Archive for May, 2010

14:4 Inconveniences

Sunday, May 23rd, 2010

Oxen wagon train in South Africa.

Where no oxen are, the trough is clean; but much increase comes by the strength of an ox. Proverbs 14:4.

Anyone who has had to muck out a barn knows what a nasty chore it is. When you maintain farm animals, you can expect to clean up manure, shovel feed, and other undesirable tasks. In the old days, when people needed animals to plow and to grind, there was no choice. The effort was amply repaid, however. The labor of the oxen and horses greatly multiplied productivity. The point of this proverb is that to get results we often have to put up with inconveniences.

The story of our salvation is a story of Christ putting up with inconveniences. There was the inconvenience of leaving his throne in heaven. There were the inconveniences of poverty, cold, hunger, overwork, tiredness, misunderstanding, vilification, and crucifixion. He endured all these things to demonstrate what it means to have absolute obedience to God the Father. His inconvenience resulted in our salvation and much multiplication of fruit.

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21:6 Gain of Lies

Sunday, May 9th, 2010

Enron complex.

Getting treasures by a lying tongue is the fleeting fantasy of those who seek death.—Proverbs 21:6

The collapse of Enron Corporation revealed a great scandal. Through systematic fraud, it had presented a prosperous front before its bankruptcy in 2001. CEO Kenneth Lay died of a heart attack while awaiting sentencing.

Fraudulent schemes such as Enron’s are all too common. Some, in fact, are quite politically correct, such as the vast fraud at Fannie and Freddie which, under guise of concern for the poor, helped bring about the housing collapse of 2008. Carbon credits, a current favorite, is promoted by certain environmentalists supposedly to reduce carbon emissions, but actually to transfer wealth, especially to its high profile political promoters.

All such schemes are driven by greed. Inevitably little people get hurt by them. And what, in the end, do the chiselers at the top reap from their plunder? At most they will enjoy their gains a hundred years and afterwards cannot take a penny with them as they slide into eternal death.

The character of Christ is so different. “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that you through his poverty might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9). We cannot imagine the wealth and glory that Christ left behind him in heaven to descend to earth, live as a pauper, speak truth fearlessly, and die the death of a criminal. For that self-sacrifice God has given him the name that is above all names.

The Enron image is from Eflon on Flickr.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/eflon/ / CC BY 2.0

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10:7 Blessed Memory, Rotten Name

Sunday, May 2nd, 2010

Raoul Wallenberg, blessed for trying to save Jews.

The memory of the righteous is blessed, but the name of the wicked will rot. —Proverbs 10:7

In Israel there is a memorial to “righteous gentiles,” whose names include such figures as Corrie Ten Boom and Raoul Wallenberg. Books and movies perpetuate the memory of these brave individuals who attempted to save Jews from extermination by the Nazis. The memory of the righteous is blessed. By contrast, even authors who claim there is no absolute right or wrong, concede that Hitler was evil and find grounds to deplore him. Indeed, so great is the abhorrence of this ruthless man, that political opponents label each other as Nazis or Fascists, so as to daub each other with something of Hitler’s opprobrium.

This brings us to the most righteous of men. The memory of Christ is revered by billions, so that the highest compliment you can pay a person is to call him or her “christlike.” A complement is a form of blessing. The memory of Judas his betrayer, Caiphas his accuser, and Pontius Pilate his judge resound with infamy to this day.

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