Be not thou one of them that strike hands, or of them that are sureties for debts.
Be not one of them that strike hands, for the verse warns against guaranteeing another person's debts by striking hands and becoming surety for debts. Its warning applies with special force to becoming surety for unbelievers. God is displeased when His people disregard this prohibition and make themselves surety.
To stand surety is to act as unfaithful stewards, pledging property that belongs to another, even the heavenly Father. Doing so exposes that entrusted property to being taken away from God's people, with Satan standing ready to help his own children wrench it out of their hands. God's Sabbath-keeping people must therefore not enter into partnership with unbelievers, must not trust too much to the words of strangers, and must not ask their advice and counsel when they should not, because the enemy makes such strangers his agents to perplex God's people and to take their means.
Be not one of them that strike hands, for the verse warns against guaranteeing another person's debts by striking hands and becoming surety for debts. Its warning applies with special force to becoming surety for unbelievers. God is displeased when His people disregard this prohibition and make themselves surety.
To stand surety is to act as unfaithful stewards, pledging property that belongs to another, even the heavenly Father. Doing so exposes that entrusted property to being taken away from God's people, with Satan standing ready to help his own children wrench it out of their hands. God's Sabbath-keeping people must therefore not enter into partnership with unbelievers, must not trust too much to the words of strangers, and must not ask their advice and counsel when they should not, because the enemy makes such strangers his agents to perplex God's people and to take their means.