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I die devotionals, Nathan Dooley

Because they hated knowledge | P1-V29

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Wisdom Warns 

Proverbs 1; I die daily devotional.

29 Because they hated knowledge And did not choose the fear of the LORD.

When I think of the idea of hating knowledge, I think of the apostle Paul telling me… Galatians 6:11 See with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand. 12 Those who desire to make a good showing in the flesh try to compel you to be circumcised, simply so that they will not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. 13 For those who are circumcised do not even keep the Law themselves, but they desire to have you circumcised so that they may boast in your flesh. I was guilty of this wrong in the past for the comfort of myself, not wanting to share the gospel—to avoid the persecution of the cross—for the sake of my environment mixed with tempting desires to experience in this life, or what’s worse, to share the gospel with words of faith, but a heart filled with fear and want, not actually taking serious the power of the Word—my faith was in vain.

HATED KNOWLEDGE

When I think about my disobedience to God I think of what the bond-servant James says… James 1:21 Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls. 22 But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; 24 for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. 25 But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does. I ask the question, “Why do people choose not the fear of the Lord?” And then clarity comes, the answers’ so evident, so true; yet here I remain as a man regretful of who I once was… the man in the mirror, until … I looked intently upon the perfect law of liberty. However, there are still those present with us today that choose rather to hate the knowledge of the cross and don’t fear the Lord. Don’t lose hope, keep praying for these people, but remain faithful to respect the justice of God in Christ our Lord. Let’s not fear persecution and keep looking intently at the perfect law of liberty.

  • What do you, and I, think of to be “hated knowledge”?
  • Why do these people choose not the fear of the Lord?
  • Are you and I looking intently at the perfect law of liberty?
  • How can we serve those who hate knowledge?
  • What can we do about those who don’t fear the Lord?

RECOURCE

Proverbs 1 (NASB)—blueletterbible.org
1 The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel: 2 To know wisdom and instruction, To discern the sayings of understanding, 3 To receive instruction in wise behavior, Righteousness, justice and equity; 4 To give prudence to the naïve, To the youth knowledge and discretion, 5 A wise man will hear and increase in learning, And a man of understanding will acquire wise counsel, 6 To understand a proverb and a figure, The words of the wise and their riddles. 7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; Fools despise wisdom and instruction.  8 Hear, my son, your father’s instruction And do not forsake your mother’s teaching; 9 Indeed, they are a graceful wreath to your head And ornaments about your neck. 10 My son, if sinners entice you, Do not consent. 11 If they say, “Come with us, Let us lie in wait for blood, Let us ambush the innocent without cause; 12 Let us swallow them alive like Sheol, Even whole, as those who go down to the pit; 13 We will find all kinds of precious wealth, We will fill our houses with spoil; 14 Throw in your lot with us, We shall all have one purse,” 15 My son, do not walk in the way with them. Keep your feet from their path, 16 For their feet run to evil And they hasten to shed blood. 17 Indeed, it is useless to spread the baited net In the sight of any bird; 18 But they lie in wait for their own blood; They ambush their own lives. 19 So are the ways of everyone who gains by violence; It takes away the life of its possessors. Wisdom Warns 20 Wisdom shouts in the street, She lifts her voice in the square; 21 At the head of the noisy streets she cries out; At the entrance of the gates in the city she utters her sayings: 22 “How long, O naïve ones, will you love being simple-minded? And scoffers delight themselves in scoffing And fools hate knowledge? 23  “Turn to my reproof, Behold, I will pour out my spirit on you; I will make my words known to you. 24 “Because I called and you refused, I stretched out my hand and no one paid attention; 25 And you neglected all my counsel And did not want my reproof; 26 I will also laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your dread comes, 27 When your dread comes like a storm And your calamity comes like a whirlwind, When distress and anguish come upon you. 28 “Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; They will seek me diligently but they will not find me, 29 Because they hated knowledge And did not choose the fear of the LORD. 30 “They would not accept my counsel, They spurned all my reproof. 31 “So they shall eat of the fruit of their own way And be satiated with their own devices. 32 “For the waywardness of the naïve will kill them, And the complacency of fools will destroy them. 33 “But he who listens to me shall live securely And will be at ease from the dread of evil.”

COMMENTARY

Matthew Henry (P1-V29) Commentary
[4.] Now they are eager upon their own way, and fond of their own devices; but then they will have enough of them (v. 31), according to the proverb, Let men drink as they brew; they shall eat the fruit of their own way; their wages shall be according to their work, and, as was their choice, so shall their doom be, Gal. 6:7, 8. Note,

  • First, There is a natural tendency in sin to destruction, Jam. 1:15. Sinners are certainly miserable if they do but eat the fruit of their own way.
  • Secondly, Those that perish must thank themselves, and can lay no blame upon any other. It is their own device; let them make their boast of it. God chooses their delusions, Isa. 66:4.
I die devotionals, Nathan Dooley

And you neglected all my counsel | P1-V25

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Wisdom Warns 

Proverbs 1; I die daily devotional.

25 And you neglected all my counsel And did not want my reproof;

Jesus is still very much alive today, just as He was when in the flesh with His disciples. There was a time when Jesus was reproving the Jews about the nature of eternal life; He told the Jews to eat His flesh and drink His blood to have eternal life. John 6:60 Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this said, “This is a difficult statement; who can listen to it?” 61 But Jesus, conscious that His disciples grumbled at this, said to them, “Does this cause you to stumble? And several of His disciples decided to no longer follow Him, this teaching was neglected, and yet Jesus continues…

YOU NEGLECTED

62 What then if you see the Son of Man ascending to where He was before?  63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. 64 But there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who it was that would betray Him. 65 And He was saying, “For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father.” But the disciples didn’t want this reproof; they wanted a King like David to conquer the Romans, and to establish Israel. And we today, still neglecting and not wanting reproof because our sin is deep within the most inner parts of the human being, our soul. We want our King to return, and for this sin to be removed, but won’t accept this Word of God that teaches us how it is removed. Remember— 1 Corinthians 15:51 Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54 But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, “DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP in victory. 55 O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?” 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law;  57 but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

  • How is Jesus alive today?
  • Have I neglected?
  • Am I neglecting?
  • Do I want reproof?
  • Am I reproved?
  • Have I the victory?

RESOURCE

Proverbs 1 (NASB)—blueletterbible.org
1 The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel: 2 To know wisdom and instruction, To discern the sayings of understanding, 3 To receive instruction in wise behavior, Righteousness, justice and equity; 4 To give prudence to the naïve, To the youth knowledge and discretion, 5 A wise man will hear and increase in learning, And a man of understanding will acquire wise counsel, 6 To understand a proverb and a figure, The words of the wise and their riddles. 7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; Fools despise wisdom and instruction.  8 Hear, my son, your father’s instruction And do not forsake your mother’s teaching; 9 Indeed, they are a graceful wreath to your head And ornaments about your neck. 10 My son, if sinners entice you, Do not consent. 11 If they say, “Come with us, Let us lie in wait for blood, Let us ambush the innocent without cause; 12 Let us swallow them alive like Sheol, Even whole, as those who go down to the pit; 13 We will find all kinds of precious wealth, We will fill our houses with spoil; 14 Throw in your lot with us, We shall all have one purse,” 15 My son, do not walk in the way with them. Keep your feet from their path, 16 For their feet run to evil And they hasten to shed blood. 17 Indeed, it is useless to spread the baited net In the sight of any bird; 18 But they lie in wait for their own blood; They ambush their own lives. 19 So are the ways of everyone who gains by violence; It takes away the life of its possessors. Wisdom Warns 20 Wisdom shouts in the street, She lifts her voice in the square; 21 At the head of the noisy streets she cries out; At the entrance of the gates in the city she utters her sayings: 22 “How long, O naïve ones, will you love being simple-minded? And scoffers delight themselves in scoffing And fools hate knowledge? 23  “Turn to my reproof, Behold, I will pour out my spirit on you; I will make my words known to you. 24 “Because I called and you refused, I stretched out my hand and no one paid attention; 25 And you neglected all my counsel And did not want my reproof; 26 I will also laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your dread comes, 27 When your dread comes like a storm And your calamity comes like a whirlwind, When distress and anguish come upon you. 28 “Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; They will seek me diligently but they will not find me, 29 Because they hated knowledge And did not choose the fear of the LORD. 30 “They would not accept my counsel, They spurned all my reproof. 31 “So they shall eat of the fruit of their own way And be satiated with their own devices. 32 “For the waywardness of the naïve will kill them, And the complacency of fools will destroy them. 33 “But he who listens to me shall live securely And will be at ease from the dread of evil.”

COMMENTARY

Matthew Henry (P1-V25) Commentary

  • [2.] Christ reproved and counselled them, not only reproved them for what they did amiss, but counselled them to do better (those are reproofs of instruction and evidences of love and good-will), but they set at nought all his counsel as not worth heeding, and would none of his reproof, as if it were below them to be reproved by him and as if they had never done any thing that deserved reproof, v. 25. This is repeated (v. 30): “They would none of my counsel, but rejected it with disdain; they called reproofs reproaches, and took them as an insult (Jer. 6:10); nay, they despised all my reproof, as if it were all a jest, and not worth taking notice of.’ Note, Those are marked for ruin that are deaf to reproof and good counsel.
  • [3.] They were exhorted to submit to the government of right reason and religion, but they rebelled against both.
    • First, Reason should not rule them, for they hated knowledge (v. 29), hated the light of divine truth because it discovered to them the evil of their deeds, Jn. 3:20. They hated to be told that which they could not bear to know.
    • Secondly, Religion could not rule them, for they did not choose the fear of the Lord, but chose to walk in the way of their heart and in the sight of their eyes. They were pressed to set God always before them, but they chose rather to cast him and his fear behind their backs. Note, Those who do not choose the fear of the Lord show that they have no knowledge.
I die devotionals, Nathan Dooley

They ambush their own lives | P1-V18

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The Enticement of Sinners

Proverbs 1; I die daily devotional.

18 But they lie in wait for their own blood; They ambush their own lives.

We’ve seen this verse before, hadn’t we? No. And actually. The script is flipped now.

It was back at verse 11 we read—if they say, “Come with us, Let us lie in wait for blood, Let us ambush the innocent without cause—that the child of Wisdom is warned not to consent to the enticement of sinners.

THEIR OWN BLOOD

Their goal of gain in this life is at the cost of innocence. Their choice is made, they’ve chosen to love their own soul above their God who gave it to them, and ultimately, entices the innocent by that behavior, influencing a lie—a pleasure—about the way of their demise—justifying and blaming the world around them—rather than repenting of their selfish endeavors for the sake of God. But they won’t, they don’t repent; the sinner will seek to devour the innocent without a thought of losing their own soul for the sake of preserving the innocent—for the sake of Christ. The sinner says, “You need sex with multiple partners. You need pornography. You need to make more money. You need a vacation, cut loose, and just enjoy life.” But their gain is the ambush of their own lives, and once the innocent is converted… will he or she repent?

  • Do you believe in Jesus Christ?
  • Do you have faith that Jesus is resurrected?
  • Have you accepted responsibility for your sin?
  • Are you actively repenting of your sin?
  • Do you believe in Jesus Christ?
  • Do you have faith that Jesus is resurrected?
  • Have you accepted responsibility for your sin?
  • Are you actively repenting of your sin?
  • Have you sought to make your belief known?
  • Find a body of believers.
  • Tell them the meaning of salvation.
  • Seek to be baptized.
  • Study the Word of God.
  • Become equipped in your hope.
  • Practice your defense with believers.
  • Preach the Word of God to this world.
  • Be faithful to Christ.
  • Be faithful to your church body.
  • Understand how death is defeated.
  • Love God; Love neighbor.
  • Pray, Jesus come. Amen.

RESOURCE

Proverbs 1 (NASB)—blueletterbible.org
1 The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel: 2 To know wisdom and instruction, To discern the sayings of understanding, 3 To receive instruction in wise behavior, Righteousness, justice and equity; 4 To give prudence to the naïve, To the youth knowledge and discretion, 5 A wise man will hear and increase in learning, And a man of understanding will acquire wise counsel, 6 To understand a proverb and a figure, The words of the wise and their riddles. 7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; Fools despise wisdom and instruction.  8 Hear, my son, your father’s instruction And do not forsake your mother’s teaching; 9 Indeed, they are a graceful wreath to your head And ornaments about your neck. 10 My son, if sinners entice you, Do not consent. 11 If they say, “Come with us, Let us lie in wait for blood, Let us ambush the innocent without cause; 12 Let us swallow them alive like Sheol, Even whole, as those who go down to the pit; 13 We will find all kinds of precious wealth, We will fill our houses with spoil; 14 Throw in your lot with us, We shall all have one purse,” 15 My son, do not walk in the way with them. Keep your feet from their path, 16 For their feet run to evil And they hasten to shed blood. 17 Indeed, it is useless to spread the baited net In the sight of any bird; 18 But they lie in wait for their own blood; They ambush their own lives. 19 So are the ways of everyone who gains by violence; It takes away the life of its possessors. Wisdom Warns 20 Wisdom shouts in the street, She lifts her voice in the square; 21 At the head of the noisy streets she cries out; At the entrance of the gates in the city she utters her sayings: 22 “How long, O naïve ones, will you love being simple-minded? And scoffers delight themselves in scoffing And fools hate knowledge? 23  “Turn to my reproof, Behold, I will pour out my spirit on you; I will make my words known to you. 24 “Because I called and you refused, I stretched out my hand and no one paid attention; 25 And you neglected all my counsel And did not want my reproof; 26 I will also laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your dread comes, 27 When your dread comes like a storm And your calamity comes like a whirlwind, When distress and anguish come upon you. 28 “Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; They will seek me diligently but they will not find me, 29 Because they hated knowledge And did not choose the fear of the LORD. 30 “They would not accept my counsel, They spurned all my reproof. 31 “So they shall eat of the fruit of their own way And be satiated with their own devices. 32 “For the waywardness of the naïve will kill them, And the complacency of fools will destroy them. 33 “But he who listens to me shall live securely And will be at ease from the dread of evil.”

COMMENTARY

Matthew Henry (P1-V18) Commentary
Herein,

  • (1.) They are like the silly bird, that sees the net spread to take her, and yet it is in vain; she is decoyed into it by the bait, and will not take the warning which her own eyes gave her, v. 17. But we think ourselves of more value than many sparrows, and therefore should have more wit, and act with more caution. God has made us wiser than the fowls of heaven (Job 35:11), and shall we then be as stupid as they?
  • (2.) They are worse than the birds, and have not the sense which we sometimes perceive them to have; for the fowler knows it is in vain to lay his snare in the sight of the bird, and therefore he has arts to conceal it. But the sinner sees ruin at the end of his way; the murderer, the thief, see the jail and the gallows before them, nay, they may see hell before them; their watchmen tell them they shall surely die, but it is to no purpose; they rush into sin, and rush on in it, like the horse into the battle. For really the stone they roll will turn upon themselves, v. 18, 19. They lay wait, and lurk privily, for the blood and lives of others, but it will prove, contrary to their intention, to be for their own blood, their own lives; they will come, at length, to a shameful end; and, if they escape the sword of the magistrate, yet there is a divine Nemesis that pursues them. Vengeance suffers them not to live. Their greediness of gain hurries them upon those practices which will not suffer them to live out half their days, but will cut off the number of their months in the midst. They have little reason to be proud of their property in that which takes away the life of the owners and then passes to other masters; and what is a man profited, though he gain the world, if he lose his life? For then he can enjoy the world no longer; much less if he lose his soul, and that be drowned in destruction and perdition, as multitudes are by the love of money.