PROFITING FROM PROVERBS

“He, that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy” (Proverbs 29:1 KJV).

This is the last chapter of Solomon’s proverbs, but it doesn’t ease up after he quits. The next two chapters are pretty rough also. Verse one here, is pretty rough. There are four parts to the verse.

“He, that being often reproved . . .” Pharaoh is the type of this, Ex 3:19-20. God said to Moses, “And I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go, no, not by a mighty hand. And I will stretch out my hand, and smite Egypt with all my wonders which I will do in the midst thereof: and after that he will let you go.” But before he lets Moses’ go, he gets harder and harder and harder. In 4:21, God says, “And the LORD said unto Moses, When thou goest to return into Egypt, see that thou do all those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in thine hand: but I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go.”

So, it is actually God that does the hardening (though Pharaoh on a few occasions also hardens his own heart). The reason that God hardens a man like that is because he simply rejects the truth. We see much from Exodus 5, the first two verses: “And afterward Moses and Aaron went in, and told Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness. And Pharaoh said, Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the LORD, neither will I let Israel go.”

Here is why God hardened his heart. It isn’t because he is predestined from the foundation of the world to be a vessel fit for destruction, as the Calvinists teach out of Romans chapter 9, but it’s because he rejects the revelation of God and God Himself.

Right now, we have Christians all over America saying, “Let our children pray and carry Bibles in public schools.” The response from the bureaucrats is “Who is the Lord, that we should obey His voice?” We have millions of people all over America saying that abortion is murder, and it’s immoral, and cruel, and it’s against the Scriptures, and the leaders are saying, “Who is the Lord that we should obey His voice?” It doesn’t matter what the issue, the response is the same, “Who is the Lord?”

Well, that’s why God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. It wasn’t because he was predestined to be hardened, but it was because he would not believe the truth, didn’t want the truth, and so God hardens Him because of it.

So, “He, that being often reproved . . .” Now, if a man will ‘turn” at that reproof, God won’t harden His heart, He will soften it. Take Cornelius, he was soft to God’s dealing. Or Paul. Paul was adamantly against the Christians in Acts chapter 9, in verse 5-6, when the Lord appears to him there—and the light from heaven knocks him down— “And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.”

“it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks,” that is, the pricks of the conscience on the heart, the pricks of the Holy Spirit against the heart. They are thrust upon a man’s heart to see if it will respond, if that heart will take truth. If it won’t take truth, if it won’t receive truth—then God hardens it. It if will take truth, then God deals more and more with it and reveals more and more to it. Until eventually the Gospel is sent to that individual who has turned or repented of his sin and gets saved.

“He, that being often reproved . . .” is a great message to the lost. Do we even realize how many times Americans hear the gospel over a lifetime? How many times they have had opportunities to get right with God? How many times they have been reproved of their sin? And haven’t done anything about it? It is like less than 10% of people that get saved after the age of 50. It’s about 90% at the age of 10-12. By the time a man gets to be 50-60 (some younger) their hearts are so hardened over the years that he won’t respond well to the pricking of the heart.

“He, that being often reproved . . .” over time he “hardeneth his neck,” and so as the heart has hardened, they become a stiff-necked people, and here is the problem-- “shall suddenly be destroyed” --he says, well, “Maybe tomorrow, or next week, or sometime I’ll do this or that with ‘religion’” Well, the rich man in Luke 12 had made all his plans without God, and God cut him off suddenly, “and that without remedy.” There is no remedy to hell, once a man is in, he is in and there is no way out. The rich man in Luke 16 was looking at an eternity without even a drop of water to cool his tongue.

The surgeon general likes to warn people that smoking cigarettes is a leading cause of death, but here Solomon is saying that unrepentant sin is the leading cause of death—suddenly—and without remedy.

Daily Bible study is necessary if we are going to begin our day with the right attitude and the right spiritual diet. Proverbs has 31 chapters, and most months have 31 days, so let's read a chapter of Proverbs a day and see what God might have for us. As the Lord leads, share with us what God has shown you in a special way and by His grace let us build up a devotional repository. Let's keep our knives and forks handy for some daily bread! Ideally, a chapter or two of Proverbs will fit in nicely with a good plan of reading our Bibles through each year.

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Thanks for posting this.

God bless.

Kinda like “Mene Mene Tekel Upharsin”, isn’t it?

My first pastor was fond of saying, “When you feel God’s mighty hand pressing down on the top of your head, do not stiffen your neck, for it will snap. Instead, you must bend, at the knees....”