Young People’s Blog

“Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee: rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee” (Proverbs 9:8).

Today’s verse is not very popular in the world right now, even among Christians. A few months ago, I read on the internet that we should never try to tell people that they are wrong. The question was asked, When was the last time someone thanked you for telling them that they were wrong? Sadly, it is true that most of the time, if we try to tell others that they are wrong, they will defend themselves, even if they realize that they are wrong. Perhaps we act the same way, if someone tries to show us that what we are doing is wrong.

Here in our verse we read that only a scorner will hate you, if you try to help him understand where he is wrong. But a wise man will appreciate it if he is told when he is wrong, because that is the way to learn. Let us never react like a scorner when someone tries to help us when we are wrong. If we are wise, we will value someone like that.

“There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death” (Proverbs 14:12).

This verse is so important that God has put it into His Word twice. See if you can find the other reference to it!

As I write this in January, 2023, I remember that last month (December, 2022) on the same highway here in Ontario, Canada, but on different days, two cars tried to travel on the wrong side of the road. Highway 401 is a divided highway, so there was really no excuse for either driver to end up going the wrong way. Both cars ended up in a head-on collision with another vehicle, and in the accidents, people were both killed and injured. Those drivers probably thought that they were going the right way, but it literally was a way of death.

Both were awful accidents, but there are many people in this world who are doing the same thing spiritually. Instead of believing God’s Word and trusting in the Lord Jesus for their souls’ salvation, they are going their own way, thinking that everything will be all right. But those who trust their own thoughts will find that it is indeed a way of death, for eternal life can be found only in the Lord Jesus.

“Job hath spoken without knowledge, and his words were without wisdom…Then Job answered the Lord and said…I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth Thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:1,5-6).

Job did not realize that he was a proud man—proud of his own goodness! He thought that his goodness was all from himself, instead of its being the result of God’s grace working in him. As a result, he felt that God was unjust to allow such severe trouble in his life. But through it all Job came to know the Lord better than before. He realized that God was greater than he was, and that all his goodness was only because God had given him a new life. Then he gave God the glory, instead of being proud of his own goodness.

Then God gave him twice as much as he had before, and also gave him ten children again, to replace the ones who had died. Job profited from God’s dealings with him, and this is a good lesson for us too. Whatever God allows in our lives is for our blessing, and we can learn from it.

“What? Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips” (Job 2:10).

Job is one of the oldest books in the Bible, for it seems that he lived about the same time as Abraham, or perhaps shortly afterward. He was a good man, but he did not yet know the Lord as well as he might have. Satan came along, and the Lord commended Job as a good man, but then Satan suggested that Job was a good man because God had blessed him, and given him wealth and prosperity.

Then the Lord allowed Satan to take away first of all Job’s possessions and his children, and finally his health. We see Job’s reaction in today’s verse. His words are like those of many people today, who say, “Sometimes things go well, and sometimes bad things happen. That’s life!” Have you heard people talk like that? Sometimes even believers can think like that.

But God never allows bad things in our life unless He wants to teach us something. Tomorrow we will see what He wanted to teach Job.

“For he that is entered into His [God’s] rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from His” (Hebrews 4:10).

When God finished His work of the six days of creation, He saw that everything was very good, and we read that “on the seventh day God ended His work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made” (Genesis 2:2). But now God has done a different work through His beloved Son on Calvary’s cross. God is not resting today in His earthly creation, for sin has made a mess of it. Rather, God is resting in His Son Jesus Christ, who has finished the work so that sin will eventually be removed from the entire universe.

Now God calls us to rest in His Son too. Sometimes we think we can work toward making things right in this world, but if we really appreciate God’s rest, we will stop trying to straighten out this world, and realize that we too can rest in what Christ has done.

There will definitely come a day when everything in this world will be straightened out, but in the meanwhile, we can have peace in the finished work of Christ.

“For yet a little while, and He that shall come will come, and will not tarry” (Hebrews 10:37).

We do not use the word “tarry” in everyday speech today, as it is an old English word. It simply means to delay, or to stay in one place in expectation. The Lord Jesus tarries now, for He is waiting in expectation for the Father’s word to call us home. But He will not delay unnecessarily, or wait a moment longer than is needed for the Father’s house to be filled.

When the book of Hebrews was written, there were many Jewish believers who were somewhat disappointed when the earthly kingdom was not set up immediately. The Lord reminds them in our verse for today that it would be only a little while until the Lord would come. Then they would enjoy, not an earthly kingdom, but a heavenly one, which is much better.

Perhaps you and I get a little impatient at times, and wonder why the Lord does not hurry up and come, and take us home. But there are others out there that need to be saved, and the Lord wants more to fill the Father’s home. We can afford to be patient, while we continue to tell others about the Lord Jesus.

“Behold, He cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him” (Revelation 1:7).

Yesterday we saw that it will be only by judgment that this world will be straightened out, and that only by God’s judgment will men learn to act properly. Here in today’s verse we read how this will happen.

By the time this verse is carried out, all true Christians will have been taken home at the Lord’s coming. Those who are left behind will face God’s awful judgment, and when He appears, they will know what is coming. He will not come secretly, in “the twinkling of an eye,” as He will when He comes for us; no, He will come publicly, and everyone will see Him. They will know very well that He is coming in judgment.

Nearly 2000 years ago He was nailed to a cross; in that day of judgment this world will remember what they did to the Son of God. They will realize that God has not forgotten, and that He is going to judge those who have rejected His Son, and have not repented of it.

“When Thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness” (Isaiah 26:9).

Perhaps you have heard people make the statement, “I want to make a difference: I want to make the world a better place.” It sounds very good, and as Christians, we should all strive to honor our Lord Jesus Christ by doing what is morally right in this world.

However, we must remember that the world is not going to be straightened out by our efforts. Nor will the world be made righteous even by the preaching of the gospel. Rather, God has told us that the condition of this world will gradually become worse and worse, and we are seeing that today.

It is only by God’s judgment that things will be straightened out in this world, and all who have not accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior will fall under that judgment. Then the Lord Jesus will bring in His glorious millennial kingdom, and the world will indeed be a better place.

However, we are not looking for an earthly kingdom; we are looking for a heavenly kingdom, and for the Lord to come and take us home.

“The hope set before us: which hope we have as an anchor of the soul” (Hebrews 6:19).

Many years ago, back in the 19th century, a woman named Priscilla Owens wrote the hymn,

“Will your anchor hold in the storms of life,
When the clouds unfold their wings of strife,” etc.

Then the chorus goes,

“We have an anchor that keeps the soul,
Steadfast and sure while the billows roll.”

It has been an encouragement and a comfort to many.

The world of today is very troubled and uncertain, and people are afraid of what the future might hold. They might well be afraid, for God’s judgment is coming on the world. The moral condition of this world is getting worse and worse, and while men recognize it, they do not want to take God’s remedy. But you and I, as Christians, have an anchor that keeps us. It can never come loose, and can never fail. It is sure and steadfast, because God is behind it. Whether it is our eternal salvation or the storms of life, that anchor always holds, and keeps us steady.

“Wherefore God…confirmed it by an oath: that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation [encouragement], who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us” (Hebrews 6:17-18).

We might be a little confused by these verses, as the Lord Jesus, when He was on earth, told the people, “Swear not at all” (Matthew 5:34), and that they were simply to say “yes” or “no” when speaking to others. Why then does God swear an oath?

The answer is that God wanted to prove conclusively to man that He would do what He said He would do. Thus He gave man two immutable things (things that cannot be changed) —His Word, and His oath. God could not lie, but because men use oaths in a courtroom, in order to emphasize the importance of telling the truth, God swore an oath, just so that man would realize that God would keep His Word.

God had promised to bless Abraham, and He even used an oath, to back up His Word. How gracious our God is!