The path of life leads upward for the wise That he may keep away from Sheol below. Proverbs 15:24

The wise will have an upward bound life. That is what this passage tells us. It promises both an encouragement for the wise - that their path will lead upward. It also gives a warning - that the unwise path will end in Sheol, the place of the dead.

In His commentary on this verse Phillips makes the comment, "Darwin would have us believe that our feet are set surely on the upward way, that may is progressing by slow but sure degrees from protoplasm to paradise." This is the belief of those who account randomness and no purpose whatsoever for our existance and our origin. Unfortunately, both science and sociology tell us a much different story. They tell us a story consistent with the Biblical narrative.

Science reminds us through the second law of thermodynamics that we are in a constant state of decay. Things are not coming together into more order and more stability - they are moving from order to disorder. We look at the astounding complexity of life and see that it screams to us of an intelligent design infinitely higher than that of man. Science also tells us that something is wrong with this world. Things keep dying. It is as is this world has been cursed so that what originally was made - is now devolving into greater and greater chaos. Disease, sickness, pain, and suffering are the norm as we grow older individually - as well as our world grows older corporately.

Social Sciences also do not point in a direction that is good. The history of man is not a history of us getting wiser and wiser. It is not a history of mankind embracing new heights of goodness and mercy. On the contrary, the 20th and 21st centuries have witnessed a cruelty and evil that almost cannot be matched by previous generations. The endless wars and evils of our generation strike us in ways that at times takes the breath away. More people have been brutally murdered and systematically executed than ever before. We've found modern ways to exterminate our children, killing over 250 million of them since the inception of that horrific procedure. We call it population control - God calls it genocide of the innocents. The way of the fool leads to the place of death - that is what we know from experience. The way of the fool leads to pride and arrogance as he says there is no God.

The path of life goes upward for the wise man. He sees things as God sees them. He is blessed no matter what situations and privations await him in life. He knows that this life is not all that there is. In fact the Scriptures teach him that this life is just a fleeting breath. He is like a brief puff of wind that rustles the leaves and he is gone. Therefore he lives for God's will rather than his own lusts. Amazingly, this kind of choice fills him with joy - no matter what he faces in life. For him the worst he will ever face is in this life. He knows that things lead upward for him - until the day that he will embrace eternal life in all its fullness. He tastes it now, finding it sweet and delightful to his soul's palette. But how he yearns for the full meal. This grants him the joys of knowing life and of sterring clear from spiritual death and its ultimate companion, hell.

Things on this earth are not getting better and better. They were ruined by the entrance of sin brought on by man's rebellion and disobedience. Things are falling apart on this earth and will continue to do so until the day God brings an end to this fallen existance. Living for only here and now is therefore the utmost foolishness. The wise man knows this, because he knows God. The wise man therefore lives for eternal things. He lives because of His Creator's mercy in providing salvation through Jesus Christ. He also lives FOR His Creator and Lord - knowing that this is the pathway that leads upward - path this cursed ground - into the very presence of God in glory. Oh, precious ones - take this path!

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.

There is a way which seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.  Proverbs 14:12

Why is it that we cannot just trust our natural instincts concerning God and issues of morality and truth?  If this proverb is true (and it is), then we face a very real danger when we trust what we think is right in our lives.  When we live a self-directed life and a life that is self-oriented - we are going to have very serious problems.  Why is this the case? 

First of all, we need to see that for a time in this life - this proverb may seem like it is wrong.  There are those who do what they think is right - and it seems to go well for them.  I would agree with this assessment for the here and now - for life on this earth.  But that is not what this proverb is saying to us.  It is saying that the end of a self-directed life is death.  The word end here is our old friend, "acharith," the Hebrew word meaning the latter end of things. 

Things seemed to be going marvelous for the rich farmer who did not use his riches for the glory of God.  Things seemed to be going well for the rich man who lavished abundance on himself, but did not even notice the starving Lazarus at his gate.  Things seemed to be going well for Belshazzar the king as he feasted with his nobles and friends and drank wine out of the temple goblets and toasted the gods of silver and gold.  Things seemed to be going well for many people who lived a life of luxury and self-indulgence here on earth.  The problem is going to come at the latter end of their lives.

The rich farmer, after building bigger barns and saying he was set for life - experienced the end of his life - and had done nothing to prepare for eternity.  The rich man realized as James said, the humiliation of his exalted position on earth, as he envied the destitute Lazarus' one in the afterlife.  He begged for Lazarus to only dip the tip of his finger in water and touch the end of his tongue - for he was in agony in the fires of hell.  Belshazzar soon grasped the infinite foolishness of serving the false gods of silver and gold - when the true and living God sent a hand to write on his wall.  He learned that his self-directed life had been weighed in the balances - and he was found wanting.  One can only hope he enjoyed that banquet that evening - for by the next evening he was dead and in hell - forever wanting in the sight of God.

These three are examples for us of the stupidity of the self-directed life.  There are many others in Scripture and in life who follow their footsteps into hell.  There is Dathan and Abiram who opposed God and received a non-stop trip to hell via the ground opening up and swallowing them and their families whole.  There were the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah who undoubtedly held the same concept of God keeping His morality off of their bodies.  They wound up fried along with their cities as God's judgment revealed their latter end.  And, lest we think that this ignoble end is only for those guilty of heinous sin - there are those who die every day as good ole boys - as "good" "moral" people.  Their ultimate end was sealed when they decided that they were decent enough and did not need Jesus Christ and what He did on the cross to pay for their sins. 

When you listen to the news, the entertainment industry, the religious elite, and the gurus of public opinion - you would think that the cross of Christ is foolishness (Gee that sounds like Paul in 1 Corinthians doesn't it).  You would think that mankind does not need a religious crutch to lean on - mankind can solve their own problems without religion or some savior.  But reality is this - mankind does not need a crutch.  We would only need a crutch if we were injured.  The fact is that we are dead!  We need a whole new life.  We might need a religious system if we only needed modification.  The fact is that we are ruined.  We need to be completely regenerated and made new.  But the world for the most part rejects these truths revealed to us in Scripture.  They have a way that seems right to them - that makes more sense.  That is because "the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God."  It is because, "the Jews ask for signs and the Greeks (read thinkers here) search for wisdom; but we preach Christ curcified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God." 

There is that way that seems to right to men - but in the end "THAT WAY" is actually the foolish and the stupid one.  If they continue following it and reject the gospel . . . it will end in death - eternal death in hell.  I know that is not popular in today's culture - either religious or secular - but nevertheless - it is the truth.  If we are wise we will reject what the world calls wisdom - and embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ - for that is truly wisdom that will last through all the ages and until the end of time.