A VIRTUOUS WOMAN

Proverbs 12:4
A virtuous woman is a crown to her husband:
But she that maketh ashamed is as rottenness in his bones.

Let us for a moment return to the beautiful institution of marriage as God taught it to the ancients. Let us for an instant travel back to a time free from the modern pollutions of humanism, of feminism, and of atheism. Yes there was a time free from the modern curse of atheism. People did not always obey God, but they at least were intelligent enough to know He existed, and they even knew what He basically stood for.

In ancient Israel, a would-be bride was promised to her husband through a transaction sealed with a glass of wine with her parents. Wine is the Bible representation of blood; it is called the ‘blood of grapes’. This transaction was therefore sealed in blood. The would-be groom also redeemed his future bride from her parents’ house with a substantial dowry. This betrothal was a union legally as binding as the marriage itself. After this betrothal agreement, the future husband went to ‘prepare a place’ for he and his future wife to live in. He spent a year building a house for them. This was also a time of ‘preparation’ for the future bride. She was meant to learn everything possible about her future husband so she could be a wife he could be proud of. She knew that as she moved in with him, she would not anymore be a representative of her father’s house, but she was expected to become the reflection of her new husband. She was to reflect his desires, his hopes, his beliefs and his expectations. When people would see her, she would bear his name and her lifestyle was a perfect picture of her husband’s ideology, philosophy and faith. In ancient Israel, and even today, the Jewish idea of marriage was messianic: the husband was representation of the Messiah, and his wife represented the assembly of His people that he was coming to marry out of this world soon.

Two thousand years ago a betrothal transaction was signed in the blood of the Messiah. His shed blood and suffering was the dowry, the redemptive price presented to redeem us from the one who keeps us prisoner in this world. Even now our beloved betrothed, the Messiah, has gone ‘to prepare a place for us’. We are therefore in a time of preparation. We are now meant to learn everything about our future husband. We are to learn His Torah and His ways. We are to learn to become a ‘virtuous wife’, a crown of joy to Him as He is assured that our only joy is please Him, our only desire is to do things His ways. Because of our perfect reflection of His ways, when people see us, they are supposed to see Him.

There is a wedding banquet coming soon. At that time our marriage with the Messiah will be consumed. Will we have learned to live according to His expectation? Will He look at us as the crown of joy on His head because we have left everything to become the reflection of His heart? Will He know that as the moon reflects the light of the sun, we are able to reflect Him to the world, shining with His life, His ways, and His Instructions written in the Book?

Something to think about.

ONLY GOD'S APPOINTMENT BRING GOD'S ESTABLISHMENT

Proverbs 12:3
A man shall not be established by wickedness:
But the root of the righteous shall not be moved.

The ‘wicked’, he who does not look to God’s teachings for the establishment of his creed but to his own imagination, live in constant insecurity. He follows every wind of doctrine, of teachings, and as the Athenians in the Aeropagus, he is always waiting to hear a new thing. And when there is no new thing that suits his fancy, he creates one. He becomes a self-appointed teacher and starts teaching his new doctrine as if he had been appointed by God to do so. The result is spiritual anarchy; spiritual confusion of doctrines and teachings, and no one can agree on a spiritual consensus.

Did God leave us in the dark and at the mercy of presumptuous people?

From the time God gave His Instruction to the people at Mt Horeb, God has not changed. The fullness of the believer’s creed from beginning to end, even of the messianic era, was included in the writings of the Torah. No true teacher from God has ever uttered a thing in contradiction to the words spoken to Moses at Mt Horeb. Throughout history, the prophets of God reiterated and concurred their doctrine. Jesus reminded it to the Pharisees who had strayed from it into their own form of religious traditions, and Paul shepherded the Church according to its principles.

God even says of himself: I am God; I change not.

The Torah left many unanswered issues which in the old days, were supposed to be addressed and established, not by self-anointed individuals who told people what to do, but by peer-review and the general consensus of leaders chosen according to God’s appointment through the voice of the people (Acts 7). Doing so ensured the purity of the doctrine and brought down God’s establishment.

Everyone can speculate, but only God can establish.

Through the statement of our wise King today, we have the assurance that no false doctrine, no erroneous teaching ever stands secure before God. Only the root (the prophet Isaiah coined Jesus as the ‘root’ of Jesse) of the righteous is not moved.

Let us make sure not to be blown by every wind of doctrine and teacher. Let us personally be responsible for what we believe and practice because when we appear before His throne, we will be individually held accountable for what we believe.

Thus, let us be established.

. . . WHEN GAMES ARE OVER . . .

Proverbs 12:2
A good man obtaineth favour of the LORD:
But a man of wicked devices will He condemn.

Literal translation: the man of wicked devices, He declares wrong.

Yahweh loves to teach us through contrasts. In this statement, the ‘good man’ is contrasted with the ‘man of wicked devices’, and the ‘favour of the Lord’ is contrasted with one whom ‘He condemns’, ‘declares wrong’.

In Exodus and Leviticus, we learn that before we approach God, our sin needs to be atoned through the death of an innocent soul. This concept is confirmed in the Gospels that teach us that Jesus was that innocent soul through which we approach God. This teaches us that none of us are good; that none in this world is good enough to incur God’s favour, but that though Jesus we have it.

In the end, when the books are opened, when truth is revealed, when games are over, we will look around us and see who truly was ‘good’, who truly had Jesus in them because we will hear the words of favour God will impart to them; in the end, when games are over.

It will also be declared at that time who was the hypocrite; who pretended; who had a form of godliness while denying the power thereof. We will see who did the motions of obedience; whose lips worshipped Him while their hearts was far away from Him. In the end, when games are over, all will be declared because we will also see who He declares wrong.

The apostle admonished us with, it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. Hebrews 9:27-28.

It is not on our deathbed that we need to take stock of our life; it is too late then. We may not even have a deathbed; we may die suddenly without even having the time to think about it. It is now that we need to get prepared.

It is now that we need to look at our life and compare it with the life He would have us live according to the commandments He gave us in His beloved Toratic Instructions.

It is now that we need to ask ourselves if we truly live in obedience to His Words or if we follow the easy road of the traditions and interpretations of man.

It is now that we need to take a look at our personal creed and see how we may have rationalized His words to fit our own comfort.

It is now that we need to ask ourselves the hard questions: Have I changed the image of God from what He is to what I want Him to be? Is my love for Him only in lip worship, or is it from a heart that dictates every motion of my body and of my mind? What if I lived with my spouse that same way I live with God, how would he/she feel?

DO YOU LOVE LIFE’S TESTS?

Proverbs 12:1
Whoso loveth instruction loveth knowledge:
But he that hateth reproof is brutish.

The way to growth and improvement goes through learning. The way to learning goes through tests, experience and often hardships.

Life is hard. I can seem like going down one of these fast slides at a water park; we get so dizzy going down all the curves and turns. Then, we get thrown into high and angry waters, and it seems to be all we can do just to keep afloat. We even lose our sense of direction so that we don’t know anymore which way is which. Life can also seem like swimming an angry sea. The waves go so high, we wonder which one will take us down. Every once in awhile though the waters are quiet and we can gently float carried by the surface of the waters. At such times, we can look back and appreciate our learning curve. We realize we have learned to be a much stronger and wiser swimmer of waters of life.

Those are wonderful moments.

A problem we have in our western industrial modern urban society is that we know longer appreciate pain, discomfort and hardship. Right away we pop a pill to stop the pain, and we either have a machine or a paid employee do the hard work for us. When we do that, we lose the strengthening of the pain and we rob ourselves from the experience of the hardship.

The difference between a wise human being and a brute beast is the ability to learn and progress. Once we hate the pains of instruction, we loose the ability to learn. Once we lose the ability to learn, we have become brutish, foolish, stupid.

So let us not be like the fool and despise life’s challenges. Let us embrace them with the knowledge that these tests are the ladder of knowledge that take us to new heights of wisdom. Let us look at the pains of God’s instruction with anticipation, knowing that on the other sides of their dark and cold tunnel, we will find new, wider brighter horizons.

THE RETRIBUTION OF THE RIGHTEOUS

Proverbs 11:31

Behold, the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth: much more the wicked and the sinner.

The original Hebrew reads: If the righteous of the earth offer restitution for their sins, how much more the wicked and sinner. This proverb defines the same idea as, and works in cooperation with the statement from the apostle Peter: And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? Expounding on the same idea, Paul also reminds us that judgment always starts with the house of God.

In this arrogant generation that ridicules the righteous and godly; in this time of humanism that denies the elements of God’s role in the world; in this wicked world that persecutes the righteous and godly while the wicked seems to flourish like a green bay tree, it is easy to wonder about the retribution of the wicked, or if God is even righteous in His assessments. Those who think that way do so because they miss the overall picture.

In His great love, God chose to redeem humanity. To do so, He first chose His Son who suffered all things for us even before the foundations of the world. This One whom we call Jesus, came and made a covenant with one man Abram whose obedience, worthiness and trust was tested to the limits. From this man came the twelve tribes of a nation who would also be tested (and still is) and constitute the trunk of the tree where the rest of the world would be grafted un to God (Romans 11). Jesus, Abraham and the nation of Israel all suffered first because they are the firstfruits. They suffer first , before the rest because they blaze the trail, they lead the way.

In the same way the world of today is getting ready for the judgment of the Almighty. The shadows of God’s retributive hands are seen in this present day's physical, mental, moral and emotional persecution of His children and of His people. Rather than be arrogant, the world should look at God’s Children being purified and say uh-oh, my turn is coming next.

Waiting for the the day of the Lord, God's Children sometimes get impatient, and rightfully so, but here is the reason for what seems to be God’s lingering:

The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
2 Peter 3:9

THE TREE OF LIFE

Proverbs 11:30

The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise.

Our Greek influenced mentality often leaves us satisfied with ethereal definitions of concepts and ideas. It was not so with the Hebrew mentality of the author of these Proverbs.

The righteous has an earmark. His fruit, the result of his hard labors, are left behind as a tree of life. The righteous has also the mark of winning souls to his God, which takes godly wisdom. That wisdom is part of his inherited righteousness.

This time of the year, this time of unleavened bread, presents us with the opportunity to leave behind the unfruitful works of darkness; to forsake the laboring for meat which perisheth. This is a time of looking forward towards the goal of purity in God’s righteousness. At the end of seven days, we hopefully will have left Egypt. We will have crossed the Read Sea in a massive baptism, and for generations to come, the whole world will remember the mighty acts of Yahweh on our behalf. At the end of these seven days, the world will not be the same anymore. God will have won over the powers of the world to take for Himself a people in order to accomplish His purpose.

God choose Israel out of many nations to be a trunk upon which the world would be grafted unto righteousness. Let us be worthy of this calling. Let us today know that our choosing by God with a mighty arm, both corporate and individual, , was not designed to be solely for us, but that by His great wisdom, He was creating a tree that would become the basis of redemption for humanity.

Let us not count it robbery to be a part of that tree, to have been chosen by our God. Let us not belittle it to the level of our petty conflicts. May we, as we cross that Red Sea in a few days, leave behind the petty conflicts that divide us, and as one nation of believers walk toward the mountain of our God to receive the Instructions that will mark the world of tomorrow.

FREEDOM

Proverbs 11:29
He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind:
And the fool shall be servant to the wise of heart.

We do not realize sometimes that we are our own worst enemies. We do not realize that the majority of our troubles are self-inflicted. We indulge in unhealthy food and in a sedentary life, and we wonder why our body malfunctions. We allow ourselves bad attitudes, and we wonder why people avoid us.

At the end of the road of self-indulgence waits slavery. It is like Pinocchio in the Children’s Island. After he had a good time indulging himself in the pleasures of life and in worldly attitudes, after he had selfishly broke his father’s heart, it was time to ‘pay the fiddler’. Except for the dedication of his ‘creator’, Gepetto, Pinocchio would have spent the rest of his life as a beast of burden.

About 3400 years ago at this time of the year, the Children of Israel reconsidered their whole life. They had decided to leave the attitudes and ideas of worldly Egypt behind them , and in so doing, they freed themselves from servitude and slavery.

Let us also with them, on this week of Unleavened Bread, review our attitudes. Let us review our lifestyle. Let us forsake the leaven of Egypt. Let us free ourselves from its worldly indulgences. And as we empty ourselves of the world, let us expectantly receive the new doctrine, the new Instruction, the new ‘leaven’ God has for us.

A PARABLE OF THE FOOLISH TREE

Proverbs 11:28
He that trusteth in his riches shall fall:
But the righteous shall flourish as a branch.

The poetic and prophetic king compares us to trees. Trees offer very good analogies teaching us right and wrong.

The biggest mistake a tree could make is one beautiful spring morning, to look at its strong trunk, its healthy protective bark, its fruitful branches and decide that it did not need this sappy messy stuff running through him anymore. Our tree could say, "Behold, I have a strong trunk; I don't really have to have this hidden sap, this unseen quantity, this unknown and unreliable and doubtful "inspiration" (God’s Spirit) that flows beneath the surface. I can do without it, because it keeps doing new and unexpected things and bursting into new blossoms and new branches. I just can't have this going on all the time because it creates issues. I ‘ve got all the branches and all the fruit I need. Now I've got to stop this life-giving flow that creates so many problems, and it's very simple. We'll just cut a little circle around my trunk just beneath the bark, just under the surface to choke off the sap, it'll hardly even be noticed. “ So he cuts off the flow of the sap. That's all we have to do to a tree to kill it. Just to just cut through the cambium layer just under the bark completely around the tree; to just strip off a little bit of that bark around the tree and just cut a little tiny groove through the cambium layer that carries the life-giving sap and our tree dies.

Oh, what a foolish tree. Yes, the inspiration of God’s spirit within us becomes problematic at times. It brings us righteousness, but it also constantly brings up new issues that we have to sort through. It’s conviction can be painful, but without it we die, and just like the tree, we fall.

Our life depends on it.

We cannot like the foolish tree decide to ‘retire’ from receiving God’s ‘Sap’. There is no retirement plan in Yahweh’s program. As long as His Spirit flows through our ‘veins’, we flourish in His righteousness, but once we solidify ourselves in our ideas and spirit, once we decide to stop the flow and rely on what we already have, we lose it and we die in our sinful concepts.

Let us now ponder on this analogy of the foolish tree. God’s ‘Sap’ creates life, brings righteousness, change, idea; it sometimes even wrecks havoc in seemingly already well-set situations. Are we ready to receive it, or do we rather solidify in order to keep our quiet modus operandi?

AN EARLY MORNING SACRIFICE

Proverbs 11:27
He that diligently seeketh good procureth favour:
But he that seeketh mischief, it shall come unto him.

(Literal translation: he that ges up early in the morning seeking the good things will find God’s favor: but he that gets up to devise mischief, it will fall on him.)

I heard it said once: we are the sum total of the very decisions we make. I think it is so true, and our feet usually take us in the direction in which we are looking.

The morning is such an important time. The first few moment of the morning can decide the path, program and destiny of our whole day. In the days of the temple, a lamb was sacrificed every morning at dawn. This early morning offering would envelop every sacrifice laid on the altar that day. In the very same way, every morning as we get up, we ought to look at the sacrifice of the lamb for us; take the time to reflect on what it means for us. then let us bring the full burn offering of our person on the altar of god’s presence, present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God. Let us then not to pray and ask for such things as protection and supply, but lay ourselves as a sacrifice to whatever He has decided for us that day. Who knows, maybe He has seen fit to bless with a great trial, a gigantic problem this day that would teach us the greatest lesson of our lives; we wouldn’t want to miss it by praying for protection from all evil tidings, right?

On the other hand, if we do not get up in the morning looking towards the Pascal sacrifice for us, but rather towards the idolatrous selfish ways of the world and lay ourselves on the altar of our own will that morning, this very evil will come back to us. We will certainly be blessed with ‘what we want’, at the cost being blessed with God’s perfect will for us.

Me friend, in the morning, look towards Jerusalem. Look towards the Holy Temple. Dot you see? Do you see the smoke rising up to the sky? It is the Pascal lamb killed for you. Let us come now together; let us go up to Jerusalem; let us bring the full burnt offerings of our lives for Him that we may be found in Him when He returns.

FUTURE PREPARATIONS

Proverbs 11:26
He that withholdeth corn, the people shall curse him: but blessing shall be upon the head of him that selleth it.

In a way, when famine or disaster strikes, a big part of our problems can be traced to man’s selfish economic systems. A man who is in tune with the signs of the times can use it to oppress his fellow men. He sees the dearth coming so he buys the corn supply ahead of time when prices are low and withholds it. When the dearth comes, he sells it at ‘famine prices’, and makes a wicked profit on the back of the hungry masses. This practice is at the core of our economic systems, but this is not the way God would have it. God blesses the people who sell the corn so people can stock up, and those who do not raise their prices in times scarcity. Along with their unrighteous gains, selfish profiteers reap the curses of the very people who will forever bless the name of those who use their marketing sense to help the people.

There are complaints this day about the state of our economy, but if our economic principles were based on God’s system as laid out in the Bible, our problems would disappear. Many of us would love to have these biblical principles in place, and one day they will be, but at this point they would find strong resistance from the financial powers that be. The reason for that is that God’s economic system is constructed in a way that no one ever gets to be neither too poor nor too rich. It also forces us to take responsibility for our family members, our health, our education and our professional future.

Many of those who see the handwriting on the wall think of storing food in preparation for evil days ahead. I think that this should be done in an unselfish way, not only storing for ourselves but have a sense of community and work together to preserve our communities and congregations.

Evil times really expose the character of a man: do we in times of dearth become selfish and hoard? Or do continue to trust Yahweh and share?

TODAY’S GIVERS; TOMORROW’S RULERS

Pro 11:25
The liberal soul shall be made fat:
And he that watereth shall be watered also himself.

Why are we so afraid to share ourselves? It is right to be wise in our giving but should we withhold that which God gave us only for the purpose of sharing? We have in Jesus our Messiah the epitome of the results of right giving: He poured out His own soul on humanity only to receive the anointing oil of kingship; at His death, waters for our purification poured from His side, only to be himself showered by the waters of resurrection.

We read promises of ‘ruling and reigning with Jesus’ in days to come, but do we realize what this ‘ruling and reigning’ involves? Any godly monarch, ruler or civil servant knows IT: his life belongs to the people he serves. Like Queen Elisabeth said of herself, he is married to the throne.

As an illustration, the Master gave us the parable of the talents. He who in this life is faithful with what God had given Him received rulership accordingly; but he who, through fear of loosing it, buried his talent, even that which he already had was taken away from him. Our ‘ruling liberalities’ in this life determine our ruling position in the next.

Some people serve unselfishly; they grab onto the vision they receive from His Spirit, and like the fire on the altar, never let it go out until it roars bringing warmth and light to all around them., even at their own cost. This provokes a sweet aroma in God’s nostrils. Others, in selfish laziness, bury their in the sand for fear of losing something if they share.

Here is the [perspective that we owe not to forget: We are pilgrims and strangers. We do not settle here; we are not citizens of this world; we are only passing through on our way to the Promised Land. We are not to build our life nor our comfort in this life; ig Yahweh gives it to us it is only as a bonus. This is the great test, and our attitude in today’s world determines our role in tomorrow’s.

We need to pray to find what God has given us to share, and share it liberally and sacrificially. Wee need to remember that we do not lose by sharing it , but that rather, it increases.

ALL; OUR BURNT OFFERING

Proverbs 11:24
There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty.

What is dispersed from our personal universe has a way of returning to us, if not in this life, in the next. Whether rich or poor giving is a stock each one of us can invest in. Giving had nothing to do with having. Sometimes, the rich practice their avarice by giving a lot of money; it makes them feel absolved for not giving of their time and person. Parents tend to do that too. They give money to their kids to replace giving personal attention and involvement. Some also have the same attitude with God; they give of their money to the local Church mission or social program in order to avoid giving their heart to the Lord so He could control their lives.

Yahweh is God; He sees beyond our smokescreen of hypocrisy and into the true motives of our hearts. Life tends to have a boomerang effect. Like spitting in the wind, we can always retrace what it dishes out to us to what we sent. We reap what we sow, and receive dividends from the very elements of our investments. What have we sown? What have we invested in life? Indifference, selfishness, hypocrisy, have we kept people and God at bay and away from us? Life then has nothing more to give to us than what we invested in it , and God certainly can be no closer than the distance we put between Him and us.

Let us give from ourselves, unafraid of being stripped from what belongs to God in the first place. If ‘all’ is our sole measly wealth, so be it. May it go on the altar of our God. The sweet t smelling of this complete burnt offering will be pleasing unto God, and pave the distance to the joy of partaking of His presence in the abundance of a joyful and festive peace offering.

HIS ENNEMIES, NOT OURS

Proverbs 11:23
The desire of the righteous is only good:
But the expectation of the wicked is wrath.

We have already encountered a similar proverb (10:28). Why would our king repeat himself? I am not in his mind to be able to rationalize his reasons, which must have certainly been more than valid; I just know that in the Bible, when something is repeated twice, each mention bears the function of a witness to establish the word as sure. I would say also that he was influenced by the attitude of his father.

David, this king’s father, was a man who had seen war for most of its life. In His strategy, David was very particular in one thing: because of his love and dedication to God, he was very certain of his cause, and because he was very certain of his cause, he knew that no matter what the odds were, he would win. This is very important in any war and any conflict. To win, we must be very sure of our cause and that we are on the side of God’s will. When we are sure that we are in the camp of God’s side and God’s will (not believing that we have God on our side, but rather being on His side), we then know what befalls anyone who tries to malign and hurt us. We can safely determine that no matter how long it takes, they will not get away with it, and that their expectation is the wrath of God.

In the face of conflict with the opponents of God’s way, we are often faced our personal feelings of hatred and sense of justice, but none of these will do. God’s commandments even forbid us rejoicing and boasting at the sight of the demise of our enemies. Our sole assurance and strength is the knowledge that those who in their ignorance dare to touch us, the apple of His eye, are destined to the wrath of God; we should even mourn for it. We should even mourn for it because in paraphrasing the apostle Paul we could say, ‘By the grace of Yahweh, go we!’

God’s children have always had many enemies and things are not ready to change. Let us therefore, like our kingly author, forbid ourselves the luxury of indulging in hatred, frustration and self-righteousness. Let us, even in mourning, know that our enemies are not really our enemies; they are the enemies of the Most High, of the Almighty El-Shaddai.

MUD ON A GOLD RING

Proverbs 11:22
As a jewel of gold in a swine's snout, so is a fair woman which is without discretion.

Farmers used to put rings on their pig’s noses in order to prevent them from digging the earth. Because pigs love mud and in everything filthy, farmers used cheap iron rings. This proverb alludes to how a unfitting it would be for a farmer to ring his mud-wallowing pig’s snout with a gold ring.

These words certainly warn our women about their chastity and their behavior. How unfitting it is for the beautiful creation that is a woman to be immodest and give the virtue to be reserved for one to all that pass by. Why should the gold ring of her beauty and virtue be muddied in such a manner?

We also, God’s people, are the beautiful Sulamite of the Songs of Songs; we are the virtuous woman of Proverbs 31, and we have been betrothed unto Yahweh at Mt Sinai. We will soon enjoy the wedding party and consummation of our marriage at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. We are rightfully called the ‘Bride of Christ’. These words from our kingly author warn us also about the impropriety of our dabbling in the filthiness of the world. The culture in which we live is saturated with spiritual filth, dirt and mud, and as the Bride of Christ, if we go wallow into it we are comparable to a pig’s snout set with a gold ring. Very soon this golden snout will be taken through dregs and filth; what an unbefitting picture. The fact that pigs are also the antithesis of biblically clean animals brings to mind the notion of how God views us when we indulge in the elements and attitudes of the world.

The God of Mt Sinai, the Almighty El-Shaddai admonished us saying, be ye holy, for I am holy. A better choice for the word used in the original text translated by ‘holy’ is: ‘set-apart’. Retranslated, we now have the following injunction: be ye set-apart (from the filth of the world) for I am set-apart (from the filth of the world).

May we be pleasing to our husband.

THE DELIVERANCE OF THE REMNANT

Proverbs 11:21
Though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not be unpunished:
But the seed of the righteous shall be delivered.

Fear not Child of El Shaddai. The wicked join forces; their lofty words come to your ears. You are backed to the sea and with mountain on each side, but see, oh, see the mighty hand of your God; He opens, yes He opens even the sea and protects your escape with His mighty lightning.

Is this a lone scenario? Are Moses and the Children of Israel the sole history witnesses of God’s mighty power? Of course not; the full six thousand years of past history witness to the lame boasts of evil against God. From Genesis to Revelations we read of the defeat of the devil and of his cohorts. The end is like the beginning; there is no reason to doubt it; when the armies of the world will surround Jerusalem, our mighty Lord will return to administer judgment on those who have abused, and seek to abuse again His people.

Our present history is sandwiched in between the references of God’s past protection and the promises of future vindication. Today, even today our world is in a polarization stage. The Words of Jesus through John the Beloved, Let the righteous be righteous still and let the wicked be wicked still, find their mate right in front or our eyes.

As history in our generation unfolds, we hear the drums of war in the distant Northeast. As always, God’s people who obey Him will be vindicated. What remains for our future is the assurance of the endtime promise Jesus gave again to John, And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

Let us make sure to be part of this vindicated camp of the remnant of the women’s seed: the one who keeps God’s commandments and have the witness of Jesus-Christ.

COME NEAR TO GOD

Proverbs 11:20
They that are of a froward heart are abomination to the LORD:
But such as are upright in their way are his delight.

The changes in our culture, mostly the departing from agrarian society, have crippled our understanding of the beautiful principles laid out in the Old Testament. Those who believe that the first part of the Bible is no longer valid should also discard the second part, because it is conceived in the first. In essence, if you kill the Mom you also kill the seed conceived in her body.

Today we tend to think we can be familiar in approaching God, but He Himself said that He only delights in those who are upright in their ways. What is to be upright in our ways? In my book, just confessing to be a believer is not enough; many a believer is not upright. As always, the Hebraic mind requires any spiritual value to be validated by a physical action.

Approaching in a manner pleasing to Him is fully described in the book of Leviticus. If we remember our story until then, Moses, who had entered God’s cloud of glory while on Mount Sinai, could no longer enter therein once this cloud was located in the finally build Ark of the Covenant. What went wrong? Wasn’t the whole goal to be in communication with the Presence of God? The book of Leviticus ends this cliffhanger we are left with at the end of the book of Exodus. God finally calls Moses, not from the mount this time but from the Tabernacle, and He teaches him the means by which the people should approach Him. The word ‘sacrifice’ or ‘offering’ used in our English Bibles in the book od Leviticus doesn’t give true meaning to what was going on. The word actually used in the Hebrew text is a word we also find in the New Testament: ‘korban’ which means ‘a coming near gift’. The semantic emphasis is on ‘coming near’ not gift.

Our nature being sinful, we were to come in God’s Presence through the vicarious representation of the blood of a domesticated innocent clean animal. That blood, domesticated and innocent, would represent us before God for the sins of our flesh, until such a time when the blood of Jesus, the Lamb of God, would eventually clean our conscience which causes us to do all these bad things that are not pleasing to God.

There were three main ‘korban’ by which to approach God, and those define the spirit in which we are to enter in His presence. 1) The Sin Offering: parts of it are burnt to God, the rest given to the priests; this represents admission and confession of sin;. 2) The Burnt Offering: the whole sacrifice goes to God and represents a full and complete rededicated life to God after admitting and confessing sin. 3) The Peace Offering: God, the priests and the offeree share in the sacrifice and eat together in a big feast. This represents God’s acceptance of our fellowship with Him, because of the first two.

Thus are revealed to us the principles of integrity that make us acceptable to God. We must first admit and confess our sin, but we must also show the sincerity of our heart by true repentance and dedication by turning a whole new page in our lifestyle and starts obeying His Words. One doesn’t go without the other. Then, and only then, God sees the integrity of our hearts and is pleased in our presence.

‘WHO’S WHO’ IN THE WORLD TO COME?

Proverbs 11:19
As righteousness tendeth to life:
So he that pursueth evil pursueth it to his own death.

Who is he that loves life? Who is he that desires many days of happiness on this earth? But even more now, who is he who, ignoring the elements of death surrounding him in this world, prepares for life in the world to come?

Life has rules. It is ironic, but many who claim to love life live as if they were practicing for a perfect death. We see it everyday. Those who say they just want to enjoy life to the full without being bound to the mundane, usually end up dying at the hand of their own vices and indulgences. With their mouth they say they love life, but with their actions, they pursue death.

Many in fact who claim to love life live it as if they were preparing for death. They do not realize that this present time on earth is preparation for the real thing in the world to come. Life continues after the general resurrection, but tickets are issued according to performance in this present day. Some receive extra life powers and rule and reign with Messiah; others have to start the faith course they postponed all this time; and still others don’t even make it. They stay dormant for a thousand years waiting for the final judgment of all things, when they will be judged according to their works.

The rules of the games and of ‘who’ gets ‘what’ have been established since the foundations of the world and revealed in their fulness to the world at Mt Sinai about 3600 years ago. Maybe we should go back and look at them sometimes to make sure we don’t miss anything.

Who is he therefore who loves life and desires many days on this earth?

He who follows its prescription, and follows the righteousness of the saints as prescribed in His Word.

WHO’S WHO?

Proverbs 11:18
The wicked worketh a deceitful work:
But to him that soweth righteousness shall be a sure reward.

Oh, for the Truths of the Almighty, may He be blessed forever. His inspired Word exposes the Truth. Like a clear case reveals the mechanisms of a clock, so His Words reveal the mechanisms of Heavenly wisdom; the wheels and gears that run the universe.

The wicked, he who refuses to know God, doesn’t see the mechanisms; he is blinded by his own righteousness and concepts. Because he rejects the love of the Truth, he creates his own form of righteousness. He promotes the legalistic rote rituals of empty religion, the deadness of the works of man, and the perverse lies of man’s ever-wicked heart. He exchanges the true simple wisdom of God for intellect. so he learns and never comes to the knowledge of the Truth; he works and is never satisfied; he gathers his money in bags with holes and at the end of the day, to his great dismay, he knocks at the door of the bridal chamber only to find himself rejected and in the sole company of his own deception.

Look now at his righteous anti-thesis. He pursues God with all his heart, so his eyes cut through the deceptive smoke screen of the world and see the underlying truths of the Word. Dead works cannot deceive him because he finds life in obedience to God’s commandments. His heart is bound to the simple wisdom of God, so he comes to the knowledge of the truth; he works and is satisfied; he gathers and enjoys his earnings and at the end of the day, to his great joy, his beloved Masters welcomes him in the bosom of Abraham and says, welcome good and faithful servant; enter into the joy of Yahweh.

TRUE RELIGION

Proverbs 11:17
The merciful man doeth good to his own soul:
But he that is cruel troubleth his own flesh.

A returning theme for these kingly proverbs is: ‘What goes around comes around.’ The saying can also be reversed to say, ‘What doesn’t go around, doesn’t come around’. Could sometimes our poverty be the result of our own withholding?

The generosity that we bestow on our neighbors usually comes back to shower us a hundred times. The care that we dote on those in true need often finds its way back in the pockets of our hearts in the form of internal peace asnd contentment. And what is the true heart of the commandment? What is true religion, pure and undefiled before God? Isn’t part of it to visit the fatherless and the widows in their affliction?

Much is spoken about the old biblical laws. Do we even realize that the Instruction given us at Mt Sinai was weaved into a social system that actively cared for the less fortunate? In the sight of God, religion has never been some sort of abstract concept floating on a high intellectual cloud. In the sight of God, faith isn’t a passive thing, it is and active concept. That is the heart of the commandment. It was the Master who taught us that even our so-called religious sacrifices were not acceptable if we had no compassion for the poor. James and Paul concurred this principle by adding that even our fellowships are not acceptable in God’s sight if people in it are not taken care of.

Show me today a faith-filled person. Show me here and now a Torah observant, a spiritual person that religiously observes the commandment. Show me one who has studied; who has a good grasp and understanding of the weightier matters of the Word. Oh, I do not need to see them late burning the midnight candle studying the Word. I will know how spiritual they are by seeing how they react towards small people, small matters, and the mundane things of life.