Good morning son,
Since a child I have hated alarm
clocks, but I couldn't do without them. So I don't use them unless I
am terrified that if I don't set one, I won't get up and I have to
meet an unmovable deadline. So what do I do? I trust the Lord to
wake me up when He wants me up. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of
the night. And since it is the Lord waking me up, I am wide awake
and can not sleep until I spend time with him. And how does He wake
me up? When I go to bed exhausted
He allows me to have a nightmare of a dream. It is almost
like He is saying,” I am downstairs waiting for you. You want my
peace? Come, let's talk then.”
What is a nightmare to a minister?
This morning I woke up to one. I was at the funeral of a great
minister of God. My father was sitting in the pulpit and I was
putting on my robe. You know the one with the doctoral bars (makes
me feel Oh so much more important and smart . . . key word there is
“feel” not necessarily a fact, LOL). I stepped into the pulpit
to realize that I was the one slated to give the sermon! But I was
not prepared! I knew what I was to preach on (a sermon that God has
been trying to get me to complete), but I couldn't even find the
passage. Then horror of all horrors, I forgot the name of the
deceased! I had no word! A preacher with no Word from God.
Here is what God had to say to me this
morning, what leaped off the pages:
Proverbs 28:14 “Blessed is
the man who always fears the Lord, but he who hardens his heart falls
into trouble.”
Proverbs 28:26 “He who trusts
in himself is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom is kept safe.”
Psalm 28:5 “Since they show no
regard for the works of the Lord and what his hands have done, he
will tear them down and never build them up again.”
Psalm 28:7 “The Lord is my
strength and my shield; My heart trusts in him, and I am helped.
My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song.”
Look at the emboldened words above. Do
you see a theme? I do. Safety and Trust.
All of us want safety. As men we want
to have peace in our kingdom, in our home. We want the dog to like
us, the wife to love us, and our children to adore us. We want no
trouble in the kingdom – no trouble in our own little piece of
land, within our own castle. We want to be blessed – receiving the
unmerited favor of God – at all times. We want our Lord to take
notice of the good stuff we do and forgive us for the bad. Indeed we
do not want to fall into trouble (Proverbs 28:14), and we would NEVER
want God to be working to tear us down (Proverbs 28:5)!
Just as I look for themes in what God
has leaped off the pages to help gain an understanding of what He is
saying to me, I also look at the opposites of the consequences noted.
So If “he who hardens his heart falls into trouble” what
happens to him who does not harden his heart? If he who shows
“no regard for the works of the Lord and what his hands have done”
the Lord will “tear down and never build them up again” what
happens to the one who has regard for the works of the Lord and what
his hands have done? Let's tackle the last question first.
Although it is tempting to rush through
a passage and not struggle to gain an understanding, it is EXTREMELY
important that we try to understand what we are reading. That we
take the time to think and look for real life examples. (PLEASE do
this as you read!) Now hang in there with me. We are about to go on
a little ride to for a while to get an understanding.
“No regard for the works of the Lord
and what his hands have done . . .” What exactly does that mean?
What does that look like? Oftentimes when we are stumped on
something we can get a clue from looking at other verses around it.
In this case take a look at the verse immediately before this one.
“Repay them according to their
work, and according to the evil of their deeds; repay them
according to the work of their hands; render them their due
reward.”
Do you see the parallels? The wicked
do “their work.” Contrasted to the works of the wicked is the
“works of the Lord.” The wicked have the “work of their hands”
and the Lord has “what his hands have done.” The writer tells us
that wicked people do their own wicked works. God, on the other
hand, does His work.
Okay, at this point you are probably
thinking, “well Daaah, what would you expect?” But it is not
just that they are doing their own thing, but that they are NOT doing
God's thing. And this is important. Keep pressing forward looking
for parallels. In vs 4 the wicked DOES works of evil. In vs 5 they
do not REGARD the works of the Lord. In addition, we must look at
how these verses are linked together. Verse 5 is built upon vs 4,
starting out with - “Because . . .” This tells us there is a
relationship between the two. Thus the DOING of wicked acts, your
own thing, is directly related to REGARDING the works of the Lord.
Could you see where perhaps the Psalmist is telling us that not
doing God's work, not walking in His path or the work of His hands,
is not regarding His works? I think so.
Okay I know that this is a little
difficult this early in the morning, but hang with me just a little
bit longer. Pleeeeaaasssseeee . . . We are almost there. Let's
test my understanding.
Whenever you struggle to obtain a
meaning of passage and then come up with what you think is the
meaning, then at that point you need to plug in your understanding to
make sure it makes sense in the context of the rest of the passage .
. . If not regarding the works of the Lord means not doing the works
of the Lord, then does it make sense that “he will break them down
and build them up no more.” Think about it. If you are not doing
the works of God, but your own thing, are you not slowly (or at a
great speed) tearing yourself down? Yes. And how can a holy God
build upon unholy and wicked works? He can not. We in effect, by
choosing to go our way vs His tear ourselves down and give God
nothing to work with in building us up, in giving us victory and
success.
Whew! That was tedious and took some
time and some work! Thanks for hanging in there with me. You
receive a “gold star” for your efforts (LOL).
So back to the original question: If
he who shows “no regard for the works of the Lord and what his
hands have done” the Lord will “tear down and never build them up
again” what happens to the one who has regard for the works of the
Lord and what his hands have done?
Plug in what we now know – if not
doing the works of the Lord is NOT having regard for His work,and
doing the work of the Lord, being obedient to Him is to have regard –
we could say – If we are obedient to the Lord and do His works He
will build us up and never tear us down. In effect, we have given
God what to work with in our lives. What the passage means: Do what
He says do and be built up.
And the other question: So If “he
who hardens his heart falls into trouble” what happens to him who
does not harden his heart? Well here it is not just a matter of not
hardening your heart that makes the difference. In the first part of
the verse we see that it is fearing God that is required. See we can
not say, we are open to Him, our hearts are soft and receiving of his
word without our fearing Him. We must be willing to obey Him. And
as to what happens when we obey - “Blessed is the man . . .” It
is not simply not falling into trouble that is the opposite, but in
fearing God we do not simply not fall into trouble we are blessed in
and through and above it!
Getting tired? Me too. So let's see
if we can't bring it on home.
Safety and Trust. We talked about
Safety, so let's talk about the trust theme.
God intends for us to trust him. Do you
see it? Its all through these passages. Okay, I was hoping you
would say yes not just because I said so, but because you actually
did see it (LOL). But I really did not give you much time. But
don't worry . . . we are on the home stretch. Let's look quickly.
Proverbs 28:14 “Blessed is
the man who always fears the Lord, but he who hardens his
heart falls into trouble.”
- Fearing God requires trusting in Him.
Proverbs 28:26 “He who trusts
in himself is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom is kept
safe.”
- Not trusting in yourself, and to walk in wisdom, requires your trusting in God and His word.
Psalm 28:5 “Since they show no
regard for the works of the Lord and what his hands have done,
he will tear them down and never
build them up again.”
- Having regards for the works of the Lord or doing His work requires trusting Him, relying upon Him.
Psalm 28:7 “The Lord is my
strength and my shield; My heart trusts in him, and I
am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to
him in song.”
- For the Lord to be your strength and shield you must trust him.
SO what is God saying today? Let's
walk through the passages, now with understanding to hear His voice.
Trust in the Lord, fear Him, be
obedient to Him and be blessed, and secure from falling into trouble.
Trust in the Lord and walk in His wisdom (know His word) don't rely
on my own and be safe. Do what His Word says, be obedient to the path
He has put before me and be built up by Him and never torn down.
Trust in the Lord to be strengthening me to do what I need to do
today, believe in His word to protect me. Dance for joy and sing
songs of thanksgiving to Him.
Got it?
There were a lot of techniques on how
to exegete (big seminary word for finding the meaning of a text) a
passage today. Use them in your own examination of the word. They
work. It is a nightmare and a half not know what God is saying on a
matter. A nightmare we do not have to experience.
Love yah,
dad
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