Understanding Warning Signs I

Monday, September 5, 2022

If You Desert God’s Law

28 The wicked are edgy with guilt, ready to run off

    even when no one’s after them;

Honest people are relaxed and confident,

    bold as lions.

2 When the country is in chaos,

    everybody has a plan to fix it—

But it takes a leader of fundamental understanding

    to straighten things out.

3 The wicked who oppress the poor

    are like a hailstorm that beats down the harvest.

4 If you desert God’s law, you’re free to embrace depravity;

    if you love God’s law, you fight for it tooth and nail.

5 Justice makes no sense to the evil-minded;

    those who seek God know it inside and out.

-Proverbs 28:1-5 The Message

28 The wicked flee when no one pursues,

    but the righteous are bold as a lion.

2 When a land transgresses, it has many rulers,

    but with a man of understanding and knowledge,

    its stability will long continue.

3 A poor man who oppresses the poor

    is a beating rain that leaves no food.

4 Those who forsake the law praise the wicked,

    but those who keep the law strive against them.

5 Evil men do not understand justice,

    but those who seek the Lord understand it completely.

-Proverbs 28:1-5 ESV

Verse 2 study: For a government or a society to endure, wisdom is needed, and it is hard to find. Anarchy is prevailing. When a person is selfish, it quickly spreads to others. A greedy employee that steals from their company ruins their productivity. A drunk driver is making state highways dangerous. A spouse who is selfish and has an affair breaks up several families. When you don’t live for other concerns or consider their feelings, it can affect the results; it contaminates the entire nation. Are you part of the problem or solution? The unrighteousness and political instability in Israel’s northern kingdom go hand in hand, while a wise or righteous person help maintains order.

Verse 3 study: The change of Hebrew vowel produces the reading, “a ruler who oppresses the poor.” Excessive rainfall and a wicked ruler can do harm.

Verse 4 study: The law of Moses, but wisdom instruction is in view. Wisdom literature often seems to reflect more on human experience in created order than on God’s revelation in Scripture; the Hebrew sages were men of God who knew the law and its demands.

Verse 5 study: Justice is part of God’s character. A person who follows God treats others justly. The beginning phases of justice involve concern about what is happening to others. Christians can’t be indifferent to human suffering because God isn’t. We shouldn’t contribute to human suffering through selfish business practices or unfair government policies. Be sure you are more concerned for justice than the bottom line. Justice refers to God’s moral rule of the universe or the good of the order of things, which is God’s rule as the basis. Those who seek the Lord recognize faith and the purpose of life to serve God. Understanding it entirely does not imply complete knowledge of infallibility, but a renewed mind that knows things because it knows then as they are interpreted by god’s revelation in Scripture.