TRUNEWS with Rick Wiles - Date: August 19, 2026. Lesson 163-2026. Title: The Heart Cannot Be Fixed from the Outside

Episode Date: August 19, 2026

In today’s Morning Manna, Rick Wiles and Doc Burkhart examine Proverbs 27:20–22 and three stubborn realities of the human heart: desire that is never satisfied, praise that exposes character, and folly that punishment alone cannot remove. Solomon shows that getting more cannot cure uncontrolled desire, applause can test us more severely than criticism, and external correction can restrain behavior without transforming the heart. Ultimately, these verses point beyond human remedies to the work only God can accomplish—contentment, humility, and the inward transformation of a new heart. Lesson 163-2026 Teachers: Rick Wiles and Doc Burkhart You can partner with us by visiting MannaNation.com, calling 1-888-519-4935, or by mail at PO Box 399 Vero Beach, FL 32961 MEGA FIRE reveals the ancient recurring cycles of war and economic collapse that have shaped history for 600 years. These patterns predict America is now entering its most dangerous period since World War II. Get your copy today! www.megafire.world Get high-quality emergency preparedness food today from American Reserves! www.AmericanReserves.com It’s the Final Day! The day Jesus Christ bursts into our dimension of time, space, and matter. Now available in eBook and audio formats! Order Final Day from Amazon today! www.Amazon.com/Final-Day Apple users, you can download the audio version on Apple Books! www.books.apple.com/final-day Purchase the 4-part DVD set or start streaming Sacrificing Liberty today. www.Sacrificingliberty.com

Welcome to Morning Manor. Welcome to Morning Manor, your teachers, your breakfast cafe for great soul food. Dr. Raymond Burkhard and I have prepared a nutritious meal from the food. the ingredients we found in Proverbs chapter 27, verse 20, 21, and 22. And I am confident you will be blessed and spiritually enlightened by today's Bible lesson. All of our lessons are archived at manna nation.com, also on YouTube at the Rick Walst Today channel. today's lesson number is 163-2026. 163-2026.

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Just we have to have a Holy Spirit. And then after we pray, Dr. Raymond Burkhart will then lead us and introduce today's lesson. Almighty God, our, our Father, in heaven. Father, we come to you in the name of your Holy Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Father, we invite the Holy Spirit to lead this Bible study class to open our eyes and ears, to see and understand your truth so that we would be blessed and be saltier witnesses and brighter lights in this world, Father, and that we would share the gospel with others. we must know and understand the gospel before we can share it. And that's why we are gathered here to be taught.

So, Father, let your anointing be upon today's lesson for the glory of Jesus Christ and His kingdom. Amen. Amen. Well, welcome the morning man, everyone. So glad to have you here with us no matter where you are in the world. And we do have classmates all over the world that are studying the Word of God together with us today. We are continuing our journey in Proverbs chapter 2. 27. And today we're going to be looking at verses 20 through 22, another triplet in the

fascinating chapter of Proverbs chapter 27. I'm going to be reading the King James and the Septuagint, so follow along with me. Open up your Bibles to Proverbs 27. We're starting at verse 20 today. Let's read together, hell and destruction are never full, so the eyes of man are never satisfied. As the finding pot for silver and the furnace for gold, so is a man to his prayer. Though thou shouldst bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart from him. Some pretty vivid imaging there from the King James. Let's read the Septuagint now.

Hell and destruction are not filled. So also are the eyes of men insatiable. Fire is the trial for silver and gold, and a man is tried by the mouth of them that praise him. Though thou scourge a fool disgracing him in the midst of the council, thou will not remove his folly from him. So a little bit of a different reading there in the Septuagint than the authorized King James.

But this passage gathers three of the chapter's sharpest observations about the interior of human life, where three conditions of the human heart that resist every ordinary remedy just about. So verse 20 addresses insatiable desire. The eyes of man are compared to the grave itself, which never reaches capacity and never says enough. Human wanting, left ungoverned, has no natural ending.

It is insatiable. Verse 21 addresses the testing effect of praise. Just as a crucible reveals what silver actually is. So praise reveals what a man actually is. This is not primarily about how praise should be given, but about what praise exposes in the one, receiving it. So we'll be examining that today. Verse 22 addresses the incorrigibility of settled folly. Even the most forceful correction, Rick, the most forceful correction in Magimal. Grinding a fool in a

mortar with a pestle does not separate a fool from his foolishness the way Threshing separates grain from chaff. So how do these three verses fit together? Well, they share a common theme worth naming at the outset. Each one describes something that can't be fixed by ordinary means. Desire cannot be satisfied by more of what it wants. Character cannot be manufactured by managing praise. Folly cannot be beaten out of a person by external force. All three point beyond human remedy toward the interior transformation that only God can accomplish. This trio of verses here closes the chapter's proverbs on individual character before the extended pastoral section of verses 23 through 27 turns towards flocks and herds and household provision. So these three verses here today, Rick, they mark the last searching examination of the heart before the chapter's closing benediction of faithful stewardship.

So it's appropriate here that you have this before we get into that final. section. But let's look at verse 20 today. Rick starts us out in our lesson. Thank you, Doc. Verse 20, hell and destruction are never full. So the eyes of man are never satisfying. I've said this a number of times in Morning Man over the years. I thought I understood the book of Proverbs. I've read the Book of Proverbs multiple times over decades. I've been a Christian since 1978. I don't know how many times I've read the Book of Proverbs. But this time, when I say this time, this cycle of teaching, which started last year, we started with Chapter 1 in Proverbs. I've got a different level of understanding of proverbs that unlike anything I've ever had.

And Doc, I wish I would have had this understanding years ago. Why does it take so long for truth to get into us? Often we're full of religion. We're full of denominational doctrine. And we don't have any room for Holy Spirit revelation. Particularly if the Holy Spirit revelation conflicts with your denominational doctrine, people will choose, I got to go with the denomination. That's who butters my bread.

Anyhow, I hope those of you who are with us at five days a week, I hope you're nodding in agreement with me, saying, you're right. I'm seeing things and hearing things. I've never seen before. Doug, just as you were introducing the lesson, I got a text on my phone from Jake, a young man that we both know. And he just wanted me to know

that today's morning manna lesson was a blessing to him. Praise Lord. This is what's happening. This is what's happening every day. People being touched by morning matter. And it's blessing people. That's why this is a good soil for you to sow into, to become a part of it.

In your prayers and in your donations, become part of this ministry, and the Lord will bless you because the teaching of His Word brings blessing. Brings blessing on the teacher and those who enable the teachers to teach. Okay, so hell and destruction are never full. so the eyes of man are never satisfied. Hell and destruction. Shio and Abaddon, Abaddon,

the place of the dead. Shio, this is the realm of the dead, the grave, the place to which all living beings eventually descend. Abadon. Destruction, ruin, the place of perishing. The show is the place of the dead, but Abandon, Abadden, however you want to pronounce it, it's where they perish. They're dead, but they're perishing.

Both are pictured throughout the Bible as consuming without limitations that every generation descends and neither ever report that these places are full. There's never a no vacancy sign. Hell is always expanding. There's always more condos going up, more apartments going up, more roads being built. There are multiple lanes of traffic flowing to hell. But only one narrow path

leading to life. Satan makes it easy for you get yourself to hell. So the eyes of a man are never satisfied. The same Hebrew verb of non-satisfaction is applied identically to both. What the grave is to bodies human desire is to objects of wanting of desiring. And neither. Neither are satisfied. Hell is not satisfied.

The grave is not satisfying, and human sinful desires are not satisfying. The choice of eyes. This is what gets us in trouble, these eyeballs, the heart, the seat of our desire. With our eyes, we look upon things that we desire. That desire goes into our heart. And eventually, our heart tells our hands and feet where to go and what to do. the eyes are the organ of acquisition by seeing. Wow.

They take in what is not possessed, what you do not have. Your eyes are looking at what you desire. Your eyes register the desirability of the object that you're looking at and generate the level, the degree of the wanting the desire that follows. Desire in this proverb, begins with looking.

And that looking never runs out of material because there is always something else to see and always something better to desire. So the proverb makes a clean that modern experience confirms with clarity, that acquisition does not terminate wanting, desiring. The more you have,

the more you desire. That's what this proverb is teaching you. The more you acquire, the more you desire. Now, the principle works both ways, good and bad. In this particular verse, we're talking about the desires that will send you to she-oh, to hell, to the grave. The person who obtains what he or she wants does not thereby arrive at satisfaction. He or she arrives at the next wanting, the next desiring, the next craving. Ecclesiastes, chapter 1, verse 8, that's also written by the hand of Solomon. He says, the eye is not satisfied with seeing nor the ear filled with hearing. Again, this is not a combination of desire.

The scriptures affirm legitimate desires. In God himself gives good gifts to be enjoyed. The teaching is about the process of seeing, desiring, acquiring, and then desiring more. This is why with wisdom on the positive side, the more wisdom you acquire, the more wisdom you desire. If you've been with us through 27 chapters of the book of Proverbs, I guarantee you that you desire more wisdom. You're like, don't let this lesson stop. I've got to go deeper.

I need more. So there's a positive sign to this principle. The proverb is naming a specific condition, desire that has become insatiable, that has been given no governing principle. and therefore consumes indefinitely because nothing in its own nature ever tells it to stop. Matthew Henry served that the eye is the inlet of desire, in the desires of the heart, the inlet of care and trouble, and that man, the man or woman who determines to satisfy his or her eyes,

has undertaken a labor as endless as filling the grave, a project guaranteed to consume his or her life and never reach completion because there's always something more to acquire. That person has this insatiable appetite for more and more and more. And they can't satisfy it, Doc. Yeah. So verse 20, Rick, rest on the biblical doctrine of consentment as a learned condition.

Condentment is a learned condition. We'll explain how we know that. It's a learned condition rather than natural default. And our natural default wants more. We want more. We want more. We could have a billion dollar, we want two billion, whatever it is. And on the recognition only God himself, self-conterminate the wanting proverb describes. And the Apostle Paul wrote this in Philippians. Listen, I've learned

whatever state I am therewith to be content. He had to learn contentment. That Greek word imothan. It establishes contentment as an acquired discipline, not a temperament some possess naturally.

First Timothy, chapter 6, verses 6 through 10, gives the fullest apostolic treatment of this. Writing to the young pastor Timothy, the apostle Paul said, Godliness with contentment is great gain. They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare. And so Paul's diagnosis matches Solomon's precise. The appetite itself, not any particular object of it is the problem,

and its proper remedy is godliness rather than acquisition. Now, Christ himself warned in Luke chapter 12, verse 15. He addressed the same condition. A man's life consists not in the abundance of the things which he possesses. And he's speaking about the rich fool there. The rich fool's parable follows immediately, illustrating a man whose eyes were never satisfied and whose accumulation was interrupted by summons,

he had not anticipated. This application is a searching examination of what one's eyes are currently consuming and what wanting that consumption generates. So the proverb offers no technique in satisfying that insatiable desire, by the way. It doesn't give a remedy here. The reason why is because none exists, Rick. Only the recognition that this pursuit has no finish line and that recognizing the future. is the first step toward seeking satisfaction

where it can actually be found. You heard the proverb. A dog returns to the vomit. The dog ate something that made it sick, yet it goes back, and it's the vomit of the thing that made it sick. The desire is greater than the past punishment, right? It's a tragic, awful circle to be it.

Yes. that people return to the very thing that caused them a disaster because the desire for the thing that brought a disaster is greater than the punishment that they suffered. Okay, let's take a look at the subtergent. King James says, Hell and destruction are never fools, so the eyes of man are never satisfied.

Subturgent, almost identical, hell and destruction are not filled, so also are the eyes of men insatiable. So very close tracking between the King James and the Greek Septuagint. Not much that we can really point to. I'll look at the Greek word insatiable. It is a play story. And it's a compound built on the negation of playful to fill.

And it describes something structurally incapable of being filled rather than something merely unfulfilled. Okay, so it's insatiable. You're not designed to ever be filled with the desires that you're seeking. So it's not possible to be fulfilled. It's not possible to receive everything. your desire. You're not built. You're not structured that way. So the distinction matters because the proverb does not describe eyes that are not yet satisfied, but eyes

that are constitutionally unable to attain satisfaction by the means they are pursuing. That's right, Rick. And so this sharpening really reinforces the point considerably. a container currently unfilled can be filled with sufficient effort. A container structurally incapable being filled will consume every effort indefinitely without any result. And so the way the Septuagint words this, and its vocabulary insists on that second condition here, closing off the hope that a bit more acquisition might finally produce the satisfaction that has thus far eluded. Now, the Greek term also, is used to describe gluttony and the unrestrained appetite

that consumed beyond all reason. Vocabulary that connects verse 20's insatiable eye to the wider biblical warnings about appetites that govern rather than serve the person who possesses them. We could go into a lot of detail about things people buy.

And if they buy one more of that item, they'll be happy. and then they get the item and they don't get it. I'm not just talking about cars or houses. It could be anything. You know, it's that one more thing. If I get that one more thing, that one missing piece, then I'll be happy. And then they get it, Rick, and they're found wanting.

They constantly buy and constantly return because after they get home, the thing that they bought doesn't satisfy them like they thought it would, so they take it back and search for one more. Right. Does that describe anybody out there? I'll stay out of your business, okay? But that's a pattern, okay? Cost-buying and returning and buying something new, okay?

What are you trying to satisfy? Okay, so we have three verses today. I'm going to move to the second verse, verse 21. As the finding pot for silver and the furnace for gold, so is a man to his praise. The crucible is for silver. The furnace is for gold. And a man according to the mouth of his praise.

There are two possible interpretations of this verse. I'm going to give you both of them. I'm not going to say which one is right. Again, we can all have our favorites, the one that we prefer, and that's fine. Okay. Dog and I don't have any problem here with, you know, there are other viewpoints on these problems. That's sure there is.

That's okay. We're trying to teach each other. And hopefully by us bringing out some perspectives that maybe you've never heard, that that's a good thing. And maybe you can come back and say to us, Now, here's what I've been taught. That's good. We like that. Okay.

So let's take a look. I'm going to take a look at two possible interpretations of verse 21. The first reading takes praise as the test applied to a man or woman. That is, fire reveals true purity of silver by burning away the impurities. So praise reveals what a man or woman actually is by exposing how he or she responds to it. Now, I would say that this is the reading favored by most of the Bible commentators that I've studied. That doesn't make it right. That's the emphatic answer.

The second interpretation takes the man's praise as revealing what he or she values what a person admires, celebrates, and speaks well of, discloses his or her character more reliably than his or her own self-description. So the first interpretation identifies a test almost everyone eventually faces adversity is widely recognized as revealing character and praise is less widely recognized as doing the same and is therefore the more dangerous test precisely because it is enjoyed rather than endure adversity shows your character as you endure it you have to get through it praise you don't have to endure raise when people are speaking highly of you.

You don't have to endure that, right? But it reveals your character. The crucible image is very precise. The crucible, the furnace where the blacksmith places silver or the gold and is heated up and brings out the impurities. Fire and heat does not. Fire and heat do not create impurity. They reveal it. The impurities were there.

They were present all along. The heat, the fire, pressure, reveal the impurities. Praise operates identically. The proud heart, when praise expands, becomes more self-referential. more entitled less teachable the humble heart deflects redirects credit to somebody else remains uncomfortable while people are pouring praise on him or her and that humble person returns quickly to their work so that they don't let that praise sink in and they actually start to think that

they are everything that the people just said that they are. Charles Spurgeon was a very wise man. He said a person could, he said that many people survived slander and were destroyed by praise. That is a fascinating observation as Spurgeon made. Spurgeon said, slander will drive a man or won't.

to his or her knees, crying out to God, get me through the satanic of slander. And he said, if you're on your knees, you're safe. But praise will lift you up and put you on a pedestal. And you're not safe there. You're now vulnerable. Yeah. And so, according to Spurgeon, you're better off to be slander than to be praise. Yeah.

You know, Rick and I have been in Christian broadcasting. I'm afraid sometimes to say how long we've been in Rick. It sounds like we were around when Marconi was around. But we've been around in Christian radio and Christian television a long time. And we've observed this in the lab of real life. We jokingly refer to it as Mike disease. Mike disease happens when someone gets behind a microphone or at a radio station or gets behind a camera on a TV program. And they get positive feedback.

Some of it's good, real, honest feedback, but something happens in them. Something changes inside of them. And we've observed this multiple times. where they suddenly become somebody else, they become puffed up. They suddenly start believing their own press, if you will. And we observed it. I don't know.

I've seen it happen over and over again. Good people who suddenly get exposure to a wider audience suddenly think that they deserve it. I'll be honest. I'll be the first one to admit, I don't deserve it. I really don't deserve it. But Rickie, you and I both know, we've encountered people like that.

And it happens to men and women. It happens to some singers and performers. We've observed that as well. And so the significance here in verse 21 concerns testings as a means of revelation rather than divine information gathering. God does not test to discover what he does not know. I'll say it again. God does not test to discover what he does not know,

but to reveal to the person tested what was genuinely present in their own heart. In Deuteronomy chapter 8, verse 2, it says this regarding Israel's wilderness years. I've never thought about this until today. To humble thee and to prove thee and to know what was in thine heart. That's why God allowed them to wander in the desert for 40 years.

The testing made visible what was already there. Now, the specific danger of praise deserves attention, though. It's a different kind of crucible altogether. It's different than pain and suffer. Proverbs 2527 established that for men to search their own glory is not glory. All right, that was the last chapter. one of two chapters ago. And verse 21 here identifies the mechanism by which glory is seeking becomes visible.

Watch what happens to a man or woman when glory is actually offered. It changes them. Or it really doesn't change them. It reveals something that was already there. John 1243 records the most sobering New Testament example. All right. So listen to this story. Certain rulers believed in Christ,

but they would not confess them. Why? Once again, first time I connected this verse with this Proverbs passage, for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God. They loved the praise of men

more than the praise of God. So praise operated as a crucible on this man, just like pain and suffering does on others. And what it revealed cost them their relationship with Christ. It costs them their salvation, Rick. And so the positive model that we can see in the New Testament that helps us understand this can be found in Acts

Chapter 14 versus 11 through 15. So the crowds at Listra, remember the story. I never connected to this passage before today. The crowds at Listra attempted to offer Paul and Barnabas divine honors. They were calling them gods. They were doing miracles and everything,

and they thought the gods had come down, and they wanted to treat them like gods. Their response, they ripped their clothes, Rick, in despair, insisting, we also are men of like passions with you. So that demonstrates the crucible producing pure silver. Praise was offered. Praise was refused, and credit redirected to God,

immediately. So this proverb challenges us to examine ourselves in a domain. Most believers never truly consider Rick. Everyone examines himself after criticism, a few after a compliment. You know, we've really got to think about this today. The wise believer should ask, following any season of significant praise. Did that make me more teachable or less? More grateful or more entitled? What did that praise reveal in me? It's a sobering question, Rick.

But like I said, we've observed this through the years, haven't one? Yeah, we have. And, Doug, I want to give back something earlier just a few minutes ago. that the purpose of the testing is to reveal what's already there. So, you know, often people say, well, God is testing me or God is testing that man or woman to see, God wants to know what they're going to do, how they're going to handle this.

That's not biblically accurate. God already knows what's in your heart. He already knows how you're going to handle something. If he didn't already know it, he wouldn't be God. So he's not testing you so he's trying to find out what's in your heart. He knows what's in your heart. He knows your thoughts. He knows your desires.

He knows everything about you. So he doesn't test you because he's like, I wonder what will happen if I test Dr. Workhart. Let's see what he's going to do. Now, he's testing us so that we find out what's in our heart. Amen. And to let others know what's in our heart. heart for the purpose of people saying, hey, that guy went through a very difficult time,

and he came through it praising them. That woman went through a very trialing, a very difficult trial, and she never lost her joy. See, it's for us, it's for us to discover what's in our heart. So let's look at the Septuagint, verse 21, King James, as the fining pot for silver in the furnace for gold. is a man to his praise. Septuagint, fire is the trial for silver and gold, and a man is tried by the mouth of them that praise him. So the subduigent removes the ambiguity present in King James

and settles it decisively. A man is tried by the mouth of those who praise him. A woman is tried by the mouth of those who praise her. very clear. The Greek word is dokemazzo. It's a word that's used for testing metals for examining oneself before the Lord's table in Holy Communion. 1 Corinthians stuff, chapter 11, verse 28. That's interesting. Yes. Yes, to test yourself before you go to the Lord's table. Romans 12, verse 2, proving what is the acceptable will of God. It's that same Greek word dokemazzo, a word for testing metals, testing the spirits. Same word, Doc, 1 John 4, verse 1, verse 1, to test the spirits.

its consistent use or its consistent sense is examination that is intended to determine the genuineness of what is being examined that testing reveals whether something is what it claims to be

that's the purpose of the test you put a metal but looks like gold into a crucible and you find out whether it's really gold or a lookalike. The test brings out the truth. Now, the situagent says by the mouth of them that praise him. So the situagent locates the test precisely in the speech of others

rather than in the person's own self-assessment. He does not administer this test to himself. The woman does not administer the test. test to herself. It is a minister to him or her without his or her consent or control. Whenever others speak well of him. So, Doc, what is Dr. Burkhardt? What is the theological importance of this Septuagint translation? Well, don't want to let that doctor, I don't go to my head here. So, but this is theologically important because it removes the possibility of preparing

for or managing the test. Okay. A man or woman cannot arrange to be praised when he or she is spiritually ready for it. I'll say it again. A man or woman cannot arrange to be praised only when he or she is spiritually ready for it. There are a lot of people that seek praise, especially in this age of social media, Rick. There's a lot of people that manufacture praise and thinking that it will generate praise from others. But it doesn't work when you're spiritually ready.

If you're doing that, you're spiritually out of tune anyway. So the crucible arrives on its own schedule. And it's applied by other people's mouths. and what it reveals is whatever was actually present in him at that moment. And so the Septuagint's clarity also supplies a useful instrument. A believer is genuinely uncertain about his own spiritual, a believer who is genuinely uncertain about his own spiritual condition, may learn more from honestly examining his reaction to praise

than from extended intersearching in retrospect, because the reaction was involuntary and therefore more reliable than any self-assessment that he might construct deliberately. You know, it doesn't, our minds have a hard time accepting the idea of the crucible of praise, Rick. The crucible of praise. When we think of a crucible, you know, or mortar and pestle,

we think of it grinding down. We think of pain. We think of something broken. And yet that's exactly what praise is doing in this same sense, Rick. It's opening something up. It's breaking something open. It's revealing something that's already there. You said something you made me think about something as you were talking,

and that is, Dr. Our modern society is so warped that we have social media influencers and politicians and celebrities who pay money to companies. to generate fake phrase on social media using non-human bots that appear to be human. You read something online, you think, well, that's a person that wrote that. No, it's a bot.

Many times it's a bot. It was manufactured by artificial intelligence. And you can hire companies to generate these bots, they have these bots that generate praise of you online and build up your your reputation it's such a work world that we're in verse 22 this is our last one for today though you should us bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestle yet will not his foolishness depart from him In other words, if you pound and crush, bray the fuel full in a mortar, this describes a very forceful correction that people in the ancient world at that time

when Solomon spoke these words, they could picture, they could understand what he was saying. Because the image is drawn from grain processing, wheat, is placed in a stone mortar and pounded with a pestle to separate the edible kernel from the inedible husk. The process is violent, it's thorough,

and it is effective. It's applied to the grain. And the pounding always accomplishes the separation it was designed to produce. If you're old enough, you've seen this done, or if you've traveled internationally, you've been in four countries

where people still use a mortar and pestle to crush the wheat in order to make some bread. I've seen a doc. I know you hear that. So it's still used today in parts of the world. But the proverb's force lies in the analogies failure at exactly the point where it should hold. Here's what I mean. Applied to grain, the pounding separates. Applied to a fool, the pounding accomplishes nothing.

Solomon says, yet will not his foolishness depart from him, the husk comes off the wheat? but the folly will not come off the fool. This is one of those times that I can imagine Solomon just stopping. He's talking to a class of students, and he just like, I'm going to tell you guys, I've never seen anything like this in my life.

This is something I have observed. You can beat the husk. You can beat off the husk. You can beat off the chast. You can't be stupid off a fool. I can just see silence just like getting emotionally upset about it

I don't understand it you can put them in prison you can punish them you can do all kinds of things and they still cling to their foolishness they won't let go of it this is what he observed

and human nature has not changed over thousands of years our prisons are full of rebels who will not give up their rebellion. Divorce courts are full of separating married people who will not give up their selfishness. This is probably Solomon's most extreme statement in the entire book of Proverbs about the limitations of external correction where he's finally got to chapter 27

and he's just like, I'm going to tell you right now, I just don't get it. You can beat them. You can pound them. And they'll still be a fool when the pounding's over. You know, we go back to chapter one previous chapter, chapter 26, verse three. Solomon talked about the rod full of fools back. External consequence as the appropriate instrument for governing behavior. When reason cannot reach that person. Now, verse 22 establishes the boundary of that.

instrument. The rod may govern conduct, but it does not transform character. In other words, Solomon was saying in chapter 26, you might get some temporary correction in the behavior of an idiot, a fool, a rebel. You punish them enough. You might get some temporary correction in their behavior, but deep inside, they're still an idiot. They are still a rebel. They're still a fool. You haven't changed them one bit. External consequences have genuine God-ordained value. It remains harmful behavior.

It protects communities. It produces the pain that opens the heart. but consequences alone, no matter how severe, cannot separate a person from the folly that's rooted in their rebellious will. And, Doug, my own personal observation is that folly and rebellion are deeply intertwined. Person is a fool because they are a rebel.

Right. They will not accept correction. They will not learn. They are determined to do it their own way. And that's that rebellious spirit. And no matter how many times they fall, no matter how much pain they suffer, they still get up from it and say,

I want to do it again. Adam Clark Methodist, he observed that this proverb, verse 22, does not counsel abandoning correction, but it forbids the illusion that the correction alone is sufficient, that the mortar and the pestle have their place. But anyone expecting them to produce character transformation

has misunderstood what they can accomplish. So again, Doc, we see this with prisons. We put people in prison, and they come out, and we call them repeat offenders. Yeah. Because all we did was punish them in the prison. But the prison could not change their character. So, Dr. I asked you, as I have in the previous verses,

what's the theological significance of this problem? Well, I, you know, I think it's that verse 22 is a clear statement of the insufficiency of any external means to accomplish internal transformation. This is a principle that runs all through scripture and finds its resolution only in the doctrine of regeneration. Jeremiah 1322 states the same impossibility. And this is a familiar verse. A lot of people quote it, but they never really apply it to what we're talking about today. Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard has spots, then may you also do good that are accustomed to do evil.

In other words, Jeremiah is saying, it is impossible for you to do good. You're evil. But there's the hope of the regeneration in God, though. But that's a settled disposition. And that settled disposition cannot alter itself. And no external pressure, no matter how severe, can produce the alteration either. This connects directly to Proverbs chapter 26, previous chapter we studied in verse 11. We touched on this briefly earlier in the lesson today about the dog returning to his vomit.

Confirmed a fool's pattern of return demonstrates that the experience of consequence, however painful, does not by itself reform the appetite that produced the behavior. So the gospel's answer is the new birth. The one remedy operating at the level the mortar cannot reach. So in John chapter 3, verse 3, Jesus said, Accept a man be born again. Ezekiel 3626 says, A new heart also will I give you. I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh,

and I will give you a heart of flesh. So that is describing that interior replacement rather than an external improvement. This is not a countenial. of despair, but actually, Rick, this is a redire of hope. What is needed cannot be administered by a human hand here. So the corresponding action is a shift from pressure to prayer.

Not abandonment of the appropriate correction, which scripture continues to commend. It does restrain them to some degree, but it doesn't change them. Recognition that the transformation I actually sought can only be done by God's work alone. Rick, the mortar has a purpose. It simply does not have this one. The mortar cannot grind foolishness out of the fool.

No, the only thing that works is grace. We're not telling you give up hope that somebody will change. We're telling you that only God can do it. Only God can do it. Until that rebel, that fool, humbles himself for herself and is willing to say to God, I've made a mess of my life, please, please save me, help me. Until they come to that place, they're not going to change.

But Jesus Christ makes all things new. When you are born again, it's not the old you becomes better. You become a new creature. Take a look at how the Septuagint views, verse 22. The King James says, though thou should have bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart from him.

Septuagin says, though thou scourge a fool, disgracing him in the midst of the counsel, thou will not remove his folly from him. The doctor of the Septuagin is saying, not only if you beat the fool, you can do it out in the street in front of everybody. It still is not going to change you.

Right. So the Septuagint, the King James has an agricultural image, the mortar, the pestle, the pounding the grinding of the wheat. The subterigent has a judicial image, public scouraging and disgrace in the midst of the council.

So it's adding social shame to physical pain and saying, that's not going to do it either. So the subtergent tests the incorrigibility of a fool against a different instrument. not merely pain, but pain compounded by the loss of standing before one's entire community. Your neighbors, your friends, your relatives, your coworkers. But the conclusion is identical. And its identity across such different instruments is the point that it doesn't matter whether you go to it.

King James of the Septuagint, the conclusion is the same. Until the heart of the rebel, the fool is changed by God. Nothing that you do is going to change them. Right. Yeah, and so the Hebrew text, which the authorized King James is based on, test the fool against maximum physical force. The Septuagint, test the fool against maximum. pressure, guess what? Both report the same failure. If neither the most forceful physical correction

or the most complete public humiliation can separate a fool from his folly, no combination of human instrument's will, which drives the reader toward the only remedy of Scripture offers. And so the Septuagint's counsel setting also carries a warning for churches and congregations. public shaming of the foolish however satisfying it may feel to those administering it is specifically named here as ineffective think about that we have a tendency sometimes as leaders or pastors or evangelists to try to shame the sinner shame the fool

doesn't mean we shouldn't speak against sin but sometimes we make it very personal communities tempted toward public accumulation as a corrective strategy, progress here is saying that this instrument does not produce the result they seek. So, I mean, really, something we really need to think about and consider here, Rick. You know, does shaming someone who's fallen or someone who's found themselves in the midst of sin, someone outside the church to shaving them

really promote the gospel message? It's something we need to really think about and consider, Rick. Doc, I would say that when a religious leader, a pastor, a Bible teacher, temporarily falls into a sin. The tendency is to do

just what you just said. Publicly shame that person. How dare you sin? You turned out to be a human just like us. We had put you upon a pedestal, right? We made you super Christian, and you turned out you're a sinner. And now we're going to shame you, and we're going to embarrass you. We're going to take away your income.

We're going to make you go hide and never, ever again, teach the Word of God, or ever serve God. Isn't that the punishment? you will never ever serve God again. We, the people, we are the judge, and we declare you to be flawed and defective, and you cannot teach the word again because you've failed one time.

That's the way humans greet. And what purpose does that shame serve? What does it serve? It only serves the person ministering the shame. I'm better than you. That's pride. It's pride, but it's also been, them saying, I've either done the very thing you did or I'd like to do what you did.

I just haven't been caught. I haven't been caught, but I'm going to shame you. And I'm going to get everybody's eyes on you. So nobody's looking at me. You just think about that. Okay. But they're really saying is when they're pointing their finger at a fallen preacher, they're saying, I've already done that sin.

or I would like to do that sin, but I'm going to get everybody looking at you so nobody's looking at me. You think about that the next time you hear somebody shaming someone, okay? God does not shame us. I promise you, God does not shame. And if you've had a temporary setback in your life, God will not shame you.

He will not disown you. He will not walk away from you. People do it. But in this, in this proverb, The message is not about shaming. It's about thinking that shaming will produce a change and it doesn't. And if the person's a fool, if they are a rebel, they won't change. If the person is not a fool and a rebel, the punishment doesn't bring about change.

Actually, love does. It's love. Love the person and see what has. happens in their life. Okay. That's it for today. Thank you so much. I hope this has been thought-provoking. We appreciate you being here, and we appreciate you supporting us financially, and we're not pressuring anybody. If this is a blessing, if this Bible study is a blessing to you, then please be a blessing to us. And also, help us grow by telling people about morning that. I love you. See you. See you tomorrow. God bless you.

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