The Ugly Magnetism of the Bribe Text: Proverbs 17:8
Introduction: Reading Proverbs Without a Helmet
We come this morning to a verse that makes modern, respectable evangelicals get a little twitchy. It is one of those verses that, if we are honest, we would rather just skip over. It seems to be saying something that the rest of the Bible goes to great lengths to condemn. It appears, on a surface reading, to be praising the effectiveness of bribery. And because we are committed to the inspiration and inerrancy of Scripture, we cannot just dismiss it as a cynical jotting from a jaded Solomon. God said this, and He said it for our instruction in righteousness.
The problem is not with the text; the problem is with our shallow understanding of what the book of Proverbs is doing. Many Christians treat Proverbs like a bag of fortune cookies from Heaven. They think each proverb is a flat, universal promise, an axiomatic guarantee from God that works the same way in every circumstance. But that is not what a proverb is. A proverb is a statement of general truth, a description of how the world, under God's governance, usually works. This is why proverbs sometimes appear to contradict one another. "Answer not a fool according to his folly," the Bible says, and then in the very next verse, "Answer a fool according to his folly." The Bible is not confused; it is teaching us wisdom, which requires discernment, not a wooden-headed application of rules.
So when we come to a verse like this one, we must ask what kind of truth it is teaching. Is it a prescription, telling us what we ought to do? Or is it a description, telling us how things are in this fallen, grubby world? This proverb is a piece of sharp, unflinching realism. It is a diagnosis of the heart of the man who trusts in the power of money, and an honest admission that, in the short term, his corrupt methods often get him exactly what he wants. God is pulling back the curtain to show us the inner workings of a worldview that is entirely at odds with His own.
The Text
A bribe is a charm in the eyes of its owner;
Wherever he turns, he prospers.
(Proverbs 17:8 LSB)
The Seductive Charm (v. 8a)
The first clause gives us the psychology of the bribe from the user's point of view.
"A bribe is a charm in the eyes of its owner..." (Proverbs 17:8a)
The word for "bribe" here is shokhad, and it is almost always used in a negative sense, referring to a payment made to pervert justice. The word for "charm" is related to the word for grace; it is a "stone of grace," a precious stone or a jewel. The proverb is telling us that a bribe is a beautiful, dazzling, captivating thing. It has a magnetic pull. It sparkles with promise.
But notice the crucial qualifier: "...in the eyes of its owner." This is a subjective statement. It is telling us how the thing appears to the one who possesses it and trusts in it. This is the man who believes that every problem can be solved with a well-placed envelope of cash. In his eyes, the bribe is not a dirty, shameful thing. It is his precious, his secret weapon, his key to the kingdom. It is the tool that makes the world bend to his will. He looks at it the way a craftsman looks at his favorite tool, or the way a wizard looks at a magic stone. He is enchanted by its power.
This is the perspective of a fool. It is the man who trusts in uncertain riches and not in the living God. He has made mammon his master, and this bribe is the sacrament of his religion. He believes in its efficacy with a blind faith that would put many Christians to shame. He sees it as a thing of beauty because his moral vision is shot. He is like a man with jaundice, to whom everything looks yellow. His heart is corrupt, and so the very instrument of his corruption appears to him as a lovely gem.
The Temporary Success (v. 8b)
The second clause gives us the observable, worldly result of this man's faith in his charm.
"Wherever he turns, he prospers." (Proverbs 17:8b)
Here is the hard-nosed realism that makes the Bible so trustworthy. The proverb does not say, "and he immediately gets struck by lightning." It says that his strategy works. In this fallen world, greasing the palms of corrupt officials, buying silence, and purchasing favor is an effective way to get ahead. The wheels of commerce and politics in a sinful society are often lubricated by this kind of graft. The man who wields the bribe gets the permit approved, the lawsuit dismissed, the contract signed. From a purely pragmatic and worldly point of view, he prospers.
This is what so vexed the psalmists. Asaph cries out in Psalm 73 that he saw the prosperity of the wicked. Their eyes bulge with abundance, and they have more than heart could wish. This proverb is saying the same thing. It is acknowledging a plain fact of life in a fallen world: sin often pays, for a season. But we must read this proverb in the context of the entire book of Proverbs, and indeed the entire Bible. Just a few verses later, we are told, "A wicked man receives a bribe from the bosom to pervert the ways of justice" (Proverbs 17:23). The Bible condemns the practice in no uncertain terms (Exodus 23:8). So what is going on?
Proverbs 17:8 is describing the path, and other proverbs describe the destination. This man's prosperity is a house built on sand. He is succeeding in all the things that do not ultimately matter. He is winning a board game on a sinking ship. His "prosperity" is the fattening of a calf for the slaughter. He is gaining the world, yes, but he is doing so at the cost of his own soul. The bribe works on men, but it does not work on God. And the final accounting will be with Him.
The Gospel for Bribers and the Bribed
This proverb, then, is a brilliant diagnosis of the world's gospel. The gospel of this world is a gospel of bribery. It says that if you have enough money, enough power, enough flattery, enough compromise, you can get what you want. You can bribe your way into success, into happiness, even into heaven. This is the religion of Cain, who thought he could bribe God with some vegetables. It is the religion of the Pharisees, who thought they could bribe God with their meticulous rule-keeping. It is the religion of every man who thinks his good deeds will outweigh his bad on some cosmic scale.
But the throne of God is the one place where this "charm" has no power. You cannot bribe the Judge of all the earth. "For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe" (Deuteronomy 10:17). Your attempts to buy His favor are an insult to His holiness and an offense to His justice. All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags, and our attempts to offer them to God as a bribe are doubly so.
The glory of the true gospel is that it begins where all bribery ends. It begins with the recognition that we are spiritually bankrupt and have nothing to offer. We come with empty hands. And into our empty hands, God places the ultimate gift, the true "precious stone," His Son, Jesus Christ.
God's grace is not a bribe that we give to Him; it is a gift that He gives to us. And it is a gift that truly makes us prosper. It is a gift that does not pervert justice, but satisfies it completely. On the cross, the claims of God's perfect law were met. The penalty for our sin was paid in full. God did not wave a magic wand; He poured out His wrath on His Son so that He could justly pour out His mercy on us.
This is the gift that is a true charm in the eyes of its owner, the believer. It is the pearl of great price. And wherever the believer turns, he truly prospers. He prospers in tribulation, he prospers in want, he prospers in life, and he prospers in death. Because he has been given a treasure that cannot be corrupted and a kingdom that cannot be shaken.
Therefore, because we have received such a gift, we are called to be an unbribable people. We must be men and women of such integrity that the world's shiny trinkets have no appeal. We operate on a different economy, the economy of grace. The man of the world sees his bribe as a precious stone that gets him what he wants. The Christian has been given the true precious stone, the Lord Jesus, who has already secured for us everything that matters. Let us therefore live like it.