I have been reading through the Book of Proverbs recently. I love it! There are some real gems in there and some slightly whacky stuff too!… how about this for example:
Grey hair is a crown of splendour, it is attained by a righteous life. Prov 16:31
Haha!! so all is not lost, the onset of grey is a positive sign, I am obviously leaning towards a righteous life 🙂
Funny though as a lot of the more, err, ‘interesting’ stuff in the bible, one can usually gain an insight on, by looking at the background or the social conditions of the day, but this? I wonder if Solomon had started to notice his first few grey hairs and thought, right well I’ll not have anyone take the mick out of me, I will pronounce that grey hair is a sign of righteousness…. perhaps..
These days we usually attribute early greying to stress or illness, so what does that say about a ‘righteous life’ I wonder…?!
3 Comments
GOD thinker
March 11, 2011 at 11:39 amI think maybe he was saying if you live long enough to see gray hairs, you must have done something right. Culturally they believed if you died young, you were cursed or had not been a good person.
I am just starting to see a few gray hairs and wondering whether I should color my hair soon. It is amazing how different cultures look at things. Gray hair now is a sign of no longer being young, strong, and beautiful. Most people don't like it. I kind of like it though. I think many people look very distinguished as they gray. I hope I will be one of them.
David
October 9, 2011 at 6:05 pmGrey hair, a sign of righteousness.
I know a minister who used this Scripture, to imply his own grey hair was symbolic of his righteousness; yet he was a devious, dishonest, manipulative man, of very little wisdom, and very little love.
I was reasoning with God, as to just what this statement of righteousness meant, for I know of plenty of unchristian men with grey hair, people who would mock God, and who's behaviour was not noted to be righteous, the minister included, who lied, stole, bullied, manipulated and intimidated people, corrupted Scripture, and mocked peoples concerns, loved money, and influence.
Then God revealed exactly what the statement meant:
It was a statement made to the Nation of Israel alone, that is the first thing we need to remember, if we are going to understand it.
People who committed serious sins, were stoned to death, to remove their influence form corrupting others (God still loved them, and cared for them, and Jesus would have shared the Gospel with them, when He was in Hades for three days), therefore, if someone lived long enough to grow grey hair – it was because they had not committed a sin that would have required them to be stoned to death, hence grey hair became an indication of a persons righteousness – but – only in a situation of capital punishment, within God's Nation, where He judges righteousness, and unrighteousness – so, as you can work out for yourselves, grey hair is nothing but of a sign of age within our World as a whole today, simply because we do not stone people to death, as the Nation of Israel once did.
It would be just as true to say that two hands is a sign of a persons righteousness, but it would be true only of a Nation that cut off peoples hands as punishment, and the righteousness would only indicate the subject of theft.
So, today, grey hair is not an indication of our righteousness, for we are not living by the Old Testament Law, and it only applied to the Nation of Israel, and only under the Old Testament Law – when the unrighteous were stoned to death.
Where capital punishment is still in use, it may be true in part, but in situations where people are killed for many various reasons, even for being a Christian, it does not necessarily indicate unrighteousness when a person is killed, only God's Word can establish righteousness, and unrighteousness.
Jules
October 10, 2011 at 12:52 pmthanks David, I was writing with tongue firmly in cheek!
Interesting idea though. But it implies that all people who got to an age of grey hair, without being stoned were righteous. But I can't believe that everyone who sinned or was unrighteous was stoned. I am sure there were plenty who 'got away with it'…