Proverbs (Part 013) - Pro 1:26-28
Submitted by Pastor Chad Wagner on Wednesday, March 20, 2019.
26. Pro 1:26 - "I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh;" A. The punishment for repeatedly choosing to hate knowledge (Pro 1:22) and refuse reproof (Pro 1:25) is calamity. i. Calamity n. - The state or condition of grievous affliction or adversity; deep distress, trouble, or misery, arising from some adverse circumstance or event. ii. Destruction is the result of stubborn ignorance (Hos 4:6). iii. The judgment for repeatedly rejecting wisdom is not a slap on the hand or a mild reprimand; but rather grievous affliction, deep distress, and misery. iv. If this seems severe, remember that "it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (Heb 10:31). v. If it seems far-fetched that such calamity could result from rejecting wisdom's counsel, then just ask the approximately one fourth of all young adults who are suffering the grievous affliction of sexually transmitted diseases because they rejected wisdom's ample warning to "flee fornication" (1Co 6:18). B. I also will laugh at your calamity. i. God has a sense of humor, laughing at the calamity of fools who hate knowledge and despise reproof. ii. Every instance of the LORD laughing in scripture is the laughter of derision (Psa 2:2-4). iii. Derision n. - The action of deriding or laughing to scorn; ridicule, mockery. iv. The Lord laughs at the wicked who plot against the just (Psa 37:12-13; Psa 59:8). v. This may seem cruel of God to laugh at the anguish of sinners, even though they brought it upon themselves. a. But recall that these fools set at nought (to scorn) God's counsel (Pro 1:25). b. In that they scorned Him, God simply responds in kind, "answer[ing] a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit" (Pro 26:5). c. When the wisdom of God walked the earth and spoke the truth to men they laughed him to scorn (Mat 9:24). d. Turnabout is fair play: as Jesus said to the wicked, "woe unto you that laugh now! for ye shall mourn and weep" (Luk 6:25). e. God will get the last laugh. C. I will mock when your fear cometh. i. God will not only laugh at those who despise His words, but will also mock them. ii. Mock v. - To hold up to ridicule; to deride; to assail with scornful words or gestures. iii. Notice that the LORD said that He will mock when, not if, their fear comes. iv. The judgment that follows the rejection of God's reproof is not a possibility but a promise. v. Those who delight in scorning and mocking God's judgments will one day be suffering under severe adversity only to look up to God in the heavens who will be howling with laughter and shooting out His lip in ridicule of them. 27. Pro 1:27 - "When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you." A. The LORD elaborates on the calamity (Pro 1:26) that will surely befall the foolish who despise His reproof. B. God expounds on the fear which would come upon them "as desolation." i. Fear n. - 1. In OE.: A sudden and terrible event; peril. 2. a. The emotion of pain or uneasiness caused by the sense of impending danger, or by the prospect of some possible evil. ii. Fear is debilitating and "hath torment" (1Jo 4:18). a. Lions use the paralyzing effect of fear when they creep up on their prey and roar causing their victim to freeze up momentarily while they go in for the kill. b. Satan uses fear to overcome his prey as a roaring lion walking about, seeking whom he may devour (1Pe 5:8). iii. Those who refuse the reproof of God's words and reject His commandments have not the love of God in them (Joh 5:42) which casts out fear (1Jo 4:18). C. The consequence of defiance of God is fear: and not just any fear, but fear that cometh as desolation (Pro 1:27). i. Desolation n. - 1. The action of laying waste a land, etc., destroying its people, crops, and buildings, and making it unfit for habitation; utter devastation; an act or occasion of this kind. ii. The fear that will come upon foolish men who disregard and mock God's warnings will cause them utter destruction and devastation. iii. Their destruction will come as a whirlwind (a tornado). a. A tornado will wreck a man's house. b. Crippling fear will wreck a man's life. c. Both will bring him to nought. D. This tornadic fear, which the LORD promises will come upon rebels, will cause them distress and anguish. i. Distress n. - I. †1. a. The action or fact of straining or pressing tightly, strain, stress, pressure; fig. pressure employed to produce action, constraint, compulsion; less usually, pressure applied to prevent action, restraint. 2. a. The sore pressure or strain of adversity, trouble, sickness, pain, or sorrow; anguish or affliction affecting the body, spirit, or community. b. with a and pl. A sore trouble, a misfortune or calamity that presses hardly; esp. in pl. straits, distressing or strained circumstances. ii. Anguish n. - 1. Excruciating or oppressive bodily pain or suffering, such as the sufferer writhes under. iii. Notice again that it is not if fear, distress, and anguish come upon foolish sinners who reject God's word, but when. E. This description of the fear, desolation, destruction, distress, and anguish that comes upon those who ignore God's word should make every man that fears God stop dead in his tracks, repent, and reverse course. i. But fools will disregard (Pro 14:16) and suffer for it (Psa 107:17). ii. They will eventually call upon Him, but not until it's too late as the next verse shows. 28. Pro 1:28 - "Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:" A. Scoffers always think that judgment is a long way off (2Pe 3:4). i. Therefore they set at nought wisdom's counsel and receive none of her reproof (Pro 1:25). ii. After wisdom has cried tirelessly for a sufficient amount of time (Pro 1:20-27), she stops crying. iii. This is evident by her change of pronouns from ye and you in verses 22-27 to they and them in verses 28-33. iv. Beginning in verse 28, wisdom no longer speaks to the simple ones, but instead talks about them. v. Once wisdom stops crying, the fools who turned a deaf ear and scorned at her words start crying. vi. Unfortunately for them though, it's too late; wisdom's office hours are over and her door is shut. B. God gives ample time for men to heed His warnings before judgment ensues. i. But when a man's allotted time is up, it's up, and there is no turning back the clock. ii. When distress and anguish comes upon them (Pro 1:27) they then decide that they want to listen to wisdom's cry, and they call upon her. iii. But just as the men in Noah's day who likely beat upon the door of the ark when the flood waters rose, but received no answer, so the simple ones who ignored and scorned wisdom's counsel call upon her, but she will not answer. iv. They seek her early as soon as trouble arrives; but, as a train that has already left the station, they will not find her. C. The Lord's ears are open to the righteous, but when the righteous work wickedness and rebel against Him past their space of repentance (Rev 2:21) the Lord shuts His ears to their prayers and turns His face against them (1Pe 3:12). i. Consider some examples. a. The fornicator (i) He was warned repeatedly by the LORD in His word to forsake his whoremongering (1Co 6:18) and to "remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house" (Pro 5:8). (ii) He will call out to God when he contracts a sexually transmitted disease and beg for Him to take it away, but He will not answer. (iii) How foolish and regretful will he feel in that day when he remembers God's admonitions through His word, his pastor, and his parents that he stupidly despised and took no heed to (Pro 5:11-13). b. The sodomite that contracts AIDS. c. The adulterer who loses his wife, children, church, and reputation. d. The alcoholic who is diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver. e. The drug addict whose brain is fried. f. The smoker who gasps for breath while dying from emphysema. g. The glutton who has his feet amputated because of self-inflicted diabetes. h. The paraplegic teenager who insisted on driving recklessly. i. The gambler who bets away his life savings. j. The undisciplined spender who files for bankruptcy or dies in poverty because he didn't save money. k. The lascivious man who is left impotent and unable to perform sexually due to his pornography addiction. ii. Their cry will all be the same: "how have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof; And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me!" (Pro 5:12-13) D. When God repeatedly cries out to His children and receives in response indifference, mockery, and rebellion, He turns away His ear and will not answer their cries for relief when judgment begins (2Ch 36:14-17; Mic 3:4; Jer 11:11-12, 14; Jer 14:11-12; Eze 8:18; Zec 7:8-14). E. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God (Heb 10:31).
