THE GOOD NEWS

Proverbs 12:21
There shall no evil happen to the just:
But the wicked shall be filled with mischief.

Let us step back into history for a moment. Let us take a look at the historical background of our author. His family was very dysfunctional. His brother raped his sister, and his other brother killing the rapist and usurped his father’s throne. Our author belonged to a people whom God Himself had to rescue from slavery and sure annihilation. The short history of his country reveals a constant battle to obtain and keep their country as well as their freedom. Today, this same people, with their persecuted long history, remember the words of this proverb as a promise of God’s contract with them and of His good will towards them. It seems like an oxymoron.

How does that work?

The life of the righteous has been, is, and will always be filled with evil. If the evil referred to in the first part of this verse was the evil of bad tidings, financial problems and persecution, our author would seem to be in denial of, and out of touch with his life, background and reality. But this is not the way to look at that verse. It is not a promise that can be claimed in an attempt to convince God that He should protect us from such or such event. This verse is a statement of fact; it teaches us something that we can count on, and that is as sure and irreversible as the law of gravity.

We learn here that the just, one who has been justified by The Almighty, will never see hell; that the punishment for his sin has been paid for; that his debt has been covered. Like King David said, Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile. We learn here that the devil can buffet us as much as he wants while we are in this life, but that once we enter the spirit world, we are bound back home to our Bridegroom’s house and kingdom. We are taught here that contrary to the fate of the wicked, the flames and tortures of hell will never touch he whom Yahweh has justified.

That is the Good News.

The apostle Paul tells us that Yehoshuah, our Lord delivers those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. This is the difference between the just and the wicked: for the wicked, death is the sad mournful hearse that takes him down to his eternal grave; for the righteous, it is a fiery horse and carriage that takes him up to his heavenly reward.

AS A MAN THINKS IN HIS HEART SO IS HE

Proverbs 12:20
Deceit is in the heart of them that imagine evil:
But to the counsellors of peace is joy.

We were originally created in God’s image, that is, in God’s character. We were made to emulate God’s virtues; be His representation on the earth; the most perfect of His creations. As the influence of sin filled us, we became less and less like Him. After only fifteen hundred years, the earth was filled with violence and all had to be destroyed except the family of one man who was said to be righteous in his generation. From the dawn of creation, the ‘image of God’ on earth has been in peril.

We were created to represent God, to think and emulate His thoughts. When we do anything else like when we imagine evil, our heart is full of the deceit of God’s enemy, from the one Yehoshuah called the father of lies. When we want to exert vengeance; when we want to solve deficit through a less that totally ‘kosher’ financial scheme; when we grudge the sharing of our increase; whenever we rationalize God’s commandments so we don’t have to obey them, we imagine sin which is evil. And when we imagine sin, evil comes out of us; and the evil that comes out of us eventually comes back to us. The evil imagined in our heart contributes to the decadence of God’s image of virtue through us, as well as of our health.

By way of contrast, this proverb teaches us that instead of moral decadence and of the onset of disease caused by the imagination of deceit, we can be a healthy copy of God with joy in our hearts. This proverbs reminds us that through the counsel of peace, that is counsel originated not from the imagination of our hearts but from that which comes through the influence of other godly people or through God’s Words, we return to the healthy image of God that we are supposed to emulate.

May we take a minute today and check our hearts. Are our thoughts towards God’s ways as taught us in His Words? Do we rationalize His commands so we, like in a cafeteria, pick and chose what we agree or disagree with in what He asks of us? As we comfort our aches with pills in time of sickness, do we avoid asking ourselves if it perhaps our ill health is the result of wrong actions, a wrong way of life or wrong thought patterns? Is the lack of peace in our hearts due to our kicking against the ‘pricks’ of our conscience, of God’s voice in us? Does He, like He did to Paul, have to cast us to the ground from our high and mighty horse, make us blind, vulnerable and at the mercy of others before we start living a life that emulates what He originally formed in us?

ABOUT TRUTH AND LIES

Proverbs 12:19
The lip of truth shall be established for ever:
But a lying tongue is but for a moment.

Our Lord and Master called Himself ‘the Truth’. He came to the world to bear witness to the Truth.

Truth, the truth from God has its own legs to stand upon. One who speaks the truth, the truth from God, does not need the help of lights and fanfares in order to impress and convince the masses. He doesn’t need the lure of charismatic educated oratory speech to convince its hearers. He doesn’t need those because the Holy Spirit in man will bear witness to what he is saying; It will bear witness for enmity or acceptance, but It will bear witness. Peace in man comes when he resigns himself to the Truth being spoken to his heart. This happens because truth, the Truth from God is a healing balm to the soul. Truth doesn’t mind being challenged.

Truth, Truth from God has its own engine fueled by God’s resources. It keeps going forever and cannot be shut down. It continues the work of convicting and feeding itself to the world until a decision is finally made. The decision is either the repentance of the hearers, or the execution of the bearers. What it will not do is leave people indifferent. Truth, the Truth from God is a catalyst for decisions.

Our Lord and Master called the devil the ‘father of lies’.

Lies are the least of our worries. They are easily recognized because they don’t stand on their own.: they need other lies to support them. They need the crutches of lights and fanfares to convince the masses. They need the lure of charismatic and educated oratory speech to convince their hearers. They need those because the Holy Spirit in man fights lies. Depression, stress, stomach ulcers, emotional and behavioral problems often happen when man accepts those lies in his heart; when he rationalizes them to convince himself that they are truth. This happens because lies are a poison to the soul. Lies resist challenge; it makes them feel uncomfortable.

Lies are temporary; they are only fueled by people’s willingness to believe them. , As long as one person believes in them, they will continue their preaching but eventually they run out of fuel and shut down of their own selves. When no one believes them, they die. They also exist as a catalyst for decisions.

When people have suffered enough under the tyranny of lies, they finally yield to the Truth. I am looking forward to that day.

ASSOCIATION THOUGH FUNCTION

Proverbs 12:18
There is that speaketh like the piercings of a sword:
But the tongue of the wise is health.

This proverb gives us an awesome look into the fundamental culture of Hebraic writings: function. In the Hebraic mind, associations are made not by looks, but by functions. In this way, words are likened to either murderous weapons or healing balms.

This concept of comparison by function makes for beautiful poetry. For example the Bible, which is written with a Hebraic mind, compares anger to a ‘burning nose’, and calls the woman’s reproductive organ a ‘flower’. It calls God a ‘man of war’, compares Him to a hen who desires to gather her chicks under her wings, while at the same time calls His children made in His image ‘wild camels’ if they are rebellious and ‘sheep’ if they are docile. Yehoshua is the Good Shepherd but He is also the Lion of Judah, as well as the Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world. Among other comparisons, Yehoshua is also ‘the Door, the Way and the Light of the world’. Not only He is the Oil of anointing as well as the High-Priest, but He is also the sacrifice, the Blood of atonement, the Altar and the Temple altogether.

These are the characteristics of our Master as compared with earthly elements. Here is a little game to play now. If God were to compare our lifestyle, define our virtues, character and speech with animals and objects, what would He use?

A TRUE WITNESS

Proverbs 12:17
He that speaketh truth sheweth forth righteousness:
But a false witness deceit.

Much of the understanding of these Proverbs is hidden in the Biblical agrarian Hebraic culture. The word witness here means: the evidence of things.

Evidence proves facts through the act of seeing. Words are cheap; anyone can say the right thing, pronounce the right theology, pontificate on spiritual things, even do miracles. The crunch comes with the lifestyle. The question to ask ourselves is not, ‘Are they saying the right thing?’ but rather ‘Are they living the right thing’, “What does their lifestyle show me? Does it show me God as defined in His Word?”

Naaman, a Syrian high official mentioned in the Bible had leprosy. He was told by his young Jewish servant girl that Elijah the prophet from Israel could heal him. At first, Naaman was too proud to dip in the dirty Jordan River seven times as the prophet had prescribed; he preferred the nice clean pools of Damascus. After reluctantly obeying, Naaman was healed, and some time later appeared, healed of his leprosy, accompanying the King of Syria to the worship of their idol. What is wrong with this picture?

The people who saw him probably associated Naaman’s healing with his idolatrous worship. Yahweh healed him, but he worshipped the idol. Naaman knew it was wrong; the text of the story makes mention of his convicted spirit. How did God feel? Well, It is the same thing when we claim salvation in the name of God but then return to our old lifestyles. People cannot give glory to God and we become a false witness which shows deceit.

God doesn’t heal and save us so we can become more comfortable citizens of this world; He does it so we can belong to Him even if only for gratitude sake. Let therefore our lifestyle show the One who has truly healed and saved us from; let our lifestyle be a true witness of His love and care for mankind.

TO REPRESS, CONTAIN OR GIVE IT UP

Proverbs 12:16
A fool's wrath is presently known:
But a prudent man covereth shame.

One by one these proverbs take us through many important behavior definitions. Whether we are to be seen as foolish or wise is not defined by our words, but by our actions, by our responses and reactions to life.

In this case we are taught a principle that if applied, would save marriages, companies, Churches, and many other societal groups. It would literally lower the divorce rate if not eliminate it altogether.

In a more contemporary English, this verse could say, A careless person reacts immediately to injury, while the wise person contains and forgets it.

It is not hypocrisy to let go of an injury, to contain, even to repress the offense done to us. It is obedience to one of God’s greatest commandment. The second part of this commandment is well known, but not the first part; it is the one that says, Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am Yahweh. Leviticus 19:18

Of course, if we simply repress it within ourselves, one day it will eventually explode and cause more damage than if it had just vented right away, but this is not the kind of repressing I am talking about. I am talking about giving it as a sacrifice to the lord. A sin separates us from God. To come back near to Him we need an offering. What I am speaking about is offering a guilt offering to God for our sin of anger and grudge against our brother; taking full responsibility of it before God and pay the price for his washing our heart from it. In this way, it is not contained in the ‘old files’ cabinet for later use, but burned and consumed on God’s altar.

The only person we can change is ourself. We cannot change others neither expect them to be different. We might as live with that fact and learn to respond, not react, and give all offenses to God for his ‘consuming’.

THE WELL OF COUNSEL

Proverbs 12:15
The way of a fool is right in his own eyes:
But he that hearkeneth unto counsel is wise.

Many books are written, seminars given and sermons preached on the subject of the secret of success, but King Solomon, the man who once climbed to the top of the universal social ladder now reveals it to us. And what does he say? To hear (to listen to, obey and abide by) counsel. In his case, he wisely obeyed the counsel of a man of whom God had said He was please in all things but one: his father King David.

By contrast, the fool is one who defines himself and righteousness according to his own relative standards so his counsel comes from his own heart. Instead of weighing matters against the wise advice of others or even the Word, he weighs matters against his own standard. It is like a man who defines knowledge by his own brain and capacity to learn.

How foolish we are. Being creatures we claim to be able to define ourselves; and not only do we claim to define ourselves, but we argue with the very consistency of our nature. Paul rhetorically asked, Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?

Let us be wise today and learn to draw good advice from the well of other’s perspective and learning; mostly from those in the Word who have gone before us and faced situations oh, so similar to ours.

THE FRUIT OF OUR LIPS

Proverbs 12:14
A man shall be satisfied with good by the fruit of his mouth:
And the recompence of a man's hands shall be rendered unto him.

This proverb associates the fruit of the work of our hands with the fruit of our lips. Knowing the author brings it even more meaning because King Solomon was not only known to be the richest man in his days, but also the wisest man.

While on earth, a man eats of the fruit of his good work. If he is faithful in his duties and responsibilities, if he is a good manager of his goods or if he is a faithful dependable employee, he will harvest a good crop or receive a good salary; who knows, maybe even get some bonuses.

It is the same with the fruit of our lips, only with greater ramifications. Our Lord and Master taught us, ‘by your words ye shall be justified and by your words ye shall be condemned’. In essence, this proverb teaches us that in the manner that the fruit of the work of our hands determines our reward n this world, the fruit of our lips determines our reward in the world to come.

In this day and age, everybody preaches something. Many spend their time trying to influence others in doing things and believing their way. Many proud and lofty words are spoken in attempts correct, justify, change, improve, and define the world around us. There comes a time when every word whispered in someone ears will be shouted on the rooftops. There now comes of judgment according to the words we have spoken.

When that day comes, may we be proud of our words; may they have been words that bring Messiah’s righteousness on earth in people’s hearts. May we be faced with eating of the fruits of our words with confidence, knowing that they are not poisoned with humanism and worldliness. May we come with boldness to Him who fed us of the fruits of his mouth, having offered the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.

SAFE LIPS

Proverbs 12:13
The wicked is snared by the transgression of his lips:
But the just shall come out of trouble.

The Hebrew text of this Proverb reveals a very strong subtlety. Bear with me a moment while I try to convey it to you in English. The Semitic word used for ‘transgression’ is: ‘peshah’: transgression, revolt. Its etymological root is ‘pesh’: step, spreading, as in spreading apart of legs. Therefore this word ‘pesha’ means: transgression, or rebellion by the spreading apart of legs, by letting go of the restraints of morality. In this proverb, the particular word ‘peshah’ is used as ‘rebellion by the spreading apart of the lips’ meaning ‘ungodly reprobate speech’, thus giving the meaning of’ the wicked is snared by his own ungodly reprobate speech’.

To compare the sin of the lips with the sin of immorality seems quite appropriate. Paul teaches us that any sin is outside of the body, but that the sin of fornication is against our body. In the same way, this proverbs tells us that the reprobate ensnares his own self through the spreading apart of his own lips when he speaks, but that the just, by the keeping of what comes out of his lips, comes out of trouble.

Much of Proverbs deals with the subject of speech. The apostle James tells us that the tongue is an unruly evil enflamed of hell. Our dear Lord and Master Yehoshuah taught us that by our words we shall be justified and by our words wee shall be condemned. If sometimes we have difficulty discerning the integrity of a preacher, speaker or politicien, all we have to do is let him or her speak; they eventually will ensnare themselves in their own words.

As followers of God, to stay out of trouble, we are instructed that our words should be few; to be quick to listen and slow to speak; that our speech should be always seasoned with salt (palatable); and that as teachers, we should speak as the oracles of God (to speak only when spoken through).

GOD’S ECONOMY

Proverbs 12:12
The wicked desireth the net of evil men:
But the root of the righteous yieldeth fruit.

The wicked craves the spoils of those of those who rob others, but the righteous are content with whatever they produce honestly, on their own. (Translation by Rashi)

Rightly did the Lord give us so many warnings against covetousness. Rightly did He make His Holy Instruction an antithesis to lust and covetousness. Our creator knows what we are made of; He knows that our hearts are bent towards evil. We only have to look at Leviticus 25 to understand God’s principles in economy.

God’s economy is one in which faith takes precedence over profit; Sabbaths are placed before harvests; the individual is more important than the bottom line; family heritage is prized before expansion and growth; and God is the owner of both land and human resources. In the economy of Torah, loans are made without interests, and debts are forgiven every seven years. The poor and the needy are continually at the center of concern. It is a completely different kind of approach, and one that requires a generous portion of faith and trust.

(Quotation from FFOZ Torah Club Vol. 5)

Men and women today try to lure us to their side making high and lofty promises to heal our economic woes. The only economic system that will heal our world is imbedded in the Word of the Holy Book.

Let us go back to God’s economy and behold, His blessings will return.

Turn thou us unto thee, O Yahweh, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old.

'GET A LIFE'

Proverbs 12:11
He that tilleth his land shall be satisfied with bread:
But he that followeth vain persons is void of understanding.

There is always a reward for he that works hard.

What is it that God has put in front of us? A field? A factory? A song? An outreach project? Children? We have the guarantee that if we get down to the brass tasks of working at it, it will yield fruits. And if it is the thing God has chosen for us to do, it will even produce sustenance.

Oh, but sometimes the fields of the Lord are tough. Most of the hard work is in the preparation. We need to rid our ‘field’ of old roots, rocks, and fallen wood. We need to even landscape it. All this seems like hard work but when the field finally yields its fruit, the rejoicing of the farmer is as that of the mother kissing her child after a hard long labour. I am now thinking of children. Today’s young minds often seem like that field, cluttered with old roots, stumps and rocks. These all need to be removed before the word of instruction can take root and grow. It is hard work to remove them, but oh, what a reward we have in the mature child, once the field of his mind has been worked on by faithful parents and dedicated teachers.

Every fruit-yielding ‘field’ requires hard work. Let us therefore not follow after the vanity of fellows who will tempt us with the false hopes of promises of fruit yielding fields that require no hard work. Those who complain about hard work need to have a paradigm change and as is said here, ‘get a life’.

We thank You Yahweh for the work load you put in front of us; we thank You and we bless You that you have hired us to work in your fields. It is a blessing and a privilege to be a part of your work force of establishing your kingdom on earth as it is in Heaven. May we have the grace and strength to endure with praise and to work with courage until that perfect day comes when all things will be restored.

A GOOD SHEPHERD

Proverbs 12:10
A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast:
But the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.

The characteristics of a righteous person always include a personal knowledge and a compassionate understanding of others, including animals. The Hebrew text actually reads: The righteous knows the soul of his beast.

The humane society and animal activists in general should be pleased with God because a big part of His Instruction is concerning the proper and humane care of animals. Animals have to be slaughtered painlessly and beasts of burden have a right to food and to the Sabbath. God has dominion over us and we have dominion over the animals. Domesticated animals at our service are dependant on us just as we, who live in God’s house, are dependant on His bounty mercy and care. In ancient days, when people were close to their farm animals, a farmer knew that a well taken care of and loved animal would be more docile and productive.

How unlike the wicked who mercilessly kills and devours man and beast for his own pleasure. His mercies (Hebrew text: feelings) are cruel because they are self-centered. He does not give his life for his friends; rather he gives his friends for his Iife. His dominion is not tempered with mercy and he runs his animal to the ground.

A spiritual leader is compared to a shepherd. Sheep are dumb and man-dependant. How fitly then is the gaging of righteousness by our attitude towards animals. A shepherd of God’s people has to bring in the law, the rules; he has to expect productivity and obedience as per the Word, but he also has to temper the wind for the shorn lambs and gently lead those that are with young; carry the lambs in his bosom. A shepherd is to know the state of his flock; how can he lead them otherwise if he doesn’t know their needs and problems, the issues troubling them in their souls?

As parents also and as teachers, we fall in the same categories as pastors and need to apply these same virtues on Yahweh’s flock.

FINANCIAL PEACE AND FREEDOM

Proverbs 12:9

He that is despised, and hath a servant, is better than he that honoureth himself, and lacketh bread.

In the ancient world, the sign of financial resolve meant you had a servant. If you could not afford a servant you were poor. Our verse today hits at the proud hypocritical appearance of financial wealth and solvency in front of others while in reality, we are starving. The Latin Vulgate translations reads:¨“Better is the poor man who provides for himself, than the proud who is destitute of bread.” The Hebrew text reads: Better is the lowly one who serves for his keep (as of: serves himself because he doesn’t have a servant) than the pompous one (one who has servants) yet lacks bread.

I have spent many years as a missionary in poor countries of Eastern Europe, the Middle East, S.E. Asia and the Pacific. People may poor, but those who buy a house buy it cash. Those who buy a car come to the dealer with their briefcase full of bills. Once they buy it, they own it and no one can claim it from them for unpaid mortgage or payment. It is theirs. When I came to America, I thought everybody was rich. I remember a friend of mine who was a man with several children. He had a job sorting parcels at the post-office while his wife had a day-care in her house. I thought they were rich because they had a house, nice furniture, a brand-new van of the latest model and they seemed to be able to afford a comfortable life-style. It impressed me until I learned that he was 50,000$ in debt (not counting his mortgage payments). It is then that I realized that his apparent wealth was just a boast, that I actually was richer than him because I owed nothing to no-one.; because what I had, however little it was, was mine.

Later my friend went bankrupt and had to downscale his lifestyle.

Much of the financial problems people face today is because they want to appear to have a life-style they cannot afford. They drive a brand-new Jaguar when technically, they can only afford to drive a second-hand Ford. Their lifestyle is a pretence and for the sake of pride, they sacrifice their lives, their freedom, their faith and even their children on the altar of their own vanity. What a shame.

To pretend to be of a certain standing when we are not is lying.

It is lying to ourselves and to others.

May God deliver us from the notion of evaluating our worth by the things we own, by the clothes we wear and by the lifestyle we can afford.

The true values of the Kingdom of Heaven are love, mercy, faith, honesty, and our wealth of personal dedication and obedience to God’s Words.

May the Truth, the Truth of the knowledge and continuance in Yahweh’s Words set us free, free from the lies, and from the bondage of the vanity in the world around us.

CHOICES

Proverbs 12:8
A man shall be commended according to his wisdom:
But he that is of a perverse heart shall be despised.

What are we to commend a man for? Physical strength? Charisma? Charm? Handsomeness? Intelligence?

A man’s spiritual maturity is defined by the things he admires; by the things he has a high regards for and gives priority to. Does he care mostly for sensual things, carnal things? How does fare in the day of ‘hard choices’? Is he easily ticked by vanity? Is his conversation mostly shallow? Does he yield to pride? Does he feel the need to boast in order to make himself important in the eyes of others? On the other hand, a man’s spiritual maturity is also defined by his friends, those who seek his presence. Does he feel comfortable in the presence of the proud, shallow and foolish? In turn, do they feel comfortable around him?

Our media today, and even our system honors the shallow, the proud and the vain. These are given the honor and glory that in ancient days were onlyu given to kings. They are called ‘stars’ and ‘idols’, and rightfully so. They have become the object of venerations of many who spent their lives and money on these new gods who live their lives in abject wealth and perversion, all for the adulation of a crowd mostly consisted of vain, shallow, young and immature people.

But whom will God reward in the Day of Judgment? Our author says it: a man shall be commended by his wisdom; he that is of a perverse heart shall be despised. To define perversion, we must first define wisdom. The wisdom implied here is the wisdom of living a life seeking to please God; striving to emulate His virtues; of living a life that glorifies the Maker of us all and what He is all about. By contrast therefore, ‘perversion’ in this text is to rationalize God’s virtues so much in our heart that we end up living a life that dishonors Him who gives us our daily breath.

A life of perversion, the earthly crowds cheer; a life of wisdom, the heavenly crowds cheers; and we are the ones who choose.

THE PROMISE

Proverbs 12:7
The wicked are overthrown, and are not:
But the house of the righteous shall stand.

The history of believers testifies to this statement. By all means, faith in God should have been destroyed long ago but yet, it is not.

Abel, the first man of faith, was killed by his brother Cain. Seth the third son of Adam and Eve his parents, succeeded him. Seth continued in faith while his older brother Cain continued in crime. Fifteen hundred years later, the lineage of Seth is miraculously saved from a worldwide flood though the obedience of Noah in building an ark after God’s command. Around 2000 BCE, when God wanted to show Himself to mankind, He did it through one man: Abraham, whose wife was barren. Rebecca, his son Isaac’s wife whom he married at the age of sixty, was also barren. When Isaac and Rebecca finally had children, Esau the older threatened to kill the younger one Jacob who then fled from his home and crossed the desert by himself. After finding work at the house of Laban, a distant relative, Jacob married Laban’s two daughters, as well as their servants. These marriages gave him twelve sons through whom the believer’s race would be preserved.

This is only the beginning of the story. Through the offspring of Jacob, the world was to discover its God (John 4:22), so the enemy of God had to do everything he could to destroy them. Four hundred years later a Pharaoh decrees that the children of Jacob should not live. He orders all their male offspring thrown in the Nile. When God hears the cry of His oppressed children, He carries them on His wings to a land He had chosen for them. For fifteen hundred years, that land was built, destroyed, rebuilt, occupied and destroyed again several times, until finally, in 165 CE the Roman Empire evacuated every Jew from Israel and renamed it Palestina, after the name of their arch-enemies: the Philistines. In the meantime though, through the children of Jacob, God’s great purpose was accomplish: the birthing of the Messiah which would introduce the whole world to the God of the Torah, thus creating more believers.

From the times of their dispersion in the world until today, the seed of Jacob should have been exterminated not only though centuries of ruthless persecutions, but also through natural assimilation. Yet, it lives on. It lives on because God has a plan. God has established that in the end of days, the feet of Messiah will come and touch down on the Mt of Olive; that from Jerusalem He will rule the world with a rod of iron for a millennial sabbatical. At that time, all those in the world who believe in His words and all those who are faithful to His commandments will be reunited in peace forever. Yes, the wicked is truly overthrown, while the house of the believers, the house of Yehoshua the Messiah, the Righteous truly stands..

THE WORDS OF LIFE

Proverbs 12:6
The words of the wicked are to lie in wait for blood:
But the mouth of the upright shall deliver them.

Wars, cultural changes and even personal changes always start with words. Much is said about words in the Bible because words conceive in our hearts the ideas that motivate our actions.

In any sphere of society, before any major push in any direction, we are first ideologically trained with the input of words. Before the onset of any war, country’s leaders condition their people with propaganda that will win the support of their citizens. Today, because the digitalization of publishing technology, words are easily spread, ideas easily disseminated. We live in a giant ‘Super Wall-Mart’ of ideas and philosophies where our heads are dizzied with too many choices.

We must guard our hearts and carefully shop our ideas and philosophy. Just like food in the supermarket may seem good, sweet and soft to the taste buds while destructive to our basic body structure, so are ideas. They may seem good, but their real goal is to trap us into their deathlike culture; ideas that are out for our blood. We may now turn to the health section of our giant supermarket. Some food there appears to be good but it costs a fortune, and even though you may pretend to, you really don’t understand all the big words on the label.

The best way is to leave the supermarket altogether. The righteous words that deliver us from this death trap are not sold on shelves competing with the words of the wicked. Musing on our supermarket analogy, I would say, “Go to the source; go to the land where the food is grown by God”. Deliverance from the destructive words and ideas of the wicked is found in the words of the upright. They are found in the words in the Bible, and in those people who live a life loyal to its principle; in those people who did not accept their godliness to be soiled by marketing practices.

Let us go back to the Source: to the True and Righteous One, Yehoshua who has the Words of eternal life, not death.

TO WHOM SHALL WE GO

Proverbs 12:5
The thoughts of the righteous are right:
but the counsels of the wicked are deceit.

In these days of relativism, there seem to be a difficulty in defining the righteous from the wicked. Humanism attempts to denigrate Godly values of in our heart in order to glorify our own form of religion based on personal virtue and sense of morality. The ‘golden calf’ of our own attempts to define God according to our own senses and views seems to have succeeded where it had previously failed.

When Paul wrote to the believers in Corinth, he chided them for bringing their personal disputes to the city’s secular judges. He aimed at making them wonder how they could think that the Word of God ignorant judges of Corinth could rightly solve their issues. This practice was totally against the principles ingrained in the people of Israel who were taught to only bring their issues to be solved by people who were familiar with the Laws of God. Paul said that it would be better to let go of the issues and be defrauded rather than have the people of the congregation of God go to the ungodly for ‘justice’. I Corinthians 6.

Our author today puts things back in their place so we know now who to go to for advice. He tells us that only the righteous has right thoughts, while the thoughts of the wicked are deceit.

In our day of trouble, why should we go to the wicked? Why should we go to him who has forsaken God for advice? For where he is going we will also end. His counsel is not in God, but is birthed from his own hellish heart. As he think in his heart so is he, so why should we partake in the hellish lot of the liars?

In our day of trouble, this we must do: enroll people in our life who are righteous, whose heart is in God, for where they are going we will also end. We must engage people who fear God, people who know and obey His commandments and thus partake in the joyful lot of the righteous.