10:7 Blessed Memory, Rotten Name

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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10:6 Blessed Head vs. Violent Mouth

April 25th, 2010

Bishop Stephen Gardiner of Winchester who condemned Taylor.

Blessings are on the head of the righteous, but violence covers the mouth of the wicked. —Proverbs 10:6

During the reign of Queen Mary Tudor, many Protestant churchmen were put to death for their faith. Bishops Bonner and Gardiner were her main agents. Gardiner, who had sworn an oath to serve the Reformation, and then switched sides, was especially notorious for his insults, jeers, and sarcasm toward the men he examined. One of these was Rowland Taylor, a pastor of godly character from a village fifty miles from London.

Gardiner greeted the holy man with his usual barrage of disparaging words (violence covering his lips), and soon enough contrived to do real violence, having Taylor condemned to death for views which differed from those of Rome. To make an example of him, the bishop had him burned to death in the town where he had preached.

The sheriff and his men who took Taylor home to die were amazed at the joy with which he approached death, and at the love and reverence his people showed him. Along the route people called blessings on their good pastor, thanking him aloud for kindnesses he had done to them. One old lady knelt beside him as he made his final prayer, and would not be driven away.

Taylor died patiently. In this he was like his Lord and master, Jesus Christ. Blessings cover Christ’s head and always will, especially the blessing of God who said, “This is my beloved Son.” But violence, jeers, mocking and curses covered the mouth of our Lord’s opponents, who wagged their heads at him while he was on the cross, and taunted him with the words, “He saved others, let him save himself.”

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13:12 Hope Deferred

April 22nd, 2010

Charles Spurgeon found hope.

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when the desire comes it is a tree of life. Proverbs 13:12.

Again and again we read similar stories. Charles Spurgeon tells how miserable he was as a young man longing for salvation from his sins, and what relief he experienced when he learned to look to Jesus. George Whitefield prayed under hedgerows in the rain seeking God and when at last he found hope in Christ, became a messenger of revival.

David Brainerd cried out in desperation for some medication to allay his sin sick heart and finally saw the crucified Christ. In each case these men had grown desperate to the point of despair. When Christ became their hope, he was a tree of life not just to them but to countless multitudes whom they led to Christ.

Little wonder then that Paul described Jesus as the “Hope of Israel” (Acts 28:20). He is that and, in the words of an Old Testament prophet, “the desire of nations” (Haggai 2:7). Jesus, this desire of nations, was only stating the bare truth when he declared himself “the life.”

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10:19 Wordy Sins

April 4th, 2010

Abraham Lincoln, whose Gettysburg Address is a masterpiece of brevity.

When words are many, sin is not absent, but he who holds his tongue is wise. Proverbs 10:19.

The more we talk or write, the more likely we are to say something stupid, false, or harmful. Josephus is an example. His lengthy histories, which were written to ingratiate the Romans, reveal him as a schemer, boaster, and a traitor to his own nation. As his biographer Bentwich says, “Hard circumstances compelled him to choose between a noble and an ignoble part, between heroic action and weak submission. He was a mediocre man, and chose the way that was not heroic and glorious. Posterity gained something by his choice; his own reputation was fatally marred by it.”

Short speeches and writings often have power completely out of proportion to their length. Consider Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. He spoke so briefly that the professional photographer did not have time to complete the adjustment of his old-fashioned equipment. The other lengthy orations of that historic occasion have not been remembered, but what an inspiration the president’s few words became to the United States!

Jesus also couched almost all of his most memorable teachings in just a few, well-chosen words and images. Such were the Lord’s Prayer, the Beatitudes, all of the parables, and most of his answers to questions. Only the Sermon on the Mount, the Olivet Discourse, and his final instructions to his disciples before his crucifixion approach lengthiness. He knew the power of succinctness and showed an absolute mastery of his tongue that we would do well to emulate.

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22:12 Truth Prevails

March 28th, 2010

Reconstructed neanderthal man.

The eyes of the LORD keep watch over knowledge, but he frustrates the words of the unfaithful.

Proverbs 22:12.

When I see truth buried and lies ascendent, the words of this proverb are a solace. Although a lie may hold sway a long time, history shows that lies eventually succumb to facts. The difficulty is to know which example to present.

Should we select an example from biology? There we were taught that humans descended from Neanderthals. This has recently been refuted by DNA comparisons. The Bible position was that the humans were uniquely created. Or what of those who claimed different origins for the races? Mitochondria testing recently demonstrated that all humans sprang from a common female ancestor less than 100,000 years ago, which also tallies with Scripture which has all mankind springing from a common progenitor.

Perhaps our example should be from taken from history. Anti-christian scholars who seemed impressive in the 19th-century are largely ignored now. Research has overtaken them. For instance, although one still hears claims that Christianity borrowed its “mythology” from the pagans, those at the center of research know that this position has been refuted, so much so that opponents of Christian faith now resort to even more absurd attempts to derive Christianity from Gnosticism.

In astronomy, efforts to show a completely natural explanation for the origin of the universe have instead led to an understanding that it began out of nothing visible a finite time ago, and has stretched out since—the position the Bible took all along.

Such examples could be multiplied. False theories are impressive at their inception, but ultimately doomed by the facts. Where people persist in error, their self-deceit tends to entrap them and bring them down; but that is a theme for another blog.

The words of Christ’s opponents, like their names, are mostly forgotten. His words fill the earth. They prevailed with lies to crucify him. His truths triumphed when God raised him from the dead.

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15:11 All-Seeing

March 14th, 2010

Roentgen, discoverer of X-rays.

Hell and destruction are before the Lord: how much more, then, the hearts of the children of men?

Since the seventeenth century, discovery after discovery has peeled open the universe to the eyes of men. The result has been a revelation of the miniscule and the distant, the hidden and the ancient. It began with scientists such as Galileo and Leeuwenhoek using clumsy telescopes and microscopes, and advanced as old tools were improved and new tools added. Herschell discovered the infrared. Maxwell predicted radio waves and Hertz detected them. Roentgen stumbled on x-rays. Knoll and Ruska invented the first electron microscope.

A host of other pioneers gave us radio telescopes, ultrasound equipment, ultraviolet detectors, DNA testing, magnetic resonance imaging, carbon dating and other techniques. We now can see inside cells and back to a split second after creation—things our forefathers had no idea would ever be seen. Is it any wonder then, that the Bible declares that God, the maker of all things, is able to peer into what he has made? His knowledge is infinitely advanced beyond ours. Through a spiritual back door poorly understood by us, he can even “see” what is going on in our minds and wills.

Humans are also groping toward the ability to see into others’ minds. This goes beyond what shrewd readers of body-language do when they analyze a subject’s psychological state. New techniques allow us to study brain states. Under laboratory conditions scientific teams can even determine with a fair degree of accuracy which of several pre-arranged objects a thinker is focusing on. This is all very primitive.

Jesus, too, had a deep understanding of human nature and sometimes knew just what was on a person’s mind. We have an instance in which he described Nathanael reading under the fig tree and again, before Peter had said a word, put him on the spot about the temple tax which Peter had just been discussing with religious leaders. John sums up Christ’s clear perception of humans with these words, “Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs which he did; but Jesus did not trust himself to them, because he knew all men and needed no one to bear witness of man; for he himself knew what was in man” (John 2:23-25).

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12:11 Frivolity or Labor?

February 28th, 2010

Space Invaders

He who tills his land will be satisfied with bread, but he who follows frivolity is devoid of understanding.

Years ago, I banned video games from my home and pulled my computer games into the trash, too. Too often they had held me captive longer than they should. I knew first-hand just how addictive they could be and saw how pernicious they were for some young men who lived with us. When they should have been finding work and taking their first steps to success they were instead battling imaginary enemies. Unable to conquer their sins and worthless desires, they fancied themselves conquerors of empires.

We are never shown Jesus indulging in an act of personal amusement. He came to do a job and did it. When his enemies took up stones to kill him he said, “Many good works have I showed you from my Father; for which of those works do you stone me?” (John 10:32).

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17:27 Few Words, Calm Replies

February 14th, 2010

Christ before Ciaphas.

He that has knowledge spares his words; and a man of understanding is of a cool spirit.

One of my favorite scenes in the movie Radio (based on a true story) has Coach Harold Jones (well-played by Ed Harris) criticized in the barber shop for brefriending Radio, a young man with a disability. Rather than defend himself with many words, he asks, “Is that what you think Radio is? A Distraction?” Setting down his coffee cup he adds in a calm voice, “Think I’m going to do us all a big favor and let you all finish this one on your own.”

Whether or not that was the real character of Jones (he loses his temper with a referee once), he comes across as terse, wise and self-controlled in this scene and several others. It aptly illustrates Solomon’s proverb.

Jesus illustrates it even better. His teachings were terse and memorable. His responses to heckling and to honest questions were brief, well-considered, and to the point. On several occasions (most notably with the woman taken in adultery, and at his trials), the Gospels comment on his silence. In all these things, he showed true knowledge and understanding.

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16:3 Established Mind

February 7th, 2010

Robert Boyle, a Christian maker of modern science, struggled with doubts early in his Christian life.

16:3 Commit your works to the Lord and your thoughts will be established.

After Robert Boyle committed his life to God at the age of sixteen, he struggled against thoughts of suicide. The reason? Much of the “science” of the seventeenth century went so contrary to the Word of God that he was torn in his mind. Both could not be true.

In the end he opted for the Word of God but determined to study the sciences to see if he could sort out the truth for himself. The results were peace of mind and new light on the sciences. He exposed the errors of alchemy, moved the world toward a more accurate understanding of chemistry, and became a charter member of the Royal Society. He proved in his own person that true science and reasonable faith are not at odds.

The legacy of his faith was of great value to national culture and to science. As his confidence grew, he shared his thoughts with contemporaries. They made bestsellers of his science object lessons. More importantly (as far as the present age is concerned) it was in refuting certain skeptical propositions of Thomas Hobbes that Boyle promulgated his law of gases which still stands. He created the scientific paper as we know it, which describes the hypothesis, tools, and conditions of an experiment.

Moving from the example of Boyle to that of Christ, it is evident that our Savior committed his ways to the Father. He did so with such fullness that he could say “I and the Father are one” (John 10). As a result his thoughts were recorded by his followers and are established as scripture throughout the entire world. So certain was Christ of the validity of his words and his unity with the Father that he could call everyone to take his yoke upon them and learn from him (Matthew 11:28-30). Now that is the ultimate example of having one’s thoughts established.

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28:23 Rebuke and Flattery

January 31st, 2010

Peter Cartwright, fearless evangelist.

He who rebukes a man will find more favor afterward
Than he who flatters with the tongue.

Peter Cartwright, a frontier evangelist in 19th-century America, was noted for his boldness. He spoke fearlessly of the things of Christ to high and low. In one notable instance, he warned “Old Hickory,” General Andrew Jackson, future president of the United States, that unless he repented, he would be damned to hell just as surely as the lowliest slave who rejected Christ.

Another preacher apologized for Cartwright’s blunt words. Jackson retorted that Christ’s ministers ought to love everyone and fear no mortal man. He added that he wished he had thousands of officers with the courage of Cartwright.

Jesus, too, did not flatter with the tongue. When Peter tried to tell him he did not have to go to the cross, Jesus replied, “Get behind me, Satan! You do not have in mind the things of God.” That retort taught Peter—and us—a more memorable lesson than a thousand soft words would have done.

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10:5 Summer Son

January 24th, 2010

Inside McCormick's blacksmith shop in Virginia.

He who gathers in summer is a wise son: but he who sleeps in harvest is a son who causes shame.

There was a time in the United States (and much of the rest of the world) when every able-bodied person was needed to get in the harvest. It made no sense to increase acreage in wheat, because the window for reaping was so narrow and the number of hands required to get the crop in was so great. Had any able-bodied farm-boy slept over-late at harvest, he would have been the butt of scorn. As it was, despite the best efforts of farmers, hogs had to be turned into the fields to fatten when the grain became overripe.

Cyrus McCormick changed that by inventing the first machine with the seven essential parts of a true reaper. He was jeered at first and his efforts considered folly because his reaper did not work well on the uneven, hilly ground of his native Virginia. But he persisted, and the US became the breadbasket of the world.

Jesus placed this whole concept on a spiritual level. There are fields of souls waiting for harvest. He commanded his disciples to reap them now and set the example as God’s only begotten son. Will we not be rebuked in the judgment if we have idled our hours and allowed our neighbors to perish without the word of truth?

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17:16 Wasted Education

January 17th, 2010

Seal of the University of Paris.

Why is there a price in the hand of a fool to get wisdom, seeing he has no heart for it?

As an older adult returning to school to pick up some skills, I notice that many of the youngsters seem serious about education. But there is a large subgroup attending for other reasons. Some have come to play. Others to find a mate. Still others seek reinforcement for ideas they have already picked up, or the chance to organize others around an ideal. Returning students, as a whole, seem more determined to get their money’s worth.

This generation is no different in that respect than others. I noted the same tendencies when I was in college as a teenager. Perhaps a rich father was footing the bill of the wastrel—or the government. That is why I like the New Living Translation for this verse. “It is senseless to pay tuition to educate a fool, since he has no heart for learning.”

Wasted educational opportunities are not a problem limited to our time. Accounts of roistering, rioting, and recklessness crop up with fair frequency in the histories of great educational institutions. For example, the St. Scholastica Day riot at Oxford in 1355 began with a dispute over beer. It left 63 scholars and half as many townsfolk dead. A Shrove Tuesday strike in Paris in 1229 also began over drink—a tavern bill. Angry students smashed businesses with wooden clubs. In retaliation, city guards cornered and killed a group of students.

We have no record that Christ attended school. However, he had clearly set himself to learn what God the Father desired even while young, as his tough questions to the religious leaders in the temple at twelve years of age showed. At thirty, he became a rabbi (teacher).

His hearers formed a cross-section similar to modern students. Some scoffed. Some listened but went away, forgetting immediately what he said. Others “followed from afar.” A few took his words to heart and became the first Christians, who transformed the world through their master’s power.

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18: 1 Being Exclusive

January 10th, 2010

John Nelson Darby

A man who isolates himself seeks his own desire; He rages against all wise judgment. Proverbs 18:1.

Two of the most influential theologians of the 19th-century were probably not men you would have felt comfortable with for any length of time. J.N. Darby and Arthur Pink each felt they had the corner on truth and had no use for anyone who didn’t hold their opinions and methods. It was a sad spectacle to see how each narrowed their circle and narrowed it again until almost no one remained in it. Darby, who had once been a leader in the Plymouth Brethren, formed his own small exclusive group of churches called Darbyites. Pink and his wife moved to an island to live alone, refusing association with any church at all, although issuing an influential teaching newsletter.

You have to realize that the men they were renouncing were of the caliber of George Mueller and D. L. Moody.

Contrast that with their Lord, who took a much broader view. When John told him “Master, we saw a man casting out devils in your name, and he does not follow us: and we forbade him, because he does not follow us.”

But Jesus said, “Don’t forbid him: for there is no man who will do a miracle in my name, that can lightly speak evil of me. For whoever is not against us is for us.”

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14:28 Necessary People

January 3rd, 2010

Alfred the Great at his studies.

In a multitude of people is a king’s honor, but in the lack of people is the downfall of a prince.

Unlike some historic princes who treated their people as so many creatures to be plundered, tortured, and misused at will, Alfred the Great recognized the importance of people and their diverse abilities.

In a famous comment in his translation of Boethius he wrote, “…no man can show any skill, nor exercise or control any power, without tools and materials. There are of every craft the materials without which man cannot exercise the craft. These, then, are a king’s materials and his tools to reign with: that he have his land well peopled; he must have prayer-men, and soldiers, and workmen. You know that without these tools no king can show his craft.”

Jesus accepted many of the limitations of earthly kings, choosing not to achieve his goals by fiat. Instead, he works through a people, who he himself draws and prepares for his work, and empowers with necessary gifts so that they can carry out his work. Like Alfred, he relies upon people to allow him to demonstrate his “craft.”

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5:21-23 Ensnared by Sin

December 27th, 2009

Cardinal Wolsey

Godless Cardinal Wolsey

For a man’s ways are in full view of the LORD, and he examines all his paths. The evil deeds of a wicked man ensnare him; the cords of his sin hold him fast. He will die for lack of discipline, led astray by his own great folly. Proverbs 5:21-23.

Cardinal Wolsey, after a long life of wickedness, which included every kind of self-indulgence, extortion, political maneuvering and worldliness, fell afoul of his master, King Henry VIII. The King summoned him to London to give an accounting.

Knowing that he would most likely be found guilty and executed, the churchman dosed himself so heavily with purges that he died. Before death took him, he said, “Had I but served God as diligently as I have served the king, he would not have given me over in my gray hairs.”

What a contrast Christ Jesus presents to Wolsey. Because of his faultless and disciplined life, which sacrificed everything for obedience, God did not allow him to see corruption, but raised him from the dead, to reign forever and ever. He had no lament of failure as he went to his death.

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25:14 False Gifts

December 16th, 2009

Whoever boasts himself of a false gift is like clouds and wind without rain.

The Death of Ananias by Masaccio.

The Death of Ananias by Masaccio.

One of the most terrifying stories in the Bible is that of Ananias and Sapphira. This pair sold a field, and held back some of the money, but wanting a reputation as great givers, pretended they had given the whole amount. There was nothing wrong with keeping some back. The sin lay in the pretense. God slew them, saying they had lied to the Holy Spirit. They had given a hypocritical gift, but God saw through it.

A man who lived not far from me gave a false gift of another sort. He gave his church large sums he could not afford, and when he had backed himself into a financial corner, attempted to stage an “accidental” death on his wife and children so he could collect their insurance. The fruits of his hypocrisy ruined himself and destroyed his family.

Christ’s giving, by contrast, was thoroughly genuine and cost him more than we can understand with our present knowledge.

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22:2 No More Rich vs. Poor

December 5th, 2009

Karl Marx raged against the rich.

Karl Marx raged against the rich.

Rich and poor have this in common: The Lord is Creator of them all.

It is common for Marxists to rage against the rich. It is common for the rich to denigrate the poor and commoners as Gasset y Ortega did in The Revolt of the Masses. Either attitude is wrong. Rich and poor are on the same plane before God. He made both categories. Wealthy and impoverished alike are sinners before him. As Scriptures says, “He imprisoned all men under disobedience so that he might have mercy on them all.” (Romans 11:32)

Jesus dealt as easily with the wealthy as with the impoverished. He was equally master whether he mingled in the top or the bottom of society. He rebuked the rich as readily as the poor. There was no favoritism with him. In this, as in all things, he lived out the Word of God.

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20:8 Royal Justice

November 28th, 2009

King Alfred the Great, a stickler for justice.

King Alfred the Great, a stickler for justice.

A king that sits in the throne of judgment scatters away all evil with his eyes.

This proverb tells us how it ought to be, not how it is. Many kings have created injustice from their thrones.

One who genuinely tried to scatter evil was King Alfred the Great. Ruling at a time of war with serious social breakdown, he was determined to restore justice in his land. Consequently he required all his judges to learn to read the law, or to have it read to them. An old document says he hanged forty-four justices in a single year for sentencing men who had been acquitted, for allowing irregular juries, for sending a madman and a minor to death, for punishing a man for an offense committed by his wife, and for usurpation of jurisdiction. He also ejected a number of judges for lesser abuses.

When Christ comes, he will judge his church with faithful justice. There will be no eluding his piercing eyes and complete knowledge not only of our actions but of our motives. He is the ideal king who fulfills this verse perfectly.

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18:9 Are You a Wrecker?

November 22nd, 2009

The Hyatt Regency, now known as the Hyatt Regency Crown Center.

The Hyatt Regency was renamed as the Hyatt Regency Crown Center.

One who is slothful in his work is brother to one that is a great destroyer.

We often hear of loss and disaster caused by someone getting careless. The Tacoma Narrows Bridge went down because its engineers built the structure on the cheap. Fortunately, no people lost their lives. At Chernobyl, arrogant engineers built a nuclear plant without rudimentary safety features. Hundreds of thousands of people were affected when the reactor melted down. In Bhopul India, thousands died in a chemical disaster which could have been prevented with elementary precautions and prompt action. At the Hyatt Regency, 114 people died and 200 more were injured owing to faulty engineering.

One does not have to be a terrorist to achieve massive destruction and loss of life. Carelessness, corner cutting, drug use, taking the easy way out—all of these will produce the same results as an anarchist’s bomb.

By contrast, Christ cut no corners. At great expense to himself he did the right thing at the right time. He waited until he was of mature age—until his “time had come”—before plunging into his ministry. Before selecting his twelve disciples, he spent the night in prayer. He waited just the right number of days before returning to Judea to raise Lazarus from death. Such examples could be multiplied. One senses that there was not an unnecessary movement nor a wasted moment in his life.

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9:10 Wisdom in Fearing God

November 15th, 2009
King George III. Portrait by Allan Ramsay.

King George III. Portrait by Allan Ramsay.

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.

George III, the British king against whom the United States revolted, suffered periodic bouts of insanity, probably owing to porphyria, a disorder in which cells fail to make the hemes that give blood their color. George, however, was a Christian. The following anecdote shows him wiser than many a more “normal” king.

One of his first acts after his accession to the throne, was to issue an order prohibiting any of the clergy who should be called to preach before him from paying him any compliment in their discourses. His Majesty was led to this from a fulsome adulation which Dr. Thomas Wilson, prebendary of Westminster, thought proper to deliver in the Chapel-Royal. Instead of thanks, Wilson received from his royal auditor a pointed reprimand, his Majesty observing, “I came to chapel to hear the praises of God, not my own.”

In this George was like Christ Jesus, who lived to bring honor to the Father. The result, according to the Apostle Peter, was that God honored him. “For he received from God the Father honor and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, ‘This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’” (2 Peter 1:17)

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