In a world filled with competition and pride, the peacemaker is often wrongly accused of being unable to handle the conflict or the fight. This is why many people consider backing down from strife a sign of weakness. Once again, God and man are at complete opposite ends of the spectrum. While many men consider it commendable to continue strife, God thinks it honourable to cease from strife. In other words, the greater man or woman brings conflict to a close rather than further instigating it. According to the Bible, it is a fool who continues to meddle in hopes of prolonging the conflict. It is up to each believer to determine whether to accept God’s way or man’s way of thinking.
During Bible times, even the average individual understood a great deal concerning agriculture. This meant that the laws of sowing and reaping were quite familiar to them. They understood that sowing seed was done in hopes of reaping a harvest of that which was sown. Today’s passage explains that the froward man chooses to sow strife. In other words, there are some in society who look for strife and where it does not exist, they will sow the seeds of strife so that it sprouts even where it did not originally exist. Why would they do this? Some people revel in seeing the fruits of arguments, wars, strife, envy, debate, and other such things. The froward man simply finds a way to instigate problems and exploit situations by creating lies or exaggerations to accomplish his sordid purposes.
Contention comes when two parties have conflicting desires or points of view and are unwilling to amicably resolve them. Oftentimes, pride hinders either party from admitting their errors or even the possibility of their being partially to blame. Contention ceases in the absence of pride. When Rehoboam, Solomon’s son, became king, the people of God came to him requesting relief from the heavy burden of taxes that had been placed upon them by Solomon. The older men counselled Rehoboam to do as the people requested, but the younger men instructed Rehoboam to reject the wishes of the people. Rehoboam contentiously responded to the people’s request with pride; strife understandably followed (1 Kings 12:1-16).
