29 He that is slow to wrath
is of great understanding: but he that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly. 30 A
sound heart is the life of the flesh: but envy the rottenness of the bones. 31 He
that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his Maker: but he that honoureth him hath
mercy on the poor. 32 The wicked is driven away in his wickedness: but the
righteous hath hope in his death. 33 Wisdom resteth in the heart of him
that hath understanding: but that which is in the midst of fools is made known.
34 Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.
35 The king's favour is toward a wise servant: but his wrath is against
him that causeth shame. (Prov
14:29-35)
There is one verse from the text today that stands out as a timely one for our
day – the 34th verse. Yesterday, I saw posted, on a
conservative Canadian Anglican site (Anglican Samizdat), photos of the “Gay”
Pride Parade in Toronto last week. The parade was led off by a large
banner carried at the vanguard entitled, Proud Anglicans. Behind the banner
were many clerics and laity of the Anglican Church of Canada – some wearing
their collars. Following were an array of lesbians and homosexuals, naked and
with their genitals exposed openly. Posters advocating polygamy were also in
evidence. Some families of Toronto had even brought their children to see this
abomination. My question: Do you feel that, as Christians, this is of no
concern to us? Do you believe that sin is a matter simply between God and the
sinner, or does sin negatively affect us all? Did the sin of Adam not affect us
all, and in a most ruinous way? Did the apostasy of many in Israel not have a
negative effect on the innocents of the land – all of whom were carried off
into captivity in Babylon?
The leading sins of the United States and Canada have now been codified in our
National Laws as a ‘right.’ Our laws define WHO we are. How does God view
the laws of men and nations which are enacted in direct defiance of His own
sacred law? When other nations defy the principles and laws of the United
States, we often enact sanctions against those nations. If that does not work,
war most often results. What of God’s Law and Order that has been impugned by
our nations? Has He not sent devastating winds, fires, and earthquakes to
awaken us to our egregious sins? He has opened our borders to the incessant
invasion of the enemy who has destroyed our proud and tall towers. We seem to
have become vulnerable to every evil force. Why is this so? We are a nation
that ceased, long ago, to teach our children to pray according to our natural
and Constitutional right. We have vanquished God from every public place, every
public institute of learning, and every government venue. God is a Gentleman
and does not intrude where He is not welcomed. So we are left without the
protection of God on our nation. The evil that lurks in darkness has no bar
against tormenting our nation and people. How can we question God for
allowing this evil to come upon us when we have given that evil the passkey to
every one of our institutions, and expelled God? What grievance can we have
against heaven when we have expunged the name of God from our land?
29 He that is slow to wrath is of great understanding: but he
that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly. A wise and thoughtful
person realizes that he, too, is capable of error. When someone says, or does,
something that seems at first offensive, the wise person will not react out of
anger but will give deep thought to any appropriate response. He will most
often seek a peaceful means of reconciling the understanding of the offending
party to that of reason. The over-emotional man will react out of the
emotion of wrath rather than out of thoughtful self- control. He will
even boast of his folly by loudly proclaiming it believing himself to always be
right. This has come to be known as the “Red-Neck” response in the South and
even in northern states. It is akin to the exaggerated and wicked reaction of
the radical Muslim who accounts every opinion that differs from his own ‘understanding’
of Islam to be an apostasy worthy of death. In fact, at the slightest
provocation, the radical Muslim will turn, eyes inflamed by hate and malice, to
slash the throat of the one who has demonstrated the most insignificant lack of
fidelity to the allah defined by the radical. His brain is poisoned by years of
false and malicious teaching that exceeds even the militancy of the Quran. In
my discussions with Muslims in Iran during the revolution of 1979, I found the
most radical of them to possess a very rudimentary understanding of the Quran
and discovered that they would even flatly deny much that is shown to them to
be in the Quran. If you believe this to be ridiculous on the part of a believer
to reject the foundational truths and doctrines clearly stated in his book of
religion, perhaps you should re-examine the apostasy taking place in modern-day
Christendom in which ‘good’ is now called evil, and evil is called good – the
biblical definition disregarded out of hand.
30 A sound heart is the life of the flesh: but envy the
rottenness of the bones. The ancient wisdom of God once again makes
fools of the physicians and psychologists. What is a sound heart? It is a heart
that is devoted to the love that God has placed therein. When the love of
Christ occupies the whole heart, that heart will never see death. What is the
reason? We are told in Romans that nothing (life, death, angels, demons, etc.)
can separate us from Christ. Do you ask for my authority on this point?
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress,
or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is
written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep
for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through
him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor
angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor
height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from
the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans
8:35-39) Long after the Author of Life published the fact, physicians are
beginning to think God’s thoughts after Him. It is now acknowledged that hate,
greed, envy, and malice do great harm to the body but, especially, the heart –
amazing! When the heart is occupied with these unhealthy emotions, it cannot
perform its labors well. The result will be labored breathing, claudication on
the extremities, and porosis in the bones. But a joyful heart scatters the
armies of hate and erects strong walls of joy and peace.
31 He that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his Maker: but he that
honoureth him hath mercy on the poor. If I were a loving father of
a child who experienced a debilitating handicap, how do you suppose I would
react to any who treated my child in any way disrespectful or with ridicule? I
would likely lose my moral restraint in my temporary rage! To honor my
handicapped son would be to honor me. If my friends love and respect me, they
will love and respect my dear son for my sake. Do we love and respect the poor
among us based on our love of their Maker?
32 The wicked is driven away in his wickedness: but the righteous
hath hope in his death. The wicked are, indeed, driven away
in (and by) their wickedness. Their wanton wickedness feeds on itself and
further contributes to their decadence. Let them be as chaff before the
wind: and let the angel of the LORD chase them. Let their way be dark and
slippery: and let the angel of the LORD persecute them. (Psalms
35:5-6) It is a dreadful misery to be chased and persecuted by the Angel of the
Lord – the same that decreed the fate of hedonistic Sodom and Gomorrah, and
rained down fire and brimstone upon their unregenerate heads. But the righteous
have hope in eternal salvation. They close their eyes in the last sleep and
open them to the last and eternal awakening beyond the Veil of Paradise. What a
contradiction in outcomes!
33 Wisdom resteth in the heart of him that hath understanding:
but that which is in the midst of fools is made known. I pray that
I have the kind of heart that makes wisdom feel at home – so much so as to “rest
in my heart.” When the enemy disagrees do you seek to understand his point as
well as your own? When I was only a boy, I sometimes felt mistreated by either
my playmates or others. When I went to my mother with a bitter heart, hoping
she would go and shoo away my offenders, she told me, “Jerry, everyone – even
the wicked – believe that they are right in what they do and say; but there is
a room and a bed of dying for every child and adult living today awaiting
somewhere in the unknown future. Just imagine the friend that offended you
lying, at last, on his deathbed, gasping for his last breath without hope. How
do you feel about him now as he lies there?” That usually cleared my mind – and
my heart – of vengeful thoughts. Au contraire, a fool keeps no secrets, but
adds, perhaps for dramatic effect, color to the gossip he hears. The fool, by
very definition, has no wisdom and has not sought it.
34 Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any
people. Do you remember reading, perhaps as a child, of the glorious
founding of these United States by courageous and self-sacrificing men whose
faith in God was stronger than their greed and pride? Do you remember how
greatly admired were our national monuments and institutions of higher learning
– how the world looked to America as the land of blessing and not oppression of
any? Our America was, precisely as President Reagan described it, a City on a
Hill. The sunlight reflected white light from our alabaster cathedrals and
governmental buildings, and streamed brilliant colors on our Star Spangled
Banner and battle streamers of the past. I ask you to remember because that
America only exists in our memories. We have become a nation of sluggards and
greedy beggars. It is no longer appropriate to have the Eagle as our National
symbol because we have become more like bottom-dwelling clams – we consume only
that which falls down to our lazy shells.
If we are really good at our greed and slothfulness, we may even aspire
to the highest office of the land. So what has happened to the America of our
memories? It is still there hidden deep in our hearts. But it is asleep. It has
forgotten the Great Benefactor who made and sustained us as a nation foremost
among the nations of the earth. The alabaster palaces have become swamped in
the slime of the wilderness, and our institutions of higher learning are no
less than vulgar and demonic institutions of indoctrination to even greater
decadence and evil. Sin has become our signature banner to the world. It is our
great reproach and shortly, without a miraculous repentance, become our ruin
and demise. What saith the Psalm? Blessed is the nation whose God is the
LORD; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.
(Psalms 33:12) Are any naïve enough to suggest that we are a nation who yet has
the Lord to be our God? Every nation and people have an inheritance which
is derived from their closest parent. Is God still the Father to whom we
eagerly petition for guidance at all times, or have we turned to the dark lamps
of the devil’s inferno? Abortion, homosexuality, paedophilia, and murder have
become our tools of trade today. These belong to the devil, and so do we lest
we repent in sackcloth and ashes. We are guilty of sins of habit today that
would not even be mentioned in the society of our fathers.
There is a false hope that is rampant today among the luke-warm Christians that
God loves everybody, and he loves those who are born with a proclivity to sin,
and who act upon that proclivity without repentance, (murder, stealing,
abortion, and homosexuality) just as He loves the righteous. That false hope,
and one dollar, will buy you a cup of coffee in the Hell that awaits you! 35 The
king's favour is toward a wise servant: but his wrath is against him that
causeth shame. How do you suppose the king will treat, at our last
summons, the servant who has stolen and squandered the king’s wealth, murdered
his servants, brought shame and dishonor upon his kingdom, and continually
broken all of his statutes? Do you believe that he will foolishly reward evil?
Do you believe that he will treat his faithful and dedicated servants with the
same disdain he treats the wicked, or do you suppose he will reward them out of
his love for them? I am not betting man, but if I were, I would bet that
he will love the one, and cast out the other.
