Righteousness exalts a nation, But sin is a disgrace to any people.   Proverbs 14:34

Today we look at how a nation is blessed or disgraced.  According to our proverb righteousness or doing what is right exalts a nation.  Therefore, if we want to be exalted and blessed, we must choose consistently what is right.  But our nation faces a serious problem when it comes to this proverb.  We no longer believe in a right and a wrong.  Having bought the post-modern mindset hook, line, and sinker, we now believe that there is nothing more to believe in except what we want to believe in.  Truth is in the eye of the beholder.  Therefore we no longer hold to an absolute right and wrong.  We no longer have a moral code that governs the hearts of men.

Our courts have decided that what is truly dangerous in our nation is to publicly display the 10 commandments so that school children can see them and read them.  Never mind that one of the writers of our Constitution said that we have placed our hope in our ability to obey these Laws of God.  Never mind that though we openly persecute the Christian moral code, we openly teach other religions in our classrooms under the guise of multiculturalism.  It is dangerous to tell children not to murder, not to steal, not to lie or commit adultery.  Thus we have our current modern dilemma.  A society that decries the lack of civility as new acts of violence shock us worse that the previous ones that maudelinly decorated our newpapers and newcasts just weeks earlier.  We wonder why kids would go into schools and wantonly kill each other.  We are shocked at the debauchery of the generation that is coming up - astonished at their lack of conscience as they commit crimes with an ever-increasing display of horror. 

We don't get it.  Righteousness exalts a nation!  We must return to an absolute truth that lays down absolute morals by which we are to live.  What is astounding to me though is that such a righteousness will degenerate in one generation if all we rely upon is the rule of law to do it.  We are incapable of righteousness in our own strength.  Righteousness will only come by grace through faith.  It comes to us as we turn from our own sinful and selfish ways and turn to Jesus Christ - the One Who came to die for our sins.  It comes to us only as God's grace reaches out to us and grants us life.  Thus we find that the righteousness that will exalt our nation will only come with a return to the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Then we are saved - we are redeemed - we are regenerated so that we desire to do God's will.  Without the gospel law will break down into moralistic teachings taught by hypocrites who do not even do the things they teach others.  The sad reality though is that we as a nation have legislated the gospel out of our society.

There is a false teaching that exists in the legislative world called the separation of church and state.  This supposed wall exists in the interpretation that some pseudo-scholars have invented about the First Ammendment to the Constitution.  That ammendment was put there to keep the state out of the churches' buisness.  It was put there so that we would not have a state run church.  Unfortunately it has been misinterpretted to mean that any open expression of Christianity within any state run or funded activity is prohibited.  Thus our legislators have inadvertently chosen a state religion for all of us.  It is the lack of God in our nation - at least the God of the Bible.  So . . . our national religion is now either atheism and its more ignoranty companion, agnosticism - or it is any other religion than Christianity.  What our founders sought to protect has been used in such a way as to openly persecute and wantonly disintegrate the faith that most of them held when they wrote it.

It should not shock us that we are a nation that has shunned righteousness.  The churches did not hold fast the truth and spread the gospel.  The corresponding lack of believers in the land, or worse, the proliferation of false believers who misuse and abuse the Scriptures, has led to a dearth of them in office.  The lack of a Christian presence among the governing elite of our land has lead to a lack of respect for our founders' faith.  Thus we have become a people who more and more legislate sin as the new righteousness of our land.  We have decided to say that it is open season on unwanted babies and call it abortion - or a woman's right to choose.  We have decided to destroy the black community and the poor by saying that we will allow a welfare state that rewards sexual promiscuity and having babies out of wedlock.  We also have decided that work is no longer a sacred duty - but act like it is mercy to provide a living without requiring labor.  We no longer call heterosexual immorality what God calls it - fornication - but feel that sleeping together or living together is a more genteel way of designating it.  Rather than encourage faithfulness in marriage, we have advocated easy divorce and speak of blended families rather than broken ones.  We have decided that homosexuality is not an abomination - no! - it is an alternate lifestyle.  It even needs to be taught to the youngest of our children as a wonderful alternative to the straight people who are so hateful as to hold a biblical viewpoint.  Our banks and businesses fail because we have reared a generation of crooks who no longer think that, "Thou shalt not steal" applies to them.  Scandal after scandal rocks our statehouses and churchhouses as the concept of integrity in leadership fades as a mere memory of the past. 

Does all this kind of shock and depress you?  It should because sin is a disgrace to any people.  To live like we have lived is to be disgraceful.  To reject the living God for the idols of our current generation is an act of foolishness.  It is foolish becuse we have rejected the Fountain of Living Waters to hew cisterns, broken ones, that can hold no water.  Even history mocks our choices as we ignore the civilizations that have fallen before us.  We turn a blind eye to the same sins that portended their demise and characterized the rot from within that toppled them. 

We need to turn to God in prayer - humbling ourselves, praying, seeking His face, and turning from our wicked ways.  We need a national revival first in our churches.  They need to return to the faith of our fathers - seeing Christianity as the truth - and Jesus as the only way of salvation from a selfish and self-gratifying lifestyle.  Even more than this we must remember that we will stand in God's judgment - which has already begun.  We need to fear God which is the beginning of wisdom for us - and for our nation.  Then we need a nation-shaking spiritual awakening that sees millions come to Christ.  If we do not see such a thing - we are doomed to the ash heap of societies.  Written over us in the end will be the same words written over Babylon - "Mene, Mene, Teckel, Upharsin."  America has been weighed in the scales and found wanting.  We will fall to another rising power with another statement written as our postscript.  "Here lies the United States of America in ruins for she turned from righteousness and chose sin . . . which is a disgrace for any people."

A constant dripping on a day of steady rain And a contentious woman are alike; He who would restrain her restrains the wind, And grasps oil with his right hand. Proverbs 27:15-16

Here is a proverb concerning contentious women and the problems that come from them.  First we read that the contetious woman is compared to a constant dripping on a day of steady rain.  Thus we see that such a thing is a constant annoyance.  This is someone who will bother us greatly.  That drip, drip, drip that we hear will wear on us over time and drive us crazy.  Such is the contentious woman.  But understanding the word "contentious" is very important for us to grasp what Solomon is saying. 

The "contentious" woman is the woman who is involved with strife and dissension.  This is the Hebrew word, "madon" which refers to a quarrel or dispute that gets out of hand quickly.  Once started, it cannot be stopped.  These are the kind of disputes that create barriers between people.  According to Psalm 80:6 an evil heart is the source of these contentions and bitter arguments.  These things come from someone with a hot temper and are very difficult to contain.  Thus we see that the "contentious woman" is not someone who disagrees with us, but rather someone who vehemently disagrees and who takes that disagreement to the level of fighting and quarreling.  This fighting is not a normal disagreement, but becomes something that can separate people for long periods of time as bitterness and resentment seethe because of the fighting.  

Too often I have heard of this proverb used to disrespect a woman who respectfully disagrees with her husband.  The contentious woman is anything BUT respectful - she is fiesty and cantankerous.  She is itching for a fight - and when given the slightest reason to enter one - does so with both feet firmly set in the middle of it.  It is not sinful for a woman to disagree with someone - even her husband or a person in authority.  That is not what this proverb is about.  It is about a woman who is ready to fight, and quarrel, and do so disgustingly.  The next verse says that trying to restrain such a woman and her venom is like trying to restrain wind or grasp oil and hold it.  It is impossible to do so, because such things cannot be done.  Thus, when we come upon such a woman, we should avoid her and keep ourselves clear from her path.  She is a dangerous woman - whose actions will prove very destructive in the end.  Rather than trying to restrain and hold her back, we need to withdraw from her and avoid her at all costs.

What we should remember as we read this is that God places great value on a woman who has a quiet and gentle spirit.  This is what God desires - so when a woman goes the opposite direction, it is not only against what He wants, but it places an example before other women that is not only lacking, but it encourages them to behavior that is completely outside of what God desires in a Godly lady.  May the Lord give us grace to see such godly women raised up in our fellowships - women whose testimony only makes the gospel of Jesus Christ more attractive and beautiful - like He has made them.

Wounds and disgrace he will find, And his reproach will not be blotted out. Proverbs 6:33

Adultery is always stupid.  That is the premise we are following in these last verses of Proverbs chapter 6.  Here we see that adultery is stupid because it will eventually yield punishment.  This refers to a day when adultery was a punishable offense in a nation.  In some nations it still is a punishable offense.  Where it is, the rates of adultery and divorce are far lower than in nations where marriage is no longer protected by law.

The wounds, disgrace, and reproach that are spoken of here are all due in part to the public punishment that came with adultery in biblical times.  A simple review of the laws against adultery help us to see that this was considered a very serious sin.  First we have God stating that this particular sin was part of the 10 commandments.  "You shall not commit adultery," is found in Exodus 20 where God gives the commandments to Moses.  Later in Leviticus 20 we see where God makes it clear that adultery was considered a capital offensein Israel (and in God's sight).  "If there is a man who commits adultery with another man's wife, one who commits adultery with his friend's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death."  If we were to trace the damage done to not just the marriage but to families and societies through adultery, we might not look at this as too strict. 

There used to be a time when adultery was seen as a very disgraceful thing.  It was easy to see that what God said here is true.  The reproach from being and adultery would not be able to be blotted out.  There is a stigma to those who break their marriage vows by having sex with someone who is not their wife.  This stigma is natural - and it is only as we have turned from God and from His truth that we have decided to try our best to erase that stigma from our society.  Jeremiah's prophecy is filled with rebuke for the adultery that was rampant in the land.  In Jeremiah 23:14 we read this prophetic word to God's people, "Also among the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrible thing: The committing of adultery and walking in falsehood; And they strengthen the hands of evildoers, So that no one has turned back from his wickedness. All of them have become to Me like Sodom, And her inhabitants like Gomorrah."  This sin, when it was ignored by God's people and by their prophets, would "strengthen the hands of evildoers."  When adultery is tolerated by a society and treated as no big deal, we read that no one turns back from their wickedness.  We find a soceity where the most basic bonds of relationship break down - and thus any kind of trustworthiness also breaks down with it. 

In recent years we've heard a chorus of those who tell us that it does not matter if one of our elected officials has committed adultery and divorced their partner.  We view it as part of the normal landscape that this happens, and in so doing, destroy the foundation upon which the home - and thereby society in general is built.  The complete lack of character in our elected officials is a testimony to the truth of the Scriptures when it comes to adultery and being faithful to your vows in your marriage.  We've watched as again and again that if these men and women won't be faithful to the closest bond and promise that they have made, why would we think that would be faithful to a vow to adhere to and defend the principles in the Constitution? 

Some may say that this is too harsh.  Jesus Himself forgave the woman who was caught in the very act of adultery.  To this I would say a hearty, "Amen!"  He did forgive her - and He forgives those who commit adultery today.  But our problem is that we've degenerated to a point where we question if adultery should even be classified as sin.  We've come to the point where we want to give the forgiveness without also stating the other thing Jesus said that day, "Go and sin no more."  We watch as elected officials lie to our faces on televison that they did not have sex with that woman - and then expect the forgiveness and absolution without any repentance and confession.  What we should realize is that whether we embrace it or not - adultery is going to cause very serious problems for an individual - and for a society that seeks to sweep it under the proverbial moral rug.

Adultery is always stupid.  It always has consequences.  It always will involve disgrace and reproach - at least in the eyes of God (and that is what counts in the end).  The wise man sets a very clear boundary in his life when it comes to adultery.  He not only sets a boundary, but he also sets a reminder that crossing this boundary will result in bad consequences.  And since our society no longer sees fit to protect marriage in this way - we will have to do even more on the personal level to have reminders, boundaries, and warnings in our hearts to protect us from it.