Proverbs 6

The Right Kind Of Feet

He speaketh with his feet. Proverbs 6:13.

Feet was I to the lame. Job 29:15.

Today we are going to think about the right kind of feet; and this time we have two texts, one in Proverbs, and the other in Job. We shall take the text in Proverbs first “He speaketh with his feet.”

I.

At first sight I am sure you will think this is a very odd text. The writer of the verse seems to have got hold of things by the wrong end. You would have expected him to say, “He speaketh with his mouth,” or “He speaketh with his tongue.” If he had written “He speaketh with his eyes,” you would have seen some sense in it, for people, you know, can say a lot by a glance. If he had told us, “He speaketh with his hands,” you would not have been surprised because you have seen people who are deaf and dumb talk with their fingers. But how can anyone speak with his feet?

If you look back to the twelfth verse you will see who “he” is. He is the “naughty person,” and he makes signs to his accomplices by “shuffling” as the margin of the Revised Version tells us with his feet. The shuffle is a sort of agreed signal between him and them, and when they hear it they know what he means to say just as well as if he had spoken in so many words.

But it isn't only the “naughty person” who speaks with his feet. We all speak with our feet every day of our lives; in fact, our feet really give away quite a number of secrets about us.

First, our feet tell who we are. Have you ever noticed that you can often know who has come into a room or who is going upstairs just by the sound of the step. Even shoes sometimes tell tales. When Robert Louis Stevenson was a boy he sometimes went to visit his grandfather at the manse of Colinton, near Edinburgh. There he used to meet some happy cousins, and the children had great times together in the manse garden. But the old grandfather was very strict. Especially he was very particular that no footprints should be left on the flower-beds. It was whispered that every night he went round examining the little muddy shoes which had been left out to be cleaned, and that he was ready to fit them into any tracks which had been left in the flower-beds. So the children were very careful where they stepped.

Another way in which our feet speak is by telling what we are feeling. When we are happy they skip and run, when we are sad and dull, or unwilling to go to school, they drag. When we are angry they stamp.

Again, our feet tell our characters. I know the boy who is aimless and lazy by his loitering step. I know the boy who has a purpose in life and means to be a man by the way he puts down his feet.

II.

Now if our feet give away so many secrets about us, it is very important that we should have the right kind of feet. What are your feet saying about you?

Well, I hope they are firm feet feet that tell that you know your own mind and that you won't be easily made to go just wherever any foolish companion wants you to go.

I hope they are swift feet feet that are ready to run at a moment's notice and to come back in the shortest possible time.

And I hope they are reverent feet feet that tread softly in God's house, or where there is sorrow or pain.

But most of all I hope they are helpful feet, and that is why I have chosen the second text “Feet was I to the lame.”

It was Job who spoke these words. You know he was a man who had had a great many troubles and had lost his children and his possessions. He was looking back to the days of his prosperity, and one of the things he was able to say about himself was that he had been feet to the lame.

Now, what did he mean by that? Well, I think he just meant that he had helped the lame people to get what they wanted. When they couldn't run, he had run for them. He had helped lame dogs over stiles.

There are lots of lame dogs going about the world. Not only are there those who have lost a limb or lost the power of a limb, but there are the old people who are too frail to run and who need young feet to run for them.

And there are people who are lame in other ways. There are those who are stupid. We can help them to understand their difficulties. There are those who find it very hard to be good. We can make it a little easier for them by believing the best that is in them. There are those who are sad or sorry or sick. We can help them to bear their pain by trying to cheer them.

Two thousand years ago, there lived a Man in Galilee who went about doing good, and of Him it might be truly said that He was “feet to the lame.”

Wherever He went sick people became well, sad people became glad, sinful people became good, weak people became strong. And at last He went where no one else could go, because He alone of all that dwelt on earth could walk aright. He went to Calvary so that we, who were lamed by sin, might henceforth be able to walk straight.

We can never have the “right kind of feet” until Jesus takes our poor crooked, sin-spoiled feet in His hands and makes them whole. And we can never be sure we are walking in the right path until we ask Him to direct our ways. (The texts of the other sermons in this series are Exodus 23:9; 1 Samuel 3:10; Psalms 24:4 (2), Psalms 34:13; Malachi 1:13; Luke 6:41; 1Pe 3:4; 1 Peter 5:5