Upright Civil Instruction (3)

Proverbs 14 and the Moral Weight of Civil Leadership

Please be seated. Turn with me in your Bibles, please, to Proverbs 14, beginning our reading in verse 28. Proverbs 14, 28, hear now the inerrant, infallible, and inspired Word of God. In the multitude of people is the king's honor, but in the want of people is the destruction of the prince.

He that is slow to wrath is of great understanding, but he that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly. A sound heart is the life of the flesh, but envy the rottenness of the bones. He that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his maker, but he that honoreth him hath mercy on the poor.

The wicked is driven away in his wickedness, but the righteous hath hope in his death. Wisdom resteth in the heart of him that hath understanding, but that which is in the midst of fools is made known.

Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people. The king's favor is toward a wise servant, but his wrath is against him that causeth shame. May God add his blessing to the reading and hearing of his most holy Word.

The tinker John Bunyan will help us with some information before we begin our sermon today. Jerusalem was also now become the very sink of sin and seat of hypocrisy, a gulf where true religion was drowned.

Here also now reigned presumption and groundless confidence in God, which is the bane of souls. Amongst its rulers, doctors, and leaders, envy, malice, and blasphemy vented itself against the power of godliness in all places where it was espied, as also against the promoters of it.

Yea, their Lord and Maker could not escape them. In a word, Jerusalem was now become the shambles, the very slaughter shop for saints. This was the place wherein the prophets, Christ, and his people were most horribly persecuted and murdered.

The Jerusalem sinner's saying is the essay. Well beloved, last time we finished our intro into the passage which speaks of civil policy for king and subjects through verse 35. We saw that not only does a king advance his kingdom to prosperity through sound godly policy, he diminishes that same kingdom through ungodly policy.

The ungodly policies we looked at were idolatry. We saw many leave their inheritance and come home to Jerusalem to worship the true God. We also looked at what it means to be slow to wrath and how if the king is endued with so great a power under God, then being soon angry often leads to injustice.

If he is hasty of spirit, if he acts impulsively, if he is easily provoked, his reign will not be established in righteousness. And so seeing that the throne is established in righteousness, his kingdom will not stay.

It will not last. And finally, we looked at ourselves. Are we slow to wrath, slow to speech, and quick to hear? We often get the leaders that we deserve. If we are an angry people, do not be surprised if the Lord grants to us angry rulers.

We ended up then with a call to prayer for peace and quietness in the land, that the Lord would grant that to us as we hope in him. All right, so that took us down through verse 29. Now we move on to verse 30, and it reads, He that, sorry, a sound heart is the life of the flesh, but envy is the rottenness of the bones.

The word for soundness is used 16 times in the Hebrew Scriptures. It's often translated as wholesome, sound, healing, health, remedy, that which pacifies. A related use is Proverbs 16, verse 24, which says, Pleasant words are as a honeycomb sweet to the soul and health to the bones.

The word health is the same word. So on the one side, then, we have this soundness of heart, but its counterpart, its opposite, is envy. Envy, not soundness of heart. So what I would like to do is I would like to take them in the opposite order that they're presented.

I want to start with envy and then move toward soundness or health of heart. We're not, we're not strangers to envy. We've been talking about envy a lot. The Lord has brought us through several situations and Scriptures that we have been studying in our normal course to speak to us about envy.

We heard earlier today from Philippians chapter 1, that there were a group of people in Paul's day that were preaching out of envy and contention. They were jealous of the Apostle Paul's ministry. And so when he went to prison for that preaching, they preached the more to add affliction to his bonds.

It was because of envy. We have also spoken of Haman and Mordecai, and how really what Haman desired was Mordecai's stayed resolved in his ways. And he envied that and he and that Mordecai was a man of principle and would not bow.

What was the only thing that Haman ended up wanting in the world? The thing that he could not have, Mordecai's respect and honor, right? He envied Mordecai for his position. Number one is a Jew. Number two is favored sitting in the king's gate.

And then number three, that he would not bow before him. And so out of envy, he sought to destroy not just Mordecai, but an entire people. So we're not strangers to envy as we come to this study. And I want us to remember here that envy is the enemy of proper leadership in any kind of authority.

Notice that as we have taken this in our context, a sound heart, that is a sound heart in the king, is the life of the flesh, not just his own flesh, but the flesh under him. If a king is sound of heart, if he's healthy of heart, if he knows how to behave himself, if he's pointed himself toward heaven, well, that's going to be soundness for all flesh under his domain.

But notice also that envy is the rottenness of the bones, exactly the opposite. That envy doesn't make for health. Envy makes for rottenness in the bones, the decay of the bones. And of course, Solomon will use bones there because the bones are the bottom.

That's the foundation. That's the scaffold on which your body is built. What would you be without bones? Children, have you ever thought about that? Where would you be without your bones? Well, here's all your flesh without bones.

Let me move. Well, I can't. I can't move. I can't stand. Not even sure if we could breathe. What do our bones do? Our bones are the bottom, the basis of our existence. And Solomon will say that envy is rottenness at the base, at the bottom of our existence.

If you want to be rotten to the core, as they say, well, then start with envy. That will get you there. But even more for a leader and for a ruler in any kind of authority, envy is a curse, not only upon him, but upon all those over whom he exercises his authority.

Envy in Leaders Destroys Kingdoms

So let's look at a few passages of scripture to begin this discussion. The first is Matthew chapter 27. This is the trial of Christ under Pilate. And so what happens in this trial? It's a very interesting thing.

So they bring Christ to Pilate and Pilate will interview Christ, right? Art thou the king of the Jews? And so on. That's a few verses back. But then at the feast, the governor was want to release under the people of prisoner whom they would.

Let me explain that to you. So when the Romans moved into a place, they did not really take their religion with them. They weren't about the religion. I would, I would posit, this is my own opinion, I'll give it to you as my opinion, that they knew that their pantheon of gods was not, were not really gods.

They weren't interested in it. What was Rome really interested in? It was interested in power. It was interested in rule. It was interested in expanding borders. It was interested in having the goods and services and slaves and minerals and everything from a wider and wider expanding territory.

But so they expanded and expanded and expanded. And that's what they were interested in was the power. And of course, they did some good things with that power. We have what we call the Pax Romana, right?

That there was largely peace in the known world at that time because no one dared stand up against Rome and they tried through natural light with some success and mostly failure to exercise justice in the land.

They had, they, they didn't have an emperor that ruled over them as a single man, but there was a Senate. There was always this fighting between the Senate and the emperor. It doesn't sound familiar at all.

And so there was that. They, they enacted through some natural light to provide for justice and so on. And there were these governors, these local governors like Pilate who ruled pretty much independently, although they were answerable to their proconsuls above them.

But what's really interesting about this is that Pilate as a leader could identify defects in other leaders. And this is a very important principle as we come to this passage, because what we read is Pilate says to them, and you can almost see the tongue in his cheek when he says it, there's this guy, he's a murderer and an insurrectionist, a really bad guy.

And then there's Christ over here. And he says to them, well, it's your feast. You know, we always honor the religions of our conquered people. And so at the feast, I want to give you a prisoner. So which will it be?

Will it be Barabbas? This really, really bad guy that you don't really want running loose somewhere. Or will it be Jesus who is called Christ? And then Matthew gives his inspired commentary on that offer of Pilate.

Listen to what it says in verse 17. Therefore, when they were gathered together, Pilate said unto them, Whom will ye that I release unto you, Barabbas or Jesus, which is called Christ? For he knew that for envy they had delivered him.

You see what Pilate is doing. Pilate has recognized their envy in their local government, that they've delivered Christ up, not for a crime, but because he's gathering disciples and they envy him. You see how envy is the bane of good government.

So they choose Barabbas. We'll take a murderer instead of someone who will strike at our popularity. Envy destroys good government. It brings it to the ground. A king, if he is envious, it's rottenness to the, quote, bones of his kingdom.

Envy is a crusher of kingdoms. They cannot last when they are upheld and perpetuated by envy. Did not Saul envy David? Let's turn in our Bibles to 1 Samuel chapter 18, verse 6. And it came to pass, as they came, when David was returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, that the women came out of all cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet with King Saul with tabrets, with joy, and with instruments of music.

And oh, how Saul would have had his heart leap when he saw them come out, until he heard what they had to say. And the women answered one another as they played and said, Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands.

And Saul was very wroth, and the saying displeased him. And he said, they have ascribed unto David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed but thousands. And what can he have more but the kingdom?

And Saul eyed David from that day, end quote. Envy. And how far, how many generations did Saul's dynasty have? Just one. Just his. What about David's dynasty? Well, its culmination is Christ. So do the math.

No, no, envy does not make for a healthy society. Envy, especially in the leadership, makes rottenness in the bones. His envy was so strong that he sought to discredit and eventually to kill David, seeing him as a rival.

Did not Ahab envy? Well, he did. He saw a piece of property next to his palace, a vineyard owned by a man named Naboth. For all understanding and presentation, a faithful man, though he still lives in the northern kingdom.

Yet when Ahab spoke to him about his inheritance, hey, do you think you would sell me that vineyard of yours? I would love to have it for a garden of herbs. If you want, I will buy it from you for a fair price.

Or if you don't want to sell it, I'll give you another vineyard somewhere else instead. Because I must have this vineyard here. You have it. I want it. Envy. And so we turn now to 1 Kings 21. Look at Naboth's response in verse 3.

And Naboth said to Ahab, the Lord forbidden me. Notice what he said. Jehovah, the covenant-keeping promise honoring God, forbidden me to sell you my inheritance. This is the land that Jehovah ceded to my fathers.

I cannot give it to you. You're not in my tribe. I cannot give it to you. I cannot sell it to you. And so Ahab came to his house heavy in verse 4, displeased because of the word which Naboth, the Jezreelite, had spoken to him.

For he had said, I will not give thee the inheritance of my fathers. And he laid him down upon his bed and turned away his face and would eat no bread. He had himself a first-class hissy fit. But Ahab had something Naboth didn't.

He had a wife named Jezebel who had, shall we say, connections. And so she stirred up certain sons of Belial to accuse Naboth at a place they were supposed to be praising him. They held a party for him.

And then two men came forward and made an accusation of blasphemy against him. It's what the rest of the chapter is about. And so they carried him out and killed him. Verse 15. And it came to pass when Jezebel heard that Naboth was stoned and was dead, that Jezebel said to Ahab, Arise, take possession of the vineyard of Naboth, the Jezreelite, which he refused to give thee for money.

For Naboth is not alive, but dead. And it came to pass when Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, that Ahab rose up to go down to the vineyard of Naboth, the Jezreelite, to take possession of it. And that's when Elijah the Tishbite is stirred up and he confronts Ahab.

Oh, my enemy, have you killed and have you taken possession? Well, how long did Ahab's kingdom last? Just another generation. And then his daughter reigned illicitly by murder in the southern kingdom until she was had beyond the range, as it is written in the scripture.

What happened? Ahab envied Naboth and his vineyard, threw himself a hissy fit, had a wife that would suborn witnesses and indeed gratify her husband's envy. Does envy make a good tenet of leadership? No, no, it's the destroyer of kingdoms.

Rather, the Lord grant health of heart and soundness of heart that our leaders would be more like David instead. In 2 Samuel 24, 18 through 25. And what did David do? He came to the threshing floor of Ornan and the destroying angel after killing tens of thousands in Israel for David's numbering of the people.

He stalled, this destroying angel stalled over the threshing floor of Ornan. And it was at that time that David bought the field, the threshing floor of Ornan for money along with the oxen, because David said, I will not sacrifice unto the Lord that which costs me nothing.

How much did Naboth's vineyard cost Ahab? He said he would pay for it until there was nobody left to pay. And then he took possession, not considering Naboth's offspring, not considering that Naboth was actually laboring on behalf of his children and their children.

Envy is the destroyer of nations. So then we have the envy of Jehoram who killed all of his brothers that were in line for the kingdom after him, so that he wouldn't have any rivals. He envied that they might someday take his position, so he killed them all.

My son will reign, not any of my father's son, envy. And of course he died, as we've read before, without being desired. Abimelech, the son of Gideon or Jerubbaal, you remember Abimelech, that he rose up and he slew all of Gideon's sons, 70 sons, and that his reign lasted just a few years after that, when that was it.

His kingdom was destroyed through envy. Absalom envied David and his position in 2 Samuel 15, 1 through 12. He stole all of the hearts of the people by saying, oh, that I were made judge in the land, I would provide justice.

He didn't want to be judge, but he wanted to be king. He envied his father's position. He set Joab's field on fire, showing his violent, rapacious nature, yet he ended up on the throne. And how long did his kingdom last?

Just as long as it took Joab to find him caught in a tree. Envy, beloved, is a destroyer of nations. Did not the rival princess envy Daniel and sought to have him killed by throwing him in the den of the hungry lions, because he made a petition, made his petition to God as before.

They wanted to get him out of that position. They didn't like that he was favored. They envied him that Darius had favored him. This is Daniel 6 verses 1 through 5 or so. And so they hatched a plot to assault Daniel on the basis of his religion.

Then how long did their reigns last? Well, they barely saw the next morning when the lions were fed. So Jehoram, Abimelech, Absalom, and as we've said a few moments ago, did not Haman envy Mordecai and seek to destroy him and his people because of envy.

He did not honor him as the rest. And so this was an honor that Haman thought he must have. And so he designed his wicked design. Well, this enemy, envy, is seen in several places of scripture as an enemy that is indeed the enemy of all good.

It can be used in a positive sense, the word that is used here, sometimes it is. It's used for a strong emotion or a strong feeling, being envious for that which is good. And so we hear that this is spoken of God himself, that God himself is an envious or jealous God.

Phineas was endued with zeal for the Lord when he entered into the tent and slew Cosby and her mate, or sorry, and his mate. Phineas was envious in that right sort of way, but there is a dark side of envy.

And this is what Solomon speaks of here in Proverbs chapter 14, that is an enemy of all good judgment. So let's take a look at a few passages that speak of envy as a horrid motivator to do evil. Proverbs chapter six, verse 34.

We'll begin reading in verse 30. Men do not despise a thief if he steal to satisfy his soul when he is hungry, but if he be found, he shall restore sevenfold. He shall give all the substance of his house, but who so committed adultery with a woman lacketh understanding.

He that doeth it destroyeth his own soul. A wound and dishonor shall he get, and his reproach shall not be wiped away for jealousy. That's that word envy is the rage of a man. Therefore, he will not spare in the day of vengeance.

He will not regard any ransom. Neither will he rest content though thou give us many gifts. Now it's an interesting passage because we might understand that for that particular crime that is described that the death penalty was prescribed in the Old Testament.

But notice the, may I say extraneous stuff that Solomon adds to this, that tells us how dangerous envy is. It's the rage of a man. It was the rage of Haman. It was the rage of Saul against David. It was the rage of Absalom trying to kill his son.

Envy drives men to rage and rage does not make a good governor. We cannot govern our own hearts if we are given to envy. We will be ungovernable. He will not spare in the day of vengeance. He will not regard any ransom.

Neither will he rest content though thou give us many gifts. Why? Because he has been stirred up through envy. Somebody has taken his wife from him. Now that's a horrid crime. And we might say that some anger might be justified.

But what Solomon does here is he helps us to understand that there is something that is excessive. That we should be disinterested with regard to our own concerns and that when we are not, sometimes those concerns develop a dark and sinful cast.

What should be the attitude of a man that has taken advantage of his family in that way? He should desire his edification and salvation. He should desire his repentance. I know, sounds difficult, counterintuitive, certainly far off from our world.

And yet does that not speak of our own envy? Solomon says that a refusal to be pacified in a case like that is because of envy. We might even say that it was envy, a misunderstood envy that drove Ahasuerus to hang Haman because of his thoughts toward him with regard to his own life.

He was stirred up, wasn't he? Oh, Haman was deserving of it. We get that, but that doesn't change the stirring up. And once we get the blood up in envy and anger, beloved, what will we do? We cannot govern no matter what our position in the sphere of authority is.

And we certainly can't govern ourselves once we indulge in envy. It's a foreign sin. Look at Proverbs 27. Wrath is cruel. Yes, it is, pastor. And anger is outrageous. Yes, it is. What does Solomon say next?

But who is able to stand before envy? Same Hebrew word. Who is able to stand before envy? Well, and the implication is no one is able to stand before envy. That kind of zeal when someone clothes himself with it unjustly, it is nearly unstoppable.

Envy is the bane of good government. In Ecclesiastes 4, verse 4,. Again, I considered all travail and every right work, that for this a man is envied of his neighbor. This is also vanity and vexation of spirit.

Here's a man going on in his labor diligently. Solomon will call it here every right work. Every right work. And for this, a man is envied of his neighbor. No, beloved, I'm not reading the newspaper. I'm reading the scripture.

And yet this particular difficulty in our own nation is legion, is it not? And we'll talk about that in a few moments. In these passages, then, we have seen that for a ruler to envy his charges, as Ahab did, it is a rottenness in his bones.

That is, it runs very deep. Rulers should spend and be spent, should sacrifice themselves to be, as we used to say, public servants instead of consuming them. Turn with me to Zephaniah chapter 1. Sorry, I meant chapter 3.

Zephaniah chapter 3, verse 1. Woe unto her that is filthy and polluted the oppressing city. She obeyed not the voice. She received not correction. She trusted not in the Lord. She drew not near to her God.

Her princes within her, listen to these princes, listen to what kind of rulers they have. Her princes are evening wolves. They gnaw not the bones until the morning. That's a very picturesque way in Hebrew of saying this.

They must have it now. They're wolves that come out in the evening, and they are not chewing on the bones in the morning. They're all ground down to nothing long before the morning comes. They must have it, and they must have it now.

We remember the government of Hophni and Phinehas, who were that same kind of envious sorts, and the people brought their meat unto the priests to be sacrificed, and they said, we'll not have sodden meat of you.

We like it grilled. And so they seized it from them and grilled it. So envy in leadership is a horrid, horrid sin, though these are not public servants at all. Well, let's talk about soundness of flesh.

This is true both individually and for the public leader. If he is contented, if he is generous, if he is large hearted, if he is sound of heart, this works for the health of his society and kingdom. He does not envy his subjects.

He has not that rottenness of bone that in his capacity as civil leader becomes destructive to his nation, siphons off the necessary resources to defend his injured honor, to exact his purposes upon those whom he envies.

He wastes the public trust upon his own zeal, than his own estate and name. No, if you have soundness of heart, health in the bones, well, then you're generous, large hearted, forgiving, helpful, uplifting, edifying to those who are under you.

He's not easily provoked. He is secure in his God and will not be concerned with offenses against his majesty or with potential rivals. Well, it was Absalom that uttered that kind of falsehood where he said in envy of his father's authority, oh, that I were judge in the land.

Did not even David himself find himself on the wrong side of sound heartedness for a time when he envied his neighbor Uriah for his wife's sake. And the Lord was gracious and his dynasty remained intact, but he had a sword in his house for the rest of his earthly days and was forced to run from his son Absalom who also had an envious heart.

The same is true of Amaziah who sought to do battle with the son of Jehu, Jehoash, and meddled to his own hurt. You'll remember Amaziah had certain successes in battle. And so he wrote to the Northern kingdom and he said, let us look one another in the face as well.

He envied the Northern kingdom. And of course the king from Israel answered him and said, the thistle that was in Lebanon said to the cedar that was in Lebanon, let us look one another in the face. Don't meddle to your hurt.

Don't envy what you don't have. And yet in the end, he went to battle and went home with his tail tucked between his legs. When civil authorities are envious, discontent, unsound in heart, when they seek glory, they err and abuse their God-given authority.

And rather than tending to life, peace and prosperity, it tends to destruction instead. But soundness of heart among our leaders. Let's remember Rehoboam. Rehoboam at first was envious toward the Northern kingdom, was he not?

Second Chronicles, I forgot to put the reference down. It's all right, Second Chronicles tells us the story, we can recount it. And so his father has died, Solomon, and Rehoboam is now king over Israel and Judah.

And the 10 tribes come together to conference with him. And they say to him, your father made our yoke heavy. If you make it light, we will serve you forever. And they go away and he consults with his counselors for 10 days.

The first set of counselors, the ones that counseled his father told him, if you release some of the burdens on this kingdom, they will indeed follow you forever. And then he counseled with the young men that grew up with him and they said, no, no, no, no, no, you need to be even more powerful than your father.

And so you tell those miscreants up there in the North that my father's little finger, or that my little finger will be like my father's loins. Well, that's a little bit of a difference. Take your leg and compare it to your finger.

That's how much heavier I'll be on you than my father. So of course they rebelled, he lost the 10 tribes. And so what did he do? He immediately put on his harness and was ready to go forward, wasn't he?

To battle, to bring the Northern kingdom into subjection. And the prophet Hanani came and spoke and said, no, this is of the Lord, you go home. And what did he do? I'm sorry, I didn't write down the reference, but if you take the reference in 2 Chronicles, you'll see that what he did was he fortified all of his cities.

He improved the building projects in his land. In other words, he didn't waste time enviously pursuing pursuits in the Northern kingdom. He actually settled up his kingdom through soundness of heart. He was a benefit to his own kingdom.

And that's the kind of soundness of heart. Once he was cured of his envy by the prophet, he was of good use to his nation. This is an important thing for us to remember, beloved. So then, as we have said before, that the rulers are often the image of those over whom they rule.

Can we say that we have envious leaders? I think we would all agree with that, that many of our leaders present, even in their public persona, not large magnanimity toward their enemies, but envy. They present envy toward those whom they consider to be potential rivals.

And so we hear insults being thrown across the aisle, one at another. We seek to denigrate and bring down. We seek to climb up because we're envious through cursing and deceit and lies. And well, it's all there.

We have an envious government in many, many places. Not to say that there are some honest folks, but there are many, many envious folks. And why is that so? Can we say that we are an envious people? Do we envy?

Well, I think Solomon said it pretty clearly earlier, didn't he? Paul says it even more clearly in 1st Corinthians, sorry, 1st Timothy chapter six. Verse one, let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor, that the name of God and his doctrine be not blaspheme.

And they that have believing masters, let them not despise them because they are brethren, but rather do them a service because they are faithful and beloved partakers of the benefit. These things teach and exhort.

If any man teach otherwise and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the doctrine which is according to godliness, he is proud knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, wherein cometh, what's the first word?

Envy. After that strife, railings, evil surmisings, perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of truth, of the truth supposing that gain is godliness from such withdraw thyself. If you lived in the first century and were taken captive by the Roman army from some foreign land and brought into a market and sold as a slave to a Christian man, and you under the tutelage of that Christian man became yourself a Christian.

What Paul tells Timothy here is let as many as servants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor. They're to honor that superior position, not that that man is a superior man, but that in rank and position he is a superior.

You know, Joseph served Pharaoh. Who was the superior in that case? Well, Joseph was the superior moral man because he knew the great God Jehovah and Pharaoh was a superior in position. We must get these things straight in our mind.

We must understand what true superiority is. There is a superiority here between the master and the slave that has nothing to do with work and everything to do with position. And so the slave is told to honor that position in the first century there.

And if you have believing masters, do not despise them because they are brethren, rather do them service. In other words, don't despise them because they're brethren. If you were a real brother, you'd set me free.

You'd get rid of the yoke. That's not what Paul says at all. Paul is not about overturning the social order. Paul is about people living in uprightness and without envy. And so he says, notice, let them not despise them because they're brethren, but rather do them service because they are faithful and beloved partakers of the benefits.

These things teach and influence. So serve them even more with even greater joy because your labors are not wasted on an unbeliever, but a believer who's working like you are for the kingdom of God. And implicit in the passages, be content.

Be content. Don't seek to be released. Don't say, if you were a real brother, you'd send me free. No, just serve contentedly like we saw in first Peter chapter two. Okay, now we move on to the next portion.

And look what it says. If any man teach otherwise and consent not to wholesome words, even to the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the doctrine, which is according to godliness. So to teach against that is to teach all of those things, right?

To teach against verses one and two is to imbibe in all the stuff in verse three. And then in verse four, he is proud knowing nothing, but doting about questions and stripes of words and from these things come envy.

Well, if you are in that position of the slave that is laboring for a believing master and someone comes along and teaches you something else that because you're a Christian and he's a Christian, he should release you.

Or that why can't you be a master instead of a slave? Well, that's going to begin to foment ideas of envy in your heart, is it not? Well, that's what Paul says here. And the point is that if a man in the first century who had been ripped from his homeland as a young boy and sold into slavery in the Roman empire and worked maybe in Ephesus wherever Timothy is when he received this letter for a believing master.

Remember that Paul speaks about masters and slaves in Ephesians chapter seven. That if he is taught rather than to be content to envy his master's position, that overthrows the foundations of our society.

But it doesn't have to be this relationship, master-slave relationship. It could be any human relationship. Children, you are being taught by the world today to envy your parents' authority over you and to take that authority to yourselves instead.

Students, you are being trained by the world today to envy your teacher's authority over you and to take that authority to yourself and make the teacher subservient to you instead. You see, there's all kinds of envy that the enemy of our souls is spreading around our society because he knows that it's a destroyer of nations and chaos is his stalking prey.

Envy leads to murder as we've seen. It leads to theft. It leads to injury and violence and it leads to an overturning of the social order such that it tends toward anarchy and beloved, anarchy is not government.

Anarchy is death to its people. And so what is Solomon teaching us here then? That if a king imbibes in envy in his rule, if he kills his rivals, if he looks at everyone with a jaded eye, if he sets up a particular thing like a hajaweros did such that he has the guard around him and if anybody comes to the door unannounced, there's only two things for them.

Either he holds out the scepter or off with their head. Why? Because he's envious, afraid. He has pouched himself into some secure enclave because he is afraid and he envies. Well, beloved, these are things that bring kingdoms down.

The envy that we see in our own land between political rivals, the trading of barbs, the insults, the lies. This tells us that we are a country in the throes of tearing itself apart. But us as the people of God, we as the people of God, what will we do in such a case?

We will ask the Lord that we might live free of envy. Free of wanting what other people have. Free of wanting what doesn't rightly belong to us. Free of craving a position that is not ours to have. Content in the position that we are.

The apostle will say the same thing in 1 Corinthians chapter seven. He'll say, were you converted as a slave? Don't seek to be released. But if that presents itself to you, then use that. No, these are things that tear nations apart.

Soundness of Heart, Contentment, and Public Good

Let's turn back to Proverbs 14 for our wrap up. We'll draw ourselves to a close. So soundness of heart is contrasted to envy here. And by soundness of heart, I just take that to mean living contentedly in the calling that God has given to us, not envying our neighbor, not envying our boss, because he could pay me more, but he doesn't.

And so what am I going to do? I'm going to maybe just slow down the work a bit, rather than presenting our case before the Lord. What do those workers that have hewed down the fields of the rich, what are they told to do in James chapter five?

To be patient, to commit their case to the Lord, to rise up and take what's theirs, to envy the property of the man that's defrauded them of their wages, such that they rise up and take it from him. I tell you, beloved, there are quarters in our country that are saying exactly that, and that's destructive.