A WORD TO THE WISE: Proverbs 28: 15. "Lions and Rulers and Bears. Oh, My!"

Proverbs 28: 15     Like a roaring lion and a charging bear is a wicked ruler over poor people.

Proverbs 28: 15.  One of the concepts that I taught as an English teacher was syntax, or sentence structure.  Syntax reveals the purpose of words and phrases and why they are placed in certain order in a passage.  When you understand syntax/ sentence structure then you can change the order of words  without changing the meaning of the passage. 

For example, syntax reveals that Proverbs 28:15 can be written: A ruler who is like a roaring lion and a charging bear over poor people is wicked.

The true character of a leader is manifest in how he/she treats the poor and powerless under his/her authority.    No, the Bible does not absolve anyone in any socio-economic state of personal responsibility.  Yet, the Bible does emphatically and repeatedly state that the attitude of a king, pastor, patriarch, matriarch, governor, principal, teacher, or president  toward the lowest folks on the socio-economic ladder is a testament to the true heart of the leader.

For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, in fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes, and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, “You sit here in a good place,” and say to the poor man, “You stand there,” or, “Sit here at my footstool,” ^have you not shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? (James 2: 2-4)

If we treat the poor, the disenfranchised, the least of these as though they are either (a) good for nothing except to further fatten the wealthy, the empowered, and the great among us; or (b) as though they are all good for nothing------ then we have taken the attitude of the roaring lion and the charging bear: You are either prey or you are in the way. 

If the leaders we choose or the leaders we are possesses that mentality then----though they are financially astute, linguistically eloquent, tactically adept, and administratively brilliant--- THEY ARE WICKED.

And make no mistake, as wicked leaders grows fatter they  grow more ravenous.  When they have consumed all the poor who are lower than you, they will expand their hunting grounds, and you will be their new prey.

----- Anderson T. Graves II

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is the pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church

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