Today’s readings in Proverbs 17:25-18:6 are ageless – having stood the assessment of centuries of practice – as well as particularly applicable for our day and age. “A foolish son brings grief to his father and bitterness to the one who bore him” (verse 25). This proverb has been tested since it was written, and today, it still accurately reflects the truth. Foolish people are embarrassed by their own behavior. If they can learn to “keep silent,” they are perceived to be “wise” (verse 28). Why? Because “a man of knowledge uses his words with restraint” (verse 27). However, today, it seems that everywhere we turn, we meet big-mouthed braggarts who think they “know-it-all,” and they like to inform others that they know it all, too. Most of these people cannot “use words with restraint nor or they even-tempered” (verse 27). They “delight in airing their own opinions” (cf., Proverbs 18:2). We notice the personal characteristics that often accompany such foolishness – “unfriendly; selfish; defiance of sound judgment” (cf., Proverbs 18:1); “wickedness; contempt; shame; disgrace; and strife” (verses 3-6). Such character traits are possessed in a man’s heart and reflected from his mouth (cf., Matthew 15:18). Unfortunately, as more and more people assert themselves ever more aggressively in our culture today, we notice that the noise of their ignorance grows ever louder – their behavior ever more boisterous. It’s enough to bring grief and bitterness to their parents.
Hosea 8-9 shows the consequences of repudiating God’s intervention to save Israel from its bondage to sin. Although Israel “cried out to God – ‘O our God, we acknowledge you,’” nevertheless, they “rejected what is good” (Hosea 8:3) and engaged in all sorts of evil. They “broke God’s covenant” (verse 1), and now, God says, “an enemy will pursue them for setting up kings without God’s consent; for choosing princes without God’s approval; and for making silver and gold idols for themselves” (verses 2-4). Hosea warned the people: “They have sown the wind and [will] reap the whirlwind” (verse 7). Israel would be “swallowed up – like a worthless thing among the nations” (verse 8). This prophecy about Israel has been fulfilled many times in its dispersion among all the nations of the world. Moreover, as a result of Israel’s national sin, God said that Israel would “waste away like something no one wants, return to Egypt, and be consumed” (verses 8-14). Why? Because “Israel has forgotten his Maker” (verse 14). Notice verse 13 – “The LORD is not pleased with them.” What a sad end!
Romans 8:1-17 clarifies that only a divine intervention of the Holy Spirit can remove a man from his miserable predicament. However, to escape from the poverty of our enslavement to sin, “we have an obligation” (verse 12) to recognize the precious value of God’s holy intervention and receive it (i.e., to accept His gift). Contrary to popular thought, salvation is not automatic. We cannot earn it, purchase it, or perform for it; we can only accept it as His free gift - the benefits and privileges of which include freedom “from the law of sin and death” (verse 2) and divine “adoption and inheritance” as “co-heirs with Christ” Himself (verses 15-17). This reality is what makes the gospel “good news,” but I wonder how many people today – like the Israelites in Hosea’s day – foolishly reject God’s gift and leave it on the table?
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