Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Stern discipline awaits anyone who leaves the path;
    the one who hates correction will die.
Death and Destruction lie open before the Lord—
    how much more do human hearts!
Mockers resent correction,
    so they avoid the wise.
A happy heart makes the face cheerful,
    but heartache crushes the spirit.
The discerning heart seeks knowledge,
    but the mouth of a fool feeds on folly.
All the days of the oppressed are wretched,
    but the cheerful heart has a continual feast.
Better a little with the fear of the Lord
    than great wealth with turmoil.
Better a small serving of vegetables with love
    than a fattened calf with hatred.

• Proverbs 15:10-17

Proverbs 15:11 ”You have often smiled at the ignorance of heathens who bow themselves before gods of wood and stone. You have quoted the words of Scripture and you have said, ‘Eyes have they, but they see not; ears have they, but they hear not.’ You have therefore argued that they could not be gods at all, because they could neither see nor hear, and you have smiled contemptuously at the men who could so debase their understandings as to make such things objects of adoration. Your God can both see and hear—would your conduct be in any respect different if you had a god such as those that the heathen worship? Suppose for one minute that Jehovah, could be (though it is almost blasphemy to suppose it) smitten with such a blindness that he could not see the works and know the thoughts of man? Would you then become more careless concerning him than you are now? I think not. In nine cases out of ten, and perhaps in a far larger and sadder proportion, the doctrine of Divine Omniscience, although it is received and believed, has no practical effect upon our lives at all. The mass of mankind forget God—whole nations who know his existence and believe that he beholds them, live as if they had no God at all. Merchants, farmers, men in their shops and in their fields; husbands in their families and wives in the midst of their households live as if there were no God—no eyes inspecting them, no ears listening to the voice of their lips and no eternal mind always treasuring up the recollection of their acts. Ah, we are practical atheists, the mass of us. Yes, all but those who have been born-again, and have passed from death unto life, be their creeds what they may, are atheists, after all, in life. If there were no God and no afterlife, many people would never be affected by the change—they would live the same as they do now—their lives being so full of disregard of God and his ways, that the absence of a God could not affect them in any great degree. I would endeavor to set before you God, the all-seeing one, and press upon your solemn consideration the tremendous fact that in all our acts, in all our ways, and in all our thoughts, we are continually under his observing eyes.”

• Charles H. Spurgeon, from his sermon notes

Proverbs 15:10 and 12 both speak of discipline and correction.  The fool hates the process, but the wise accepts the correction so that their ways can be straight, less problems moving forward.

Proverbs 15:11 is sandwiched between those and it speaks on God’s omniscience, but it borders on His omnipresence, otherwise, how can yGod know everything, including what people say and do and even think in private.  I love what my uncle wrote in his book, God’s Physical Record of Creation.  Uncle Ruffin Rackley said that unbelieving scientists had named the Higgs Boson, the God Particle.  Their reasoning was their scoff, the Higgs Boson was as hard to find as God is (since God is invisible and is a Spirit).  But once they found the Higgs Boson, they realized what it does.  The Higgs Boson, the God Particle, keeps the nucleus of each atom in the universe from breaking up into subatomic particles.  Now apply that to what Rev. Spurgeon wrote above.  God, in all His power and wisdom and love for us here on this planet, He keeps us from vaporizing into millions of subatomic particles.  Then, the idea that He knows all our thoughts is a lot simpler a task.

Proverbs 15:13 is one of those obvious truths, until you follow it with the next verse.  When we have heartaches and heart breaks, we have a choice to make.  We can wallow in self-pity, or we can seek knowledge, specifically knowledge of God.  In many cases, only then can we make sense out of our heartache.  I lost my wife about fifteen months ago.  I would do a lot within God’s Law, to just hear her voice again, but I would never wish for her to return to this earth.  She has been dancing with the angels to dance moves we would never conceive of here on earth.  Why mess with that?  Why even want to mess with that?

Proverbs 15:15 begs a question for me.  Can it be both at the same time?  Can you suffer wretched oppressions while the Joy of God is in your heart, and you realize that the oppression cannot take your salvation away from you?  Yes, you can.  No one wants to endure that oppression, but with God’s strength, you can.

For those who have a lot of money, Proverbs 15:16 is not saying that your money weighs you down.  C. S. Lewis might say your contentment with your money knits you into the fabric of the fallen world.  But what Solomon is saying is that fear of the Lord (or more modern saying, a saving knowledge of Jesus in your heart) is a treasure beyond measure.  And the next verse goes along with it.  When we have Jesus in our hearts, one of the tests of faith in 1 John is that we love (period).  Another is that we love our brother.  This may seem obvious, but naming “brother,” it pertains to some individual that has probably tried to stuff your head into the toilet and flush it.  Ummm.  Am I the only one?!  But love, in this context, is the proof of fearing the Lord.  And last week, I went three days with only eating broccoli and carrots with blue cheese dressing or tomato sandwiches.  I was not trying to go vegetarian to save costs.  My body seemed to crave the veggies.  But Solomon’s point is that even in his day, meat came at a higher cost than veggies, and again, love is like the fear of the Lord, a treasure beyond measure.

And now let us sing.

The following song is Once to Every Man and Nation.  It is sung by the Fountainview Academy.  The Roman Coliseum in the background is impressive, but once they started singing, I could only see the faces of those academy students.  It is breathtaking.  And the first few lines need to be on everyone’s mind.  “Comes the moment to decide, in the strife of truth with falsehood, for the good or evil side.”  We need God’s wisdom to make that decision, but we each must make it, every man, every nation. They skipped the second verse. It will take courage to stand against the tide of the fallen world.

“Once to every man and nation
Comes the moment to decide,
In the strife of truth with falsehood,
For the good or evil side;
Some great cause, God’s new Messiah,
Offering each the bloom or blight,
And the choice goes by forever
Twixt that darkness and that light.

2 Then to side with truth is noble,
When we share her wretched crust,
Ere her cause bring fame and profit,
And ’tis prosperous to be just;
Then it is the brave man chooses
While the coward stands aside,
Till the multitude make virtue
Of the faith they had denied.

3 By the light of burning martyrs,
Christ, Thy bleeding feet we track,
Toiling up new Calvaries ever
With the cross that turns not back;
New occasions teach new duties,
Time makes ancient good uncouth;
They must upward still and onward,
Who would keep abreast of truth.

4 Though the cause of evil prosper,
Yet ’tis truth alone is strong;
Though her portion be the scaffold,
And upon the throne be wrong:
Yet that scaffold sways the future,
And, behind the dim unknown,
Standeth God within the shadow
Keeping watch above His own.”

• James Russell Lowell, Once to Every Man and Nation

Closing Prayer

Dear Lord,
We need Your wisdom.  Lord, I have probably not handled punishment, discipline, and correction in the proper manner, but I have learned from it.  Too often, our first response might be to think of how we will not get caught the next time, but You see all.  And there is so much less strife if we simply keep our eyes on You and our feet on the narrow path.  Lord, may we have You in our heart’s forever until we see each other face to face.
In thy Name we pray.
Amen

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.