Social Sappers: The Pit-Digger's Own Fall

He made a pit, and digged it, and is fallen into the ditch which he made (Psalm 7:15). The psalmist exposes a particular sin endemic to human society: the deliberate destruction of others through calculated malice. This "pit-digging" assumes many forms. A man may attempt to lower another's reputation through scandal—the very currency of society papers. He may sap a neighbor's business through capital, tongue, or influence, enticing him into ruinous speculation for personal gain. He may endanger a brother's character by knowingly drawing him into sin, whether for companionship in guilt or mere delight in iniquity. Even unthinking negligence constitutes pit-digging: we must not "grease the path" of one already sliding toward ruin.

Yet observe the character of such work. First, it is dark work—conducted secretly, wrapped in concealment. Would you shrink from bringing it before God's eye? Second, it is dirty work, ignoble and base, prompted by covetousness, envy, revenge, or levity. Well-dressed pit-diggers perform labor far filthier than the earthdigger's honest toil. Third, it is dismal work—devoid of the joy that attends true life's labor. The grave-digger among living men finds no brightness in his calling. Finally, it is degrading work: the digger inevitably falls into his own pit. Elohim ordains that malice returns upon the malicious. Let our lives instead be devoted to lighthouse building—the uplifting of men—rather than the sinking of pits.