The man who always fear the Lord
[Proverbs 28:8-14]
The Bible says “Blessed are all who fear the Lord” (Ps. 128:1). As we continue to meditate on the words of Proverbs, we have meditated on the fear of God many times. To that extent, the Book of the Proverbs consistently and repeatedly says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (1:7). As we reexam those repetitive words that we have already meditated on, I would like to review two things here:
First, I want to review some of what it means to fear God. “The fear of the Lord is a state of mind in which one’s own attitudes, will, feelings, deeds, and goals are exchanged for God’s (MacArthur). Therefore, those who fear God are Lord-centered and not self-centered at all. Those who fear God never seek their will, only the will of the Lord. He embraces the heart of the Lord, imitates the Lord's thoughts, the Lord's feelings, the Lord's attitude and will, and the Lord's actions, and lives a life that only fulfills the Lord's will. Therefore, Dr. Yoon-sun Park said five things about how a person who fears God lives a life of faith: (1) He fears God in order not to commit sins while doing ordinary things. (2) He lives reverently in secret, being awaken and praying. (3) He doesn’t commit a sin in his heart. (4) He is afraid and careful that he would not leave the Lord in time of peace. (5) In times of difficult, he doesn’t rush to avoid it and keep his loyalty.
Then, I would like to review some of the life of a God-fearing man as spoken in the Bible: (1) We have already learned three lessons about God-fearing young people, based on Proverbs 1:8-19: (a) The young people who fear God obey their parents’ words (v. 8). (b) The young people who fear God don’t consent if sinners entice them (v. 10). (c) The young people who fear God don’t walk in the way with the wicked (v. 15). (2) We have already learned two lessons about the citizen of a country who fears God, based on the words of Proverbs 24:21-26: (a) The citizen who fears God fears his president (v. 21a). (b) The citizen who fears God doesn’t join with the rebellious (v. 21b). (3) I have been taught three things about what those who fear God should do, based on the words of Ecclesiastes 5:1-7: (a) Those who fear God obey God's Word (v. 1). (b) Those who fear God pray to God immediately (v. 2). (c) Those who fear God fulfill their vows that they made to God (v. 4). (4) I have been taught four things about what God-fearing people do, based on Psalms 34:8-14: (a) Those who fear God take refuge in the Lord (v. 8). (b) Those who fear God lack nothing (vv. 9-10). (c) Those who fear God will see good (v. 12). (d) Those who fear God depart from evil and do good (v. 14). (5) I have been taught three things about the blessings of those who fear God, based on the words of Psalms 128: (a) God blesses the industry of those who fear Him (v. 2). (b) God blesses the families of those who fear Him (v. 3). (c) God blesses the church, a group of those who fear Him (v. 5).
If we look at Proverbs 28:14, the Bible says “Blessed is the man who always fears the LORD, but he who hardens his heart falls into trouble.” Looking at this word, the Bible says that “Blessed is the man who always fears the Lord”. Who is the one who fears the Lord the Bible speaks of here? In order to answer this question, we should look at verse 13: “He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.” Looking at this word, the Bible says that those who fear the Lord are those who confess their sins and renounce them. Those who fear Him do this because they hate evil (8:13). Therefore, those who fear God confess their sins immediately when the Holy Spirit convicts them of their sins against the holy God. And they renounce their sins they acknowledged. Dr. Yoon-sun Park said: ‘The word 'to confess' means 'to acknowledge'. And renouncing their sins is the fruit of repentance. Repentance without fruit is useless. But renouncing sins doesn’t take place until the point of hating sin’ (Park). Those who fear God hate sin. Therefore, they not only acknowledge and confess their sins, but also renounce them by repentance. They do this because they know that “He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy” (28:13).
But our nature is to hide our sins. That's why we deny when our sin is caught, rather than admit it immediately. The reason why we are denying our sins is because we hardened our hearts that much (v. 14). When we harden our hearts in this way, we don’t listen to God's word (Exod. 7:13). And unless we stubbornly listen to the Word of God, then our conscience cannot be pierced by the sword of the Holy Spirit, His word. As a result, we cannot confess (acknowledge) our sins. Therefore, we neither repent nor can we repent of our sins. After all, the harden heart is a heart that doesn’t repent (Rom. 2:5). Then, when someone comes up with evidence of our sins, only then we acknowledge and confess our sins. The reason is because we can no longer conceal our sins and deny them any more. Yet, our hearts may be hardened, and we may not know our shame and have no sign of repentance for our sins with a brazen face. And we can even accept the consequences of our sins by not caring at all. That is why in the second half of Proverbs 28:14 the Bible says, “… but he who hardens his heart falls into trouble.”
Then, what kind of sin will a blessed man who fears the Lord confesses, repents, and forsakes? What kind of sin should we confess, repent and forsake? I would like to receive a lesson by meditating five things, focusing on the words of Proverbs 28:8-14.
First, those who always fear the Lord confess, repent and forsake the sin of not being merciful to the poor. That means that those who fear the Lord have mercy on the poor.
What do you think of when you think of “interest”? When I say “interest”, there are two things that come to mind. The first thing that comes to my mind is that when I was in college, the country gave me a loan, and the interest on that loan was cheaper compared to the interest on the money loaned by the bank. I remember that at that time, the interest of the bank loan was about 8% or 10% while the interest of the loan by the country was 4%. And it seems that the loaned money was paid off once every three months instead of every month six months after I graduated. So, the money that the country loaned to me was of great help. Another thing that reminds me of “interest” is that I and my wife has been using a bank for a long time, and I remember how much I deposited into a savings account before. But it didn't really help us because the interest was very small. The interest was so low that no matter how long we keep the money in the savings account, there is not much profit.
Look at Proverbs 28:8 – “He who increases his wealth by exorbitant interest amasses it for another, who will be kind to the poor.” This word speaks about a man who increases his wealth by exorbitant interest or expensive interest. If we look at this from a modern man's point of view, we might ask what is wrong with increasing one's wealth by receiving a high interest rate. In fact, these days, when we borrow money from a bank to buy a house, the interest rate is 4.0% for a 30-year loan and 3.625% for a 15-year loan (Internet). Mostly people want to get a 15-year mortgage loan with a low mortgage interest rate. But the amount paid each month is a burden on the size. So it seems they change to a 30-year loan. Internet news tells us that after the US presidential election, the US mortgage interest rate has skyrocketed. It is said to have increased by about 0.5 percentage points, which means that if you buy a $400,000 home on a mortgage loan, your interest burden will increase by about $700 per year (Internet). After all, the banks give their customers mortgage loans, so don't they increase their income by receiving interest? No one will ever say that it is wrong. However, in Proverbs 28:8, the Bible has a negative meaning for acquiring high interest to increase one's wealth. It seems that in that Old Testament time, something was wrong with receiving high interest in the Jewish people's point of view. In fact, at that time, Israeli society wasn’t allowed to receive interest after lending money to fellow poor Jews (Park). Look at Exodus 22:25 – “If you lend money to one of my people among you who is needy, do not be like a moneylender; charge him no interest.” Look at Deuteronomy 22:19-20: “They shall fine him a hundred shekels of silver and give them to the girl's father, because this man has given an Israelite virgin a bad name. She shall continue to be his wife; he must not divorce her as long as he lives. If, however, the charge is true and no proof of the girl's virginity can be found.” Looking at these words, the Bible says that even though the Israelites at the time of the Exodus can receive interest from foreigners, if they lend money to the poor among their own people, they must not receive interest. Then God promised that if they entered the land of Canaan and occupied it, He would bless all things. Interestingly, according to the Hammurabi's Code, an ancient Babylonian code promulgated by King Hammurabi, who ruled Babylon between 1792 and 1750 B.C., there is ample evidence that if the Israelites lent money to foreigners, they earned interest as high as 20% ( IVP Background Commentary). And at that time, it was said that for the Israelites, one method of building up other people's wealth through the money loan business was inappropriate. The reason for this is because lending money at that time was aimed at helping a difficult person economically among the same people, but not using that person's financial strength (note IVP Background).
So why did God give the Israelites this command? Why did God tell them not to accept interest after lending money to the poor of their own people? The reason is because God loves the poor and has mercy on them (Prov. 28:8). Look at Psalms 72:13 – “He will take pity on the weak and the needy and save the needy from death.” God, who has mercy on the poor and the needy, made a promise to the Israelites in Proverbs 19:17 – “He who is kind to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will reward him for what he has done.” In addition, the Bible says that those who is kind to the needy honor God, but those who oppress the poor shows contempt for their Maker (14:31). What the Bible teaches us in Proverbs 28:8 is that he who increases his wealth amasses it for another, who will be kind to the poor. In other words, the Israelites who violate God's command and increase their wealth by receiving high interest from their own people are punished by God and eventually will return their increased wealth to the Canaanites whom God loves and has mercy. A similar word of this is found in the second half of Proverbs 13:22 - “… but a sinner's wealth is stored up for the righteous.” Also, look at Job 27:16-17: “Though he heaps up silver like dust and clothes like piles of clay, what he lays up the righteous will wear, and the innocent will divide his silver.” Look at Ecclesiastes 2:26 – “To the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.” In the end, even though the wicked get their wealth in an unrighteous way, God gives the wicked's wealth to the righteous.
What are the lessons we need to learn here? There are many lessons. For example, we Christians should not increase our wealth in an unrighteous way, even as we violate God's word. Even if we increase our wealth in that way, what we must keep in mind is that in the end, God makes the wealth we collect in an unrighteous way return to the poor. Along with these lessons, the lesson we must learn is that Christians who always fear God should confess and repent of their sins if they didn’t show mercy to the poor. As God-fearing ones, we should also have mercy of the poor people on whom God has mercy.
Second, those who always fear the Lord don’t listen to God's word and confess and repent of their abominable prayer to God. That means that those who fear God pray to God while listening to God.
Are you receiving answers to your prayers from God? Have you ever thought that God's answered of your prayer was slow? Pastor Iain M. Duguid is telling us that the slower our prayers are answered, the more Satan will come to us from time to time and continue to offer a suggestion. And the suggestion is a ‘deceptive shortcut. At that time, we must choose one of the two: (1) Whether we receive answers to prayer in God's time by continually to pray and expect and wait for God with faith, or (2) Rather than praying and waiting for what you want from God, you can choose the shortcut Satan shows and get it quickly. But if we choose the second path, it is said that the consequences of that choice could be painful not only for us, but also for our descendants, beyond our imagination. Pastor Duguid's counsel is that the more the answer to our prayer is slow, the stronger God will build our faith. And when we receive answer to our prayer, we will see God's hand (presence) more and more clearly (Duguid). Pastor Martin Lloyd-Jones in his book “From Fear to Faith” said: ‘If God had heard our prayers all at once and the way we wanted to, we would have become very poor Christians. Fortunately, however, God sometimes delays answers to deal with egoism and so on, which should not be in our lives’ (Lloyd-Jones). Don't you think this makes sense? Wouldn't we have become very poor Christians if God would answer our prayers as we want at once? If the slowness in answering prayers is to deal with our selfishness, shouldn't we be grateful to God for delaying answering our prayers?
Look at Proverbs 28:9 – “If anyone turns a deaf ear to the law, even his prayers are detestable.” Looking at this word, the Bible says that in God's sight, a detestable prayer is a prayer we offer to God without turning our ears and listening to His law (His word). Here, Dr. Park said that the meaning of turning a deaf ear when God speaks is disobedience with the psychology of treason, and it isn’t a temporary mistake, but a deliberate sin (Park). If a rebellious adolescent child turns his back on his father and deliberately refuses to listen to his father despite his father speaking, but ask his father for help when he needs it, what would you do if you are that father? At that time, if we accept the request of a child who is rebellious and turns his deaf ears to us, is it really for him or is it for us to help him? I don't think it's for our children, but for ourselves. Of course, we may think and say that we are doing it for our children. But in reality it does not help to raise our children to be obedient children, but rather to help him to become more and more disobedient child who turns his deaf ears to his father. In the Bible, Zechariah 7:11-12, it is said that the Israelites turned their backs because they didn’t like to hear the word of God: “But they refused to pay attention; stubbornly they turned their backs and stopped up their ears. They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the LORD Almighty had sent by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. So the LORD Almighty was very angry.” The Israelites didn’t like to hear the word of God. So they turned their backs, closed their ears, and made their hearts as flint. Therefore, God was angry with them and told the Israelites: “When I called, they did not listen; so when they called, I would not listen, …” (v. 13). And God scattered the Israelites who turned their backs against God's word all over the world to live in foreign lands. Since then, the land where they used to live had been desolate so that no one could come and go. God made their pleasant land desolate (v. 14).
The Israelites turned their backs to God and not their faces. Even though God taught them again and again, they didn’t listen to God and didn’t respond to discipline (Jere. 32:33). And when they are in need or in need they cried out to God. How can God hear their abominable prayers and answer them? That is why God show them His back and not His face to the Israelites who didn’t listen to His words and turned their faces (18:17), and didn’t listen to them (Zec. 7:13). Furthermore, God commanded the prophet Jeremiah not to pray for the Israelites who offer such abominable prayers. Look at Jeremiah 7:16 – “So do not pray for this people nor offer any plea or petition for them; do not plead with me, for I will not listen to you.” Also, look at Jeremiah 11:14 – “Do not pray for this people nor offer any plea or petition for them, because I will not listen when they call to me in the time of their distress.”
Based on James 2:26 “… faith without deeds is dead”, we learned that faith without works is dead faith. If we say this in opposite way, ‘faith with works is living faith.’ When I think of this living faith, I think that even our prayer without deeds is dead. In other words, our prayers must also have works. Only then I think that prayer is a living prayer. To put this thought more specifically, it means that living prayer also includes our responsibility. I think the idea that if we pray unconditionally, God must answer our prayer is a twisted thought that is out of balance. When it comes to prayer, our responsibility is to say the right prayer to God. For example, if we pray to God and say, “Lord, Lord,” but don’t obey His word, then the Lord will says: “Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say?” (Lk. 6:26) Jesus' teaching is that we should not say “Lord, Lord” in words, but do the will of His Father who is in heaven (Mt. 7:21).
The prayer that God hears is a prayer that we offer while listening to His word and obeying it. But if we disobey His word and cherish sin in our hearts, the the Lord will not listen to our prayers (Ps. 66:18). Therefore, we who always fear God hate evil and confess and repent our sin. We repent before God by acknowledging our sin of detestable prayer offered to God without listening to and obeying His word. And we turn from sin, listen to God's word, and obey it. May we all become those who fear God.
Third, those who always fear the Lord confess, repent and throw away their unfaithfulness. That means that those who fear God are upright and blameless.
There is a book title that I cannot forget when I think about “integrity”. The title of the book is “The Integrity Crisis” written by Pastor Warren W. Wiersbe. What is “integrity”? According to the Oxford English Dictionary, this word comes from the Latin word “integritas”, meaning ‘complete’, ‘whole’ and ‘perfect’. The root is “integr”, meaning ‘complete’, ‘undamaged’, and ‘as it is’ (Internet). In that book, the author says that the people with integrity have nothing to hide and nothing to fear. He says that their lives are like an open book (Internet). It is that they live a transparent life. But hypocritical people hide, wrap and decorate the things that are inside them. In other words, they deceive others and tell lies. In particular, the hypocritical people, even when they come to church to cover up their sins, pretend to be holy, worship and pray, praise, serve, and love and so on. People who are hypocritical aren’t transparent. In his book "Victory in the Wilderness," John Bevere said: ‘You will become more transparent after you have been tested and refined. The transparent vessel doesn’t represent its own glory, but what is contained within’ (Bevere). I think it makes sense. We need to be transparent even through trials, tests and refinement. The reason is because our hypocritical appearances must be purified and restored to our honest appearance even through the refinement. I personally think that our beliefs or the churches aren’t pure. That means that we are contaminated with impure things in the world. Hypocrisy is the symptom of our faith and church losing our purity. Our outside and inside are different. Life in and outside the church is inconsistent. We are so conscious of people that we are pretending to look like people who believe in Jesus. The church tries to look like a real church by putting too thick cover even though it isn’t real church. So the smell of rotten still vibrates. The church tries to spray the perfume to cover up the rotten smell, but it only smells rarer. It seems that we cannot hide this rotten smell. So our neighbors hate us. They hate our smell. They hat our hypocrisy. And they even criticize and loathe us. Nevertheless, we, the church, try to appear holy before them. These are sins that can no longer be hidden.
We aren’t honest with God and the people of the world. The church faced the integrity crisis. The church must be transparent. In order to do si, we must first put down all of our shells and packaging in front of God. We should no longer be in hurry in trying to hide with cover up and packaging. By relying on the blood of Jesus Christ on the cross, we must repent our sins. We must turn around and be honest and truthful before God and people. In the midst of that, the church must be transparent and reveal the glory of Jesus who dwells within us in this dark world. The church must show the world how sinners are living by the grace of God. We must show the world how sinners are being saved by believing in Jesus by God's grace and resembling the character of Jesus. Even in the smell of rotting, we must reveal the aroma of Jesus stronger into this world so that the world will see the glory of Jesus and glorify God. In order for the church to become transparent, we must be trained through suffering that God allows. God allows us to suffer in order to make us to come out like pure gold. These afflictions we face are the fierce fire that separates the valuable things from the worthless things. The church must throw away the worthless things through suffering and choose the things that are valuable. And for those valuable things, the church must exist. By no means should the church be glorified for the worthless things. The reason is because the church must reveal the glory of the Lord. The purpose of the church is to show the glory of the Lord as the head of the church. In order to do so, we must be purified while passing through the wilderness, just like the Israelites. The church must restore its purity and transparency. Therefore, Jesus, who dwells among us, shines light on this dark world.
Look at Proverbs 28:10 – “He who leads the upright along an evil path will fall into his own trap, but the blameless will receive a good inheritance.” Here, we can see that the Proverbs writer is contrasting the two: “He who leads the upright along an evil path” and “the blameless”.
First of all, what kind of person is the one who leads the upright along an evil path that the Proverbs writer is referring to? Many times as I watched Korean news, I saw the news that kidnappers lured young children into kidnapping. How would they lure young children? Obviously, they would have aroused the interest of young children and made them fall for it. To give an easy example, it's easy for me to lure my dog, Luna. All I have to do is to feed her with her food. Then, no matter how much Luna is with her favorite person in my house, she follows me.
In Genesis 3, there is a scene where the craftiest of wild animals (v. 1) lures a woman. How did the serpent lure her to make her to violate the command of God and commit sin by eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil? I thought about three things:
(1) The serpent tried to make the woman question God's word.
The serpent asked the woman: “Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?" (v. 1) Didn't the serpent know that God said to Adam, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden” (2:16)? I think Satan already knew that word of God. What the serpent intended here was not “any tree in the garden” of Eden, but rather “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (v. 17).
(2) The serpent lied to the woman.
When asked by the serpent, the woman said to the serpent: “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die'" (3:2-3). Although God said to Adam, “you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (2:17), he didn’t say “you must not touch it” as the woman answered the serpent (3:3). Then what did the serpent say to the woman? Look at Genesis 3:4-5: “’You will not surely die,’ the serpent said to the woman. ‘For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’” This was a lie. Obviously, God told Adam “for when you eat of it you will surely die” (2:17). But the serpent lied to the woman, saying, “You will not surely die” (3:4).
(3) The serpent not only stimulated the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the boasting pride of life, and eventually made her to disobey the command of God and commit the sin of eating the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but also made her husband Adam to commit the same sin through her.
Look at Genesis 3:6 – “When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.” Whenever I think of this word, I think of 1 John 2:16 – “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.” Satan enticed the woman with these three things – “the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life” – and made her look at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and made her to commit sin of eating the fruit from that tree by making her that the fruit was good for food, pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom. And Satan also made her sin against God because she gave her husband Adam the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and he ate it too. If we look at Judges 14 and 16, we see the story of Samson. When I read the story, I see Samson being enticed by women twice.
(a) First, as Samson's first wife, Samson went down to Timnah, saw there a young Philistine woman (v. 1), and liked her (v. 3). So he asked his parents to “get her for me as my wife” (vv. 2, 3). So Samson's father went down to Timnah to see the woman, where Samson a feast there and told his 30 companions a riddel (vv. 10-12). But the 30 friends couldn't solve Samson's riddle, so on the fourth day he told Samson's wife: “Coax your husband into explaining the riddle for us, or we will burn you and your father's household to death. Did you invite us here to rob us?” (v. 15) Therefore, the Samson's wife cried the whole seven days of the feast and continued to press Samson. Samson couldn't stand it, and on the seventh day, he finally told her the answer to the riddle (v. 17).
(b) Second, Samson's third woman, a woman named Delilah (16:4), received 1,100 silver coins each from the rulers of the five Philistines to find out how they could overpower Samson so that they could tie him up and subdue him (v. 5). So Delilah told Samson, “Tell me the secret of your great strength and how you can be tied up and subdued” (v. 6) and Samson lied to her three times: (1) “If anyone ties me with seven fresh thongs that have not been dried, I'll become as weak as any other man” (v. 7), (2) “If anyone ties me securely with new ropes that have never been used, I'll become as weak as any other man” (v. 11), (3) “Until now, you have been making a fool of me and lying to me. Tell me how you can be tied” (v. 13). After Samson lied three times, Delilah said to Samson, “How can you say, 'I love you,' when you won't confide in me? This is the third time you have made a fool of me and haven't told me the secret of your great strength” (v. 15). “With such nagging she prodded him day after day until he was tired to death” (v. 16). “So he told her everything. ‘No razor has ever been used on my head,’ he said, ‘because I have been a Nazirite set apart to God since birth. If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would become as weak as any other man’” (v. 17).
When I meditated on these words, I thought a little bit more about how Samson fell into Delilah’s temptation: (1) First of all, Samson didn’t know who was behind Delilah. He didn’t know that the five rulers of the Philistines bribed Delilah to find out the secret of Samson’s great strength and how how they could overpower him so that they might tie him up and subdue him. (2) And as Samson lied to Delilah three times and went to the third lie and talked about his hair, more and more we could see that Samson was getting closer to his hair which was the source of his great strengthen. (3) Then when I see that Samson was tired to death due to Delilah’s nagging day after day, I remember Potiphar’s wife seduced Joseph day after day. Although Joseph didn’t listen to her and refused to go to bed with her or even be with her (Gen. 39:10), Samson not only told Delilah everything, but also slept on her lap (Judg. 16:17, 19). Isn’t this ‘Please eat me’ when he slept on her lap after telling her that if his head were shaved then her strengthen would leave him? Satan enticed the first woman of mankind and her husband, Adam, to sin against God. Also, Satan used the woman to seduce the Nazirite, Judge Samson, to sin against God. Even now, Satan lures us, the Christians, who have been justified by believing in Jesus and makes us to sin against God. In particular, Satan lures us to sin against God by stimulating the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life.
Then, what kind of person is “the blameless” that the Proverbs writer is talking about in the second half of Proverbs 28:10? The blameless person is the upright person. Such a person has “the honest lips”, speaks “the truth” (16:13) and his ways are upright (Mic. 2:7). The reason why the upright man speaks honesty with his honest lips and act honestly is because he loves righteous just as “the Lord is righteous” and He loves justice (Ps. 11:7). A good example is the man named Job in the book of Job. He was “blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil (Job 1:1, 8). Therefore, even though he lost 10 children and lost his wealth, he not only “fell to the ground in worship” (v. 20), but also didn’t “sin by charging God with wrongdoing” (v. 22). This upright man, the man of integrity, the blameless “will receive a good inheritance” (Prov. 28:10). What are the blessings of the man of integrity? The upright Job's blessings can be thought of in two ways: (1) First, in Job's later years, God blessed Job more than he had in the beginning, giving him 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 donkeys (Job 42:12). In addition, God gave Job the blessing of children and gave him 7 sons and 3 daughters as gifts (v. 13). The Bible says, “Nowhere in all the land were there found women as beautiful as Job's daughters” (v. 15). (2) But I think this is the word that Job received more blessing from God than this blessing: “My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you” (v. 5). Job experienced God's presence in his life, whom he heard only with his ears. I think that this spiritual blessing that Job received from God is a greater blessing than the blessing of his children and the wealth that he received. However, in Proverbs 28:10, I think the blessing that the upright (the blameless) man receives from God is ‘the blessing of being deliverance.’ The reason I think so is because the Bible Proverbs 28:10a says, “He who leads the upright along an evil path will fall into his own trap ....” What does it mean? The wicked man creates a trap to lure the righteous to the evil path. But in the end, the wicked man himself falls into the trap he has made. Look at these verses: (26:27) “If a man digs a pit, he will fall into it …,” “Whoever digs a pit may fall into it …” (Eccle. 10:8). How is this possible? How can the wicked fall into the trap created by the wicked to entice the upright? The reason is because God blesses the upright and rescues him from the traps created by the wicked. This is the blessing of deliverance.
Those who always fear God are upright and blameless. On his lips he speaks of righteousness, and all his actions are also upright. We who believe in Jesus must be upright and blameless. But Satan continues to entice us to the wicked path. And Satan puts traps in our path. The reason is because Satan makes us sin against God. Satan wants us to be unfaithful to God, to make us disobey to His word, and eventually to act unrighteousness. If we fall into this satanic inducement operation and is unfaithful to God, we must confess and repent the sin of our unfaithfulness. And we must act with integrity and honesty. The reason is because he who always fear God are upright and blameless.
Fourth, those who always fear the Lord confess, repent, and throw away the sin of being wise in their own eyes. That means that those who fear God will thoroughly examine themselves.
Why do some rich people consider themselves wise? I looked for the answer in the first half of Deuteronomy 8:17-18a: “You may say to yourself, ‘My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me. But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth ….” That is, because the rich who consider themselves wise think that they have acquired wealth through their own strength and abilities. If we say this in opposite way, they are wise in their own eyes because they have forgotten that God has given them the ability to produce wealth. The Bible Proverbs 26:12 says about the rich who consider themselves wise in this way: “Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.” The Bible says that there is hope for a fool rather than a man wise in his own eyes. It means that he who considers himself wise has no more hope than the fool. That’s why Proverbs 3:7 says, “Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD and shun evil.” If we rely on our own understanding, eventually we will be wise in our own eyes. Particularly, if the rich manage their work by relying on their own understanding and the work they were managing goes well, they may be mistaken that the work is well done because they are wise. The rich, who rely on their understanding in this way, consider themselves wise. And the reason why they consider themselves wise in this way is evil in the sight of God, and the reason why they cannot leave that evil is because they don’t fear God. In other words, the rich who consider themselves wise don’t fear God.
If we all don’t fear God, we have no choice but to commit the sin of regarding ourselves as wise. Therefore, we must learn to fear God. How is this possible? Look at Deuteronomy 17:19 – “It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the LORD his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees.” In order for us to learn to fear God, we must put the Bible near us and reads it all the days of our lives. Not only that, we must obey the words we read and keep them. Then God will teach us to fear Him. And we will not consider ourselves wise. Also, we will not consider ourselves better than our brothers and sisters in Christ. Because we fear God, we will not put our heart on high, but rather low, so we will humbly serve the Lord and our neighbors.
Look at Proverbs 28:11 – “A rich man may be wise in his own eyes, but a poor man who has discernment sees through him.” The lesson this word teaches us is that rather than being rich who consider themselves wise, we must become discreet poor who take a close look at ourselves. What this word teaches us is that a discerning man takes a thorough examination of himself. One of the great graces of God in my life is to allow God's word to reflect on myself, that is, self-reflecting and self-examination. In particular, I seem to have been influenced by the words of James 2:23-24: “Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.” The grace I received through this word was that I should cultivate the habit of using God's word as my spiritual mirror and reflecting my inner person on His word. Also, the influence I received was from a survey by pastor and sociologist Tony Campolo to elderly people over 90 years old. When I look at the content of the survey, Pastor Tony Campolo asked the elders, 'What would you do harder if you were born again?' I was challenged by the fact that one of the top 3 answers was “self-reflection”.
We must thoroughly examine ourselves in the light of God's word. And the point we must strive for is to diligently teach ourselves by His word. Look at Romans 2:21a – “you, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? …” The reason the apostle Paul gave this word to the saints of the Roman church is that he didn’t want the Jews saints to be like the Pharisees who didn’t teach themselves by the word of God, but rather they lived in disobedience to His word and liked to teach others. Had they not listened to Paul's counsel and, like the Pharisees, liked to teach others, but not themselves, the Jewish saints in the Roman church would have regarded themselves wisely before the Gentile saints, and were proud before them.
We must not be proud. We shouldn't even consider ourselves wise. It’s very dangerous to believe in ourselves that we are wise. The reason is because we will not be taught by the word of God nor can we do so. Anyone who always fears God will realize his sin, confess, and repent his sin of being wise in his own eyes. And he humbles himself and examines himself thoroughly. May we all become the wise Christians.
Fifth and last, those who always fear the Lord confess and repent and forsake the sin of rejoicing when the wicked rise to power. That means that those who fear God rejoice when the righteous triumph.
Pastor Lloyd Jones said in his book “Life in the Spirit” about parents who abuse power: ‘Parents who abuse power force young children to have their own personality and ignore the character of young children. Parents of that kind demand and expect everything from their children. It is mainly called possessive’ (Jones). I think a child who grows up under the parent who abuses the power to control their child with this possessive desire is also psychologically conditioned. In a way, I think that the child grows up with a mental disability. After all, the child who grows up with an unhealthy mind is more likely to not be able to play an adult role well even later in adulthood. So, my personal opinion is that the parents should be very wary of abuse of that authority in raising their children with the divine authority given by God. They must respect their child's personality and be careful about forcing the child. They should not demand their child with too much expectation. I think this is the same for the church as well as the home. Even in the church, if the pastor abuses his power, he will surely sin against God. Not only that, but the pastor who abuses power will inevitably cause the members of the church to suffer. Then the congregation will have no choice but to avoid the pastor and go further to leave the pastor. In particular, the associate pastors will do more. How can they work with the senior pastor who ignores their personality and is forcing them to work by asking for everything from them? They will not last long. So what about a country? What will happen to the country when the wicked take power? What do we need to see far, look at North Korea. The dictator abuses power and does whatever he wants to. How much suffering must the citizens of that country suffer? What joy and pleasure can the citizens of that country live with?
Look at Proverbs 28:12 – “When the righteous triumph, there is great elation; but when the wicked rise to power, men go into hiding.” Here the Proverbs writer contrasts the righteous with the wicked. First, the meaning of the word about the righteous is that the righteous are happy because God uses the righteous. And the reason is because God gives great grace and blessing to the righteous (Park). In particular, when God makes the leaders of a nation the righteous and allows them to rule the nation, the citizens are bound to rejoice because there is order and justice in that nation (Walvoord).
What is the joy of being justified by believing in Jesus by God's grace? Isn't it the fact that God is using us? God is not only giving us great grace to help us at time of need, but also giving us great blessings to us who are used by God. Isn’t this our joy? I remember the lyric verse 1 of the Korean hymn “My Life Flows Rich in Love and Grace”: “My life flows rich in love and grace By Christ in mercy offer'd, Who anguish bore, and took my place, When on the cross He suffer'd. His precious blood He Shed to free, From sin and all its stinging, Death destin'd sinners such as we! How can I keep form sing-ing?” Our joy is the Lord. When we are used by the Lord, we cannot but rejoice. How can we not be happy when the Lord uses us and gives us the grace we needed at the time of our need? Look at Proverbs 11:10a – “When the righteous prosper, the city rejoices; ….” However, when the wicked arise, that is, when the wicked rise to power, people will go into hiding (28:12, 28). The reason is because the wicked who hold power are arrogant and oppress the people (Park). So Proverbs 29:2 says, “When the righteous thrive, the people rejoice; when the wicked rule, the people groan.” In fact, how much the people of countries like North Korea and Syria are lamenting where the wicked take power now?
Therefore, we must pray for the leaders of our country. We must pray that God will raise up the righteous as leaders in our country. Then the citizens will be able to rejoice. I think the same goes for home and church. When the Lord raises the family heads and church leaders as righteous people, the family and church members will be able to rejoice because there is order and justice in that family and that church. Look at Proverbs 14:34 – “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people.” I hope and pray that the Lord will raise up the righteous as leaders of our country so that our country will be glorified. I hope and pray that the citizens will never be ashamed because they become leaders who sin.
The Bible says that “Blessed is the man who always fears the LORD …” (Prov. 28:14). The Christians who always fear God are those who confess and forsake their sins (v. 13). We have meditated on 5 sins that those who always fear God confess, repent and forsake, based on Proverbs 28:8-14: (1) Those who always fear the Lord confess, repent and forsake the sin of not being merciful to the poor (v. 8). That means that those who fear the Lord have mercy on the poor. (2) Those who always fear the Lord don’t listen to God's word and confess and repent of their abominable prayer to God (v. 9). That means that those who fear God pray to God while listening to God. (3) Those who always fear the Lord confess, repent and throw away their unfaithfulness (v. 10). That means that those who fear God are upright and blameless. (4) Those who always fear the Lord confess, repent, and throw away the sin of being wise in their own eyes (v. 11). That means that those who fear God will thoroughly examine themselves. (5) Those who always fear the Lord confess and repent and forsake the sin of rejoicing when the wicked rise to power (v. 12). That means that those who fear God rejoice when the righteous triumph. May we all be raised up as Christians who always fear God.