{"id":677,"date":"2018-01-07T08:00:22","date_gmt":"2018-01-07T13:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hanoverbaptistchurch.org\/blogpastor\/?p=677"},"modified":"2018-01-06T23:26:09","modified_gmt":"2018-01-07T04:26:09","slug":"what-does-the-bible-say-about-moral-decay-and-personal-resolve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hanoverbaptistchurch.org\/blogpastor\/2018\/what-does-the-bible-say-about-moral-decay-and-personal-resolve\/","title":{"rendered":"What does the Bible say about moral decay and personal resolve?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\u201cWhere there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; but happy is he who keeps the law.\u201d Proverbs\u00a029:18<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I remember hearing a message or two on this passage when I was in Bible college. It was always a striking verse, especially as it was translated in the KJV, \u201cWhere there is no vision the people perish\u2026.\u201d It was a great jumping off text for talking about \u201cvision casting\u201d or \u201crescue the perishing.\u201d<\/p>\n

While both ideas are important and biblical, as far as the topics go, the passage has a greater significance. It is far more applicable to assist in diagnosing society\u2019s ills, whether an individual family or church society, a community, a nation, or the world. It also speaks to the resolve for an individual believer, and it has application for every endeavor, including the beginning of each new year.<\/p>\n

The verse is situated at an interesting place in the book of Proverbs. King Solomon was responsible for most of the sayings in the book. It may be that he personally wrote and collected the first 24\u00a0chapters. Chapters\u00a025\u201329 are his proverbial statements as well, but they may have been compiled during the reign of King Hezekiah. There are also the words of Agur and Lemuel\u2019s mother in the final two chapters. Ancient Jewish tradition identifies Lemuel with Solomon.<\/p>\n

This review of the structure of the book and observing that Proverbs\u00a029:18 leads to the conclusion of the collected sayings of Solomon gives a tone of conclusion and finality to its content. So many of the verses that follow verse\u00a018 sound like a recap of the whole book whereas the verses that precede verse\u00a018 seem to augment the importance of submission to God\u2019s word. Submission to the Word produces blessing and a peaceable spirit.<\/p>\n

So, what is it that verse\u00a018 teaches? Our text quoted from the NKJV leads to a different set of conclusions that the KJV translation. The two words upon which the meaning of the text hangs are \u201crevelation\u201d and \u201ccast off restraint.\u201d Part of the reason that the KJV translated revelation as vision was the fact that vision meant something different than we might assume.<\/p>\n

We think of something like \u201cmen of great vision\u201d when we hear the word vision from anyone other than an eye doctor, or a Pentecostal. It would lead you to think there are specially gifted men who can divine the future and proscribe a course to be taken, whether building a company, building a church, or building a society. Doubtless, without men of selfless vision our country would not have been established. But that is not what was in Solomon\u2019s mind.<\/p>\n

The word translated revelation in verse\u00a018 is the Hebrew word hazon<\/em>, meaning \u201cto see\u201d or \u201cto receive by revelation.\u201d In the Old Testament context it refers to a prophet of God who received a vision from God and has a message to communicate as God\u2019s mouthpiece. It is the same word used by Isaiah in verse\u00a01:1, \u201cThe vision of Isaiah\u2026\u201d and in Ezekial\u00a012:22, \u201cSon of man, what is this proverb that you people have about the land of Israel, which says, \u2018The days are prolonged, and every vision fails\u2019?\u201d Psalm\u00a089:19 similarly uses the word: \u201cThen You spoke in a vision to Your holy one[s]\u2026.\u201d A number of minor prophets begin their books declaring the vision God has commissioned them to communicate with His people.<\/p>\n

I am struck by the description of the times in which the prophet Samuel came upon Israel\u2019s scene in 1\u00a0Samuel\u00a03:1: \u201cNow the boy Samuel ministered to the LORD before Eli, and the word of the LORD was rare in those days; there was no widespread revelation [hazon<\/em>].\u201d In other words, God\u2019s word was not widely known and had no influence upon the society. It sounds like we are fast approaching this same situation as the Word of God is taken out of the \u201cdriver\u2019s seat\u201d in our own lives or is relegated to the dusty pages of history by our society at large. God\u2019s special revelation found in His word must be retained in its rightful place of prominence in our lives. We must be resolved to that course.<\/p>\n

If we, ourselves or our society, do not honor God\u2019s Word then we are doomed to follow Solomon\u2019s other admonition, \u201cthe people cast off restraint.\u201d The KJV says \u201cperish,\u201d which is the eventuality when God\u2019s Word is rejected. But the Hebrew word is yippara<\/em>, meaning to \u201clet go,\u201d \u201clet alone,\u201d or \u201clet loose.\u201d It is used to describe the unwinding of a turban (Leviticus\u00a010:6, 21:10), uncovering, or letting things unravel. Essentially, Solomon observed, \u201cWhere there is no revelatory vision the people unravel at the seams.\u201d This is true of any nation, society, family, or church. Where God\u2019s Word is reduced in prominence the people will be unrestrained, as in the absence of Moses at Sinai (Exodus\u00a032:25)!<\/p>\n

Conversely, Solomon states, \u201cbut blessed is he who keeps the law.\u201d Blessed means happy. It comes from the Hebrew root word ashar<\/em>, \u201cgo straight,\u201d \u201cgo on,\u201d \u201cadvance.\u201d Uncertain times require steady steps and no steps are surer than those taken in the light of the Word of God! What a blessed circumstance to have God\u2019s Word at the ready, kept, guarded, and stored up when charting life\u2019s course! Without the restraint of God\u2019s Word your life will unravel, just as you see society doing. Travel the course where blessings from God will fall in this New Year. Trust and obey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWhere there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; but happy is he who keeps the law.\u201d Proverbs\u00a029:18 I remember hearing a message or two on this passage when I was in Bible college. It was always a striking verse, especially as it was translated in the KJV, \u201cWhere there is no vision the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hanoverbaptistchurch.org\/blogpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hanoverbaptistchurch.org\/blogpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hanoverbaptistchurch.org\/blogpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hanoverbaptistchurch.org\/blogpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hanoverbaptistchurch.org\/blogpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.hanoverbaptistchurch.org\/blogpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hanoverbaptistchurch.org\/blogpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hanoverbaptistchurch.org\/blogpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hanoverbaptistchurch.org\/blogpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}