Judges 2

The book of Judges is fascinating. It is full of adventure and excitement, but it is equally full of sadness and sin. It teaches the holiness and judgment of God in punishing rebellion, the mercy of God in responding to the cries of His people, and the power of God to save the repentant.

Judges opens with the Israelites carrying out the conquest of Canaan, the Promised Land — sort of. They only partially obeyed God’s directive to completely clear Canaan of its pagan inhabitants and the altars and idols of their false religions. Partial obedience is still disobedience. “You have not obeyed My voice,” the Lord said (v.2). The Israelites would live to regret their half-obedience: they lost the aid of their only ally (God) and they made a host of long-term, aggravating enemies (v.3).

Verse 10 is one of the saddest verses in the Bible. After Joshua’s death, “There arose another generation who did not know the Lord or the work that He had done for Israel.” Evidently parents stopped teaching their children about the Lord, stopped praying with them, stopped observing the Passover and the Sabbath days, and stopped telling their own stories of faith. The new generation abandoned the Lord altogether and turned to the worship of the Canaanite deities, “the Baals and the Ashtaroth” (v.13). Baal refers to the “god” who was thought to control the weather (extremely important to agrarian society), while the Ashtaroth was the “goddess” of love and war. Together this god-couple formed a powerful force in the spirituality of Canaan, but the Israelites should have known they were make-believe, false, imaginary ideas who could not hear their prayers, receive their worship, or bless their families.

God’s response to Israel’s spiritual adultery was to remove His protection from them. Verses 16-19 outlines a four-stage cycle that is repeated seven times in the book of Judges:

1. The Israelites rebel against God and worship idols
2. God sends a pagan tribe to oppress and harass them
3. The Israelites cry out to God for mercy
4. God sends a judge to save them from their enemies

The judges God sent to help His people were not like the judges found in American courts. These judges were God-empowered leaders who would operate as agents of God’s judgment as they fought alone or commanded tribal militias. Think of a judge as a US Marshall in the Old West — a Spirit-filled Wyatt Earp!

One reason Judges is in the Bible is to highlight the power of God’s love. Rebellion against Him always leads us to a place of suffering. But if we repent and cry out to God for mercy, He loves us so much that He hears and helps. In fact, He sent the Ultimate Judge, the Lord Jesus, to save us from our greatest enemy, death. In Him, we can live in victory! To slip into a cycle of rebellion and suffering is to sin against His love. Let’s not go there.

Proverbs 9

This chapter, like the previous one, personifies wisdom as a woman. Lady Wisdom prepares a feast, setting her table with the finest food and sending out her emissaries to invite those who desperately need what she has to offer — but they don’t know it. “Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!” she cries (v.4). The “simple” are those who live according to their natural feelings and urges. They don’t know good advice from bad, and they cannot discern wise decisions from foolish ones. They are highly impressionable. To these Wisdom pleads, “Leave your simple ways and live, and walk in the way of insight” (v.6).

In verses 7-12 we find a sampling, a tray of appetizers if you will, of what can be found on Wisdom’s menu. One is a sure-fire way to tell if a person is wise or foolish: correct their mistake, offer some advice, or give some constructive criticism. The wise person is teachable, and so they will receive the input and learn from it. They don’t have to be right every time, they just want to grow. But the fool will have the opposite response: they think they know everything already and so it is not an option for them to admit they weren’t perfect. They make excuses or blame others when something goes wrong; they don’t accept responsibility. You are really wasting your breath when you try to correct a fool — they probably aren’t listening.

Wisdom’s rival appears next. Her name is Folly (foolishness), and she is marketing to the same consumers. While Wisdom appeals to the intellect and the spirit, Folly appeals to the senses and the flesh. She is lewd and loud, yelling down the street to grab the attention of empty-headed passers-by. Like the serpent of Eden, she offers forbidden food. Whoever eats at her table will choke on it, and if they eat enough they will die from sin’s poison.

Don’t settle for what the world offers. Instead, pull up a chair every day to Wisdom’s table as you open your Bible and feast on God’s Word!

Proverbs 8

In this chapter and the next, godly wisdom is personified as a woman. She stands at the crossroads of humanity and calls out for people to come to her and learn wisdom, understanding, and truth (v.2). She calls to the “simple ones”, those who have no guidance system for their lives; she calls to the “fools”, those who intentionally, purposefully rebel against God (v.5). For those who will listen to her, Wisdom will teach them what is right (v.6-9). She will teach them to be strong (v.14), honorable (v.18), and right with God and man (v.20).

The same Wisdom that called out in Solomon’s day still calls out today. It is still the same — same holy standard of right and wrong, same hatred of sin and wickedness, same code of righteousness breathed by Holy God and recorded in Holy Scripture. In fact, it has always been the same from the beginning of time! The wisdom you read in your English Bible existed long before the English language. It was the truth “before the beginning of the earth” (v.23), before the natural world was created and before the first humans thought their first thoughts.

Though this wisdom is as old as God, it has not evolved through history, has not changed with the times, and has not morphed to fit in with the present culture. It is forevermore real and relevant…and available. You can find it, and you must find it if you want to “obtain favor from the Lord” (v.35). Answering Wisdom’s call means taking the time to listen, meeting God daily in His Word (v.34). Your commitment to that pursuit will produce the “enduring wealth” of wisdom, which is worth more than anything (v.18-19). I hope this blog encourages you in your pursuit of wisdom.

Proverbs 7

Building on the teaching of chapters 5 and 6, Solomon offers another strong warning against adultery and a plea for sexual integrity. Godly wisdom is the key to avoiding the trap of sexual sin (v.1-5).

Verse 7 says it is the “simple” person who is most susceptible to sexual temptation. To be “simple” is to be naïve, impressionable, highly influenced, and not influential. The simple are passive and they are not discerning, just drifting through life and going whichever way the wind blows them. Without the wisdom of God, there is no anchor for their soul, there is no conviction, there is no guiding reality, there is no truth by which they evaluate anything. The simple person is just carried along by whatever crowd they happen to be with and by whatever emotion they feel at the moment. One thing you learn in Proverbs is that the road of life is full of people who give bad advice — but the simple person can’t tell the difference in bad advice and good.

Consequently, when the simple person encounters the immoral woman of verses 10-23, he is defenseless against her seduction. He does not think about the implications of his actions. His only thought is to gratify his glandular urges. Without the wisdom of God he does not think ahead. He is not the only one, as she would have him believe, but one of many sexual partners (v.13-15, 26). Whatever they shared together was not special to her at all. The love that she promised would “fill” him was not love — not even close — and would leave him empty (v.18). He will likely have to deal with her husband when he returns and finds out (v.20). Worst of all, he does not know that he has spent his honor on a few moments of fun, and he would never get it back. Part of his life is gone, and what he thought would make him feel more alive has actually stolen life from him (v.22-23).

Inspired by the Holy Spirit, Solomon chose the sin of adultery to illustrate the dead-end life of the person who rejects God’s wisdom, but we could apply it to any sin: greed giving way to unethical business practices, entertainment that becomes an idol, lying that spins an impossible web of deception, experimentation that turns into substance abuse, and the list goes on and on. Without the protection of the wisdom of God (from the Word of God), I could fall for just about anything. Wisdom sets the boundaries that keep my heart from straying (v.25).

Proverbs 6

The first section of wisdom in this chapter (v.1-5) deals with the issue of financial integrity. It is unwise to make financial commitments that cannot be kept, such as co-signing a loan for a friend or family member which you know you can’t cover should they be unable to pay. The point here is not to discourage generosity, but to encourage good stewardship. God wants us to help our friends and to give to the poor, but not by making risky commitments and foolish deals.

The next section promotes the wisdom of hard work and diligence by presenting two negative examples. The first is the “sluggard” (v.6-11), the lazy person found lying in the bed to avoid working. Instead of being diligent — like the industrious ant — the lazy person ends up with nothing, unnecessarily impoverished (and dumber than a bug!).

The second negative example is the “wicked man” (v.12-15) who cheats and schemes to avoid hard work and honest gain. This kind of person ends up “broken” (and broke). The section about God’s hatred (v.16-19) is a strongly-worded warning against the kind of activities in which this sort of person engages. It would be difficult to find stronger words in Scripture to express God’s displeasure than “hate” and “abomination”.

The final section of this chapter is a warning against adultery. Nothing can destroy a marriage and wreck a home as quickly and as painfully as adultery. There is a reason this sin made God’s “Top Ten” (Exodus 20:14). It burns away precious things like trust, integrity, and respect — third-degree relational burns that leave ugly scars (v.27-28). Adultery “destroys” and “wounds” and “dishonors” and “disgraces” (v.32-33). Because of this stern warning, married couples should do everything they can to protect marriage, including setting boundaries, establishing accountability, and keeping Christ at the very center of their relationship.

Proverbs 5

I begin with some context for Solomon’s teachings on sexual-marital purity in Proverbs chapters 5-7: Solomon was a man who knew the devastating consequences of sexual sin and marital infidelity. His own older brother, the product of the adulterous affair of David and Bathsheba, tragically died in infancy (see 2 Samuel 12). Solomon’s half-sister, Tamar, was raped by his half-brother, Amnon, who was in turn murdered by another half-brother, Absalom (see 2 Samuel 13). Years after Solomon wrote and compiled the Proverbs, as an old man, he himself experienced the consequences of violating God’s standards for sexuality. While God’s plan is for sex to be enjoyed only between a man and a woman who are married to each other, Solomon’s lust turned him into a man who couldn’t be satisfied by a thousand partners (I’m not exaggerating — read 1 Kings 11:1-8 and do the math).

That context is germane to this chapter because the wisdom Solomon teaches here deals with the issue of sexual integrity. The first section of the chapter (v.1-6) describes the lifestyle of the “forbidden” woman (v.3). This archetypical immoral person has found the moral “freedom” of many in our culture today. She does whatever feels good, follows every sexual urge and craving, and she does not know that the thrill of sin will eventually kill her.

The forbidden woman represents all that is off-limits to us sexually: the spouse of another, the casual fornication, the explicit online image, the same-sex partner, and anyone else who is not your spouse. Solomon advises that the only sure way to protect against sexual sin and to maintain sexual integrity is to set boundaries in your life: “Keep your way far from her, and do not go near the door of her house” (v.8). Adrian Rogers said, “If you don’t want to fall down, stop walking in slippery places.”

Solomon urges his son to save his “honor” for his spouse (v.9). Sexual fulfillment is not found in a variety of partners and experiences, but within a loving marriage (v.15-20). Solomon’s poetic rendering of this truth does justice to the beauty of marital intimacy. To stray from God’s design in this area is to be trapped in one’s own sin and to suffer the consequences of foolishness. Our culture may have lowered sexual standards to the point that they have disappeared altogether, but God still holds His standard high.

Note: If you are trapped in some kind of sexual sin or addiction, God has a better plan for you. He is able to break “the cords of sin” (v.22) and forgive you. The first step is to admit to God that you have violated His standard and call out to Him for mercy. In Christ, you can be clean and pure again.

Proverbs 4

My Heavenly Father blessed me with a great earthly father. My Dad is wise and godly, and his advice is one of the major ways God has guided my life. As my own sons have grown up I have tried to pass that wisdom on to them. Maybe God will someday bless my sons with sons — then they can continue the tradition of father-son talks that shape the lives of boys. In Proverbs chapter 4 we find a father-son talk for the ages.

As King Solomon called his sons close in order to teach them some life lessons, he began with the words of his father, King David (v.4-9). The gist of the advice he wanted to pass along to a new generation was simply this: if you want to succeed in all the ways that truly matter, get wisdom and insight (v.5, 7). Wisdom is a world-view that says, “Here is what I know about God, and this is how I apply what I know about God to the details of my life.” Insight (also translated “understanding”) means looking at every situation, opportunity, and person in your life through the filter of godly wisdom, and consequently seeing people and things from God’s perspective. Solomon told his children what his father had told him: gaining wisdom and insight (the source of which is God) should be the principal pursuit of your life.

In the remainder of this chapter, Solomon reveals how that pursuit is a daily process of choosing between two paths, the way of wisdom (v.11) and the way of the wicked (v.19). We should see every moment in life as a fork in the road, a choice to walk in the light of God’s presence, living by His guidelines and for His glory — or to stumble in the darkness of human wisdom, which is infected with sin and consequently always leads to destruction (v.18-19).

The Bible says to “ponder the path of your feet” (v.26). Every step you take today is important: the way you react to that insensitive comment, the words you say and the things you leave unsaid, how you schedule your day, the quality of your work, where you allow your mind to wander in your down time. These are the little decisions that determine your destiny; these are the building blocks of your integrity. Choose carefully. Seek the Lord and walk wisely today.