For they are robbed of sleep | P4-V16

A Father’s Instruction

Proverbs 4:16 

I die daily devotional.

15 Avoid it, do not pass by it;
Turn away from it and pass on.
16 For they cannot sleep unless they do evil;
And they are robbed of sleep unless they make someone stumble.

17 For they eat the bread of wickedness
And drink the wine of violence.


Okay, so… as promised, from our previous devotional; Jesus is the line drawn in the soul of every person. And the Holy Spirit convicts the world by that line—we’ll get to that. But just as the scribes and Pharisees tested Jesus by bringing a woman caught in adultery—not for the reason of adultery, but for accusing Him—so do we do to each other as a faith body; we are the church, and yet, we test Jesus and seek occasion to accuse the Holy Spirit by apostasy.

John 8:6 They said this to test Him, hoping that they would have grounds for accusing Him. But Jesus stooped down and began writing on the ground with His finger. However, when they persisted in questioning Him, He straightened up and said, “He who is without [any] sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” Then He stooped down again and started writing on the ground.

Now lets fast forward, after our Lord’s ascension to the Father, we find the apostles functioning as that line drawn. Check this out! Remember when Ananias and his wife Sapphira were busted for lying? What happened to them?

Acts 5:3 But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and [secretly] keep back for yourself some of the proceeds [from the sale] of the land? As long as it remained [unsold], did it not remain your own [to do with as you pleased]? And after it was sold, was the money not under your control? Why is it that you have conceived this act [of hypocrisy and deceit] in your heart? You have not [simply] lied to people, but to God.” And hearing these words, Ananias fell down suddenly and died; and great fear and awe gripped those who heard of it.

Lets not forget that these men are still men born from the seed of Adam, men that we would judge no different than us as sinners saved by grace through their faith in Jesus Christ, and yet… there they were, empowered with the authority of the Holy Spirit to exercise justice among the growing church of believers.

So now lets fast forward to modern times, why do believers today behave as though the Holy Spirit is not here?

For anyone who claims themselves as Christians and practices sin… have you then, truly believed? Do you truly understand what it means to be saved and equipped with the Holy Spirit, having faith that produces fruits for righteous behavior? Do you truly have a personality changed by the fact of your baptismal event, or was it just an event?

If a person is still in sin, making a practice of lustful feeling and prideful thinking, that person has yet to be born again because only then can that person truly be empowered with the help of the Holy Spirit to change from old sin to the new creature within, the creature of righteousness!

 16 For they cannot sleep unless they do evil;
And they are robbed of sleep unless they make someone stumble.

The wisest man ended up chasing after other gods even in fellowship with the God, our Lord and God, Jesus Christ. Are we so prideful to think that we’ve been saved to remain in our sins as though bound by other gods to feel out pornography or to think lies unseen by God? …

Can you sleep?


RESOURCE

Proverbs 4 (NASB)—blueletterbible.org | biblegateway.com


COMMENTARY

Chapter 4

Matthew Henry (P4-V16) Commentary
II. The reasons to enforce this caution.

  • 1. “Consider the character of the men whose way thou art warned to shun.” They are mischievous men (v. 16, 17); they not only care not what hurt they do to those that stand in their way, but it is their business to do mischief, and their delight, purely for mischief-sake. They are continually designing and endeavouring to cause some to fall, to ruin them body and soul. Wickedness and malice are in their nature, and violence is in all their actions. They are spiteful in the highest degree; for,
    • (1.) Mischief is rest and sleep to them. As much satisfaction as a covetous man has when he has got money, an ambitious man when he has got preferment, and a good man when he has done good, so much have they when they have said or done that which is injurious and ill-natured; and they are extremely uneasy if they cannot get their envy and revenge gratified, as Haman, to whom every thing was unpleasant as long as Mordecai was unhanged. It intimates likewise how restless and unwearied they are in their mischievous pursuits; they will rather be deprived of sleep than of the pleasure of being vexatious.
    • (2.) Mischief is meat and drink to them; they feed and feast upon it. They eat the bread of the wickedness (they eat up my people as they eat bread, Ps. 14:4and drink the wine of violence (v. 17), drink iniquity like water, Job 15:16. All they eat and drink is got by rapine and oppression. Do wicked men think the time lost in which they are not doing hurt? Let good men make it as much their business and delight to do good. Amici, diem perdidi-Friends, I have lost a day. And let all that are wise, and wish well to themselves, avoid the society of the wicked; for,
      • [1.] It is very scandalous; for there is no disposition of mind that is a greater reproach to human nature, a greater enemy to human society, a bolder defiance to God and conscience, that has more of the devil’s image in it, or is more serviceable to his interests, than a delight to do mischief and to vex, and hurt, and ruin every body.
      • [2.] It is very dangerous. “Shun those that delight to do mischief as thou tenderest thy own safety; for, whatever friendship they may pretend, one time or other they will do thee mischief; thou wilt ruin thyself if thou dost concur with them (ch. 1:18) and they will ruin thee if thou dost not.”

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.