Proverbs 1:14 (Mini Sermon)

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1.      Pro 1:14 – “Cast in thy lot among us; let us all have one purse:”

1. Let us all have one purse.
   1. In other words, let’s make all of our collective wealth commonly owned.
   2. It should come as no surprise that these men who secretly conspired to band together and plunder the wealth of others by any means necessary, including murder, are communists.

• If only those who followed Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, and all other wicked communist leaders had read and heeded Solomon’s warning. consented not (Pro 1:10), and refrained their feet from their path (Pro 1:15), tens of millions of innocent lives would have been spared.

1. Communists always promise equality for the masses.
   1. They repeatedly make good on their pledge, for the masses invariably end up being equal indeed, all sharing nothing.
   2. On the other hand, the rulers enjoy the national wealth for themselves which they expropriated from the producers in society.
   3. “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” (George Orwell, Animal Farm)
2. Even a communistic system of shared profits set up by the most well-meaning of men will fail because of human nature.
   1. Human nature always looks out for itself and is inclined to avoid the pain of labor and enjoy the fruits of others when possible.
   2. When profit is not proportional to labor, the incentive to work is diminished.
   3. The pilgrims who landed at Plymouth Rock in the seventeenth century learned this lesson the hard way.
   4. At first, they tried a communal system where all worked to gather and grow food, and all shared the produce equally.
   5. After nearly starving to death, they decided a system of private property and “every man for himself” was much more conducive to human flourishing.
   6. The early Jerusalem church tried a system of communal living (Act 2:44-45).
      • Notice a few things about this communal system.
      • God did not command them to do it.
      • It was voluntary to distribute one’s goods, not compulsory (Act 5:4).
      • It doesn’t appear to have worked out very well for them (Act 11:29; Rom 15:26).
   7. Cast in thy lot among us.
      1. Lot – 1. a. An object (app. usually a piece of wood) used in a widely diffused ancient method of deciding disputes, dividing plunder or property, selecting persons for an office or duty, etc., by an appeal to chance or the divine agency supposed to be concerned in the results of chance. The ‘lots’, each bearing the special mark of one of the competitors, were placed in a receptacle (in Homeric Greece a helmet); according to Greek procedure the vessel was shaken, the winning lot being that which fell out first; in Scandinavia the winning lot was drawn out by an uninterested party.
         1. When a man casts in a lot with others, he is taking a chance.
         2. These socialists, therefore, are letting poor, unwitting dupes know that they are taking a gamble by joining themselves with them.
         3. Unfortunately, many are too simple to recognize it.
      2. The very nature of a lot demands that when it is drawn to divide the plunder, the result will not be equality.
         1. If equality was the goal, a simple division equation would suffice.
         2. As at the casino where the odds are always in favor of the house, so it is when making deals with collectivists: probability predicts a loss.

• If the blood of millions in the last century is not reason enough to keep the simpleminded from joining those who want us all to “have one purse”, hopefully these wise warnings of Solomon will be.