The righteous will never be shaken, But the wicked will not dwell in the land.  Proverbs 10:30

My brother was a missionary to the Philippines where he experienced his first earthquake, which came in unison with the eruption of Mount Pinatubo.  We grew up outside Chicago, so earthquakes were something we knew nothing about.  Wind we knew, snow we really knew - but earthquakes were foreign to us.  My brother's explanation was amazing to me.  When the earthquake hit, he thought the house was collapsing, and that was what was causing the shaking.  But when he ran outside, the ground there was shaking and rolling too.  For him and his family, this was a very disturbing thing.  They took for granted that the ground was firm.  Now it was shaking, and that was very disconcerting to them.  What they thought was stable, was being shaken.  This describes the hearts of many who are relying on things that can be shaken - as if they could not be shaken.  When the shaking starts, everything that they thought they could rely on became "shake-able."  But this is not the only thing shaken in these circumstances.  When it seems that everything can be shaken, your confidence in anything and everything is shaken as well.  Is there anything in this world that cannot be shaken?  That is what today's proverb is going to address. 

What we are told as wisdom is that the righteous will never be shaken.  Now, this promise does not speak of being exempt from earthquakes or other natural occurances where the earth around us is shaken.  What it does address is an even more wonderful promise - and that is an inner spiritual stability that cannot be shaken by anything - either earthly or unearthly. 

Note that the group who will not be shaken is the righteous.  These are those who stand before God and are viewed as righteous in His sight.  That cannot happen biblically except by faith.  There is no man who can ever stand before God as righteous on the basis of his own works.  Our works reveal us not as righteous, but as sinful and fallen.  If we are righteous, it is by faith in what God has done for us.  This He did through Jesus Christ at the cross.  But when we put our faith in Jesus Christ - God declares us righteous.  These are the ones who cannot be shaken.  This is something we need to grasp - spiritually. 

The Bible presents the physical world as shadows - with the reality being the spiritual.  Therefore, the ultimate shaking will be when we face our ultimate spiritual test - the judgment at the end of the age.  It is in this moment that many will learn that althought they thought they were unshakable in life - in death they will truly be shaken.  The word for shaken in Proverbs 10:30 is the word "mot" which means to be removed or to fall.  It was used often in the Old Testament to refer to the shaking and removing of things previously thought to be unshakable.  What shook them was the fierce judgments of Almighty God.  This shaking is promised for the wicked and the ungodly.  This is the term that is used when it is said that God will remove the mountains - and also of Him removing the entire earth.  Indeed there will be a shaking of eternal proportions that will come to the earth.  But after the earth is destroyed by fire, there is an even more terrifying event to come.  All mankind will stand before the judgment bar of God Himself.  This is the ultimate accounting - and the sole basis upon which our entire eternity will be based.  Oh what a shaking will come for all philosophies, all worldviews, and all religious beliefs.  They will be tested - and all but a faith in Jesus Christ will be found wanting. 

The righteous do not have to fear in that day - for the righteousness given to them by God on the basis of faith will stand.  It will not be shaken for it rests on the person of Jesus Christ as well as His death, burial, and resurrection.  It was the blood of Jesus that paid the debt of sin and paved the way for God to make us righteous by faith.  But for every other religious or non-religious view - this will be a day of horror.  It will be a day to be terrified as they learn that their self-made, man-made, or demonically-inspired religious and philosophical views will not remain.  We are promised that the wicked will not dwell in the land.  They will not stand, nor will they know an eternity in God's presence.  They will be judged and eventually cast into the lake of fire.  This will be their ignoble end - for they held an ignoble faith.  Their beliefs did not honor God or give Him thanks.  Their view saw god as something or someone they could manage by their own thoughts and philosophical positions.  Thus the land God is preparing for us will not be where they will dwell.  They will dwell in the outer darkness where there will be weeping and knashing of teeth.  They will dwell in a place where the smoke of their torment will go up forever and ever.

Let me the thoughts for today with a quote from the book of Hebrews.  There we read of this day of shaking with the following description.  "See to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking. For if those did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape who turn away from Him who warns from heaven.  And His voice shook the earth then, but now He has promised, saying, 'YET ONCE MORE I WILL SHAKE NOT ONLY THE EARTH, BUT ALSO THE HEAVEN.'  This expression, "Yet once more," denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken, as of created things, so that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.  Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire."  (Hebrews 12:25-29)  There is a shaking coming and it will shake anything and everything which can be shaken.  Heaven and earth will be shaken on that day.  But there will be a kingdom on this day that cannot be shaken.  The context of this shaking is the judgment of God.  God warns of this day from heaven.  He also works that anything created will be shaken, and even more than shaken, they will be destroyed.  Therefore we are urged to prepare for a shaking that will also involve standing before God, Who in that day, will be a consuming fire.  Are you ready for that day?  Do you have something, beyond things in this life and this world, that will not be shaken when they all are shaken?  Are you ready to stand before God as a consuming fire - and have what it will take to make it through the shaking and through the fire?  There is only one thing that will stand in that day - it is what God has given to us through His Son, Jesus Christ.  On that day only a righteousness gained by faith in Jesus will stand.  May both you and me prepare for THAT DAY, so that when it comes - we will not be shaken.

What the wicked fears will come upon him, But the desire of the righteous will be granted. When the whirlwind passes, the wicked is no more, But the righteous has an everlasting foundation.   Proverbs 10:24-25

There is a fear that the wicked have at the end of their lives - and it is a fear that will come upon them.  Though they spend their days mocking God and living as they choose, they come to the end of their lives facing the same reality anyone does.  That reality is that they are going to die - just like anyone else.  They forget this during their youth and even in their adult years - but then sickness and the day of their death comes near.  It is in these moments that we see that even the most strident atheist or agnostic have to face their fears concerning death.  We read of the wicked, that what they fear WILL come upon them.  They are going to die - and there is a fear of what is on the other side of death.

This begs the question, "What is on the other side of death?"  For the wicked man, he is hoping either that God is as immoral as He is or that God does not exist at all.  For the tolerance-god the hope is that whatever god there may be that he or she has no standards.  This god usually only has one intolerance - and that is for anyone to have intolerance.  Everyone makes it into the afterlife.  The other option is that there is no god - and that when we die - we just die.  There is nothing after death.  We just cease to exist.  If either of these scenarios are true - the wicked man has nothing to fear.  But we read that what he fears comes upon him.  What is he fearing?  The wicked man fears that there is a God - a holy God like the one presented by the Scriptures.  He fears that the urgings of his conscience were right - that there are standards he is breaking.  His ultimate fear is that there is indeed a recompense for these wrongs.

These fears will be realized.  That is what our proverb today tells us.  Later in the next verse we read that when the whirlwind passes - the wicked is no more.  The whirlwind is a testing.  What it is testing is what foundation a person has.  We would call a whirlwind a tornado in Arkansas.  When this whirlwind comes - the foundation of the wicked man will reveal that he cannot stand that testing - that judgment if you will accept it.

This passage has a counterpart in Scripture - and in all honesty it is one that is terrifying when you realize it.  In the book of Job a conversation was going on between Job and three of his friends.  They said that Job was wicked and that was why his troubles came upon him.  Job held fast to his righteousness - but made the mistake of questioning God's wisdom in what was happening to him.  In the end, God Himself came to address Job personally.  When God did this guess how He chose to reveal Himself?  If you guessed in a whirlwind, you guessed right.  God came to a moment of truth with Job by coming in a whirlwind.  He then questioned Job extensively about the whole idea of wisdom.  When it was over Job withdrew all of his comments and repented in dust and ashes.  God then blessed Job for his faithfulness - and called his friends to account for their rash and improper words about Job.  Now, let us bring this event into focus on our proverb today.  When the whirlwind comes - the wicked are no more.  The judgment will reveal their faulty foundation - and they will be swept away in judgment.  If a godly Job could not stand when the whirlwind came with God's presence and His withering questioning - what hope do the wicked have of being able to stand in that day.

The proverb for today leaves a wonderful hope for the righteous though.  Their desire will be granted - and their foundation will stand.  This begs another question.  What is that desire?  What is that foundation?  Biblically the only man who will be righteous is the one who gets this way by faith.  Righteousness is not given to a man by his works.  The only way a man can be righteous before God is by faith in what God will provide, from an OT view, and what God has provided, from a NT one.  God's promise in the Old Testament was that Messiah would come.  He would come first as a suffering servant - as the lamb slain for sin.  In the New Testament we meet Messiah.  He is Jesus Christ, Who came to pay for our sins to make us righteous in God's sight.  The hope of the righteous is that God will fulfill His promise.  The desire of the righteous will be realized as his foundation stands firm.  As the sand foundations of this world crumble – the foundation of Jesus Christ, crucified, buried, and resurrected from the dead will stand.  So the final question for today is simply this, “Are you resting on that foundation?”