We should not leave it alone.
[Proverbs 29:12-21]
What would you do if a family member you loved was doing something wrong? Wouldn't you rebuke him at least once with a loving heart? But what would you do if that beloved family member didn’t listen and continued to do wrong?
The lesson I personally learned from meditating on Romans 1 is that God's leaving us alone is a terrible punishment. The reason I think so is because in Romans 1:24, 26, 28, three times the Bible says that God gave them over: (1) “Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another” (v. 24), (2) “Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones” (v. 26), (3) “Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done” (v. 28). What would happen to us if God allowed us to live according to the sinful natures of our hearts? Listen to these 3 Bible verses: (1) (Mt. 15:19) “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander,” (2) (Gal. 5:19-21) “The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. …,” (3) (2 Tim. 3:2) “People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy.” Just looking at these three Bible verses, if God allows us to live according to our sinful natures, then we will have no choice but to commit these terrible sins against God. Therefore, we should ask God not to let us live our sinful natures, but to hold on to us and keep us from sinning.
In Proverbs 29:15, the Bible says: “The rod of correction imparts wisdom, but a child left to himself disgraces his mother.” I would like to receive a lesson from this verse today by meditating on five things under the title “We should not leave it alone.”
First, we must not leave our ears to hear lies.
Look at Proverbs 29:12 – “If a ruler listens to lies, all his officials become wicked.” How would you feel if you could tell the truth from the heart and the other person would not listen to you, but rather hear the lie of the other person? Wouldn't you be very upset and frustrated? Another question is, ‘What would you do if you found out that someone you trusted was lying to you little by little? In particular, what would you do if that person didn't show you the truth, but rather told a lie as if it was the truth? Personally, I think you should stop associating with such people and stay away from them. The reason is because we can no longer trust them. Also, it is because we can also adversely affect ourselves by their lies. Of course, I personally believe that God refines our hearts even with those who lie around us. I think that God also makes us truthful by removing all falsehoods that are impurities in our hearts through them.
In Proverbs 29:12, the Bible says, “If a ruler listens to lies, all his officials become wicked.” What do you think about this Bible verse? If a country's leader hears lies, will the people under him become evil? I think it's highly likely. The reason is that when the leader of the country with power hears lies, he will act falsely, and he thinks that there is a high probability that those under him will have no choice but to participate in the leader's false action. Think about it. When the leader of the powerful country hears lies and acts falsely, the people under that leader cannot reject that power, and in the end, they themselves have no choice but to act falsely. One example is that Jezebel, wife of Ahab, the wicked king of Israel mentioned in 1 Kings 21, wanted to take Naboth's vineyard that she wanted for her husband Ahab and give it to him (v. 6). “So she wrote letters in Ahab's name, placed his seal on them, and sent them to the elders and nobles who lived in Naboth's city with him” (v. 8). At that time, what did the elders and nobles living in the city of Naboth, who received the letter from Queen Jezebel, do? Did they really do what the wicked and false Jezebel wrote, or did they reject it? In 1 Kings 21:11, it is said that they did as Jezebel instructed. It must be the evil queen and the evil elders and nobles under her. How can they tell such a blatant lie? One of the things that the wicked Jezebel gave to the elders and nobles who lived in the city of Naboth was to set up two scoundrels to give false testimony about Naboth to the people who gathered (v. 13). This wicked Queen Jezebel made a lie, and set up two scoundrels as false witnesses so that the elders and nobles who lived in the city of Naboth under her also told the lie.
We must not listen to the lies of leaders who are stronger and more powerful than us. No matter how powerful the leader may be, we must rely on the Lord who rules over us and don’t listen to the leader's lies, but only to listen to the Lord's words of truth. The reason we disobey the Lord is because we hear Satan's lies that we shouldn't listen to. We should not listen to Satan's lies at all, nor should we mix the word with Satan. But if we are already mixing it with Satan's lies in the realm of our thoughts, it is evidence that we are ignoring the voice of the Lord in disobedience, and rather obey Satan's lies. Therefore, we must listen to the Lord's words of truth, and be quick to hear them. Not only that, but we must strive to live obediently to the word of truth we have heard. So we must become truthful people who are becoming personified of the Word. Therefore, we should influence the people around us for good so that they too will obey the word of truth and become truthful people.
Second, we should not leave our children alone to go their own way.
Children's education can be a real challenge. I can't help thinking about how to raise our children the way God wants them to be. According to an Internet article I read one day, under the title ‘What is the 4th Industrial Revolution’s education for children?’, it proposes how the parents should educate and nurture their children in a world where humans and artificial intelligence are increasingly coming together (Internet). For example, despite human efforts in a certain drama, the eldest daughter of a family no longer studies hard because of her inferiority complex towards artificial intelligence that cannot be replaced. When the parent asks why her grades fell, the daughter cries and says: ‘The best is nothing. Whatever I do, AI is better. So what do I need to study?’ I read this article all the way because the title was interesting. There is a part of the article that caught my attention while I was reading it, and I would like to share it with you: ‘Maybe there is no more competition regarding the question of what more must we teach our children to be competitive? However, it is a fact that a shift in perspective is necessary because it is a generation that is more important how to look, think, and talk, not what to see, what to think, and what to learn. In the era of the 4th industrial revolution, let's remember that the real key for children to be respected as human beings is not human 'competence' but 'humanity' (Internet).
How should we educate and nurture our children? If I look at this e-mail message sent to me by a brother in Christ before, the number of international students (universities and graduate schools) in the United States in 2006 was about 60,000. This number ranks third after India and China, and it is said to be a number that far exceeds 10% of the total number of international students. But more people than us are Jews. Their home education and children's education are really special. It can be said that it is by far the best in the world. However, in Judges 2:10, we see the Israelites and their descendants who failed the child education: “All that generation also were gathered to their fathers; and there arose another generation after them who did not know the LORD, nor yet the work which He had done for Israel.” This was the spiritual state of the people of Israel after the conquest of Canaan was over and before the judges began to rule. Clearly, in Deuteronomy 6:7, God said to the Israelites, “Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.” So the Israelites must have been diligently teaching their children all these things, such as the Red Sea incident, the manna, and the victory in the battle of Jericho, and so on. Then why didn’t they know God? What could be the cause? The cause lies in not obeying God's word (Judg. 2:2). They disobeyed with fear (since there was an iron chariot), seeing the environment, and compromising with injustice. Because they disobeyed God's command and didn’t drive out the Gentiles completely, they eventually became a thorn in the side of the Israelites and a snare.
It is often said that children learn by looking at the back of their parents. It means that we learn by doing our best in everything we do without lies and taking the initiative and setting an example. But more important than this is to show a life of obedience to God's word while meditating on it. As parents, are we showing our children a life of obedience to God's word?
The Bible Proverbs 29:15 says this: “The rod of correction imparts wisdom, but a child left to himself disgraces his mother.” From this verse, we are taught that we should not leaven our children to go their own way when it comes to their education. In other words, we should not be bystanders in raising our children. To that extent, we think that we should enter into our children's lives and actively intervene to educate our children. But we must not interfere too much to dominate and control their lives. It's not easy to draw that line. God's wisdom is desperately needed as to where to draw the boundary line, which is not to be a parent who is too controlling and a parent who is too neglectful of their children. I remember one day my wife said that I'm a little neglecting and she's a little controlling in raising our children. So, from a certain point of view, my wife and I need each other in order to complement each other's shortcomings in raising the three children God has given us as gifts of grace.
The Bible Proverbs 29:15 says that if we let our children do their own thing in raising them, they will dishonor their mother. That’s why whip and rebuke is necessary in educating our children. Although in this United States we live in, if a father disciplines his child with a rod as a punishment for love, the father can be arrested if the child sues his father. However, I believe that discipline is necessary in raising children, as Proverb says. The Bible Proverbs 13:24, which we have already meditated on, says this: “He who withholds his rod hates his son, But he who loves him disciplines him diligently.” The Bible says that when parents spare the rod to their children, it is hating their children. The Bible says that if we truly love our children, we must faithfully discipline them. Do we really love our children in the eyes of God? I think we need ask ourselves again and again. The Bible Proverbs 23:13 says, “Do not hold back discipline from the child, Although you strike him with the rod, he will not die.” Perhaps no parent will discipline a child with a rod in the hope that the child will die when he disciplines his beloved child. No matter how angry the father may be over his child, he will not beat him to death. But, on the other hand, what would happen to a child if his father not only refused to discipline him at all, but hesitated to even discipline him? As our children continue to be crooked, eventually they will be wrong too, but wouldn't that end up dishonoring us, the parents? So Proverbs 29:17 says this: “Discipline your son, and he will give you peace; he will bring delight to your soul.” I think it is one of two things: whether parents are reviled because they let their children do what they want, or whether they are happy and at peace because they discipline their children. When we should discipline our children, we should discipline them with love. This is not so that we may not be reviled and obtain peace and joy, but that our children may grow well in the sight of God. Of course, in raising children, as Pastor Tripp said, ‘conversation and a rod’ are all necessary. Think about it. What if there was only a stick in raising children? We should try to talk with our children. We all know the importance of talking to our children. However, there are times when things are no longer just words. Then we have to lift the rod of love. Look at Proverbs 29:19, 21: “A servant cannot be corrected by mere words; though he understands, he will not respond. … If a man pampers his servant from youth, he will bring grief in the end.” Of course, this verse is talking about the servants at the time of the writer of Proverbs. But when we apply this verse to raising children, we must first not raise our children unconditionally and nicely. Then our children will be spoiled. Second, when our children have something to fix, we as parents should try to talk to them. We should not unconditionally discipline our children with the rod. But if our children know what they need to correct but don’t intentionally and continue to do wrong, then we should discipline them with love. I think this applies to us too. When we continue to disobey our Heavenly Father even though we know we should obey Him, and if we persist in disobedience even though Heavenly Father speaks through the Bible again and again, then shouldn’t our Heavenly Father discipline us with the rod of love? Look at Hebrews 12:6, 10b: “because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son. … but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness.” Although our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best, God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness (v. 10). Therefore, Heavenly Father's discipline is a blessing. This is because we not only confess and repent of our sins through the discipline of God the Father, but also realize the love of God for us more deeply and more greatly. A good example of this is David. David did evil in the sight of God because he committed a sin against Bathsheba, and eventually killed her husband Uriah to cover up his sin. One of those disciplines, when he fled from his son Absalom to the wilderness of Judah, he confessed: “Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you” (Ps. 63:3).
We can't just leave our children alone and let them go their own way. It is an act that causes our children to dishonor us. Even if we rebuke our children and discipline them with the rod of love, we must educate them so that they may gain wisdom (Prov. 29:15). I hope and pray that Heavenly Father will raise our children as wise children of God.
Third, we should not leave the wicked to multiply.
Do you think there are many wicked people in this world? If you think so, do you think there will be more poor wicked people or more rich wicked people? I think there are a lot of wicked people in this world, especially rich wicked people. I am talking about the the rich people who deceive in two ways (28:6). These rich people only pretend to walk on a good way while walking in an evil way (Park). Then, what is the evil way for the rich who walks in these two ways? As Proverbs 28:3 says, one of the evil ways of the rich who walks in two ways is to oppress the poor. For a more specific example, James 2:6 says: “But you have insulted the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court?” The rich people who walk in two ways not only despise them in oppressing the poor, but also torment them, and cause harm by even taking them to court. Can’t you imagine? On the outside, the rich people seem to do good deeds in front of people. But on the inside when nobody sees them, they oppress the poor (skillfully). In this way, the rich people who deceive in two ways are accumulating wealth because of inconsistent actions in front of people and behind them. They seem to be doing well in terms of financially. So the suffering poor and righteous people can even think that it is vain to keep their hearts pure and not sin because the wicked rich people “always carefree, they increase in wealth” (Ps. 73:12-13). But we must not forget that the rich wicked people who deceive in two ways are accumulating their own evil while accumulating their wealth. And the Bible says that such rich people will suddenly fall (28:18). There will come a time when they will surely fall (Park). Look at Proverbs 10:16 – “… but the income of the wicked brings them punishment.” The wicked people seem to sin more as their income increases. Therefore, I think that increasing wealth for the wicked people is a curse, not a material blessing.
Look at Proverbs 29:16 – “When the wicked thrive, so does sin, but the righteous will see their downfall.” What does it mean? The more the wicked people, there is the greater the number of sins. Especially if those wicked people who are increasing are those who have power and authority in the world, then those under them will also become evil (v. 12), so the number of wicked will increase even more. As a result, the number of sins committed by the increasing number of wicked people will inevitably increase. For example, in a communist country such as North Korea, when the dictator with the highest power commits a sin, all those under that dictator will also become evil, and will also commit sins at the dictator's command. The problem is that the more the wicked people increase, their sins will increase. Then the righteous people who are justified by believing in Jesus will suffer more. The righteous people will suffer because as they live among the wicked people day after day, their righteous souls will be tormented by the lawless deeds they see and hear. A good example is righteous Lot, who lived in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot, who lived in the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, suffered greatly because of the immoral conduct of wicked and lawless people (2 Peter 2:6-8). At that time, what did God do to the wicked people and the righteous Lot living in Sodom and Gomorrah? Look at 2 Peter 2:7, 9, 10a: “and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men … if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment, while continuing their punishment. This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the sinful nature and despise authority. ….” God judges and punishes the wicked, and rescues the righteous.
Isn't this the work of a just God? Did He not only judge the wicked living in Sodom and Gomorrah, but also the ungodly people in the days of Noah through the flood? (2 Peter 2:5) But God, who is gracious and merciful, rescued righteous Lot from the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Even in Noah's flood, all of them were destroyed by the flood, but Noah and his seven family members were saved by God (v. 5). Even at the time of the Exodus, God judged and destroyed the Egyptian soldiers who were chasing the Israelites in the Red Sea, and rescued the Israelites from their hands (Exod. 15). Therefore, we must live in this world with this assurance of salvation and the belief that a just God will surely judge the wicked. As the number of wicked people and sins increase, we must not just staring at the increase in sins and leave them alone. What should we do? As Romans 12:21 says, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Also, we must strive to do good in this sinful world, knowing that God has created us anew in Jesus Christ for good works (Eph. 2:10). In the same way, we must let our light shine before people, that they may see our good deeds and praise our Father in heaven (Mt. 5:16). And above all, we must do our best to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with them and lead them to Jesus.
Fourth, we should not leave people to become chaotic.
I am you know that in any organization order matters. The reason is because if the organizational order is broken, chaos will come. But when order is maintained, there is peace and harmony in the organization. Consider, for example, the order in the home. If a husband, wife, or children in a family are faithfully fulfilling their roles by obeying God's word, then the right order will be established in that family and they will enjoy peace. However, if each person doesn’t fulfill his or her biblical responsibility/duties in the home and breaks the order, there can be no peace in the family due to strife and discord. For a biblical example, when Sarah, the wife, disobeyed her husband Abraham, and made him lied with her maidservant Hagar the Egyptian (Gen. 16:1-4), there was no peace because of the family strife. Hagar despised her master Sarah because she was pregnant with Ishmael, and Sarah mistreated Hagar (v. 6).
Our God is a God of order. But the problem is that we are disorderly. An elder wrote an article in the Internet newspaper “Christian Today” under the title ‘God of order, disorderly people’ so I read it. Among the contents of the article, the elder who wrote the article said, ‘Man has broken the order of creation because of his covetous desire to become God himself by doubting Him. Then he asked the question: ‘Aren't you changing the order of creation created by God into a new order only because of my will and my own sweet greed?’ (Internet) How would you answer this question? ‘Only my will’ and ‘because of my own sweet greed’, are we breaking down the new order that God has established in our homes and the Church, and changing it into a worldly order? For example, the order created by God is not 'infinite competition', and it isn’t God's order that forces the weak to compete fiercely for their own greed. Aren’t we pursuing this unrighteous human order even in the church?
Look at Proverbs 29:18 – “Where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained, But happy is he who keeps the law.” What does it mean? In the absence of God's revelation, people cast off restraint and act disorderly. Look at Exodus 32:25 – “Moses saw that the people were running wild and that Aaron had let them get out of control and so become a laughingstock to their enemies.” At the time of the Exodus, the Israelites were out of control. “When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron,” and told Aaron to make them gods who would go before them (v. 1). And in the end, they made a golden calf and worshiped it (v. 8). In Moses' view, the Israelites were out of control. It was because Aaron had had let them get out of control and and so become a laughingstock to their enemies (v. 25). Truly, they were corrupt people (v. 7) and sinners against God, who had been quick to turn away from what God commanded them (v. 8). Also, they were a stiff-necked people in the sight of God (v. 9). Aren't we Christians now just like the people of Israel at the time of the Exodus out of control? Not only the people of Israel at the time of the Exodus, but also the people of Israel at the time of the prophet Ezekiel were out of control in the sight of God. The Bible Ezekiel 16:30 refers to their conduct as “the actions of a bold-faced harlot.” In other words, the people of Israel believed in the splendor that God had bestowed on them, and played the harlot because of their fame (vv. 14-15). They made for themselves high places of various colors and played the harlot on them (v. 16). They made idols and played harlot with the material blessings God had given them (v. 17). Moreover, they took their children whom they had borne to God and sacrificed them to idols to be devoured (v. 20). Yet they regarded their harlot as a small matter (v. 17). They played the harlot with the Assyrians because they still weren’t satisfied. They also multiplied their harlotry with the land of merchants, Chaldea, yet even with this they weren’t satisfied (vv. 28-29). This is “the actions of a bold-faced harlot” in the sight of God (v. 30). Their hearts were so weak that the people of Israel committed the bold-faced harlot. Aren't we now committing the same sin against God like the Israelites at the time of Ezekiel's prophet?
Then why does the Bible say that we are out of control? In Proverbs 29:18, the Bible says that the reason is because there is no vision or no revelation from God. In other words, the reason why we break God’s law and go against His will and go our own way is because the lack of His word (Ref.: 1 Sam. 3:1) and the lack of hearing His word (Exod. 32:25, Lev. 13:45, Num. 5:18) (MacArthur). Actually, we are facing a famine (drought) in which we cannot hear the word of God according to the prophecy of Amos 8:11. The sermons are pouring out like a flood through the Internet or the media, but now we cannot hear them even though we have ears. As a result, we don’t know God's will and precepts, so we do it our own way and do our own will.
What should we do? Look at the second half of Proverbs 29:18: “… but blessed is he who keeps the law.” We must keep the law. We must obey the word of God. In order to do this, we must open our hearts and listen diligently to His word. We must also seek the illumination and enlightenment of the Holy Spirit. We need to pray that the Holy Spirit will help us understand the word of God and teach us lessons. And when there is enlightenment, we must obey it. We must keep the word of God. Then there will be order in us, in the home and in the church. We will not be out of control. Rather, as we obey God's word, we will receive and enjoy the blessings God gives us.
Fifth and last, we should not leave ourselves to speak hastily without thinking.
What if we are impatient? It is easy for us to make mistakes. But the problem is that after making a mistake because we are impatient, we should not be impatient again and should be careful. But there are many times when we cannot do so. When I look back on myself, I have a temper and a quick side. I also have a lot of impatience in doing the Lord's work and tend to think too impatiently. And if I think hastily, I will inevitably make many mistakes in my words and actions. A greater danger than this is that I can ruin God's work. How can I ruin God’s work? It is by going ahead of God. The impatience in my heart keeps me from getting ahead of God's will and not waiting for His will. Not only that, my impatience in my heart makes me think of wrong plans and methods, sinning against God and make to go through painful consequences. In the end, when I look at myself and think about why I am impatient, I think the cause is a proud heart (v. 8). The proud heart has no patience. Rather, there is impatience in the proud heart. That is why I impatiently go ahead of the Lord not only in my word and deed but also in the realm of my thought.
A good biblical example is Sarah, Abraham's wife in Genesis. She didn’t believe and doubted the word of God, “So shall your offspring be” (Rom. 4:18; Gen. 15:5), the promise God gave to her husband Abraham. What made her doubtful was that she believed in her clearly visible reality more than her invisible future. Here the reality shown is that her womb was dead (and her husband Abraham’s body was good as dead) (Rom. 4:19) and the invisible future, according to God's promise, was that their descendants would become as numerous as the stars in the sky in God's time. So Sarah could not endure in faith until Abraham was 100 years old, 25 years after the word of the promise he received from God when he was 75 years old, but 10 years later (Gen 16:3) she made Abraham to sleep with her maidservant Hagar. As a result, when Abraham was 86 years old, Ishmael was born (v. 16). Sarah didn’t persevere in her faith. She couldn't wait. She was hasty. So, she tried to fulfill God's promises on her own. So I wrote to myself, ‘Let's beware of impatience in my heart’: ‘I should believe that God's will is done in God's time and God's way. I should not make the wrong choice hastily because my mind is impatient with worry due to unexpected difficult situations. I should beware of impatience in my heart, and should pray in faith and wait in anticipation. Surely God's good, pleasing, and perfect will be fulfilled. God's way, not my means, and not my way, and in God's time ….’
Look at Proverbs 29:20 – “Do you see a man who is hasty in his words? There is more hope for a fool than for him.” What do you think of a person who speaks hastily without thinking? Have you ever been in a hurry to speak? In particular, have you ever regretted speaking hastily to the other person without much thought? This reminds me the Bible Proverbs 10:19 – “When there are many words, transgression is unavoidable, But he who restrains his lips is wise.” One day (July 2013), I meditated on 11 things about ‘A foolish woman who destroys her house’ focusing on the words of Proverbs chapter 14. When I reflect on that meditation in connection with today's text again, I have come to this conclusion: ‘A fool who destroys his own family is quick-tempered (Prov. 14:17, 29), arrogant (v. 16), and has no knowledge on his lips (v. 7), while speaking a harsh word (15:1) and mocks at sin (14:9).’ Don’t we have this foolishness? Dr. Yoon-sun Park said that a person who is hasty in words is also hasty in other actions as well. And there are many misfortunes that those mistakes bring, and he mentioned four things: (1) He will be ashamed (18:13), (2) He will become poor (21:5), (3) He will exalt folly (14:29), and (4) He will sin (19:2). He who is impatient with word has no hope because it will bring these results (29:20).
We should not be impatient (Prov. 29:20; 2 Tim. 3:4), but we should be panting (Ps. 42:1). Look at Psalms 42:1 – “As the deer pants for the water brooks, So my soul pants for You, O God.” Rather than becoming discouraged and anxious because we think that God’s answer of our prayers seems slow, we should put our hope in God (vv. 5, 11), longing for God's unchanging love (v. 8) and continue to pray to God. We must pray (v. 8). As we pant for God (vv. 1, 2) we must seek Him who is our rock (v. 9).