“The person who’s always cooking up some evil soon gets a reputation as prince of rogues. Fools incubate sin; cynics desecrate beauty.” -Proverbs 24:8-9
I don’t know about you, but for me the word “incubate” conjures up imagery of hope: a little baby fighting for its life… an egg needing warmth and light…a baby chick in need of a little TLC.
For Proverbs to sandwich the word “incubate” between “fools” and “sin” erases my hopeful imagery and replaces it with something a little harsher.
I no longer picture myself saving the life of a cute little harmless cub and I instantly picture a wildly aggressive lion trapped in an overly heated cage – an animal perfectly capable of desecrating beauty once it escapes.
See what the enemy does?
He doesn’t allow sin to start out as a lion. He knows we would never incubate such a thing. He disguises sin as a cub. Then it grows into evil while we’re busy thinking it’s still cute, innocent and harmless.
He disguises fear, doubt, discouragement, envy, negative self-talk, gossip, insecurity and loneliness as cute and innocent packages that we volunteer to nurture by choosing to take things into our own control.
But sin can never be tamed.
We were never called to be sin’s trainer.
It’s better we leave sin out in the wild.
How do we do this?
By incubating His Word.
“I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.” -Psalm 119:11
