Original: January 20, 2008
McMinnville, OR
5 Whoever slanders his neighbor in secret, him will I put to silence; whoever has haughty eyes and a proud heart, him will I not endure. Psalm 101: 5
Several years ago I read about a man who was being considered as one of Abraham Lincoln’s (my seventh cousin if anyone cares) cabinet members was denied by Lincoln who stated, “I don’t like his face.”
The response from his advisor was, “But sir he is cannot be responsible for his face.”
Lincoln responded, “After forty years every man is responsible for his face.”
My cell phone is limited to only 500 contacts so once a year I clean them up by deleting the names of people whom I no longer interface. It is a sad moment as I press the “Erase Contact” button over names of people who once did lie with me but for whatever reason do not make the cut. My high school football coach used to tell us, “Don’t get upset if I yell at you, but if I ever stop yelling you had better start worrying!”
I could not agree more.
My cell phone is limited to only 500 contacts so once a year I clean them up by deleting the names of people whom I no longer interface. It is a sad moment as I press the “Erase Contact” button over names of people who once did lie with me but for whatever reason do not make the cut. My high school football coach used to tell us, “Don’t get upset if I yell at you, but if I ever stop yelling you had better start worrying!”
I could not agree more.
From personal experience, I know that men give up. From the Word of God it is clear that God gives up
God will not endure certain people. Reflect on God’s words in the account of Noah and the Great Flood, “The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. So the LORD said, ‘I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth--men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air--for I am grieved that I have made them’” (Genesis 6:6-7).
What about the Pharaoh and Moses, “But the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart and he would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the LORD had said to Moses” (Exodus 9:12).
Call it sovereignty, call it wrath, call it whatever you want, but case after case in Scripture reveals that there is a certain breaking point when God gives up on a man and gives him over to evil.
We see thin in the ministry of Paul who told the Corinthian leaders, “hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord” (1 Corinthians 5:5).
In Psalm 101:5 we learn that God “will not endure” the proud or the slanderous. The proud elevate themselves over men to stomp on their back, while the slanderous get behind them to stab them in the back. The proud turns his “haughty eyes” away from God and towards selfish ambitions (1 John 2:15-16), and the slanderer turns his eyes away from his flaws onto the imperfections of another (Matthew 7:1-5).
A pastor friend often says, “Don’t tell someone else’s story”. I agree and thinking back to times in my life when I told someone else’s story either come during seasons of boredom, or during prideful times when I choose to elevate myself over another. Both happen far too often.
When a man turns his eyes inward instead of upward or outward sin in inevitable. Sin pulls a man away from life he has in Christ towards death. Death comes when the God who loves a man gives up on him, surrendering him to the consequences of his actions (Galatians 6:7-8). Does God ever give up on loving a man? No. Does He, at some point refuse to endure a man’s sin?
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death (Proverbs 14:12).
