2007-10-26
Good Morning Dear Ones,
In connection with MT 6: 24-34, Christ's Sermon on the Mount teaching about God and possessions, we have been looking at how PR 31: 10-31, the description of the ideal woman, conforms to it. A key teaching from the MT 6 passage is in (24), "You can't serve two masters...both God and mammon" [material possessions including money]. Another is (26b-27), "...Yet your Father in heaven takes care of them [birds flying]! Are you not worth much more than birds? Can any of you live a bit longer by worrying about it?" And a third one is (33-34), "Instead, be concerned above everything else with the Kingdom of God and with what He requires of you, and He will provide you with all these other things. So do not worry about tomorrow; it will have enough worries of its own. There is no need to add to the troubles each day brings." You'll remember that in this description of the ideal women, it really could be the ideal person, because so many of the issues raised apply today to both men and women. If read in Hebrew, PR 31: 10-31 is 22 verses, one for each letter in the Hebrew alphabet. We have already looked at: (10) aleph, the ideal person is "worth more than jewels;" (11), beit, the ideal person can be counted on, so the family will never be poor. Today, we will look at PR 31: 12, gimmel, "As long as she [he] lives, she [he] does others good and never harms."
If we look into what this means in terms of mammon, we can see that this ideal person lives righteously and is honest. We live in a very affluent society in North America. All around us, even in our own town of Woodbury, there are legions of young people who are not growing up learning to love the Lord and to make Biblical truth the foundation of their lives. Instead, their heroes are in Hollywood or in the sports world where drugs and promiscuous sex are rampant. Our own pastors have told us that 60% of Woodbury, for example, has no congregation and does not attend worship services on a regular basis. This problem is not just here. My heart was broken when Peter and I were in Europe and saw all those gorgeous churches and cathedrals with no one in them. This is truly a time when we are seeing the confrontation between a God-centered lifestyle and a man-centered one. Like it or not, the separation of the sheep and goats that Christ referred to in MT 25: 32 is real. There can't be any middle ground. God has made His will very clear about the issue of righteousness. It means living with one's life conformed to God's will. The rewards of righteous living are mentioned in a number of places throughout the Scriptures. PS 146: 1, "The Lord loves righteousness." PS 94: 12-15, "Lord, blessed is the man You instruct, the one whom You teach Your law. You give him rest from the Days of Trouble until a pit is dug to trap the wicked. The Lord will not abandon His people; He will not desert those who belong to Him." PS 55: 22, "Cast Your burden on the Lord, and He will sustain you; He will never permit the righteous to be defeated." PS 92: 15 [Amplified Bible], "The living righteous are memorials to show that the Lord is upright and faithful to His promises; He is my Rock and there is no unrighteousness in Him." And these are only a few.
If the question is how does this apply to mammon, the answer is simple. Everything we do with mammon is based on our system of ethics. Do we believe, as Hollywood and the sports world does, that gaining money, big contracts even before one has proven himself, and the use of mood-altering and very expensive drugs/alcohol is acceptable? Then, we are not conforming our lives to the standards set for us by Jesus Christ. Do we believe that acquisition of material wealth is the most important thing in our lives? Then, we are not living as Christ would have us live. The Lord has said in LV 11: 44-45, LV 19: 2, and 1 PET 1: 16, "Be holy, because I am holy." On the other hand, those of us who take RO 12: 1- 2 as important foundations for our lives live righteously, because they have submitted control of their lives to the Lord. Without Him, we can't live with righteous hearts, because our hearts have not been "transformed inwardly by the renewal of their mind." Please read this entire passage from Romans and see what I mean. The examples we set really matter, especially knowing that we are in the company of or are raising young people, whom we can influence. RO 14: 13, "So then, let us stop judging one another. Instead, you should decide never to do anything that would make your brother stumble or fall into sin." God has never been clearer about His definition for righteousness. It's there in the Scriptures for all willing to read them to see. So is His amazing love for His human creation.
PRAYER: O Lord, we stand before Your mighty throne to praise and thank You for everything in Your word. Every word, punctuation mark, number, and phrase of it is for our good. As an Author, Teacher, Perfecter of our faith, no one on earth can even begin to best You. You protect us from the trap that the evil one sets for us. PS 31: 3-5, "You are my Refuge and Defense; guide me and lead me as You have promised. Keep me safe from the snare that has been set for me; shelter me from danger. I place myself in Your care. You will save me, Lord; You are a faithful God." Repeatedly, Dearest Father, You have promised never to abandon those who love You. PS 16: 9-10, "And so I am thankful and glad, and I feel completely secure, because You protect me from the power of death, and the one You love You will not abandon to the world of the dead." Instead You give us hope, the hope of the resurrection, because Christ is the "first among many brothers" [RO 8: 29]. PS 16: 11, "You will show me the path that leads to life; Your presence fills me with joy and bring me pleasure forevermore." Everything in Your word benefits us when we study and believe it [2 TIM 3: 16-17]. You are there to show me how to live righteously. Then You made an important promise in Your own words. MT 5: 3, "Blessed are the poor in spirit; the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to them." Yes, Lord, you want us to understand our need to be dependant on You, that Your interaction with us demands our cooperation and is well worth whatever painful changes we must make in our ways of thinking and lifestyle to obey Your commands. Having You in our lives is a great blessing. Understanding the significance of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection is crucial to our appreciation of that blessing. We dedicate ourselves to study of Your word and prayer, so that we can know Your will with regard to mammon or anything else in our lives and obey it. You are to be thanked and praised eternally for the goodness that You bring to the earth in general and our lives in particular. We offer our lives to You, Dearest Father. In Christ's mighty name we pray. Amen.
Next week, we will continue looking at the ideal person from PR 31: 10-31 with dalet, the fourth letter in the Hebrew alphabet, which will be PR 31: 13. It is my hope that you are finding this rather different way of looking at mammon interesting. Notice that we are able to draw from both the OT and NT with no difficulty. That is because of God's consistency in His teaching. The teachings of the Sermon on the Mount are perfectly appropriate to compare with the inspiration that God gave Solomon in writing the book of Proverbs. The teaching is coming from the one and only Source providing the foundational ethics of the Scriptures. Cheating people out of money, making mammon an idol, and making heroes out of those who do are things worldly people do. God's people have to make choices that aren't always easy. They are the Lord's "salmon swimming upstream" who are tying to "be holy, because I am holy." Do God's people slip sometimes? Of course they do, but the difference is that they have the Holy Spirit in them to tell them when they are doing wrong. They have the choice and take it, to stop the sin and put things to rights with God. And thanks be to God, He is patient and compassionate. 2 PET 3: 9, "The Lord is not slow to do what He has promised, as so think. Instead, He is patient with you, because He does not want anything one to be destroyed, but wants all to turn away from their sins." And what is our rightful response to this? To praise the Lord as only He deserves! PS 68: 19, " What a glorious Lord! He who daily bears our burdens also give us our salvation." PS 148: 13, "Let them all praise the name of he Lord! His name is greater than all others; His glory is above earth and heaven." For what greater love can we ask?
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn