Proverbs 28:18 Commentary and Bible Study

Where do we look for safety? It is something which every sane person craves. If life is precious, then continuing life is important. The experience of life does not stand still and cannot be frozen in a moment of time but is ever moving and changing, yet it is the same person who ends a journey as the one who started it, and the gift of memory from the Lord ties all together as the common experience of a creature with abiding identity. It is unnatural for anyone to be ready to relinquish the experience of life and therefore we ask the very obvious question, ‘What about tomorrow? Will I be safe tomorrow?’ We care about the safety of the body and the safety of the soul, but at the same time we know that we are dependent on so many resources beyond our control. The wise man looks to God for all his needs even though he knows that God mediates many of these needs through secondary causes. Our food supplies come from the growing of the crops in the fields and sufficient rain and sun to ripen them; our financial resources come through the provision of work for which we are paid a reasonable reward; our craving for relationship comes through friends and relatives to whom we can show affection and who in turn show us love and affection. But will all this continue? What is the destination to which we are moving? The human soul is designed to need God and he must be the goal of every rational being. It matters immensely therefore that we live to please him and that we find out what conduct pleases him. Integrity is key, for integrity exists in the heart which only God has access to. Why would integrity matter in a universe where we were alone, the products of chance? Such a universe has no absolute moral standards but at best utilitarian standards. But if our hearts are open to God then every thought can be expected to be tested by God. A thought exists just as much as a table and has far more significance than a table. It contains within it deceit or integrity, but if deceit is there in that private thought, we show that we know we are being watched by God.Integrity is the great ingredient that needs to be present in a human heart. Integrity looks to God and says, I can give nothing to you, O Lord, but I desire to be completely honest with you, open with you. If I sin, I will bring my sins to you for forgiveness and hope in your mercy. But the crooked are on their own. They have cut themselves off from God and made themselves their own deliverers. How can they take on the enemies that line up to face them? Even one of these is too much for them. Therefore they can expect their downfall to be without warning, sudden, or as the Hebrew says ‘in one’. It may come at any time and when it does what can they possibly do to defend themselves?