The Lord Jesus is the King of kings, the Lord of lords, and the Creator of the universe. Yet, during His earthly ministry, the Lord made it known that He cared for the “little ones” (Matthew 18:6, 10, 14). Perhaps the disciples thought the Master would be too busy or have more important things to do than to take time for the children. The Lord rebuked His disciples for such erroneous thinking. After all, the Lord loved children and wanted them to come to Him. It grieved Him to think that His disciples would forbid any child from coming to Him. Even now, the Lord wants little children to come to Him. No disciple should ever forbid children to come to the Lord. Even with all of life’s distractions, the Bible admonishes young people to remember their Creator in the days of their youth (Ecclesiastes 12:1).
As the head of the home, the man bares the responsibility for the biblical training of every individual within his home. Yet, many homes today have no man in them. Regardless of society’s disintegration, there is never a time when the man ever relinquishes his accountability to God as the spiritual leader of his home. In today’s passage, we read of Abraham bearing his personal responsibility. According to God’s testimony, Abraham bore that responsibility well. The Lord testified that Abraham would command his children and household after him. Abraham’s family would keep the way of the LORD and would do justice and judgment. Unfortunately, the same cannot be expressed for far too many modern Christian homes. In fact, church pews are overflowing with faithful women while their men are absentee husbands expressing little to no interest in the things of God.
As the world seeks to further weaken any distinctions between men and women, it becomes even more important to stand firm upon God’s principles. God has a defined order in the home and the worldly attitudes do not alter God’s precepts. Someone has to be the leader of each home and bear the responsibility. According to 1 Corinthians 11:3, the proper order is a woman submitted to a man, who is submitted to Christ, who is submitted to the heavenly Father. Christ’s submission to the Father in no way suggested inferiority to the Father, nor does a submissive wife indicate any type of inferiority to her husband. In fact, it takes a stronger woman to follow God’s plan of submission. A godly home follows the scripture even when it contradicts the generally accepted teachings of the day.
Loyalty may seem to go unobserved but eventually yields unexpected and momentous dividends. The story of Esther’s uncle uniquely exemplifies this point. Mordecai sat in the king’s gate in Shushan. One day, while he sat in the gate, he overheard two men plotting to kill the king. When Mordecai heard the news, he immediately repeated these words to Queen Esther, thus foiling the plot. The two men were tried, found guilty, and ultimately executed. At first, Mordecai’s loyalty seemed to remain unnoticed, but one night the king was troubled and could not sleep. His servants, by divine providence, read the record of Mordecai’s loyalty to him (Esther 6:1-3). Soon thereafter, Mordecai’s loyalty was rewarded (Esther 6:4-11). His loyalty most likely saved his life and spared the lives of countless Jews (see Esther chapter 7).
Man’s loyalty must be first and foremost directed toward the Lord; however, an aspect of one’s loyalty to the Lord also involves a certain loyalty toward man. At times, these loyalties might conflict. During those instances, each person should heed the words of Simon Peter when he admonished, “We ought to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29). When one’s loyalty to God does not conflict with any loyalty toward man, the Lord admonishes men to be loyal toward one another. When Moses placed his honour upon Joshua, he did so in order to encourage obedience, respect, and loyalty on the part of the people of God. In similar fashion, the Lord has crowned man with glory and honour (Psalm 8:5). As such, the Lord has naturally put within man a desire to be loyal toward the Lord and others.
The Bible points out that judgment or punishment against an evil work during one’s lifetime is not always executed speedily (Ecclesiastes 8:11). This has made some people think that the wicked can live with seeming impunity from the consequences of their actions. At times it might seem as though the wicked are in fact rewarded for their wickedness while the righteous are punished for diligent, holy living. Believers must live cautiously in order to avoid getting their focus off the Lord and becoming envious of the supposed conquests of the wicked. Although troubles may come to the righteous in spite of their goodness, and help to the wicked in spite of their wickedness, Christians must not and cannot envy the wicked. This dichotomy has caused many once strong Christians to choose the devil’s deceitfulness over God’s goodness.
Life is full of polar opposites that cannot simultaneously reside within the believer’s heart and life (i.e., truth and lies, love and hate, holiness and sin). Some of these conflicts are familiar and easily identifiable. Yet, the Bible indicates that a similar conflict exists in an individual’s life concerning envy and the fear of the Lord. When a man reflects upon the life of the wicked with envy, he ceases to walk in the fear of the Lord. Why? A man who fears the Lord considers the coming judgment directed toward those who know not God. Every person will stand before the Lord and those who fear the Lord and know the end of the story do not desire to have the lot of the wicked pertaining to this judgment. Every man must choose. Does he choose to walk in the fear of the Lord or does he envy the wicked because his eyes veered away from the Lord?
Man is made up of three parts: spirit, soul, and body. Death takes place when the soul (Genesis 35:18) and the spirit (Genesis 25:8) leave the body. This event happens to everyone regardless of the individual’s spiritual state at death. Saved or lost, a person’s spirit returns to God who gave it (Ecclesiastes 3:21; Ecclesiastes 12:7). However, the soul’s destination is based upon whether or not a person has trusted Jesus Christ as Saviour during this life. There exists no midpoint between earth and heaven (or hell) to purge one’s sins, including places invented by religions to do so. For a saved person, the Bible declares that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:8). Unfortunately for the lost, this same outcome is not true. Following death, the Bible reveals that the lost man’s soul immediately goes to hell (Luke 16:23).
Paul’s description of the enemies of the cross suggests that they were controlled by their bellies. Paul may have meant something other than appetite when he used the word belly, but there can be no doubt that the idea is included. In Romans 16:18, Paul said that “they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly.” In other words, those who are divisive and doctrinally unsound are led by their own lusts. The outcomes of their desires focus upon fulfilling their own lusts which Proverbs and Ecclesiastes reinforce. In Proverbs 16:26, the Bible says that man “laboureth for himself; for his mouth craveth it of him.” This is repeated in Ecclesiastes 6:7 where the Bible says, “All the labour of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled.” These are just a few biblical examples of those ruled by appetite.
Scripture misconceptions are frequently based upon superficial understanding of Bible texts and truths. For example, very few Bible teachers seem to grasp the biblical definition of gluttony. Most people consider gluttony as referring to the sin of overeating. However, the Bible’s built-in dictionary suggests a completely different scenario. Consider the two parallels within our text. Proverbs 23:21 defines the drunkard as someone among winebibbers in verse 20. Additionally, Proverbs 23:21 defines the glutton as someone among riotous eaters of flesh in verse 20. This context shows us that gluttony is not determined so much by the amount of food eaten, but the manner of food consumption. The fact that gluttony and drunkenness are mentioned every time together further confirms this truth (Deuteronomy 21:20; Proverbs 23:21; Matthew 11:19; Luke 7:34). Notice that the last two references in Matthew and Luke refer to the false accusations hurled toward the Saviour. When Christ’s accusers referred to Him as a gluttonous man and a winebibber, they were referring to His associations with the publicans and sinners, not His personal eating and drinking habits!
