Sunday Night, February 3, 2019 PM

But that's the nature of a reproach, a rebuke, a reproof. A reproach is probably a little bit more stronger of you're wrong and you should know better. A little bit more of that. A proverb, you have the idea of a sentence of wisdom when you read in the proverbs.

Very often you have a very simple pattern of the wise man is thus, but the foolish man is this. And you are treated to this contrast and it's opportunity to learn the wisdom and apply it. Another way to translate this word is parable.

Remember that Jesus would tell a parable, tell a story. And those two had invariably two ways of living. You want to be a foolish servant or a wise servant. And so in that sense, they were the situation how Judah ended up.

Not only is their end a rebuke to those who are doing the same things, but also a proverb, consider your ways and be wise. A taunt is very much an insult, a cut down. It's all about riling someone up.

And it's basically moving somebody out of their passivity. They're in their routine, they're passive, they're settled in what they're doing. And the reproach doesn't seem to register with them. The engaging proverb or parable doesn't seem to really catch their fancy.

So you insult them to get their attention. And God does this various ways. In fact, Jesus did it to the Pharisees all the time. They didn't much care for his rebuke or his parables. So he would just insult them.

And you whitewash tombs, that's a taunt. That's an insult. That's out and out calling somebody names to get them riled up. And the point of it is, one is the judgment of God being declared, but it really is getting them riled up to think about their ways.

Am I really a whitewashed tomb? Full of dead men's bones, but I look pretty on the outside, but full of deadness on the inside. So that was, so, yeah, there's truth in it. Yeah, and that's the way that God works.

Also, you could think of in terms of a taunt, various passages in the Old and New Testament where God makes fun or scandalizes with satire, idolaters, rebels against his throne, and so on. I think all the anger lies behind all of this, yeah.

Yes, see the thing about God is that he gets indignant, but he's never at a loss for words. We always think of the pithy comeback later on. He has it before it ever happens. And okay, do we remember, do we can remember any situation in the Bible, Old and New Testament, where God or one of his prophets are making fun of people who oppose God?

On Mount Carmel. Yeah, yeah, he must be sleeping, he's indisposed. Yeah, basically he's off using the bathroom somewhere. Really making fun and riling them up, that kind of a taunt. Isaiah taunts and makes fun of the idolater who cuts down the tree, uses half of it to build a fire, to warm his hands and cook his food.

In the very same tree, the other half of it, he carves into a God that he bows down and worships. You know, that kind of taunt. So, and then a curse is truly a, a sentence of judgment. It, in some sense, it's, I'm gonna send, I'm gonna scatter these people who have rejected me, and I'm going to abandon these bad figs, and they're gonna end up in all these different places.

And they are literally kind of the harbinger of doom to these nations that are doing the very same things. So you're gonna end up just like this. And they are a curse upon the nation that they go to. And they're also, they're dragging this nation down, and they're also an omen of what's going to happen to them.

So in all these different ways, God makes use of the putrid figs. You know, we don't know what to do with rotten fruit. I throw it in my compost, I know some of you do too. You throw rotten fruit in your compost, you may try to do something with it.

But God has all sorts of uses for putrid figs. And he is righteous in how he makes use of the unrighteous and the unrepentant. Anything else? Probably a waste of air. And for some things in the ancient world, they had a very real, very real, what you call, you know, things that would cause disease and problems, and they would call them a curse or whatever.

But a curse has to have some sort of real power and authority behind it. When God laid out a blessing and cursing before his people, there was some real power behind it, real authority behind it, real genuine, and God ruling the world can do that.

I mean, he subjected the creation to a curse, in hope of the coming resurrection and renewal of the world. But what is an actual curse? Well, obviously, it's the opposite of a blessing, right? It's opposite of a blessing, but a good example of a blessing would be this, the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

The blessing of the Levites in Numbers 6, what they would say every time they would break camp and move and settle again, they would say this. The opposite of that would be a curse. I'm borrowing this illustration from R .C. Sproul.

He said, but think of it this way, the Lord curse you and abandon you. The Lord darken his face from you and be wrathful towards you. The Lord hide his face from you and give you war. That's a curse. That's a curse.

And it is essentially the disposition that God had upon Christ on the cross. He bore the curse for us. For all my soul, that's right. Bore the curse for my soul.

Praise the Lord. Yes, great questions.

Solomon’s Proverbs, Wisdom, and the Danger of Decline

So Solomon, we read about Solomon's reign in 1 Kings. And we know he has a son named Rehoboam who reigns after him. You know, he's writing most of these proverbs, not all of them, some of them are written by other people, but we hear Solomon writing to his son, my son, listen to my words, right?

And the question is, okay, is Solomon writing directly to his son? Obviously he has his son and I guess his sons in mind, his children in mind while he's writing these things. It would be best for Rehoboam to take it personally and take it to heart as any parent sharing the wisdom of God with their child, the child should understand this is wisdom that is beyond me, greater than me, good for anybody, including me, but I also will take it personally.

These are the instructions of my parents to me. So I think it's a both and as far as who's in view. Certainly the spirit is inspiring Solomon to write these things. And they have a timelessness to them.

And it seems that, especially when we read in proverbs, we know that there's a historical context and there's some, you know, the persons who were involved, but with the nature of what a proverb is, there's even a greater sense of timelessness about it that we don't have to work as hard to understand what it means.

It's not as tied to historical cultural reference. When does Solomon write these proverbs? I know some people have often said, Song of Solomon was written in his youth and proverbs in his middle age. And Ecclesiastes in his old age.

I don't know if that holds or not. I know that's been said. When we read about Solomon and the glories of Solomon's reign in first Kings 10, are in such stark contrast to the follies of Solomon's decline in the very next chapter.

And that's intentional that we read this bright glory of Solomon and this horrible decline of Solomon all at the same time. But also, even in this great contrast, you'll also read things about Solomon where you could tell he's in progress of falling.

Right, so there's a downgrade, to use Spurgeon's term about what happened in Great Britain, the downgrade controversy as the Baptist slowly but surely gave up on the scriptures. And he fought on tooth and nail.

But in Solomon, Solomon's downgrade is gradual. So Solomon is saying some good things. Hey, read proverbs. And he's doing some good things. We read in Chronicles and in Kings, the good things he was doing.

He was actually also saying some good things still. And at the same time, we see that there are things about him that are like, uh-oh, that's not following the law of God. That that's not following the things of God, is it?

And we see both of these things in the same person. All right, so we see some inconsistencies in the same person. I think of the way that the Apostle Paul dealt with the church in Corinth, when he said certain things about this is praiseworthy that you're doing this.

And he said, these things are not praiseworthy. Stop doing this. And I think it's a very helpful way of approaching not just Solomon, but anyone who is a servant of the Lord. We can say of this person or this, take for example, people who are authors and they have many, many books that we might read and benefit from, people who are name brand preachers here in America and so on.

Many of them, we can say, okay, this is praiseworthy. All right, and the list of things that are praiseworthy. But we also have to have that same kind of approach to discernment and say, well, this is not praiseworthy.

And these two things can be in the same person, right? And there's only one or two directions this person is heading. They're either going to be like Solomon and increasing in the non praiseworthy, or they're gonna be like David in attempting to repent and increasing in repentance, right?

But that doesn't, just because there are some things that are praiseworthy or there's a past history of praiseworthiness does not deliver us from the task of discernment as we see in our fighter versus test everything.

Hold fast to what is good, abstain what is evil, right? So with Solomon, it can seem confusing, but I think it's also really helpful to see that he has some praiseworthy things about him and his wisdom and all sorts of things.

But then also the non praiseworthy aspects of Solomon and say, well, this is awful, this is folly, this is foolishness. Obviously, you know, marrying a thousand women was a very foolish move. Now, in his mind, it's probably wise as he made alliances with all kinds of nations and all sorts of city states to raise his political power and bring peace to the known world.

He thought that probably would be wise, but he found out how foolish it was and how his wives turned his heart away from the Lord. And this was by virtue of them being from pagan nations, by virtue of them being idolaters.

Now, here's a good story. I just read this, I think in Chronicles about Solomon. Solomon, at a certain point, he was a great builder, but you can hear the conflict in his heart. When he brings his wife up from Egypt, he married the daughter of Pharaoh.

What a big alliance this was. And he brings Pharaoh's daughter to Jerusalem, but builds her a separate house because he says, the house of the Lord, and he even talks about his own palace and these different buildings in Jerusalem, they are holy, and she's not gonna be able to go into these buildings, so I'll build her a separate house.

So you hear Solomon is trying to work this out. Okay, we have to maintain holiness, but he has also made a huge compromise. So all in one thing right there. And I think not only do we see this in Solomon and we see it made visible by those who have the spotlight on them, but I think ultimately we're, you know, to do business first in our own hearts, where is it that we are trying to live in this compromise of, okay, holiness, righteousness, truth, but I'm allowing this to remain in my life.

And, you know, time to end the ceasefire and repent, right? You know, you wish Rehoboam had listened to his father and listened to his father's advisors. You read that story, Rehoboam being very foolish and prideful, but we also read it was of the Lord to bring judgment upon the nation because of the sins of Solomon.

Anything else? Okay, let's take a look at Genesis 24. The servant of Abraham has obeyed the desire of his master, Abraham. Abraham did not want a wife for Isaac from the Canaanites. And that was a pattern established for the sake of the Israelites about to enter Canaan.

They were not to enter Mary with the Canaanites. And they hear that that pattern was established as far back as Abraham, to whom God promised the land. The servant took an oath promising Abraham that he would do as Abraham asked.

And they made a plan to go find the right wife for Isaac. The servant prayed according to this plan. It was a biblical plan. It was a theologically informed plan. It was about the coming of the seed of the woman and that the seed would not come from the cursed line of Canaan.

And so the servant prayed accordingly and God answered that prayer. And the servant proceeded according to that. And we concluded last time, noticing that the servant was praising the Lord for answering his prayers.

And this is in verse 27, where he left off. Well, verse 26, the man bowed low and worshiped the Lord. He said, blessed be the Lord, the God of my master, Abraham, who was not forsaken, his loving kindness and his truth toward my master.

As for me, the Lord has guided me in the way to the house of my master's brothers. And so he gives praise to the Lord for answering the prayer according to the biblical plan that he followed through with.

Now, verse 28, the girl, Rebecca, the girl ran and told her mother's household about these things. Now, Rebecca had a brother whose name was Laban. We'll hear more about Laban later. And Laban ran outside to the man at the spring.

And when he saw the ring and the bracelets on his sister's wrists, and when he heard the words of Rebecca, his sister saying, this is what the man said to me. He went to the man and behold, he was standing by the camels at the spring.

He said, come in, blessed of the Lord. Why do you stand outside? Since I have prepared the house and a place for the camels. So Laban's a very smooth operator. Of course he has his house prepared for the rich man.

So the man entered the house, then Laban unloaded the camels and gave straw and feed to the camels and water to wash his feet and the feet of the men who were with him. Let's not discount the details here of the hospitality.

This is important. When we walk through Genesis, very often we're given a sharp contrast between those who offer proper hospitality and those who do not. And here Laban is offering good, good hospitality to Abraham's servant.

Verse 33, now the food was set before him to eat, but the servant said, I will not eat till I've told my business. And he said, speak on. So he said, I am Abraham's servant. The Lord has greatly blessed my master so that he has become rich.

And he has given him flocks and herds and silver and gold and servants and maids and camels and donkeys. Now, Sarah, my master's wife, bore a son to my master in her old age. And he has given him all that he has.

My master made me swear saying, you shall not take a wife from my son from the daughters of the Canaanites in whose land I live, but you shall go to my father's house and to my relatives and take a wife from my son.

I said to my master, suppose the woman does not follow me. He said to me, the Lord before whom I have walked will send his angel with you to make your journey successful and you will take a wife from my son, from my relatives and from my father's house.

Then you will be free from my oath when you come to my relatives. And if I do not give her to you, you will be free from my oath. When I read this and we put it into the context of Isaac. Isaac is the appointed heir.

It's been established. It's not Ishmael, it's Isaac. He is the seed of Abraham through whom the promised Messiah will come. Even more directly as we think about it, Paul spoke of the seed of Abraham ultimately is referring to Christ.

I can't help but think of the analogy of the servant coming and saying, here are all the glories of my master and his son. Won't you come to marry the son of my master? I can't help but think that this may be an underused approach for evangelism.

If we would come and praise the glories of our creator, our master, our owner, the glories of his son, Jesus Christ. And from this, not discounting repentance and faith, but really coming to someone and saying, have you considered the glories of God, the creator, and the glories of his son, Jesus Christ?

Won't you come to him? This is not the only place in the Bible that we see that approach. But it is one where it should give us pause. And notice it's presenting. He's saying, won't you come and be the bride of Isaac?

And if you don't come, I've done what my master has called me to do, I'm free from the oath. Isn't that what we say in evangelism? Isn't it? We say, it's up to us to compel people in repentance and faith to come to Christ.

And if they won't come, well, we've done what we've been sent to do. And we've done it to the best of our ability. And so he reminds them all the steps he's done. And he says, look, I've prayed for this opportunity.

I've prayed that God would work this out. This is a divine appointment. He has brought me to you at this time to talk to you about this. That's what he says, verse 42. I came today to the spring. I said, oh Lord, the God of my master Abraham, and if you would help me in my journey on which I go successful, behold, I am standing by the spring.

And may it be that the maiden who comes out to draw and to whom I say, please let me drink a little water from your jar. She will say to me, you drink, and I will draw for your camels also. So let her be the woman whom the Lord has appointed for my master's son.

Before I finished speaking in my heart, behold, Rebecca came out with her jar on her shoulder and she went down to the spring and drew. And I said to her, please let me drink. She quickly lowered her jar from her shoulder and said, drink, I will water your camels also.

So I drank and she watered the camels also. Then I asked her and said, whose daughter are you? And she said, the daughter of Bethuel, Nahor's son, who milk a boar to him. And I put the ring on her nose and the bracelets on her wrists.

And I bowed low and worshiped the Lord and blessed the Lord, the God of my master, Abraham, who had guided me in the right way, in the right way to take the daughter of my master's kinsman for his son.

Now, if you're going to deal kindly and truly with my master, tell me. And if not, let me know that I may turn to the right hand or the left.". And you see how he couches this entire opportunity. This entire moment we have right here is something that God himself has ordained.

He says, and he wants to know, what are you going to do? Right? What are you going to do? And then verse 50, Laban and Bethuel replied, the matter comes from the Lord. So we cannot speak to you good, bad or good.

It's kind of a non-answer, but honestly recognizing, okay, if it's from God, it's not up to us to say good or bad about it. It's from God. Well, we're not the arbiters of good or bad. God is. Verse 51, here is Rebekah before you take her and go.

And let her be the wife of your master's son as the Lord has spoken. When Abraham's servant heard their words, he bowed himself to the ground before the Lord. And he gives honor and glory to God. The servant brought out articles of silver and articles of gold and garments and gave them to Rebekah.

He also gave precious things to her brother and to her mother. Then he and the men who were with him ate and drank and spent the night. When they arose in the morning, he said, send me away to my master.

But her brother and her mother said, let the girl stay with us a few days, say 10. Afterward, she may go. He said to them, do not delay me since the Lord has prospered my way. Send me away that I may go to my master.

And they said, we will call the girl and consult her wishes. And they called Rebekah and said to her, will you go with this man? She said, I will go. Thus they sent away her sister Rebekah and her nurse with Abraham's servant and his men.

And they blessed Rebekah and said to her, may you, our sister, become thousands of 10 thousands and may your descendants possess the gate of those who hate them. Then Rebekah arose with her maids and they mounted the camels and followed the man.

So the servant took Rebekah and departed. So they do not delay. This is of too much importance. It is clear that it's the will of God. It is clear that this is what they're supposed to do. So why delay?

Why wait 10 days when you know what you're supposed to do? The day of salvation is now, not later. Yes, today if you hear his voice. So today is the day. And Rebekah says, I want to go. And think of it from Rebekah's perspective.

She's never met Isaac. She doesn't know who he is. She hasn't met Abraham. She doesn't know who he is. But the servant has come with all these tokens and these evidences of the blessings of God and the generosity of Abraham, his master and his master, the son, Isaac, to whom she would be wed.

All these tokens of generosity and blessings. It is the kindness of God that leads us to repentance. She's willing to go. She's willing to go. And so she goes. Now, when they blessed Rebekah, they spoke over her what was said of Abraham's descendants in Genesis 17 and 22.

That there would be countless descendants, thousands of ten thousands. And may your descendants possess the gate of those who hate him. That's the same language that God promised to Abraham and to his descendants.

So we see that this is of the Lord. This indeed, here is the true bride for the true seed. And the progress of the promised one continues. Now, Isaac had come from, verse 22. Now, Isaac had come from going to Beher L 'Chairoi for he was living in the Negev.

This is interesting because here is the well of the Lord God who sees. And he was living in the Negev in the southern area. So if you trace the geography, if you trace the geography, the servant of Abraham has gone to get Rebekah.

And he has to take her from Ur all the way, you know, tracing the Euphrates and all the way down through the whole length of the promised land to the Negev, to the southernmost point of the promised land.

So she sees the whole land before she shows up to find her husband. She gets a tour of the whole promised land before she gets there. I think that's interesting. Isaac went out to meditate in the field.

This is one of the one places in the Bible, very few places here about meditation. Again, this is not, he's not out there with his legs crossed, emptying his mind. He's out there thinking on the things of God.

He's filling his mind with the things of God. And he lifted up his eyes and looked and behold, camels were coming. Rebekah lifted up her eyes. And when she saw Isaac, she dismounted from the camel. She said to the servant, who is that man walking in the field to meet us?

And the servant said, he is my master. And she took her veil and covered herself, which was customary, which was modest, which also becoming of her. And the servant told Isaac all the things that he had done.

And Isaac brought her into his mother's Sarah's tent and he took Rebekah and she became his wife and he loved her. And as Isaac was comforted after his mother's death. Many things that we can observe about this, not least of which is in the providence of God in providing a wife for Isaac, we see his compassion on his bereaved heart and bringing him a wife after his mother has died.

And we see that precious in the eyes of the Lord are the tears of the saints. Look how compassionate and perfectly timed the things that God does. Well, I enjoy this story for a bunch of reasons, but any concluding thoughts or questions?

Yes. I don't know about the reaction, but if they're really coming, it sounds like they're preparing their equipment. If they get it, sometimes they call me and immediately know if they're a believer or not.

Sure. Or like my testimony, not that life is real easy on the farm, but I mean, I feel like the word stays in the left as well. Yes.

Well, let's go ahead and close by singing the doxology together.