Love Israel

Speaker 1

Shalom and welcome to Via Hafta Yisrael, a Hebrew phrase which means you shall love Israel. We hope you'll stay with us for the next 30 minutes as our teacher, Dr. Baruch, shares his expository teaching from the Bible.

Dr. Baruch is the Senior Lecturer at the Zarah Avraham Institute based in Israel. Although all courses are taught in Hebrew at the institute, Dr. Baruch is pleased to share this weekly address in English.

To find out more about our work in Israel, please visit us on the web at loveisrael.org—that's one word, loveisrael.org.

Now here's Baruch with today's lesson.

Speaker 2

Amen. We indeed want to be people that choose wisely, that look at the very situations that we find ourselves encountering, and that we make wise and God-pleasing decisions. And let me share with you that the Book of Proverbs, what we have been studying for several months now, is a great book to give us insight and understanding, to give us knowledge and wisdom so that we can exercise discernment and choose the things that are pleasing to our Heavenly Father.

Because as we talked about in our call to worship, yes, we have a body and we have resources, and we want to bring everything under God's submissive will. We want everything to be used to His glory, to honor Him, to praise Him, and to show Him how thankful we are that we have been saved by His grace through the obedience of His Son. We want to be kingdom participants, not just to be in the kingdom, but to be working the kingdom work now at this time in this world through our earthly bodies.

Take out your Bible and look with me, if you would, to the Book of Proverbs and Chapter 24, the Book of Proverbs and Chapter 24. Now, we began this chapter last week; God willing, we're going to complete it in this study. And we're going to begin with where we left off in verse 15. So Proverbs chapter 24 and verse 15. Let me say that this second half of this chapter is a difficult chapter. It requires that one reads and rereads over and over these verses and to also seek assistance not only through the Holy Spirit and through prayer, but also looking at commentators and what they have said about these verses, because indeed they are difficult.

So let's begin Proverbs 24 and verse 15. Now here it is addressing someone who is a Rasha, which is a wicked person. God is going to command this wicked person not to do something. And what is that? Well, when we look at the wicked person, that is in the third person singular. But normally commandments are second person, either singular or plural, depending upon whether we're talking to one individual or a group. So we see here that it begins. We might translate it this way, "O wicked one." That's who's being addressed. And then it says, "Do not set an ambush." That's literally what the word is, to set an ambush at the dwelling place of a righteous one. So don't lie in wait in order to ambush a righteous person.

Now, one of the things that stands out to me in this verse is this: there is that hostility of the world towards a righteous individual. We see that clearly in regard to our Lord and Savior, Messiah, Yeshua. The world did not like Him; the world crucified Him. But what we see here is a warning. And that is, don't lie in ambush, you who are wicked, for one who is righteous. Don't lie in ambush for a righteous one, where he lives, where he resides.

And then secondly, it says, "Do not." And this is a word for stealing or plundering. It says here in this passage, "Do not plunder where he lies down, where he's resting." Now, some of the commentators say a person might lie down, and it's the same word for sheep lying down in a good pasture. So it means to take a rest. It's simply saying when someone is at rest, don't use that time to exploit them, to injure them in some way. So when we look, don't set an ambush for where a righteous one resides, and don't plunder where he lays down. In other words, don't harm a righteous individual. Rather, we want to be people that support such a one and learn from such a one.

Well, let's move on to our next verse, verse 16. Now this is good news to me. I find encouragement in this because we all go through things that are difficult. We all go through situations and circumstances that bring us down, that knock us down sometimes. And notice what it says: "For seven times a righteous one will fall." But notice what it says, "but he will rise up." But the wicked, they will stumble in evil.

Now, what does it say seven times? Why seven? Well, seven is a holy number that relates to the purposes of God. What it says is this: how we should understand it? The world is going to come against a righteous person because they are committed to the purposes of God. And even though they may be knocked down seven times, what are they going to always do? They are going to rise up. Here it says, "He will rise up," but in contrast to that, wicked ones, they will stumble in evil, meaning they. And this word for stumbling is also related to the word for failure. They are going to have failure. Why? Well, they're not righteous. They're not committed to righteous acts; they are committed to evil. And evil is a source of destruction. When you choose evil, that means anything that is contrary to the will of God, you are going to be inviting destruction into your life. So a wicked one, or in the plural, wicked ones, they will fall, they will stumble, they will fail. Evil, meaning their evilness.

Move on to verse 17, when your enemy should fall. Now here it's the same word whether we're talking about a national enemy, meaning if you belong to a nation and that nation is being attacked, we can use that same word, Oyev, but most scholars understand that this is more of a personal situation, not an enemy who is a national enemy against your country, against your people. But this is one who is an individual that you see as an enemy, and it's legitimate. They are an enemy to you. But what do we know? Well, we don't return evil for evil, but rather we pray for our enemies.

And what does it say here? Look carefully. Verse 17: "When your enemy should fall, we are commanded, do not be glad." And that's literally what that word is, "Al Tisbach." Don't be glad. And when he stumbles, your heart should not rejoice. So don't be glad when he falls, and don't rejoice when he stumbles or fails. Why? What is our new nature? We want people not to fail, not to fall. But we want people to embrace the truth of God and define blessing. So we don't rejoice and find pleasure in the misery and the hardships of other individuals, even those who are our personal enemies. And that's why Messiah said, "Pray for your enemies."

Look now to verse 18. Now here it comes with a warning. He says, "Don't be glad when your enemy falls, and don't allow your heart to rejoice when he fails." But notice what the Scripture says in this next verse, verse 18: "Lest," meaning the Lord, "He will see and you rejoicing and you being glad in that person's failure and that person's fall." It says, "Lest the Lord will see, and it will be what evil in His eyes." And what will God do? It says, "And return from him His anger." Meaning this: because this person was not good, this person was going to experience God's anger. You might think of that as God's punishment. Usually when God's angry, He punishes. So if we rejoice and are glad in the misfortune of even our enemies, what's it saying? God will take note of this. He will see us behaving in a way that is against His will, evil in His eyes, and therefore He will remove—that's the implication—He will turn away that anger that was going to be upon that enemy of yours. He won't experience that.

So again, don't rejoice when your enemies suffer when they encounter some misfortune or misery. Look now at the next verse. We're ready for verse 19. Now, the word here, most Bibles translate it as fretting, which means to be disappointed, to have despair, or to experience some discouragement. And what's interesting, if you do a good study of this word, it has to do with being angry. We learned something. When we are angry, it is going to produce depression, discouragement, and despair in our life. Anger is not good. And that's why it says in the scripture, "You know, be angry, but sin not." Meaning, don't let that anger control you. Don't let that anger reach a certain level that it brings you into sin.

So here it says, "Do not despair, do not be discouraged, do not be depressed." In other words, don't be angry with those who are doing evil. Now, should we rejoice when people are doing evil? Obviously not. But understand, in this world, God allows that. Now I want to pause for a moment because people are so confused about the sovereignty of God. Just today, as this is being recorded, I also did an interview for a television station in Romania. And during that interview, we talked about the sovereignty of God. And what we see is that people are confused about that. They make that foolish assumption that if God is sovereign, then everything that happens must be His will. Absolutely not. We find that there's evil in this world. God does not lie. God cannot be tempted to do sin. God does not sin. Everything that He does is right and righteous. He is a perfect God. But God allows for individuals to choose evil. The world that God creates has good, meaning His will. But also there's an opportunity to act in opposition to His will. That's simply the world that He's created.

So here in this passage, look very carefully at our text where it says in verse 19, "Don't be angry when they do evil, when they behave incorrectly. Don't allow that to ruin your day. Understand that happens in this world." It says, "Do not be envious of those who are wicked." So we have parallelism here between those who are doing evil and those who are wicked. And it says, basically, first of all, He says, "Don't let it make you angry. Understand, that's the world that we're living in. And that's why there's a kingdom. And God's going to bring a change into this world to get rid of those who practice evil."

And then secondly, He says, "Do not be envious or jealous. Don't desire, don't be zealous for what these wicked people are doing or what their wickedness is bringing into their life, because it's all temporary. Judgment day is coming." Now, I want to share with you that indeed there's a day that God has set aside where He is going to judge this world. And it is going to bring about the destruction of many, but it's going to bring about wonderful blessing. What is that blessing? The kingdom of God. Because the judgment of God is used by God to set things in order.

Look now to verse 24: "An end shall not be for the evil." Now, the word here for end is usually thought of as a good ending, something that we would be seeking and desiring. And what it says here is that the evil one, there's not going to be an end for him. He's not going to have a good ending. Something else: "The lamp of the wicked will be extinguished." And what that simply means, and some would say that this word for a lamp, it's actually the Hebrew word "nair." And a "nair" is simply a candle. This is used as a way of signifying a person's existence, a light. Oftentimes, there's different groups. Someone dies, they light a candle to remember that person. And what it says here, that this wicked person, they are going to be extinguished. They're not going to continue on.

And this is just parallelism. They're not going to continue on. Why? They have no end. But we who are in that new covenant, we who have accepted the Gospels, we have a marvelous end. What is our end? The kingdom of God, specifically the new Jerusalem. Don't make the mistake, as I hear many make, in thinking that heaven is our end game; it's not. The heaven that exists today is not eternal. Did not Messiah say that the heavens and the earth, they will pass away? And we see that happening in Revelation chapter 21. There is going to be a new heaven and a new earth, in other words, a new creation. And that is going to be similar to that Garden of Eden. We are talking about the Garden of God, as Ezekiel puts it, which is simply another phrase that relates to the kingdom of God that is our eternal habitation, the new Jerusalem, the kingdom of God.

Look now to verse 21: "Fear the Lord, my son, and the king." And then it says with those who change. And this word for change is simply a different word for something that's different, something that's not the same. And what it says here is that the Lord and the king. We could think of the fact that the king is the Lord, but in this case, it's talking about simply authority, two words. Whether we speak about the Lord Himself or the king, we're speaking about authority. And what it's saying here is don't change, don't associate. That's literally where we're going. Look at the end of this verse, verse 21: "With the ones who change or who make changes, do not associate, do not mix with them, don't be with them." Those who want to change the structure of authority.

Now let me just share with you, going to go off on a brief tangent that what we're seeing today are those "shoneem," those changers, those who want to change the authority that has governed this world. What authority? I'm talking about the authority of God and the authority of the King of Kings, our Lord Messiah, Jesus. So there are those who want to change things; don't associate with them. Now the change that is good is the Lord's change, a righteous change, a kingdom change. We should want that. But there are those who want to change the authority in this world. There's where we are in our existence.

Look now to verse 22: "For suddenly will rise up their catastrophe." Now this is a word which means something that is dreadful, awful, something that brings great destruction. And what God is saying is this: those who want a change, what's going to happen suddenly? Now that word suddenly means without anticipation, without any expectation. So we're not anticipating this; we're not expecting it. But what's going to happen? Well, what did we read? Their calamity, their catastrophe, their disaster. And it says in the scripture that it's going to rise up suddenly. And the destruction of both of them. Who knows now? Destruction of both of them. It's talking about the Lord and the King. It's bringing them together.

We're not talking, in my opinion, about a typical king, but we're talking about King Messiah. That word king can relate indeed to the Messiah. And what it's talking about is there's a time coming when—and we know what Paul says; we know what John says in the book of Revelation—that there is going to be that judgment upon the world that is coming as a thief in the night. That means without anticipation, it is going to happen suddenly; the people won't be ready for it. But that is going to come because of the Lord and His King. It is the King Messiah who is going to bring this destruction on this world. What is this destruction? The judgment of God. Here it's the judgment of the Lord and the judgment of the king.

Look on to verse 23: "Also, even to the wise." Now listen to this carefully. This is a difficult verse. Look again at verse 23: "Also these things which are to the wise one." Notice what it says: "To show partiality in judgment is not good." Now this is what's going to happen. I believe this section of the book of Proverbs gives us much insight for the last days. Because in the last days, we're going to see those who want to bring change into this world—an unrighteous change, a satanic change. And notice something else. He says, "Also these things belong to the wise ones." And wisdom, what does it say here? Well, wisdom means we don't show partiality; we don't have favorites in judgment. We judge fairly; we judge upon the truth. We do not take a bribe and show partiality because we simply want to. It’s in our interest. It says such behavior says "bow to," which means not good. It ought not be done.

Look now at verse 24: "The wicked says to the righteous." Excuse me, where it says, "I will say to the wicked, righteous are you?" Let me give that right: "I will say to the wicked, righteous are you?" Now this also has some end times implications. Why? Well, very simply, we know there's coming that time when they will call evil good and good evil. Well, here we see something similar—different terms, but similar principle—says, "I will say to the wicked, righteous are you?" Well, that's not what we should do. We should say to the wicked, "Wicked are you. Evil are you?" And not call the wicked one righteous. But that's where this world is going.

And then it says, "The people, they will be pierced." Now I know that many Bibles will say curse, but if you do a good study of this word, it means to be pierced. It means a word that talks about basically putting a hole through, so being stabbed. In other words, so we read in this verse, "I will say to the wicked, righteous are you?" Such people who say that they are going to be pierced through, and also they will experience the anger. And this is a strong word for anger; it's the word for wrath. But in this case, a human wrath, a human wrath will be from the nations. Now this means individual countries will look at this and they will have anger for such a one.

So those who want to bring an unrighteous change, a change that's rooted in falsehood, calling that which is wicked righteous, when that happens, understand there's going to be destruction and there's going to be a catastrophe for such people. They are going to experience, as we talked about earlier, the judgment of God. Look now to verse 25: "And to the ones who reprove." Now that word is a word of correction. It's a word of discipline. So to the ones who reprove, meaning wanting to set things in order, it will be pleasant. And unto them a pool of goodness will come.

So what a wonderful thing when we look at the Scripture, when we are committed to reproving. And this is a word which means to set in order, to act with discernment, to bring conviction upon those who need to be convicted. So those who do such an act, to reprove and to rebuke and to correct others, it says, it will be pleasant for such a person, and unto them shall come a pool of goodness.

Verse 26. Now, verse 26, I spent a lot of time on. Because again, many of these verses are confusing. Notice what it says here in verse 26: "It says the one who answers or responds with right things." This one is like kissing; he will kiss the lips. Now, to kiss the lips is an expression of joy and intimacy. And what it's saying is this: when

Speaker 1

Well, we hope you will benefit from today's message and share it with others. Please plan to join us each week at this time and on this channel for our broadcast of love israel.org.

Again, to find out more about us, please visit our website love israel.org. There you will find articles and numerous other lectures by Baruch. These teachings are in video form; you may download them or watch them in streaming video.

Until next week, may the Lord bless you in our Messiah Yeshua, that is Jesus, as you walk with him. Shalom from Israel.