Standing in the InBetween

Proverbs 12:2, Shevat 12, and the Knowledge That Holds Us Together

“A good man obtains favor from YHWH, but a man of wicked schemes He will condemn.”

By the time we reach Shevat 12, the month is almost spent. The trees still look bare, but the unseen work is well underway. Sap is moving. Roots have been “deciding” what kind of fruit will appear when spring finally arrives. It is an in‑between moment: still winter, not yet bloom, but full of hidden choices.

Proverbs 12:2 speaks directly into that in‑between. It places two people side by side: a “good” person who keeps drawing down YHWH’s favor, and a “man of wicked schemes” who is walking toward condemnation.

The difference is not mainly in what they suffer or enjoy on the surface, but in the kind of knowledge and planning that lives beneath their actions.

Day 6: Living Between Dust and Glory

Day 6 of Creation is the great “in‑between” day. Humanity is formed from the dust of the ground, yet called to bear the image of Elohim. We stand between earth and heaven—one foot in clay, one foot in glory. Every choice we make expresses what we believe about that tension.

Proverbs 12:2 fits this sixth‑day tension perfectly. The “good” person uses their in‑between life—dust and glory, limitation and calling—to align with YHWH’s ways. They plan with Him in mind. They arrange their work, their words, and their relationships so that blessing can pass through them to others. The result is that they keep “obtaining favor”: mercy noticed at just the right time, openings no one could have engineered, a sense that YHWH’s face is turned toward them.

The schemer uses the same in‑between space very differently. Standing in YHWH’s world, enjoying His gifts, they quietly plot how to bend people and situations toward themselves. Their intelligence becomes a tool for carving out advantage rather than serving love. Outwardly they may look successful, even religious. Inwardly, their heart is a planning room for harm. Scripture is blunt: this path ends in condemnation.

The Righteous Lamp: Oneness with Knowledge (Daʿat)

The sixth lamp on the righteous side is “Oneness with Knowledge (Daʿat).” Daʿat is more than information. It is knowing that binds. It is the kind of knowledge that turns “ideas” into lived reality and turns “you and I” into “we.”

Under this lamp, Proverbs 12:2 describes a person whose knowledge of YHWH is not theoretical. They know Him in a way that pulls their whole being into alignment with His character. Their plans and prayers are intertwined. Their decisions at work, at home, and in community are shaped by a steady question: “What does oneness with YHWH and with His people look like here?”

That kind of Daʿat produces quiet, durable goodness:

• A business owner who chooses fair pay over hidden profit because they know every worker bears YHWH’s image.

• A parent who refuses to pit one child against another for control, because they know they are shepherding a family, not running a contest.

• A friend who tells the truth—even when it is awkward—because they know that only truth can sustain real relationship.

As that kind of person walks, they “obtain favor.” It is not a vending machine: do good, get goodies. It is more like alignment. Their oneness with YHWH’s heart positions them to notice His guidance, receive His protection, and become a channel for His kindness to others.

The Wicked Lamp: Schemes That Sow Discord

On the opposite side of the menorah, the sixth wicked lamp is “one who sows discord among brothers.” That phrase is the shadow‑side of Daʿat. It is knowledge turned against oneness.

The “man of wicked schemes” in Proverbs 12:2 is that discord‑sower before the explosion—at the planning table. Their mind runs on questions like:

“How can I get them on my side?”,

“What can I say to make them doubt each other?”,

“How can I come out on top?”

They read people well, but instead of using that insight to serve, they use it to split and control.

We see this lamp whenever someone:

• Repackages gossip as “concern” and leaves two friends suspicious of each other.

• Creates church or family factions, cultivating loyalty to themselves instead of loyalty to truth.

• Plays both sides of a conflict, telling each one what will keep the fight alive instead of seeking real peace.

  
  

On the surface, these schemes can look clever, even successful. But they carry a built‑in sentence. The same intelligence that could have built bridges instead builds walls, and the person who erected them eventually finds themselves locked inside. Proverbs summarizes it in one line: YHWH will condemn such a life.

Shevat 12: When Hidden Knowledge Ripens

Shevat is the month when hidden movement begins to decide the future harvest. By Shevat 12, we are close to the month’s end, standing at a kind of inner threshold:

What has my knowledge been doing this month?Has it been binding me to YHWH and to others—or quietly arming me for self‑protection and division?

Shevat 12 is a good day to sit with Proverbs 12:2 and ask:

• Where am I using my insight to serve unity, truth, and healing?

• Where am I using it to “work the angles”—even in small ways that plant seeds of distrust?

• Do I experience my intelligence as a gift for love, or as a weapon for survival?

The trees cannot choose what kind of sap will rise in them. We can.

Yom Kippur: At‑One‑Ment for Divided Knowledge

Your sixth feast is Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement—the day of at‑one‑ment. It is the most intense in‑between day in the biblical calendar: between guilt and cleansing, fracture and reconciliation, death and life.

On Yom Kippur, Israel was called not only to afflict their souls before YHWH, but also to make things right with one another. Wrongs against people had to be faced, confessed, and repaired. The day held out the promise that what was divided could be brought back into one.

Proverbs 12:2 sits beautifully inside that rhythm. The “good” person lives a kind of daily Yom Kippur, letting their knowledge be examined and purified. They want their thinking, planning, and speaking to move toward at‑one‑ment—with YHWH, with brothers, with their own fractured selves. The schemer, by contrast, spends their Yom Kippur energy on damage control: how to appear pious without actually dismantling the web of discord they have spun.

For us, the invitation is clear:

• To bring our schemes—large and small—into the light.

• To go back to brothers and sisters where we have sown suspicion and make concrete repair.

• To ask YHWH to cleanse our Daʿat so that our knowledge once again serves oneness, not division.

Standing in the In‑Between

Proverbs 12:2, read through Shevat 12, Day 6, the menorah lamp of Daʿat, and Yom Kippur, is a mirror for anyone who lives in the “in‑between”—which is all of us.

We stand between dust and glory, between winter and spring, between past failures and future fruit. In that space, our knowledge is always doing something. It is either knitting us into deeper oneness with YHWH and with others, or quietly drafting plans that will fracture what He is trying to heal.

Shevat 12 is a good day to pray:

“YHWH, take my knowledge and make it Daʿat.Where I have schemed, let me repent.Where I have sown discord, let me repair.Let my mind become a lamp of oneness in this in‑between,so that when Your favor comes looking,it finds a heart ready to receive and to share it.”