November 1, 2008

Today's Reading - Proverbs 1
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Following Scripture Verses

1. The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel;
2. To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding;
3. To receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity;
4. To give subtilty to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion.
5. A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels:
6. To understand a proverb, and the interpretation; the words of the wise, and their dark sayings.
7. The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
8. My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother:
9. For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck.
10. My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.
11. If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause:
12. Let us swallow them up alive as the grave; and whole, as those that go down into the pit:
13. We shall find all precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoil:
14. Cast in thy lot among us; let us all have one purse:
15. My son, walk not thou in the way with them; refrain thy foot from their path:
16. For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood.
17. Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird.
18. And they lay wait for their own blood; they lurk privily for their own lives.
19. So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; which taketh away the life of the owners thereof.
20. Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets:
21. She crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates: in the city she uttereth her words, saying,
22. How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?
23. Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you.
24. Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded;
25. But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof:
26. I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh;
27. When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you.
28. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:
29. For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD:
30. They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof.
31. Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.
32. For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.
33. But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.

Today's Pathway:
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"I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:" - Proverbs 1:26-28

Verses 26-28 carry a very fearful message for those who refuse to respond to the reproof and direction of the Lord. First of all, they teach that the end results of this rebellion are fear, destruction, and anguish. It must be noted that rejection of God's edicts is always going to result in punishment and ruin. These will produce fear and anguish. Thus, if we think that we can get away with something, we must understand that God has promised that calamity will overtake us.

However frightening this may be, it is really nothing compared to the other promises spelled out in these verses. First of all, God says that He will laugh, and then mock the rebel when tragedy strikes. Men like to think that the Lord will feel sorry for them when they mess up their lives, but that is not what this passage says. He will laugh, for He has offered them assistance in the past (verses 23-25), but they have ignored Him. Apparently they thought that they were wiser than He is and could therefore disregard His Word. When they find out how ignorant they truly were, God laughs.

Even more remarkable is the statement of verse 28 that they will call upon Him, but He will not respond. Once again, most men want to think that God is standing around in Heaven waiting for them to call for Him, and that regardless of how they have treated Him in the past He will run to their assistance. This is not the case. God never promises to hear the prayer of the unrepentant at any time, and if a man refuses to fix his relationship with the Lord He certainly has no reason to expect God to come to His rescue. We do know that the Lord is always willing to forgive the repentant heart, but that does not mean that the consequences of the sinful actions go away.

Isaiah 55:6 tells us,

"Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:".

Pastor Mark J Montgomery