"Because I called and you refused, I stretched out my hand and no one paid attention; Proverbs 1:24

We are examining the first chapter of Proverbs and seeing why it is not always the best thing to only have positive messages in the church and in our Christian lives.  Here we see the reality that some do not receive what God is saying to them.  They refuse to turn to God as He issues a call to them through His Word and His wisdom.

Too many get bent out of shape when they hear that God has to call us for us to be saved.  They pretty much freak out when they are told that on their own they would never come to God because they are dead in their sins.  They do not realize that God in His mercy does call men to Himself.  But the truth is that even when God calls - men reject Him.  Even when He allows them to hear His counsel, His reproof, His encouragment to turn from their sin to follow Him - they reject it.  That is what is made clear here in this section of Scripture.  God tells us that he called - but the fool refuses that call.  The idea of refusal here involves a rejection not just of the message - but also of the Messenger. 

God is showing great mercy and grace to men in stretching out His hand to them.  Their sin should receive a stretched out hand - to discipline and bring them under God's judgment.  But that is not what the Lord is trying to do here.  He is wanting to instruct - to make His words known to those He calls (vs. 23).  As He stretches out His hand in mercy, what does He receive?  Nothing . . . no one pays any attention to what He is saying.  This coincides with the truth in the New Testsament that, "All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23).  It also is a testament to Romans 3:10-12 which says, ". . . as it is written, there is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God; all have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one."  Men, by their very nature reject God.  Due to their deadness in sin, they will refuse Him and reject Him.  But there is an even more amazing truth that this.

It is an amazing thing to read here that men reject and refuse God.  It is astounding that they do not even pay attention to what He is saying.  But what is more amazing is that immediately after He is rejected God does not let judgment fall in that very moment.  But God is merciful in that He responds with further mercy.  But this passage is not a reminder of that mercy.  It is meant to be a stark reminder of how foolish it is to reject God when He does stretch out His hand and offer counsel, reproof, and instruction.

What should we learn from today's Proverb of the day?  We learn that to receive God's wisdom and offer of instruction is the greatest of mercies.  We learn that Jehovah God does this over and over again - offering mercy and grace that is rejected by sinful men.  But the real question for us today is what are WE going to do when we are aware that God is wanting to give us His Words - and correct us from a way that is not in accordance with His will?  Are we going to refuse and reject Him?  Are we going to see His outstretched arms - and not even pay attention? 

It might benefit us greatly to read a passage from Hebrews 2 that offers a warning to us - a warning that we should pay "much closer attention" to the times where God is speaking to us.  Hebrews 2:1-3 offers us this godly counsel on this matter, "For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it.  For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just penalty, how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?"  May we learn to listen with great passion and intensity when the Lord speaks to us - and may we not be guilty of neglecting so great a salvation when God offers not just His grace in Christ initially - but when He continues to save us from sin as He sanctifies us daily by His Word and His Spirit.

There is a kind of man who curses his father And does not bless his mother. There is a kind who is pure in his own eyes, Yet is not washed from his filthiness. There is a kind—oh how lofty are his eyes! And his eyelids are raised in arrogance. There is a kind of man whose teeth are like swords And his jaw teeth like knives, To devour the afflicted from the earth And the needy from among men. Proverbs 30:11-14

Today's proverb is a four verse description of the hateful, wicked man.  The way this passage refers to this is with the phrase, "There is a kind."  The word "kind" is actually the Hebrew word for generation.  When you have a generation of people who are like this - you have a very difficult time coming upon the earth.  It is an interesting list of things that make for a wicked generation.

Verse 11 describes the first godless characteristic - which is having graceless, ungrateful children who dishonor their parents.  This generation curses their fathers and does not bless their mothers.  They disobey the one commandment with a promise - Honor your father and mother.  The bedrock of any generation is their ability to learn from their parents.  When the family goes awry there will be a basic disfunction and rebellion that will pervade the entire structure of the society.  The basic unit for passing on wisdom is the family.  Proverbs makes it clear again and again in the first 9 chapters of this book that it is through a father and mother that wisdom flows to the next generation.  So, when they have basic disdain for their parents that wisdom is lost to an entire generation.  We watched this in the late 1950's and 60's as almost an entire generation cast off the morals and the wisdom of their parents and decided to start their own revolution.  They decided that their's would be a generation of love and peace.  They tuned out on drugs, turned their ears from hearing and honoring their parents, and did whatever they wanted.  It was a disastrous generation - and those who embraced this kind of lifestyle and living continue to wreak havoc on society today. 

The second godless characteristic of this generation is that they are pure in their own eyes.  The Bible considered this particular sin one that is very damaging.  Those who consider themselves pure in their own eyes are blind to the truth that they are fallen and sinful.  They will justify themselves no matter who disgusting and disobedient their behavior becomes.  It is as if they are deaf to anything God says - and decide that whatever their flesh wants is true and good.  Those who fall into this trap will find themselves hopelessly bound in their sin and wickedness - and will only be delivered by the sovereign goodness of God as He draws them and illumines them to truth that is outside of themselves.  The Word tells us that even though they are pure in their own eyes, they are still unwashed from their filthiness.  Just because we decide we are going to redefine sin in our own minds does not mean that we are not guilty of it in God's sight.  No matter how many times the world tries to redefine sin, God's Word stands as ultimate and absolute truth.  When the wicked disobey God's Word - and decide that their own thinking is what defines pure - they still wind up standing before God as sinners.  But the world in which they live is upside down - and as such it is a difficult place for believers and those who desire to lead holy lives to live. 

The third evil characteristic is that they are arrogant.  This is described as having "lofty" eyes.  This simply means that they look down upon everyone else.  They consider themselves awesome and wonderful, while everyone else is lower than them.  This makes them arrogant.  Arrogance is defined in the Bible as primarily a sin agaisnt God.  Psalm 119:21 speaks of the arrogant as those who wander from God's commandments.  They ignore and look down upon God Himself - and therefore think far higher of themselves and what they want to do than they do of the commandments of God.  Proverbs says this makes them embrace sin and be careless (Prov 14:16) as well as those who stir up strife (Prov 28:25).  An arrogant heart ultimately disregards God.  Such a generation will exalt their own thinking and reasoning above God's.  If anyone tries to instruct them or correct them - up will go their eyes and eyelids as they look down on the poor fool who has decided to oppose their perfect wisdom.  Problem is the fool is the one whose eyelids are lifted in arrogance against God and against those who walk in His wisdom.

Disregard for parents, purity in our own eyes, and arrogance will lead to a society where gentility is gone.  The last of these four evil characteristics is that this generation is one where their mouths are out of control.  Their teeth are like swords - their jaw teeth are like knives - to devour the needy and afflicted among men.  They have no regard for the poor and needy.  They only see them as someone to exploit for their own ends.  There is a complete lack of civility because there was never other characteristics built into their lives to encourage it.  They do not regard parents - who would have taught them obedience and selflessness.  They do not see anything as sin - because they justify their own actions - and would even justify treating the afflicted and needy badly.  Finally, they are arrogant - and view all others as beneath themselves.  This makes it far easier to have little or no conscience at all as long as they get what they want in the end. 

There is a generation that lives this way.  Before you think I am going to refer to a specific generation - think about what the Bible says about the heart condition of mankind.  This is actually what happens in every generation of men.  It happens because of the fall of man into sin.  It happens because we are in rebellion against God - and want to do our own thing.  The generation of which Solomon speaks is any generation from the fall to the end of the age.  Unless God intervenes with the gospel and the saving of mankind by His grace - we would all eventually gravitate in these four directions.  These verses teach us wisdom by helping us to understand where the sinful nature and the flesh will take us.  If anything these verses should make us very open to running to God for his grace and His transformation.  Because if we don't - this is most likely what life will look like.  A world filled with a disregard for parents, filth being called purity, arrogance, and a society filled with harmful and vicious words.  This is a generation to be avoided at all costs.  But the only way out is through the gospel of Jesus Christ - and the regeneration in Him that changes us from the inside out. 

Grievous punishment is for him who forsakes the way; He who hates reproof will die. Proverbs 15:10

What happens when we depart from God's ways?  According to this passage in Proverbs there is a very serious consequence for us when we do this.  Even worse is what awaits us if we go even further than this and reject God's reproof after we've left his ways. 

What is at stake here?  Well, what drives this particular proverb is the idea of "forsaking the way."  "The way," refers to God's way - the way of his commandments.  Several times the phrase, "the way of the Lord" is used to refer to this.  If you want to understand it better you can turn to the 119th Psalm which calls it by various names like, "the way of righteousness," "the way of Your testimonies," "the way of Your precepts," "the way of Your statutes," as well as what we've already said as the way of God's commandments.  This way is the commands and the things God calls us to be and to do in His Word.  When we "forsake" this way, we are doing the following.  We no longer listen carefully to God's Word - we don't pay heed to it or obey it.  But the core idea here is no longer listening or paying attention to someone.  That Someone here is God.  In case you do not know what this means - it means as you listen - you do so in order to respond and obey God.

What happens when we forsake God's way?  The Word here says that we face "grevious punishment."  The word translated for this is the Hebrew word "ra" - and it simply means, bad things!  When you no longer walk with God, listen to Him, or obey Him - bad things are going to eventually happen in your life.  This is the case no matter whether you are His or not.  If you take a close look at the progress (or regress) of the world around you, you can see that ignoring and forsaking God's ways has never led to a world of peace and blessing.  By its very nature this world works best when God's ways and paths are followed.  When they are ignored - or worse - shunned, things go bad.  This is a fait accompli - an established fact! 

Now a second warning is also issued at this point - and I think it is a reminder that God's rebuke and reproof are proofs of His love - not hate.  When we forsake God's way, we will face bad things, but when we go further and ignore His loving reproof of those ways and continue in rebellion - we are headed toward death.  It is God's great mercy and love that arrests us in our rebellion with disciplinary action.  He allows difficulties and problems to come to us to turn us from the insanity of abandoning His ways.  But when we are too stubborn to listen - we are moving toward death itself.  What is terrifying is the warning in 1 John that there is a sin leading unto death - a point at which a disciplinary measure from God involves having a person die.  Wisdom tells us to respond to His discipline and His reproof quickly - so that we will not have to go that far.

One last comment on this passage.  These two truths are just that - truth.  But they had their most astounding fulfillment in the cross of Jesus Christ.  It was there that we saw the most grievous punishment imaginable.  It had nothing to do with the Roman scourage or the nails in the hands of our Savior.  It had little or nothing to do with the agony of the cross physically as Jesus gapsed for air as His torn and bruised body slowly died on the cross.  But it had everything to do with why Jesus sweat blood the night before in the garden.  It had everything to do with the agony of the wrath and judgment of God upon sin.  Calling it a grevious punishment seems too small in light of what it truly cost Christ to pay for our sin before His holy Father.  That is why we should never take sin in our lives lightly.  Yes, our sin was paid in full by the sacrifice of Christ on the cross - but we should always view that truth with both trembling and a sense of honor to God for what He did for us.  Otherwise we will take sin too lightly - and risk thinking that forsaking His way really is not that bad - and it really won't cost us much.  There is foolish talk that reaches to the heavens themselves - and the kind of talk that will give rise to actions that will in the end yield that grevious punishment and stinging rebuke.