Saturday, February 17, 2018

Praise or grief

DEVOTION
PROVERBS
PRAISE OR GRIEF

Prov 29:21
21 If a man pampers his servant from youth, he will bring grief in the end.
NIV


This, Solomon may have spoken from personal experience. We can see the account of his taking notice of a young slave, Jeroboam in Kings 11. He raised him to a position of authority over other slaves. In some sense he had pampered this Jeroboam and this slave later rebelled against Solomon. Even though some prophet from Shiloh indicated he should, it was not his place to rebel against his king, he was still a slave. This was not a prophet of God, but of Shiloh. However, the meaning of bringing grief in the end is also in question as the word, according to our Lexicons is difficult to determine it’s meaning as it is only used once in the Old Testament and it is here. Some think it could be seen as heir of sonship. This would give the meaning that if a slave is pampered from youth he will assume he is an heir, he will want an inheritance thinking himself a son rather than a slave. But what relevance does that have on our lives? We have no slaves to pamper, but we have children. Could we say that if we pamper our children too much they will bring us grief later in life? That might be very true indeed. But still we could also see this as us being the slaves to sin. If Satan pampers us too much, giving us all the pleasures of life, making our lives filled with good things, it will not bring him any grief, but surely will bring us grief in the end. There is no question Satan will pamper us. He wants nothing more for us be his sons. Before we became a child of God, we were in fact a slave to sin, to Satan and his promises of pleasure. He still presents us with temptations to lure us away from God. He offers so many things to attract our attention. Although many believers may not yield to one temptation, they find another most entertaining. Over the years we have made lists of such temptations which we should avoid at all costs. Among are drinking, smoking, cursing, dancing, movies or other questionable places. But we have never put the desire of wealth on such a list. Yet God warns us over and over again that we cannot serve him and money at the same time. If Satan pampers us with wealth, has he drawn us away from God, secretly? We might still say we love the Lord, but in our hearts we trust more in our riches than we do in God. This will bring grief in the end. We might also consider if God pampers us, but then we would have to say we are slaves of God, which we are not. When we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior we are no longer slaves to sin, but now have been given the right to be called sons and daughters of God. We are in fact co-heirs with Christ. We have sonship, and as such we have all that rights of heirs. We will inherit eternal life, and join Jesus at the right hand of God. We will live in the paradise of God for all eternity. God does pamper us, but he also disciplines us, corrects us, and instructs us so we will not bring him grief in the end. If we were not left with his discipline, corrections and instructions we would certainly fall into a lifestyle which would grieve him. Let us live under his Lordship accepting his discipline with a willing heart so we might bring him praise rather than grief. 

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