God Doesn't Sound Like He's a Very Good Christian

The last half Proverbs chapter 1 is hard.   The easy way to handle it is to pretend that it's not there and just move on to chapter 2.   But let's not do that.  Let's slow down and think.

Wisdom is personified in this portion of Proverbs.  What I mean is that Solomon writes about wisdom as if it is a person trying to teach us.   For example:

20 Wisdom shouts in the streets.
    She cries out in the public square.
21 She calls to the crowds along the main street,
    to those gathered in front of the city gate:
22 “How long, you simpletons,
    will you insist on being simpleminded?
How long will you mockers relish your mocking?
    How long will you fools hate knowledge?
23 Come and listen to my counsel.
I’ll share my heart with you
    and make you wise.  (NLT)

This is interesting.  Notice that wisdom is also given a female pronoun.   Some have suggested that if Jesus is the living Word of God, then the Holy Spirit is the living wisdom of God.   I don't know if that's the case, but we can understand that this wisdom character is a part of who God is.   Wisdom comes from God, after all.   It is God Himself who shares His heart with us.  It is God himself who wants to make us wise.   It is God who wants to save us.   But so many of us do not listen.  So many of us become mockers of God.   Perhaps you know of a few people who mock God?   This passage talks about people like this:


24 “I called you so often, but you wouldn’t come.
    I reached out to you, but you paid no attention.
25 You ignored my advice
    and rejected the correction I offered.  (NLT)

Mocking God is not wise, but God allows it.  He keeps on calling anyway.   He keeps on drawing people to himself while others sit back and mock.

I mentioned that this passage is hard.  Here is the hard part:

So I will laugh when you are in trouble!
    I will mock you when disaster overtakes you—
27 when calamity overtakes you like a storm,
    when disaster engulfs you like a cyclone,
    and anguish and distress overwhelm you.

28 “When they cry for help, I will not answer.
    Though they anxiously search for me, they will not find me.
29 For they hated knowledge
    and chose not to fear the Lord.
30 They rejected my advice
    and paid no attention when I corrected them.
31 Therefore, they must eat the bitter fruit of living their own way,
    choking on their own schemes.
32 For simpletons turn away from me—to death.
    Fools are destroyed by their own complacency.  (NLT)

Wow!  It will actually get to a point where God will stop calling you and turn the tables to begin mocking you!   That doesn't sound very loving does it?   That's not very Christian is it?  This is a hard part for sure.

You've probably heard the saying, "God will not be mocked".   This is one of those places in the Bible where sayings like that originate.   When it comes to a war of words, God will always win that battle.   If you mock God, he will have patience with you.   He does love you.   But his patience has a limit.   There will come a day when your mocking will end.   It will either end when you start listening to God and he receives you as his child, or it will end when he decides that it will end and he takes his hands off of you to leave you with the bitter fruit of living your own way.  He will leave you choking and wallowing in your own sinfulness.   He will mock you for this and he will be right and just to do so.  

Is this really what God is like?   We are very good at understanding God as a loving God, but we are not so good at seeing him as the perfect and holy Judge that He is.   We need to understand this about our relationship with God.   We have to get this.   We are enemies of God because of our sin and we need to understand the seriousness of that.   This isn't a nice fluffy message to hear, is it?  This is hard.   But if you reject what the Bible reveals to us about God here, what you are doing is saying that God does not have an issue with you which means that you think He's fine with you as you are.   He still loves you.  He always loves you.   But if you reject the idea that God is holy and just and that He will not put up with your sin forever, then what you mean is that you do not need Savior.   What you mean is that you do not need Jesus!

This wrathful and angry God, isn't that just an Old Testament thing?   No it is not.   Jesus died to save us from the righteous judgement of God.   It's all through the New Testament too.   Look at Romans 2:5-12:

5 But because you are stubborn and refuse to turn from your sin, you are storing up terrible punishment for yourself. For a day of anger is coming, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed. 6 He will judge everyone according to what they have done. 7 He will give eternal life to those who keep on doing good, seeking after the glory and honor and immortality that God offers. 8 But he will pour out his anger and wrath on those who live for themselves, who refuse to obey the truth and instead live lives of wickedness. 9 There will be trouble and calamity for everyone who keeps on doing what is evil—for the Jew first and also for the Gentile.[a] 10 But there will be glory and honor and peace from God for all who do good—for the Jew first and also for the Gentile. 11 For God does not show favoritism.

God never changes.   He's the same in the Old Testament as He is in the New.   The difference is that a new depth to his love is revealed to us in the New Testament.  Jesus is our savior.  He died to save us from this day of God's anger that is coming.   We can keep on mocking God, or we can turn to him and receive the gift he gives to us.   Jesus.  His Son.

We're only on the first chapter and here we are into some really hard teaching.   I hope your minds and hearts have been stirred.   Please feel free to comment and ask questions below.