Proverbs 14:9-12 says,...

Today's verses are Proverbs 14:9-12, which read,

v.9 - Fools mock at sin, but among the upright there is good will.

There is quite a step from being ashamed of your sin to actually mocking sin.  I have said this before but it bears another stab at it.  We start by being ashamed of sin; we turn our eyes and ears away from it; and we are quick to confess and repent to God and any others involved.  But if I can get you to watch that same sin; if I can get you to laugh at that same sin; and if I can get you to make it a habit of doing so then we have a set up to eventually mock that it is even a sin.  

The upright need to use will power when it comes to sin and dealing with it.  It is a will power that is fueled by a daily doses of the right, God's Word, and wise counsel.  It is not so much about your own personal will power but that you are relying on God's will for your life to glorify Him.  

v.10 - The heart knows its own bitterness, and a stranger does not share its joy.

What does your heart know?  Does it know bitterness or does it know joy.  It is bitterness that is owned because it is rejecting the direction of God and especially with the dealing of sin.  There is no joy of forgiveness because sin is mocked rather than confessed and repented of to experience restoration and redeployment by God.  The heart was made for joy but so many times it is filled with our own bitterness.  It reminds me of the song, "It is joy unspeakable and full of glory, full of glory, full of glory, it is joy unspeakable and full of glory, oh the half has never yet been told."  There is more to come for the one whose heart is set on God. 

v.11 - The house of the wicked will be destroyed, but the tent of the upright will flourish.

It looks like the wicked are in a solid house.  It looks like they are having all the fun.  It looks like their way of the life will continue on with no consequences.  In comparison to the life of the upright, the upright looks like a tent.  It is flopping around in the wind.  It doesn't look so secure and weather worthy.  Again we have a flop of terms when it comes to God's ways.  It might look like a tent would be inferior to a house but in this proverb the tent is the one that will flourish and the house is the one that will be destroyed.  It makes you look at why this would be so.  There must be more to it than what you can see.  What makes the life of the upright seem to be weak in the world's eyes but stable in God's eyes?  What makes the life of the wicked seem to be strong in the world's eyes but doomed for destruction in God's eyes?  Proverbs raise questions to make us see where our stability is really coming from.

v.12 - There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.

The house seems right but it is not.  We need to base what is right not on what we think but on what God says.  Our world is full of "I feel and I think" statements rather than resting on "God says" statements.  When we rest on what we think and what we feel then we wander the way of mocking sin and having no joy because our hearts are filled with our own bitterness created by the sin we have allowed to linger.  We set up a house made with inferior products that will collapse rather than have a tent that is held up and protected by God in the fiercest of life's storms.  I guess God would turn the story of the 3 little pigs around and make the house made with straw the hero of the story because that little pig of that house relied on God rather than himself.  

What seems right to you?  Does it line up with what is right by God?  When the two are in conflict, which do you go with?  It might look stable but if it isn't lined up with God then it will fall and be destroyed.  Let's pray.

"Lord, how our eyes can deceive us.  May we feel the joy by following Your word today.  Help us to strengthen our will as we keep our eyes, ears, and minds focused on what You say and have done.  Amen."

Pastor Adam