Proverbs 26:23
23 Burning lips and a wicked heart are like a potsherd covered with silver dross.
The burning lips of a talebearer are set on fire with hatred, but it's their deceptive nature makes them so dangerous. Verse 25 says, “When he speaketh fair, believe him not: for there are seven abominations in his heart.” The burning lips are not burning with hateful words, no the talebearer is much too clever for that, they are burning with compliments and flattery. They are like deceitful Absalom who used his flattery and charm to cover up his evil intention of leading a revolt. With burning lips, a talebearer set men's emotions and affections on fire! Be careful of those men whose conversations are always trying to extract a reaction from you, they use their words like a trapper, laying the trap to set the bait so that they can draw a reaction from you and trap you in your own words. That is the picture the verse is painting for us, a picture of deception. A potsherd covered in silver dross from a distance will look like a nugget of silver, and a fool could even suppose he has found something valuable, but when he takes it to the foundry he’ll be the one looking like a fool. It only looked like silver but by and by it was a hollow useless thing. Not even covered in silver but in silver dross, that is the impurities that are scraped from the silver in the refining process, so even the covering itself is useless. So it is when we take some little juicy nugget from a talebearer and we go about sharing it, It shows our lack of discernment and care for the truth.
This chapter has a lot to say about talebearers: They dissembleth with their lips, they lay up deceit [deception], He has abominations in his heart, and his hatred is covered by deceit, but look closely at the promise and warning given to such men in verses 26-27; “His wickedness shall be shewed before the whole congregation. Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein: and he that rolleth a stone, it will return upon him.” God doesn’t just warn us of the talebearers, but he warns the talebearer as well. They worked their deceit, and they covered their hateful heart with the dross of flattering words but God exposes them in the end for what they are, fakes and liars. They dug a pit, set a trap and now God will see fit that they are the ones who fall in it. Like Haman of old, who built a gallows and crafted lies to see faithful Mordecai killed, yet his lies were discovered and his life was lost on the gallows he built for another man, not in secret mind you, but before the whole nation and before the whole world in the word God. This morning we have a warning to the talebarer of the righteous judgment of God, and to those in close proximity to a talebarer, open your eyes, and test those words, what seems like a shiny nugget of flattery could just be a “Potsherd covered with silver dross.”
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