Proverbs 10:23-30

“Doing wrong is like sport to a fool,
but wise conduct is pleasure to a person of understanding.
What the wicked dread will come upon them,
but the desire of the righteous will be granted.
When the tempest passes, the wicked are no more,
but the righteous are established forever.
Like vinegar to the teeth, and smoke to the eyes,
so are the lazy to their employers.
The fear of the Lord prolongs life,
but the years of the wicked will be short.
The hope of the righteous ends in gladness,
but the expectation of the wicked comes to nothing.
The way of the Lord is a stronghold for the upright,
but destruction for evildoers.
The righteous will never be removed,
but the wicked will not remain in the land.” NRSV

What do I want? What do I consider to be a blessing? For what do I pray?

I find it interesting that “shalom,” which is translated “peace” in the Bible doesn’t mean the absence of conflict or peace of one’s heart, but rather peace with God. I think that many people long for peace and think that it will come when they finally are rid of their troubles and problems. That’s why we all pray for “stuff” when we pray: enough money to pay our bills, a way out of a foreclosure, a better job, a repaired car, a healthy body, a more compatible spouse, kinder children. But the fact is, the one thing we should be praying for, the only thing we should consider to be a blessing, is often the one thing we shy away from: a closer relationship with the Lord.

“Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart” Psalm 37:4

“Take delight in the Lord.” In other words, learn that this is what makes you happy, this is what you desire. The Lord never agreed to become our “Santa Claus,” to mold Himself into some kind of cosmic purchasing agent where we could simply speak and He would act. Such behavior would not be in our best interest because it would allow us to indulge the lusts of our flesh (even those that are not sexually driven). The Lord gives us the desire of our heart when He becomes that desire.

Solomon writes a number of parallel thoughts:

Wise conduct is pleasure to a person of understanding.
The desire of the righteous will be granted.
The righteous are established forever.
The fear of the Lord prolongs life.
The hope of the righteous ends in gladness.
The way of the Lord is a stronghold for the upright.
The righteous will never be removed.

There is a chord running through these couplets. And that is that righteousness (living according to the ways of God and pleasing Him) have the end of pleasure and gladness, the granting of desires, and being established forever (long life, protection). But this only comes when first we seek after righteousness. “But strive first for the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:33 NRSV).

As we add up our blessings, we need to ask ourselves if salvation, shalom, and intimacy with God is our first and really only important blessing? If everything else were stripped away, would we be content with Him and Him alone? Or is our relationship with Him conditionally upon His providing a bunch of (temporal) stuff along the way? If we want to find peace, if we want to find contentment, I think that the first step is leaving everything else behind to simply seek after Him.

© 2008 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. International copyright reserved. This study may be copied for nonprofit and/or church purposes only without permission when copied in its entirety (including this notice).

1 Corinthians 10:1-13

I want you to know, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same supernatural food and all drank the same supernatural drink. For they drank from the supernatural Rock which followed them, and the Rock was Christ. Nevertheless with most of them God was not pleased; for they were overthrown in the wilderness.

Now these things are warnings for us, not to desire evil as they did. Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to dance.” We must not indulge in immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. We must not put the Lord to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents; nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. Now these things happened to them as a warning, but they were written down for our instruction, upon whom the end of the ages has come. Therefore let any one who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your strength, but with the temptation will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. RSV

Historical accounts in the Old Testament are both true and pictorial. In that, I mean that they both actually happened and have been recounted for us as a way for God to show us truths of our relationship with Him.

The children of Israel were freed from Egypt and given the hope of the Promised Land, Judea. Between the two, there was a journey they would have to make. In normal travel, it would take a matter of days. In actuality, because of their sin, it took 40 years.

Paul shares with us that there were those in the company who left Egypt (left the life of sin) but never reached the Promised Land. While they were witnesses and participants in a number of miracles, they continued to allow themselves to be tempted into sin and they died in the desert.

Paul says: “these things happened to them as a warning, but they were written down for our instruction, upon whom the end of the ages has come.” In other words, what the Israelites went through was a warning to them, a warning many ignored. And now, this is recounted to us as instruction; we are to learn from their mistakes.

We are a people that doesn’t learn well from others’ mistakes. It seems fairly common that most Americans claim they need to live their own lives, make their own mistakes in order to learn. That, in a fact, should not be the way of the Christian. This isn’t the first time that we are told, in scripture, that history has been preserved for us in order that we might learn from it and not repeat the same mistakes.

Paul gives a list of the “lessons” we are to learn from the Jews’ experience in the desert:

• Not to desire evil as they did
• Do not be idolaters
• Not indulge in immorality
• Not put the Lord to the test
• Not grumble

It’s interesting that the list of “sins” really runs the gamut of human behavior, everything from indulging in immorality (adultery, pornography, fornication) to not grumbling to simply not desiring evil. And Paul doesn’t give self-help tips for avoiding these sins; he simply says not to do them.

In other words, in each action, in each thought, we have a choice. And he admonishes us to choose holiness and righteousness over sin, to choose the Lord over our flesh, to choose heaven over the world.

Paul ends, however, with this marvelous promise: “God is faithful, and He will not let you be tempted beyond your strength, but with the temptation will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.”

What’s interesting is that Paul doesn’t say “that you may be able to escape it,” but rather that you may be able to endure it.” Temptation isn’t something that comes fleetingly and then vanishes like a vapor into the air. Temptation comes as a battle we must fight, but a battle for which we are mightily equipped because God will provide the way of escape.

I think that, too often, we don’t look for the way of escape because, if the facts be known, we don’t want to have to endure the temptation, even if there is a way of escape. I think about the new studies that say that, once we’ve eaten the portions we know to be healthy, we need to wait 20 minutes because it takes that long for the brain to process that we are truly full. It seems to me that this might be similar to the idea of temptations. If we simply waited and refused to act on the temptation, rather than jumping right now on our first impulse, we would more readily see God’s way of escape and be able to take it.

Unfortunately, we have become a fast-food society, a people that want what we want right now without the waiting. Instant gratification. And that’s simply not how life is.

We need to learn to wait. Isaiah 40:31 says:

“they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” RSV

Psalm 27:14:

“Wait for the Lord;
be strong, and let your heart take courage;
yea, wait for the Lord!” RSV

In fact, there are many verses about waiting upon the Lord and receiving strength after the waiting.

The Jews in the desert weren’t content to wait. They wanted the promise now, rather than waiting until they reached the Promised Land. As Christians, we need to learn to wait for the gratification that will eventually come, both here on earth, but moreso in Heaven. We need to learn to deny ourselves, to put off the sin, and to persevere through this life, as hard as it is, so that we might one day receive the Hope of the Promise . . . eternity with the Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 9:24-27

Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified. NKJ

It’s important that, as wise scholars, we not apply every analogy in the Bible literally (as would be unwise), but that we do ferret out the truth that we might apply it to our lives.

Paul says: “one receives the prize.” We know that there will be more than one Christian, so this isn’t a matter of competing against each other in order to gain heaven. Thankfully, the Lord hasn’t created such a system, but rather offers salvation to any and all who will receive Him, who will believe on His name.

What then is the kernel of truth that we should grasp from this passage? “Run in such a way that you may obtain it (the prize).” The point is that there are those who run but don’t obtain the prize, those who will live as Christians, but won’t persevere to finally end seeing the face of Jesus as Savior (though all will see the face of Jesus as Lord).

So how should one “run,” how should one live her life? What does it take to gain the prize?

• Be temperate in all things. Strong’s tells us that this Greek word, eágkrateáuoámai, means to be self-restrained in the matters of diet and chastity. In other words, to regulate and control one’s lusts. The fact is, we see lusts bursting out in all kinds of ways (shopping, gossiping, fighting, alcoholism, drugs) as well as in overeating and sexual sin. And yet Paul tells us that we must be self-restrained. In other words, we must learn how to discipline ourselves so that we don’t give into the temptations that exist all around us.

The person who allows herself to be focused on these kinds of indulgences allows herself to be involved in activities that interfere with running for the prize. Think about it! When you are focusing on eating (even secretly) those candy bars, when you are looking at pornography (even on the TV), when you are buying one thing after another for yourself . . . are you focusing on the Lord? Are you in sweet communion with the Holy Spirit? No, of course, we aren’t. We’re thinking about ourselves.

Paul teaches in 2 Corinthians: “bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (10:5b NKJ). This is the kind of self-restraint about which Paul is talking. Bringing thoughts (and their resulting actions) into obedience by restraining ourselves from actions which are ungodly.

• Run with certainty. The opposite of “certain” is “uncertain” or unreliable, untrustworthy, not able to count on. In other words, do we live our lives knowing that every decision we make will be as a Christian, will be in order to please God? Or are we, as James described, those who doubt, who are tossed to and fro as by the wind? (James 1:6-7).

The fact is, while we would like to deny it, every decision that we make is made with certainty. We make decisions. Even those decisions where we allow ourselves to be influenced by those around us or by our circumstances, we are still making even that decision.

Paul is encouraging us to be deliberate and strategic in our walk with the Lord, to make decisions to move us closer to our goal, of being in heaven with Him.

And while I don’t think we can stretch the analogy too far, I do believe that “run” has a certain ironic twist to it. Isn’t life getting faster and more furious? Don’t you often feel that you are running through the day, that the minutes fly by so fast it’s difficult to even process all that’s happening? And yet Paul tells us to run with certainty. How do we do that?

Think about an Olympic runner. That runner doesn’t just walk up to the starting blocks, wait for the gun and go. That runner has, instead, checked out the course, studied it, determined even where on the course he would like to run, where the path will lead to victory.

We need to do the same thing. We need to take time each day to chart a course, not of circumstances, but of reactions, of dependence upon the Spirit. We can’t predict the situations in which we will be in with much certainty, but we can predict the reactions that we will give to each circumstance . . . if we have prepared ourselves by basking in the presence of the Father and looking to Him to guide us each step of the day.

• Paul concludes by saying that he disciplines his body, brings it under subjection. Under subjection to what? To the will of Father God, rather than to the whims of the flesh (including the emotions).

We have become a society guided by our desires, our lusts, our emotions, and our rights. As Christians, we have a higher calling . . . to be guided by the principles and commandments of the holy scriptures, God’s Word. When we make decisions, even such innocuous ones as what to eat, we are often guided by what we “want,” rather than what is best for us, what is righteous, what is holy. And each decision made based on what we “want” strengthens our lusts and weakens our spiritual resolve.

As Christians, we have a duty, an obligation, in fact a dire need to so discipline ourselves as to focus on what God wants in all situations, rather than what we think we want. We need to, as athletes, run the race to win the prize, the prize of eternity in Heaven with Him Who gave His all for us.