Proverbs Experiment: Day Twenty-Five

Merry Christmas! (Yesterday)

Proverbs Chapter 25:

Just because you see something, don't be in a hurry to go to court. You might go down before your neighbors in shameful defeat. (vs. 7-8)

That's much needed advice in our sue-happy world today. Can you imagine how much money is spent on either lawsuits, or protecting oneself from lawsuits? Do you realize that there actually was a time when a hot drink didn't have the words "Caution: May Be Hot" on them?

I looked up "silly lawsuits" on Google, and picked three of my favorites:

- Jan 2002. Police in Vermont stopped a man. After running his name, it came back that there were warrants for his arrest from Florida. Before the police could arrest him, he fled into a nearby forest (in the middle of winter). The police searched for him, but were unable to find him. Three days later, the suspect turns himself in to police and was taken to the hospital with frostbite. He ended up having several fingers and toes amputated. He is now suing the police. Why? The police didn't look for him hard enough! He stated in an interview, 'If they had searched harder, they would've found me'. He's accusing the police of dereliction of duty leading to his loss of limbs.

- A former waitress has settled her lawsuit against Hooters, the restaurant that gave her a toy Yoda doll instead of the Toyota she thought she'd won. Jodee Berry, 27, won a beer sales contest last May at the Panama City Beach Hooters. She believed she had won a new Toyota and happily was escorted to the restaurant's parking lot in a blindfold. But when the blindfold was removed, she found she had won a new toy Yoda - the little green character from the "Star Wars" movies. After the stunt, Berry quit the restaurant and filed a lawsuit against Gulf Coast Wings Inc., the restaurant's corporate owner, alleging breach of contract and fraudulent misrepresentation. David Noll, her attorney, said that he could not disclose the settlement's details, although he said Berry could now go to a local car dealership and "pick out whatever type of Toyota she wants".

- October 1998: Terrence Dickson of Bristol, Pa., was leaving a house he had just finished robbing by way of the garage. He was not able to get the garage door to go up, because the automatic door opener was malfunctioning. He couldn't re-enter the house because the door connecting the house and garage locked when he pulled it shut. The family was on vacation. Mr. Dickson found himself locked in the garage for eight days. He subsisted on a case of Pepsi he found in the garage and a large bag of dry dog food. Mr. Dickson sued the homeowner's insurance, claiming the situation caused him undue mental anguish. The jury agreed to the tune of a half million dollars.

Awesome.

Do you like honey? Don't eat too much of it, or it will make you sick! (vs. 16)

Solomon, Solomon. You obviously never went to Casa Bonita with their amazing sopapillas (honestly, about the only thing good about the place). If you had their sopapillas, you would have most definitely eaten too much honey.

By the way, the record for our family is still my brother Aaron with 18 sopapillas. I tried to beat it my last time there, but was unsuccessful. And actually, I did feel rather sick.

If your enemies are hungry, give them food to eat. If they are thirsty, give them water to drink. You will heap burning coals on their heads, and the Lord will reward you. (vs. 21-22)

I actually know these verses quite well because (1) Paul quotes these verses in Romans 12, which contains some of the best advice, especially verses 9-21; and (2) this is one of the verses I would use whenever I would get into a debate with someone who believed that the Old Testament showed the uncompassionate, wrathful God vs. the compassionate, loving God. I would say that God has remained the same, and I would point to these verses to show that God demanded compassion of his people back then, just as he demands it of the New Testament Christians and today. And if we are created in His image, then He was a compassionate God back then too.