familiarly like a doomsday Swedish chef from the Muppets.  If you happen to witness him as he goes about his work you will see that he pushes what looks like a large lopsided bakery cart.  His business is to retrieve the trapped foolish pilgrims that have fallen into the cages the signs warned to avoid.  He would then load them onto his cart.  He only has one stop after he picks up all his passengers, Folly’s house.  If you listen closely as he passes by you will first hear the odd song his cart plays as its wheels turn.  Then you will hear him boisterously sing to the music, repeating the sayings of past “Do not” warning signs.  “Do not lie in wait…”

As we read this pair, I offered that we should look at them separately to be used for two Spiritfires.  To me, they seemed to be speaking to separate audiences regarding two separate warnings along the path to Wisdom’s house.  My daughter disagreed.  Over the years, I have learned to listen to her as her thoughts are often sharper than my own.  “She has an ‘old soul,’” people would say who knew her.  They don’t know the half of it.  So, I stopped and looked at the proverbs again and saw how both could be applied to the same person as a complete thought.  In an offense/defense sort of play, or to keep with the doughnut metaphor, half of it has chocolate frosting, the other vanilla:  The first warning is what may have been done to you, the second what you may want to do in return.  This was demonstrated the most obviously in the answer to my favorite question, “How did Jesus fulfill this proverb to make us into new creations?”

At the end of Jesus’ days among us which culminated in His crucifixion, death and resurrection, there were those who testified against Him and made false accusations about Him.  They didn’t fulfill this proverb as much as fell into it by disobedience, Mark 14:55-59.  The music of the “Do Not” maker’s cart could be heard as Jesus’ accusers were stuck fast in the cage of the first proverb’s warning.  The “Do Not” maker then loaded them onto his cart bound for folly’s house.  As previously stated, their lies lead to Jesus’ crucifixion at which point the 2nd proverb found its fulfillment by obedience, Luke 23:34.  By offering His attackers forgiveness instead of retribution, we see the great love accomplished there for the salvation of those who repent and believe in Him, John 3:16.  The “Do Not” maker’s surprise was genuine as he looked over at the empty cage of the 2nd proverb.  At that moment, Jesus not only escaped the clutches of Folly’s house, where the dead lie, but He offered a new ride to a new House, one not made by human hands, 2 Corinthians 5:1.  

In another light, we find how these two Proverbs’ receive fulfilled reflections in the character of Jesus.  “Tell your neighbor, whom I love, use your lips for Truth,” John 4:39.  Or again, “I’ll do for him what he can’t do for himself; I’ll forgive him all his debts.”  In this way, we see how “An eye for an eye” – Leviticus 24:19-21, becomes the healing of both eyes and man, John 9:1-12.  Each of the “Do nots” become “Do’s” and are a foretaste of God’s Kingdom instead of traps headed for Folly’s House, that precursor of Hell.  We see the invitation given by the sharing of the Truth.  It opens them up to repentance and the redemption offered by Jesus’ blood on their behalf.  The “Do not” maker is given a new task.  Now he posts lights upon the way to God’s Kingdom as He sings of His amazing grace.