Proverbs 27:20-23 says...

Today's verses are Proverbs 27:20-22, which read,

v.20 - Sheol and Abaddon are never satisfied, nor are the eyes of man every satisfied.

If we follow the ways of a fool our eyes will never be satisfied.  We will always be wanting more of those things that are temporal.  We will look for something else to bring us fulfillment.  Solomon equates this with unquenchable desire of Sheol, Hell, and Abaddon, destruction, wanting for more souls.  Satan's attacks have been from the Garden of Eden in the book of Genesis and will stretch until he is thrown into the Lake of Fire in the book of Revelation.

Solomon focuses in on the eyes of a person.  What we take in by sight has a profound effect on us.  We are told many times in the Scriptures to guard or train our eyes.  A well known verse is in the book of Job.  Job 31:1 says, "I have made a covenant with my eyes.  How then could I look at a young woman?"  Now listen to Solomon's second warning about a entry point into keeping us going on the foolish path.

v.21 - The crucible is for silver and the furnace for gold, and each is tested by the praise accorded him.

Popularity and the praise of others can make our heads swell pretty quickly.  The testing of life which is the crucible and the furnace are there to purify us.  As we are following after God, praise will come at us that can be a two edged sword.  It can verify that we are doing the right thing but it can also tempt us to think of ourselves more than what we are.  If we do, then we don't need God so much because we have this covered.  We are good enough to not need Him so much anymore.  

What we hear about ourselves as a pat on the back tests if we have really taken in the purpose of the crucible and the furnace.  God wants to refine us.  God wants to make us holy.  Satan will use that to congratulate you that you don't need God's instruction anymore.  He got Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden to go with their own thoughts rather than sticking with the command of God to not eat of that tree.  He patted them on the back that they probably knew more than God or could get around His instruction and experience more than what He had provided.  Obedient Adam and Eve got a pat on the back from Satan and fell to sin of disobeying God.  Watch your eyes and watch closely where praise is coming from and its purpose.

v.22 - Though you pound a fool in a mortar with a pestle along with crushed grain, yet his foolishness will not depart from him.

 A fool has to submit to God.  You can not make him holy.  You can not make him change.  You can't pound or grind that foolishness out of him.  He has to bow before God.  We think at times that we can change him.  We think if we just do one more thing or say one more thing that it is going to be the ticket for his turn around.  We can get caught up in being his "savior," lower case "s."  We can tell them of the Savior, Jesus Christ, but we are not the Savior, only He is.

There was a married couple that was in serious decline maritally.  One had been unfaithful.  They came for hours upon hours of counseling.  Sometimes I would think after a session that it was going to be resolved and restored and then the next session it was worse than before.  "At least they were still coming" was going through my mind.  I had visions of the light going on in their heads in one of our many sessions to stop sabotaging the progress but the foolishness of not following God's prescription for reconciliation was being ignored.  It was a call from another mutual friend on a Sunday night that caught me off guard.  They were with the troubled couple and having a time of popcorn and cards when the light came on.  They weren't talking about the issue.  Actually they were trying to avoid it coming up but they said the unfaithful one succumb to God's wisdom and apologized and confessed to the other spouse in their presence.  It was like out of the blue.  They started to turn the corner to restore rather than rip up their marriage.  Why didn't that happen in one of my "pound it out of them" counseling sessions?  Because I was not in charge of the turning.  God was.  I was not the Savior.  He was. 

Watch your point of focus: watch the pat on the back of praise; and watch the position of who truly transforms another.  Let us pray.

"Heavenly Father, Satan has his ways of trying to get at us to divert our eyes from You.  He has his ways of patting us on the back for good to make us think we are good enough without You.  He has his ways of us thinking we are the answer when You are the only answer to all of our lives.  May we keep our eyes on You.  May we give all glory to You.  May we be used of You and not think we can do what only You can do.  Amen."

Pastor Adam