Scripture

“But he who listens to me shall dwell securely and will be at ease from the dread of evil.”

~Proverbs 1:33, LSB

Quote

You lie too near the Father’s heart for Him to hurt you.

~John Flavel

I believe it is God and His indwelling grace that has given me a distaste for evil. I am really uncomfortable in this world and I know it is not my home. Accuse me of being an idealist if you want, but there is far too much wrong with this world for me to be happy here. Sin is a form of spiritual leprosy, it makes everything it touches unclean. I know that Satan is leading the orchestra and his forces of evil are intimidating. They have the money and the power to do basically whatever they want to do. How can I or anyone like me stop or even slow this massive flood tide of evil down. I am a witness to things I never imagined would happen, not in America. The number of corporations that came out in support of sexual perversion was staggering: Walmart, Kentucky Fried, Target, Anheuser-Busch and then Cracker Barrel just to mention a few. If Lot was vexed by the evil in Sodom, why are Christians not vexed by the sin in America? Is it right for people like me to worry about the fate of our country? Am I just a negative dooms day prophet or should we be concerned about the moral state of America?

Solomon is talking about WISDOM in Proverbs one and it is wisdom that speaks…”he who listens to me {wisdom} shall dwell securely and will be at ease from the dread of evil.” This verse had never jumped out at me before and my first thought was: how have I missed the message of this verse for all these years. The NKJV reads, “But whoever listens to me {Wisdom} will dwell safely,  and will be secure, without fear of evil.” The NIV reads, “whoever listens to me will live in safety and be at ease, without fear of harm.” ESV “without dread of disaster,” and CSB “without dread of danger.” The NLT reads, “But all who listen to me will live in peace, untroubled by fear of harm.” I think the AV and the LSB have it right in translating ‘ra’ as evil and not just harm, danger or disaster. So how big is the problem of evil? Wouldn’t you agree that evil is a very, very big problem? Am I the first person to wrestle with the problem of evil? Evil is an huge problem and we humans have no solution. We need a Savior. We need someone who is capable of bringing down evil, just like David brought down Goliath. The good news is we have someone and His name is Jesus. As Fanny Crosby said, He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock, that shadows a dry, thirsty land; He hideth my life in the depths of His love, and covers me there with His hand.

Extra

We got a little more rain than I thought. I still had mud at 7:00 last night. It was too sticky to plow. It is overcast again today and we got a dust settler this morning. Every little bit counts. June and I are going to try to do a little visiting today so I want have such a full day tomorrow. I hope you have a good Tuesday. I certainly hope that all of you got rain. Peggy Lindsey fell last week and she is not doing that well. Pray for Peggy.