Category: Worldliness

Why the Filled Go Away Hungry and the Famished are Full - Proverbs 27:7

10/3/2012

A sated man loathes honey, But to a famished man any bitter thing is sweet. Proverbs 27:7

This proverb is about much more than just when a person likes and dislikes honey. It is about hunger - first physical hunger as the physical meaning suggests - but it is about much more than just physical hunger. It is about how we walk through life - about worldliness and about knowing and walking with God.

The physical picture painted for us is very clear. When a man is sated he loathes honey. To be sated means that you are stuffed. This is like when you have eaten too much at a meal and you are miserable. It wouldn't matter what someone offered you - you would not want any part of it. This is why the man loathes something as sweet and enjoyable as honey. He is too stuffed with food to enjoy anything. The opposite is also true though. A famished man considers any bitter thing sweet. The famished man is truly hungry. He has not eaten all day long - and as a result he is ready to eat anything. Even something which others might consider bitter is sweet to him. He will take it up and eat it grateful for anything to help him with his hunger.

Beyond the physical picture shown to us are great spiritual truths for us to glean. A man sated with the world will look at the Word of God and loathe it. He is filled up with the daintes of the world and as a result has little or no spiritual hunger. 1 John tells us that everything in the world, the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the boastful pride of life comes not from the Father, but from the world. When we fill our hearts and souls with whatever our eyes desire, whatever our flesh demands, and with a heaping helping of boasting in this life - we will not have any desire for the Word, which is sweeter than the honey or the honey comb. The glories of God and what He has in store for us seem like nothing when we are glutted with worldliness and selfish pursuits. This is why it is so hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. He is so filled with what "this world" has to offer - that often he has no room left for the things of God. We need to see the danger of feasting on the world, the flesh, and the fast food of the devil. When we do - we will despise and loathe the things of our Lord.

Then there is the famished man. The man who knows that the things of this world and this life are temporary. They are fleeting pleasures - what the Bible calls lying desires. They lie to us because they constantly promise fulfillment - but in the end they do not satisfy. They don't provide contentment - they do just the opposite. They eye is never filled with seeing - the flesh is never satisfied with food - and when we set our sights on wealth and riches, they take flight and soar to the heavens, always just a little beyond our ever grasping hands. Knowing these things - he seeks God for his "daily" bread - and asks not for riches. He knows that often the man with them forgets his God. Thus he wants something more. He has heard of this One Whose Spirit within is like a spring that rises up to heaven and salvation itself. He has heard of One Whose bread of life actually fills. He seeks the One Who offers rivers of living water - not a river outside of himself - but one that God puts within that overflows out of him to bless others. He is a famished man when it comes to worldliness and sin. He is a famished man when it comes to the religion of the eyes and flesh. He knows that boasting in this life provides him nothing in the end. Therefore he hungers and thirsts after God. He has heard from One that blessed is he that hungers and thirsts for righteousness, for he will be satisfied.

This hunger makes it to where any bitter thing is sweet to him. Where the worldling is constantly receiving but is never satisfied, this one receives everything from the hand of God - good and bad - and it all works together for good in his heart and life. Whereas the worldling ever complains that it is just not enough - the spiritually hungry one has eaten of contentment itself in the presence of God. Having his spirit filled to overflowing - he knows that all that God allows in his life (whether sweet or bitter) is working on his behalf. He even knows that the light and momentary discomforts, disappointments, disconcerting events - are working toward an eternal weight of glory that cannot be ascertained. God is at work in this famished man's heart - thus any way that God's providence and sovereignty designs his circumstances are going to be satisfying for eternity.

When you look at this proverb - and the truth that it represents - you come away with the paradox of God's work in this world. The filled go away hungry - while the hungry are deeply satisfied. The difference between seeking this world - and the world to come - is the difference between knowing contentment and fulfillment in hunger - or just walking through life empty even though you are sated with the world and all it offers. Truly, blessed are the poor and destitute in spirit - for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

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Illusory Safety and Security . . . Proverbs 18:11

11/18/2010

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A rich man's wealth is his strong city, And like a high wall in his own imagination. Proverbs 18:11

There is something about wealth and riches that make men think that they are insulated from things normal men have to endure. They often use their money to avoid the troubles of the average man. Some pay bribes to officials so that they and their family do not have to be arrested or pay for tickets that have been given to them. But this is only deception. God will bring down the high wall and the fortress in which they put their trust.

There was such a man in the New Testament. In Luke chapter 12 we read about a rich man whose land was very productive. When a bumper crop came in, he wondered to himself what he should do with it. His decision was one that consisted of trusting in riches for his future. He decided to tear down his existing barns and build bigger ones to store all his food for himself. He truly saw his wealth as a strong city and a high wall behind which he could be safe. His imagination told him that when he gathered up all his wealth he would be protected and kept from the normal problems and indignities men usually faced. It was a nice illusion while it lasted. Problem was for him that it only lasted less than one hour.

God came to this safe and secure rich man and demanded of his his soul that very hour. God came to him and revealed to him the foolishness of his choices. He might have imagined that his money was his real future - but he forgot the one enemy money cannot buy off in the end. Death was coming to him - his soul was required of him - and there was absolutely nothing that his accumulated wealth could do for him in that moment. He did not choose to be "rich toward God," and in the end it cost him everything. Safety in wealth is just a bad illusion. The only safe place is in the center of God's will. We may think that our savings will protect us - but the only secure place to store up treasure is in heaven where moth and rust do not corrupt and thieves cannot break in and steal.

You may think that your riches provide safety for you - but that is only your foolish imagination. It is only the lie of the devil and the siren song of the world that would lure you in to destroy you on the rocks of death and the grave. The only safe place is under the blood of Jesus. The only true wealth is the wealth that is stored up through our good works done in the name of Jesus Christ for the glory of God. All other wealth and safety are the epitome of illusory lies. They will disappear before your eyes at death just as the promising mirage of an oasis disappears before the dreaming eyes of the man who is dying of thirst in the desert.

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Settling Down . . . in the Wrong Place - Proverbs 14:11

10/14/2010

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The house of the wicked will be destroyed, But the tent of the upright will flourish. Proverbs 14:11

The Bible calls us to be aliens and strangers in this world - while we live for a world that is to come. As you read this verse, you might wonder how it relates to this particular proverb. It has everything to do with it - because how you are directed - and where you look to receive directions will radically affect your decisions, and will in the end, decide whether you are among the wicked - or the upright. That decision in turn will have very serious consequences on whether what you do will flourish - or eventually be destroyed.

The wicked settle down in this world. This is seen in the fact that they are spoken of as being in a house. They are very comfortable in this world and comfortable with how this world operates. Thus this world has a great deal to say about what their values are and how they will live. When we "settle down" and become comfortable with the world and its ways - we are headed for trouble. James tells us that anyone who is a friend of the world is an enemy of God. The world and its ways should make us uncomfortable. We are looking for the city whose architect and builder is God. We live for the Jersusalem that is above.

Do you walk through this life comfortable with the ways of the world? One of the dangers I see in my life regularly is that through television and the various forms of media - there seems to be a constant push for me to adopt the values of this present world. If I am not careful I will become so comfortable in this world I will forget spiritual reality (which by the way IS reality itself). As I become comfortable with the world and its thinking, I will in turn become comfortable with this world and its actions and lifestyles. Before long, I will begin at first accepting the ways of the wicked - and if I am not careful - acting like them as well.

We are told the opposite in this passage too though. The tent of the upright will flourish. Note here that the upright man is spoken of as living in a tent rather than a house. The tent was the choice of those who did not choose to "settle down" in one place. They saw themselves not in the light of settling down - but as strangers and aliens who were just passing through this present world. As a result they do NOT settle down in this world - nor do they adopt its ways. There is no great need to accumulate the wealth or the things that this world values - because they are transient. They will pass away - actually we ourselves will pass away - at least in these human bodies of ours. Therefore we should not seek to get too comfortable in this world - nor become too comfortable with its ways. Our hearts need to be firmly set on heavenly things. We need to be living with heaven in view - and realize that our ultimate inheritance is there. Therefore we also look to heaven and to the Lord who is enthroned there for our values and for what we should seek.

Please do not see these comments on this proverb as an endictment on buying a house - or as a commentary on how it is better to be a Bedouin than an American. We are speaking of spiritual realities. These things represent an attitude - a choice of a lifestyle. So the question we must answer is not whether we live in a physical house or a tent - but rather whether we are settling down in our minds so that this world is our home - rather than seeing our home in the world to come. Why is this important? I guess in a crude sort of way I can refer to a cross stitch I once saw to explain this. It said, "Home is where the Heart is." There is the crux of the problem. If your home is in this world - that is what will most influence your heart. If your home is in the world to come - where God will reign in righteousness - your heart . . . your values . . . and your lifestyle will reflect it. Oh, and one last thing . . . if you live for this world - you are living for a world that will be destroyed in the end. If you live for the world to come - even now God is preparing a place for you - so that where He is - there you will be also.

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