21 An inheritance may be
gotten hastily at the beginning; but the end thereof shall not be blessed. 22 Say
not thou, I will recompense evil; but wait on the LORD, and he shall save thee.
23 Divers weights are an abomination unto the LORD; and a false balance is
not good. 24 Man's goings are of the LORD; how can a man then understand
his own way? 25 It is a snare to the man who devoureth that which is holy,
and after vows to make enquiry. 26 A wise king scattereth the wicked, and
bringeth the wheel over them. 27 The spirit of man is the candle of the
LORD, searching all the inward parts of the belly. 28 Mercy and truth
preserve the king: and his throne is upholden by mercy. 29 The glory of
young men is their strength: and the beauty of old men is the gray head. 30 The
blueness of a wound cleanseth away evil: so do stripes the inward parts of the
belly.
(Prov 20:21-30)
The wisdom contained in the example Jesus gave of the Prodigal Son is so full
that its application keeps appearing throughout other writings of God’s Word. “21 An
inheritance may be gotten hastily at the beginning; but the end thereof shall
not be blessed.” The Prodigal Son desired his inheritance long before
it was due. “A certain man had two sons: And
the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods
that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. And not many days
after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far
country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. And when he had
spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want.
(Luke 15:11-14) It turned out to be a curse to him for several reasons, two of
which were: 1) he asked for his inheritance before it was proper for him to
receive it according to law; 2) he asked for his inheritance out of an immature
desire to spend it on the wrong things. To receive any good thing out of season
will never profit. We pray our prayers as if God were a waiter standing by for
our order. We expect prompt answers. When God does not grant our petitions
according to our time table, we are dismayed and disappointed. But God has a
perfect timing for all things, and He will often withhold our prayer requests
until the very perfect moment to grant them. “His ways are not OUR ways.”
While it is true that every good Christian disciple must oppose wickedness at
every turn and stanch the flow of the evil fountain, such active opposition
must not deter us from the focus on righteousness and doing good in obedience
to God. The fight itself must not become an obsession that shuts out the “still,
small Voice of God.” “22 Say not thou, I will recompense evil;
but wait on the LORD, and he shall save thee.” When the battle
against evil becomes an obsession, our warfare becomes as unGodly as that of
the enemy. Love for enemy is not a submission to him, but an act of restraint
of action tempered by a strong desire to redeem him to the righteous cause. The
Lord will always conclude the matter with righteousness, and He will always be
there beside you to protect and defend. “Vengeance is mine saith the Lord.”
He acts out of perfect righteousness while our actions are often tinged with
emotion and wrong motives.
“23 Divers weights are an abomination unto the LORD; and a false
balance is not good.” See how God teaches us as little children, or
as a loving mother the child whose mind must be taught with frequent repetition
of purpose and meaning! God has made this point more than once throughout
Scripture, and He reinforces the same principle three times in this very chapter
of Proverbs. (see also verses 10 and 14). God repeats Himself to drive a
serious point home. Unlike my mother who used to say, “Jerry, don’t make me
repeat myself. Do as I asked you now!” God does repeat Himself for our own
edification and learning. Governments that adopt dishonest monetary policies in
wholesale printing of banknotes are prime examples in our day of the ruin that
is fostered by breaking this principle. Skimming money from another’s bank
account, or claiming false charges on an income tax return are ‘divers and
false weights.’ Failing to reveal a hidden deficiency in a home or automobile
we are selling is the same. Gods hates this behavior.
“24 Man's goings are of the LORD; how can a man then understand
his own way?” The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord;
however, man must take those steps in obedience to God. Do not question and
query every commandment of God – simply obey. You may have fished all night
with no success, but when the Lord orders you to cast your net just a few feet
away from the previous casting “on the other
side” what amazing results that obedience will garner. A young
military recruit is trained vigorously to obey orders immediately and without
question. This is designed to instill a discipline of obedience that comes from
higher command that truly does know the situation on the battle field far
better than the common soldier whose vision is reduced to a few yards in his
front. When we walk by faith and truth, we shall never go into the ditch with the
blind.
Augustine (author of Confessions & City of God) was born to a
devout Christian mother and pagan father in North Africa. Early in life, he
abandoned the faith of his mother and went off into ‘riotous living.’ He played
with harlots and by eighteen years of age was keeping a mistress. Having become
a teacher of rhetoric in Carthage, Tome, and later Milan, Augustine had lived
his life ‘his own way.’ But something was amiss, and Augustine knew it. He
began to search for truth. He listened intently to the preaching of Ambrose
and, later his mother came to Milan and prayed for him. Having forsaken the
riotous living, Augustine was converted to Christ while reading Paul’s Epistle
to the Romans. – in the solitude and beauty of a garden place in Milan. Later,
a well-liked prostitute of his acquaintance saw Augustine on the streets of
Milan. She called to him, but he would not answer her. Finally, she shouted, “Augustine!
It is I!” Augustine responded, “Yes, I know, but it is no longer I.” When we
march to the crispy notes of Christ, we march not unto ourselves, but unto God.
“A deal is a deal,” was a governing principle in the mountains of Tennessee
when I was a boy. Once struck, there would be no further challenge to the
terms. “25 It is a snare to the man who devoureth that which is
holy, and after vows to make enquiry.” Do we order a filet-mignon
at a restaurant and then claimed that it was not properly cooked after we have
eaten every crumb? Turning away from the God you once knew brings far greater
terror than to have never known God at all. “For if after they have
escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the
latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for
them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known
it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. But it is happened
unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit
again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire. (2
Peter 2:20-22)
Surely, we remember the old movies of the Roman chariots rushing through the
streets scattering the pedestrians and running over some of them. Sounds
terrible, doesn’t it? But that is exactly what the King of Kings will do to the
wicked. “26 A wise king scattereth the wicked, and bringeth the
wheel over them.” The wicked are without names in Hell because they
have no prospect for future service. Only those whose names are found in the
Lamb’s Book of Life shall have a name, and a name well worth mentioning.
God made our spirits. It is the same spirit which He breathed into our souls at
conception. Good or bad, that spirit does not belong to man, but to God. It is
He who decides how long that spirit will guide and motivate our bodies. It
reveals all things about us to the eye of God – even our innermost being. “27 The
spirit of man is the candle of the LORD, searching all the inward parts of the
belly.” No idea of man, no secretly held thought, no plan of his
heart – is hidden from the All-Seeing Eye of God. God uses that spirit to
search out our hearts and minds. It is like a GPS chip that informs God, not
only of WHERE we are, but WHAT we are. That revealing candle can become a
blessing to us if it burns for Christ. If we are the light of the world, we are
the REFLECTED Light of the World which is Christ! “Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an
hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel,
but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let
your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify
your Father which is in heaven.” (Matt
5:14-16)
“28 Mercy and truth preserve the king: and his throne is upholden
by mercy.” We must cherish these two valuable assets of MERCY and
TRUTH! If these two preserve kings, how much more his subjects! It is not LAW
that upholds the throne of God, but MERCY. Law is a means of determining
obedience and righteousness; but none are righteous apart from the healing
sacrifice of a merciful Lord. It is His mercy and sacrifice that enables us to be
forgiven and restored to our Lord and Savior. And all is accomplished through
the knowledge of the truth – “the truth shall make you free!”
A young man, strong in his ways and eager in life, may take many missteps, but
is able to jump up and begin anew. He is strong in body and strong in spirit.
Many errors may lie in his way, but he always, because of his youth, has
opportunity to overcome these in faith and practice. But the old man has lived
long and made many mistakes. If he has learned from those mistakes, as did
Augustine, he will be wise and righteous before the Lord. It is the Lord and
His wisdom that we have followed after forsaking our own. It is His righteousness
that we claim and not our own. The gray head will have come to know Christ if
he has not gone through life with his eyes closed. “29 The glory
of young men is their strength: and the beauty of old men is the gray head.”
Wisdom is beautiful!
When we are struck on our bodies, a blue bruise appears. It is a mechanism of
the body to bring blood and healing to the site of hurt. 30 The
blueness of a wound cleanseth away evil: so do stripes the inward parts of the
belly.” Eventually, the blood will carry the damaged tissue
away and cleanse the wound of any damage. When we behave in ways that are not
pleasing to God, we are chastised with many stripes. Though the stripes wound
the outer body, the inner man is healed and restored to his place in God. Hard
trials and challenges strengthen the inner man. Even when all around is in
ruins, the inner man, devoted to God, can be an edifice of strength and hope to
others. Though the devil may be able to destroy the body, he cannot touch the
soul.
