(Proverbs) ch.24:1 - 34 — Zac Poonen

23, verses 29 to 35, which are sort of a warning against drink. We mentioned how most of us may not have much of a problem with relation to alcoholic drink, but Jesus spoke in Luke chapter 21 about our hearts being drunken, verse 34, Luke 21, 34.

And the heart gets drunk with worldliness, and many believers get drunk in this way, as spoken by Jesus in Luke 21, 34. The drunkenness of worldliness, a drunkenness that comes through a little sip at a time.

Slowly, slowly, slowly, slowly, the heart gets weighed down with drunkenness. And we can apply those verses, verses 29 to 35, in relation to that type of drunkenness too. That type of drunkenness, a little sip of worldliness at a time, can gradually lead, as it says in verse 32, at the last it bites like a serpent, and stings like a viper, and your eyes will see strange things, and your mind utter perverse things, and so on.

And yet, though a person experiences this, yet he seems to still want to go for another drink, as it says in verse 35, after it all. And we come to chapter 24, verses 1 and 2. It says here, Do not be envious of evil men, nor desire to be with them.

For their minds devise violence, and their lips talk of trouble. As the Good News Bible says, causing trouble is all that they ever think about. Every time they open their mouth, someone is going to be hurt.

Worldliness, Envy, and the Evil Use of Speech

And it's very interesting that when it speaks about an evil person, it speaks about the way he uses his mouth, and the words he speaks. See, as human beings, children of Adam, our understanding of the word, an evil man, is someone who is out to kill people, or cheat people, or harm people in some way.

But the Word of God says that a person who uses his mouth to say something bad about another person, is an evil person. The thing is, our conscience is not sensitive enough, sin has not become exceedingly sinful, that we think of such a person as an evil person.

Most believers don't think of a gossiper as an evil man, in the same category as a murderer. Why is it? Because sin has not become exceedingly sinful in their eyes. That's why we think of a murderer as an evil person, but one who speaks evil about others with his tongue, is not an evil person.

And there we need to see that sin has to become exceedingly sinful in our eyes, if we are to have the same understanding as God's Word. It says don't be envious of evil men, don't desire to be with them, don't try to make friends with them, don't envy a man who has certain advantages that we don't have because we seek to follow the Lord, and don't try to make friends with them.

Wisdom, Understanding, and Knowledge Build the House

Verses three and four, there are three words here, wisdom, understanding, and knowledge, that are used in these two verses. And we are told how a house is built, and that can refer to God's house, the church, and our homes.

By wisdom, a house is built, and by understanding it is established. By knowledge, the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches. And there we see that the most important requirement to build a home or a church is not knowledge.

We can say that knowledge is like the furniture, you put in the furniture after the house is built. And that's what we see in verse four, that knowledge is needed, we need a knowledge of God's Word, but that is to fill the rooms after the rooms have been constructed with all precious and pleasant riches, which includes tables and chairs and beds and all that.

And we can say that a church which is built just with Bible knowledge, without that wisdom which comes through the fear of God, is like a man who has got all his furniture out on an empty plot of ground, and he's living there.

No rooms, no roof, no walls, but he's got all the furniture, he's keeping on increasing the furniture. And that's the danger of increasing in knowledge without wisdom. It's a very beautiful picture. Think of a man trying to live in an open plot of ground, constantly increasing the furniture in his house and trying to buy expensive paintings and various things to beautify the house.

The whole thing is exposed to the sun and the rain. It's just as stupid to increase in knowledge without corresponding increase in wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and it says here, by wisdom a house is built.

The most important thing, my own personal life, that's another house that we're building. That also, the first requirement is wisdom. And that is, we can say, God's nature. We read in James 3 .17 that wisdom, the characteristics of wisdom described there, the seven characteristics are all a description of God's nature.

And by wisdom a house is built, by understanding, we can say that understanding refers to a knowledge of, to an understanding of God's ways. God's ways. We read in Psalm 103, He made known His ways to Moses.

To partake of God's nature, that's wisdom. Understanding is to know God's ways, to understand God's ways, how He works, and then knowledge is God's Word. So we can say that's referring there to God's nature, God's ways, and God's Word.

And thus, a house is built, it's established, and the rooms are filled with precious, pleasant riches. When we have that balance of all these, then we can say we have a house. It's got walls, roof, floor, and furniture also inside.

Wisdom Is Stronger Than Zeal

And then that's a place that can be used by people to live. Verses five and six. Here we read, let me read it in the Living Bible, a wise man is mightier than a strong man. Wisdom is mightier than strength.

Don't go to war without wise guidance. There is safety in many counselors. When you're young, you're strong, not wise. And in that strength of zeal, in the strength of youth and zeal, a lot of foolish things can be done if wisdom is not there.

By young, I don't mean young just in age, young spiritually. But it is wisdom that is mightier than strength. And all that zeal of young people is not as good as the wisdom of a mature saint. And so, don't go to war.

Don't try to proceed in this Christian life, which is a war, without wise guidance. And if we ourselves are not wise, then we need to seek for wise guidance from others in whom we have confidence that they are wise.

That's a very important principle in the church. It's not just a question of accepting somebody who claims to be an elder or thinks he's an elder, but rather that we have confidence that someone has got wisdom, such a person we would go to for guidance.

There is safety in many counselors. It's good to humble ourselves and go and seek advice from those whom we believe and have confidence that they have more wisdom than us. That's the way to conduct a warfare.

Pursuing Wisdom and Speaking With Substance

Verse 7, I'll read that in Good News Bible, wise saints are too deep for a fool or a stupid person to understand. He has nothing to say when important matters are being discussed. This phrase, in the gate, is an Old Testament expression which indicates the counsel of the elders.

The elders always used to sit in the gate of a city. And he does not open his mouth and the gate means he does not have anything to say, anything valuable to say, of course. He's got a multitude of words by which his voice is known as a fool, but he's got nothing important to say, nothing of content to contribute when important matters are being discussed.

Wisdom is too high for a fool. And in the beginning we are all like that. Here is where we need to really pursue after wisdom so that content increases in our lives, so that we have that to contribute that can be of help to others.

The Reputation of a Busybody

Verse 8 and 9, in the Good News Bible, if you are always planning evil, you will earn a reputation as a troublemaker. And that is particularly the case with people who don't have wisdom and yet try to be busybodies in other people's affairs or try to go around giving advice to others.

And many young people are like that. Not all those who have wisdom are careful here. But it's very easy to earn a reputation as a busybody, to earn a reputation as a cause of, as a nuisance, as a constant source of trouble.

It's a very bad thing to earn a reputation like that. There we need to humble ourselves and cleanse ourselves. And it says here that comes through planning evil. In other words, one is not cleansing oneself from the evil that is in one's flesh.

One is not cleansing oneself. And it's because a person is not living in a self-judgment and a self-cleansing that he or she goes around doing a whole lot of stupid things with other people and other families.

And gradually, over a period of time, that person begins to get a reputation that that person is a real nuisance. But if we live in a constant self-judgment and self-cleansing, we will never earn such a reputation because if we do one foolish thing once, we won't repeat it.

The sad thing is when we keep on repeating the same thing year after year after year. Any scheme a fool thinks up is sinful. Verse 9. People hate a person who is nothing but scorn for others. When a fool thinks up a scheme, it's sinful, it's useless because he's not cleansing himself.

It's good for us to recognize that nothing good dwells in our flesh. People hate a person who is nothing but scorn for others. And that's how the children of Adam are. That it's very difficult for us to find something to appreciate in others.

And that's a pretty good test of our own spiritual condition. That when you think of a particular brother or particular sister, I don't mean one of the ones whom you think are most spiritual. That's easy to think of something good to say about them.

But think of some of the others in the assembly who are not so spiritual in your eyes. And when you think about them, and you cannot find even one good thing to say about them, that is an indication of a pretty sad spiritual condition that you are in.

It's a very sad spiritual state that you are in that when you think of some particular brother or sister, even a carnal one, that you can't think of one good thing to say about that person. Very sad. Only scorn for that person.

Think that Jesus has accepted him or her. And Jesus has found something good in that person. He or she may not be perfect. And there we can see how much the thinking of Adam governs our attitude towards others.

Adversity Reveals Spiritual Strength

To scorn who has nothing but scorn for others, such a person is a fool himself. Verse 10. If you are slack, or if you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is limited, or as the Living Bible says, you're a poor specimen if you can't stand the pressure of adversity.

It is in the time of testing and adversity that we really discover whether we are strong or not. And that's one reason why God has to allow trial and adversity to come across our path, because that is when we really discover whether we are spiritual or not.

And most people, even among believers, faint in the day of adversity. That means their strength is small. Alright, then what should they do when they discover that? They should humble themselves and say, Lord, why did I faint in the day of adversity?

That means I was deceiving myself all along that I was spiritually strong at the other time when the pressure didn't come. When the pressure came, I fainted. I got upset. I got irritated. I got into unrest.

That proves that all my life, that has been my spiritual state and I never discovered it. Thank God for that adversity. Thank God for that trial which showed me my condition. Like someone has said, if you are carrying a glass of sweet water, then however strongly another person shakes you, what will spill out of your glass is only sweet water.

That's right. But if someone shakes us strongly and out from our mouth comes all types of hard words and bitter words, what does that indicate? That indicates that all through my life I was carrying a glass full of bitter water.

I didn't know it because nobody shook me till now. But when somebody shook me, then I discovered what was inside. So instead of getting upset with that person for shaking me and upsetting me, I should say thank you, my dear brother, my dear friend, because through you I discovered what otherwise I would have lived in a self-deception about, that I was carrying bitter water inside me all the time.

We need to see it like that. In the day of adversity, I faint. I fail. Then I am a poor specimen, the word of God says. God wants to show me to the angel. He says, see how that child of mine behaves. See how that child of mine behaves.

Not when things are going easy, but see how they behave when the pressure is on. In adversity, see how they speak. Wisdom comes forth from their tongue. So dear brothers and sisters, we must take this very seriously.

I don't believe that anyone can be spiritual if he does not see what his true condition is in the time of pressure and judge himself in the light of that. Because it's so easy to deceive ourselves when there's no pressure, to think we are highly spiritual because we have so much knowledge.

But the day of testing reveals our true condition and we must be honest about it and humble ourselves. And say, Lord help me so that the next time I face that type of pressure, my reaction will not be like that anymore.

That's the person who's really going to make progress from glory to glory. So we praise God for the day of adversity and we praise God that God allows the evil day to come to us here on this earth so that we don't spend our whole life deceiving ourselves.

Think if we had a smooth life. So many believers would like to have a smooth passage through life. No trial, no testing, nobody backbites against them, nobody says anything against them. Everything is easy, no financial difficulties, no sickness, no nothing.

We can live 50 years and think we are spiritual and wake up at the judgment seat of Christ to discover perhaps we are not even converted or thoroughly carnal. Isn't it good that God doesn't allow us to be deceived for 50 years?

He shakes us up after 5 years or 10 years. He allows some situation where we just collapse into unrest and irritability and grumbling against God and against people and everything else and God says, I love you, I'm just trying to show you your true condition so that you don't deceive yourself.

I've come to help you so that you can do something about it before the judgment seat of Christ, before you leave this earth. And you say, thank you Lord, thank you for that time. That's helped me to see my condition.

I really want to cleanse myself, I really want to make use of the opportunity so that in the days to come before I leave this earth, I really partake of your nature. Praise God for the day of adversity.

Standing for Truth Against the Crowd

Verse 11 and 12, let me read that in the Good News Bible. Think of a mob shouting crucify him. And you are one wholehearted disciple there. You know that Jesus is not guilty. Think to be able to raise a voice in the middle of that mob and say, no, don't crucify him because he's not guilty.

That mob can crucify you if you do that. It's not easy to take a stand for something that's unpopular when everybody else is saying something else. To take a stand because you know that's not right. To be willing to be unpopular for the sake of the truth and you keep quiet because everybody is saying that.

And God, He knows. And He will reward you according to what you do. Don't join the crowd. Be willing to stand distinct. That's a word for you children in schools and colleges, for all of us in offices.

All the mob is saying one thing and you know that's wrong. To stand against it and say, no, that's wrong to treat that person like that. Particularly, we don't have to give an opinion on everything that happens in the office or everything that's happening under the sun, but when you find particularly that someone who is innocent is being accused and going to be punished, there we have a right and it's necessary for us to stand up for the truth.

And that has of course many other applications of being willing to be unpopular with the vast majority of Christians if need be, for the sake of the truth. I do not believe that God will ever use in His service, as His servant, a man who is afraid of becoming unpopular for the sake of the truth.

And I just want to tell you, the vast majority of Christian preachers are like that. They are unwilling to be unpopular for the sake of the truth. Popularity, what the crowd says, means so much to them.

Wisdom Must Be Desired and Received Through the Cross

And therefore, God puts them on the shelf and says, you can't be My servant. Verse 13 and 14. I'll read that in the Living Bible. My son, honey wets the appetite. So does wisdom. When you enjoy becoming wise, there is hope for you.

A bright future lies ahead. There, wisdom is compared to honey. And honey was the thing which was used to sweeten food in those days when there was no refined sugar or jam or any such thing. Honey was the big thing.

And honey was good. And you can imagine how much honey meant in a day when there were no chocolates or ice-creams or jams or any such thing. Honey. And says, wisdom should be like that. Desire for wisdom should be like that.

And when you enjoy becoming wise, when you say, Lord, I don't want to be a fool. I want to become wise. And you really long for that. And you are willing to receive correction. And you are willing to be disciplined by the Lord.

Then it says a beautiful promise. There is hope for you. There is hope for you. And a bright future lies ahead. You know, we'd like to say there's hope for everybody. But I want to tell you honestly, there isn't hope for everybody.

There is hope only for those who enjoy becoming wise. Not for anybody and everybody. Right? We can now look at verse 15 and 16. Just want to mention this before I move on. And that is, when it says about enjoying becoming wise, we must enjoy the process by which God makes us wise.

Be willing to accept it. And that is through the cross that God leads us to wisdom. That we are willing to accept it. Verse 15 and 16 from the Living Bible, O evil man, leave the upright man alone, and quit trying to cheat him out of his rights.

Don't you know that this good man, though you trip him up seven times, each time he will rise again. But one calamity is enough to lay you, an evil man, low. Now that's a wonderful encouragement for those who are seeking to live before God's face and who are humble and who are righteous.

That even if they fall seven times, and seven is, you know, the number of perfection, and we can say any number of times, he will get up. It's like a rubber ball. Throw it down. Not like a stone. You throw a stone down, it just lies there.

You throw a rubber ball down, and it doesn't stay there. It bounces up. You throw it down again, again it bounces up. And that's how a righteous man is. In other words, he's not discouraged. He's not depressed.

He's not down there in the dumps when he's fallen. He gets up. And that's how we must be. If we have fallen, we must humble ourselves, repent, mourn, cry out to God for mercy and grace, and bounce up.

That's how a righteous man is. That's the mark of a righteous man. He falls seven times, or any number of times, and he rises again. But the wicked, one time he falls, and that's enough. And we can say, if we read in Psalm 37, verse 23, there's a reason why the righteous man's lifted up.

Psalm 37, verse 23 and 24. The steps of a man, or a righteous man, are established by the Lord, and he delights in His way. When he falls, that means even this righteous man will fall. The man whose steps are established by the Lord, because he's not so faithful, he can fall, but he shall not be hurled headlong.

That means he doesn't go and crash his head. Because, here's the reason, the Lord is the one who holds his hand. And in this connection he says, I've been young, and now I'm old, yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken.

I have not seen a situation where the Lord would not hold that righteous man's hand. Think of that, brothers and sisters. It's because the Lord holds my hand, and that's why it's so important to be in that place of humility, and of a clear conscience, where the Lord can hold my hand.

So that even if I fall, He'll lift me up. I fall, He lifts me up. Praise God for that. There's a beautiful verse in Romans 14. I don't know whether you've noticed it. Very beautiful verse. A phrase. Romans 14 .4.

Who are you to judge the servant of another? And the context here is judging a weaker brother. You are a spiritual strong brother, and you judge a weaker brother. And he says, who are you to judge him?

To his own master he stands or falls, and listen to this phrase, and he will stand. Because the Lord is able to make him stand. That's the same thing. He will stand. Don't be a fool to criticize him. The Lord will make him stand one day, and you'll look like a fool then.

Rejecting the Spirit That Waits for Others to Fall

So, here it says in verse 15, don't plot against the dwelling of the righteous. Don't lie in wait against the dwelling of the righteous. Proverbs 24 .15. What does it mean to lie in wait? It says about Jesus that the Pharisees were always waiting to catch one word that falls.

Who is the person who lies in wait for a righteous man to fall? Do you know that whenever a person preaches victory over sin, wholeheartedly, with all of his heart, not just this wee teeny weeny voice, but when we speak about it wholeheartedly, there are many believers who don't like it, and who call it heresy, because they themselves are defeated.

You know what such believers are waiting for? They are waiting for this man who preaches victory to fall. What does the Bible call such a person who waits for a righteous man to fall? What does the word of God call such a person?

A what? A wicked man. Is he a believer? Far from it. He's a wicked man. Whenever we wait for someone to fall, you're a wicked person. That can happen. You don't like something in someone, and he falls and you're a bit happy.

You're a wicked person. Don't call yourself a believer. A wicked person, waiting for someone to fall. And it goes on to say in verse 17, being happy when someone falls. Don't rejoice even if it's your enemy who falls.

Don't let your heart be glad when he stumbles, lest the Lord see it. You think the Lord doesn't see that? You think the Lord doesn't see that little spark of delight that came into your heart when somebody fell?

When instead of being grieved, you were a little happy when some misfortune came upon someone with whom you didn't have a good relationship? Beware of that, brothers and sisters. What is an enemy? It can be a brother in the church with whom your relationship is a bit cold.

That can happen to any of us. And when it happens, particularly if the other person has done something against you, or said something against you, you know what you should do? This is what I do. I say, Lord, help me here.

Help me in my relationship with this person. Because I fear that I will fall. I fear that there might be something in that person. Take that seriously. It's very, very dangerous when you are a righteous person and somebody has done something against you.

You need to cry out to God for help in such a situation that there should not even be a slight coloring of your attitude towards that person. That will show that you are a God-fearing person. Have you cried out like that?

Yeah, I've done that. I heard someone said something or somebody did something against me and I say, Oh my God, please help me now. It's easy to say I've got nothing against him, that's true, but I don't know the corruption that dwells in my flesh.

Please help me, Lord, that I shall now behave like Jesus Christ towards that person from now on. Particularly, let me be careful to behave really like Jesus towards that person. Otherwise, I'll pollute myself, I'll corrupt myself, and just go around like a humbug and a hypocrite having a good testimony saying I've got nothing against anybody.

Humbug! No, it's so easy for wrong attitudes to come. And that's happened in our midst, brothers and sisters. You know it's happened to you. And why did it happen? Because when you saw somebody saying or doing something, you say, Yeah, I'm strong.

That's why you fell. If you had a sense of your own weakness and cried out to God for help, God would have helped you, and you wouldn't have fallen. But you fell into a wrong attitude, which finally came out in wrong words.

When will we learn? When will we learn? How many years have gone by? When will we realize that we are so weak and so corrupt that we cry out to God for help immediately? That was why God heard Jesus' prayers.

He was so weak, he cried out for help all the time because he feared to sin even in a wrong attitude, even in a slight coloring of an unloving attitude towards another person. Very important. Do not rejoice when your enemy falls.

Do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles. Let the Lord see it. He sees it, and he's displeased. With whom? Displeased with this person who is watching, this person who has been lying in wait. And he turns away his anger from that man, he turns it on me now.

You see, this spirit of vengeance is there very deeply in our flesh. When someone has done something against me or said something against me, I need to realize how weak I am at that time. Lord, vengeance dwells in my flesh.

Please help me. I won't take revenge by killing him. I'm not so crude. It is in subtle ways. It can be just in being a little happy when he falls. It's the same spirit as that man who commits murder in vengeance.

No different. The only thing, I don't go that far. I stop a little this side. Just a little delight when something goes wrong with that person who has done something against me. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

He who is interested in keeping his heart clean, who wants a testimony from his conscience, not a testimony from people. Remember this, my dear brothers and sisters, we are most in danger, most in danger, when someone has said or done something against us.

We are in danger of really becoming polluted in our heart towards that person unless we live in fear and cry out to God to help us in our weakness. Let no one think that he will stand because he will fall on his own.

It's very important. This vengeance comes out in so many ways. In so many ways, I tell you, if we get light on it, we will see our husbands take revenge on their wives. Not by killing them. You read about these people who burned their wives because the wives didn't bring dowry and we shrink back and say, oh, how terrible.

I would never do such a thing. But we can take revenge on our wives in so many other ways without burning them. The same spirit that made that fellow burn his wife, we do it in more refined ways where the police can't catch us.

God sees it. And you see, why did you say that to your wife? Wasn't that revenge for what she did yesterday or said day before yesterday? Or to your husband? Revenge? Serve the food late or cold? Purposely.

So many things and you got, of course, excuses for it. I had so much work to do and you know that's not the thing. It's a little trying to hit back. It's a new and living way type of hitting back. Humbug.

Hypocrisy. Deception. All these NAL ways of revenge. Brothers and sisters, ask God for light on all these things. I find that vengeance is a thing which doesn't go away easily. It can come in so many subtle ways if we don't see our weakness here and cry out for help.

Against our own children, we can take vengeance and they are helpless. A wife or a husband can hit back. What about poor children? They can't hit back. And we can take revenge on them because they made life inconvenient for us in some way.

So many things and against brothers and sisters. And let not someone think that he is free from this danger. We are all in tremendous danger in this area. If we don't realize our weakness and cry out for help, we shall fall.

Do Not Envy the Prosperity of the Wicked

Verse 19 and 20. Do not fret yourself because of evildoers or be envious of the wicked. For there will be no future for the evil man. The lamp of the wicked will be put out. And there we see, there again the thing mentioned in verse 1, this danger of being envious because another person who is unrighteous, say somebody who is unrighteous in the office, seems to find it easier.

Life is so difficult for you because you are so unrighteous. You won't give money for that Hindu festival. And so life becomes a little more difficult for you. It would be easier if you were unrighteous and gave money for that Hindu festival.

Yeah, don't be envious. For there will be no future for that evil man. Finally, the lamp of the wicked will be put out. It's better to suffer a little and stand for righteousness. See what it says in Psalm 17.

Let me read that to you. Psalm 17, verse 14 and 15 in the Living Bible. It's read like this. These men of the world, whose only concern is earthly gain. These men whom you have filled with your treasures.

Yeah, God has allowed them to have treasures. So that their children and grandchildren are rich and prosperous. Yeah, God has allowed them, their children and their grandchildren, or these wicked people, to be rich and prosperous.

But, David says, as for me, my contentment is not in wealth, verse 15, but in seeing you and knowing that all is well between you and me. And when I awake in heaven, then I will be fully satisfied, for I will see you face to face.

Blessed is the new covenant brother who can say what that old covenant brother said with lesser light. In Psalm 17, verse 14 and 15. Never to compare our lot with the unrighteous man. And now we come to the last of the 30 statements.

We saw here in verse 1 and 2, statement number 19. Verse 3 and 4 was statement number 20. Verse 5 and 6 was the 21st. Verse 7 was the 22nd. Verse 8 and 9 was the 23rd. Verse 10 was the 24th. Verse 11 and 12 the 25th.

Verse 13 and 14 the 26th. Verse 15 and 16 the 27th. And verse 17 and 18 the 28th. Verse 19 and 20 the 29th. And now we come to the last of these 30 statements, which I said was like a mini book of Proverbs.

Fear God, Honor Authority, and Reject Rebellion

That is verse 21 and 22. I want to read that in the Good News Bible. I will fear the Lord, my son, and honor the king. That means fear God first and submit to the secular authority. It may not be the king, it may be the boss in your office.

Honor him. Fear the Lord and the king. Have nothing to do, listen to this, a word for our day. Have nothing to do with people who rebel against God or who rebel against the boss. Don't have fellowship with them.

That's why I say it's very dangerous for a Christian to join a trade union if it involves the spirit of rebellion against authority. Have nothing to do with people who rebel against the Lord or against the king or the boss.

Such men could be ruined in a moment. Do you realize the disaster that God or the king can cause? That's the last statement he says there. That spirit of rebellion. Be careful about rebellion against your parents.

Your father is king in the home. Be careful that you don't rebel against him children and your mother. Be careful wives that you don't rebel against the one whom God has placed as king over you in your house.

I don't know how many wives see their husband as the king God has placed over them. Be careful. Have nothing to do with that spirit of rebellion or rebellion in the church. We read about Korah who stood against Moses.

Korah, Dathan and Abiram. They said what does this Moses think he is? He's not the only one through whom God speaks. God speaks through us also. Moses just kept quiet. He fell on his face and God said alright I'll teach these fellows a lesson.

I'll teach them through whom I speak. And Moses said tell all the congregation of Israel to stand back and that's the only case recorded in the Bible. The only case recorded in the Bible where a man went alive into hell.