TRUNEWS with Rick Wiles - Date: August 25, 2026. Lesson 167-2026. Title: When Righteousness Brings Stability

Episode Date: August 25, 2026

In today’s Morning Manna, Rick Wiles and Doc Burkhart begin Proverbs 28 with verses 1–2 and Solomon’s powerful contrast between the instability produced by sin and the confidence that comes from righteousness. A guilty conscience can cause a person to flee when no one is pursuing, while the righteous can stand bold as a lion because their confidence rests in God. The same principle applies to nations: moral rebellion produces political instability, conflict, and constant upheaval, while wisdom and righteousness bring order and preserve what would otherwise decay. This lesson reveals why lasting national renewal cannot come through political machinery alone—it begins with transformed hearts, faithful individuals, and people willing to stand for righteousness where God has placed them. Lesson 167-2026 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, my north. Welcome to morning, my new ritual north. Your teachers, Rick Wiles and Dr. Burkla. Get your Bible and notebook and get ready to here before. Good morning. Welcome to Morning Man on. I'm Rick Wiles. We are a weekday Bible study class.

And if you are hungry and thirsty to know more about the Word of God, Well, I can assure you your soul will be fed here. Our lessons are archived at manna nation.com and also on YouTube at the Rick Wals today channel. Today we begin a new chapter in the book of Proverbs, and so I'm excited about it. Let's begin our lesson by inviting the Holy Spirit, and then Dr. Raymond Burkhart will introduce the chapter 28 and the first two verses that we're going to study today. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, Father, thank you for feeding us with your word,

that our souls are nourished. We thank you, Father, and we praise you because all good things come from you. We invite your Holy Spirit to lead this Bible study class. We ask that the Holy Spirit would bless and annoyed and inspire Dr. Workhart and me to teach your word to the best of our abilities is you give us abilities, Father. And we pray that the people who are watching and listening, that their spiritual ears and eyes will be open to receive knowledge and revelation and understanding and wisdom, all for the glory of your son, Jesus Christ. In his name, we pray, amen. Amen. Welcome, everyone, to morning man. I'm so glad to have you with us as we begin our study of Proverbs chapter 28 today. And this is lesson number 167-2026 for those that are following along on manna nation.com and on our YouTube channel at Rick Wallace today. So what we're going to discover is this chapter has a distinctly different feel from chapter 27. So where chapter 27 moved through friendship, self-knowledge, and household

stewardship. Chapter 28 turns outward, and we start dealing with topics such as law, justice, rulers, wealth, and the moral condition of a nation. So some big topics that we're going to be addressed here in this chapter. That word law in the Hebrew, a lot of people familiar with that word, Torah, appears four times in this chapter, verses 4, 7, 9, and 18. more than any other chapter in Proverbs. And the contrast between righteous and wicked are sharper and more frequent than almost anywhere else throughout the entire book. And so this is Solomon's most politically and economically engaged chapter.

It addresses corrupt rulers, oppressive princes, unjust gain, usury. We're going to define that. bribery, partiality, and judgment, and the condition of a land that's under wicked leadership. And it also contains one of the great gospel verses of the Old Testament, verse 13, on confessing and forsaking sin. So our morning man of classmates can expect a chapter here with real prophetic edge and considerable contemporary resonance. So we begin our study of chapter 28 by looking at the first two verses,

verses 1 and 2, I'll be reading the King James and then the Septuagint. So follow along with me, chapter 28 in the book of Proverbs. The wicked flee when no man pursueth, but the righteous are bold as a lion. For the transgression of a land many are the princes thereof, but by a man of understanding and knowledge the state thereof shall be prolonged. And then the Septuagin, the ungodly man flees when no one pursues, but the righteous righteous is confident as a lion. By reason of the sins of ungodly men, quarrels arise, but a wise man will quell them.

So Proverbs 28 opens with a chapter that, as we mentioned, has a very different feel. And we moved through, back in chapter 27, we moved through friendship and self-knowledge. And we mentioned all this. Versus one and two establish where we're headed in this chapter. and the chapter's governing concern immediately by moving from individuals to the national in the space of just two verses here. So verse one, it examines the interior life. The wicked man flees when nobody's chasing them, while the righteous man carries the settled

confidence of the lion. So that observation is about a conscience, about having a conscience, what a guilty heart does to a person's perception of his own safety. Then we move into verse two. And verse two examines the national life. When a land itself is in transgression, a nation, it produces a multiplication of rulers. But a single man of understanding and knowledge

can prolong its stability. So the pairing here is deliberate and instructive. What conscience does to a person, moral condition does inside a nation. Guilt produces instability at both scales, both the individual and the national scale. The fleeing man and the churning government are the same phenomenon operating at different magnitudes.

And so today's lesson and its aim is to teach the morning manna audience that the moral condition of a single heart and the moral condition of a nation really are not separate categories, but the same reality, just at different scales, and that righteousness produces stability in both. We started our lesson today as Rick examines

verse number one of chapter 28. All right, Doc, this is an interesting verse. The wicked flee when no man pursue it, but the righteous are bold as a, lion. It describes one of the most recognizable and least discussed effects of guilt, the manufacture of imaginary threats. The scene is very easy to imagine in your mind. There is no pursuer. No one is chasing this man. No accusations have been filed in a court of law. And no consequence is a approaching him at that very moment.

And yet he's running away. Because something inside him has convinced him that pursuit is imminent. This is conscience operating without a trigger. The guilty man does not require an accuser to feel accused. His own interior supplies the accusation. and it supplies it continuously. Every unexpected knock on the door could be the police,

but the police aren't looking for this guy. Right. He fears that the police are looking for it. Why does he fear? Because he's dishonest. He knows that he's doing dishonest things. He is always afraid that he's going to be caught. every closed door

every locked door they're inside talking about me they know about me they're discussing what I've done everybody every stranger who glances at them and holds that glance a little bit too long

this guilty person is thinking they recognize me right they know what I'm doing So the effect here is miserable, okay, and it means this. Unaddressed guilt produces a permanent low-grade condition of anxiety that no change in external circumstances would ever relieve it. Because the threat being fled from is not located in the circumstances at all. the threat is in the person's mind.

We see this in the Bible as early as Genesis chapter 3, verse 8, immediately after Adam and Eve sin, what did they do? They hid. Genesis 3.8 says, they hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. God had not spoken a word of judgment against them. God had not issued any decrees yet, but they were acting guilty. Their conscience had already convicted them. We did something wrong. That was the first time sin was felt in a human being,

and they immediately knew that they had sinned, and they hid themselves. God was simply walking in the garden, as he had done all the time. since creation. The hiding preceded any pursuit. God wasn't tracking them down. They didn't have to track them down. I knew where they were at. He knew what trees they were behind. That's right. Imagine thinking you can hide from God. But the hiding preceded any pursuit because guilt had already created the perception of a pursuit. And then the next chapter in Genesis, 4, verse 14, it records Kane's version

after the murder of his brother Abel. It says, everyone that findeth me shall sway me. Kane was so guilty over murdering his brother, he said, I know what's going to happen. Wherever I go, somebody's going to kill me. There's no place for me to hide. He had a fear of universal pursuit at a moment when, as far as the text

indicates in Genesis 4. Virtually no one existed to pursue him. That's a good point there. Who was going to pursue him? Doc, he said it as though the earth was populated with millions of people. Had you ever thought about that? And not until today. Who's going to chase him?

There were no other humans to chase him. And yet he imagined. he was going to be chased. Guilt had populated his imagination with enemies who did not exist. There are other occasions when people flee, when nobody is pursuing them. I try to point out this doesn't only apply to the wicked. Sometimes the righteous fear, the rule of wicked people in government. They anticipate trouble and persecute.

So they relocate somewhere beyond the reach of the wicked governmental rulers. Now, the question is, did God tell them to flee or did their fear spur them to flee when there was no actual persecution? That is a very important question to ask these days. because what we see, particularly here in the United States, after every presidential election, people on the other side, the other political side say,

I'm going to leave this country. You know, when the Democrats win, you've got Republicans leading, and when the Republicans win, you have Democrats saying, I'm going to move to Canada, I'm going to move to Great Britain, I'm going to move to Europe,

Australia. They're fleeing persecution that isn't happening. Yeah, it's a strange, phenomenon, isn't it, Rick? Guilt does crazy things to you. Yes, but what about the righteous? Do they flee? No. The Bible

says in that same verse, the righteous are as bold as a lion. The righteous like a young lion is confident, he trusts, he's secure. The verb batah is the standard Hebrew word for trust and confident reliance.

And it's used throughout the Psalms for trust in God. Now, let me ask you something, Rick. You know, you've seen a lot of videos or movies growing up and everything. Have you ever seen a video or a movie of lions running away in fear? You always see lions standing tall, proud, majestic, and fearless or chasing something, right? But not being chased. That's the idea.

So the lion image does not convey violent aggression here. That's what we're talking about. Instead, the image of a lion is always stately and confident. He's the king of the beast, right? So a lion does not startle at movement in the grass. You know, he's not, oh my goodness, what was that? It does not run from sounds. It cannot identify.

Its confidence is not a performance, but the natural bearing of a creature that has, he doesn't have any reason to fear anything around it, right? who is going to mess with me? And Charles Pergin observed that the lion's confidence is not aggression, but composure. Okay, if we look at it in this particular context, the settled bearing of a creature

who has no reason to fear what surrounds it, and that this composure is available to any believer walking and confessed and forgiven a relationship with God, but to no one attempting to manufacture it while concealing unaddressed sin. Matthew Henry observed that a guilty conscience makes a man, makes men cowards where no danger exists. You gave some examples, Rick, while a clear conscience makes them bold where danger genuinely exists, and that the difference between the two men lies entirely in what each of them carries inside rather than in what surrounds either of them, Rick.

that is fascinating what Henry said, that a guilty conscience makes men coward where there is no danger. Yes. There's nothing to fear. But a clear conscience makes men bold when actual danger exists. Okay.

Verse one rests on the biblical doctrine of conscience as a genuine faculty. given by God. The Lord has given us a conscience, a witness placed within every person that testifies to the moral reality independent of external circumstances. Everybody has a conscience. Now, some people have seared their conscience to the point that they're known. They can't even feel their conscience anymore, but they had a conscience. Yes. It just bothered them too much. so they fried it and it says it's seared

that's what it means, been fried. Romans 2, verse 15 describes this faculty of the conscience operating even in those without the written law of God. Paul said that Gentiles

show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness and their thoughts the means and their thoughts, the mean, while accusing or else accusing one another. So the accusation that the wicked man flees is, according to Paul, and authentic internal testimony rather than a psychological artifact.

But this is biblical. Now, don't confuse this boldness with arrogance and pride It is not confidence grounded in our human abilities, our human achievements, our human self-righteousness. Romans 310 says, nobody stands righteous on their own accord. There is none righteous, no, not one. Hebrews chapter 10, verses 19 through 22, states a principle about the boldness of the righteous being grounded

in a settled relationship with God rather than our flawed human performances. Hebrews 10, 19 through 22 says, having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, let us draw near with a true heart, full assurance of faith, having our heart sprinkled from all evil conscience. The evil conscience is cleansed. It's not man. It's just cleansed. And the boldness follows the cleansing in 1st John, chapter 3, verse 21. If our heart condemn us not, then we have confidence to God. The absence of a condemning heart is what produces.

the lion's old composure. In that absence of a of a condemning heart is the fruit of confession and forgiveness rather than never having sinned. Rick, I find it fascinating. You mentioned something earlier that I'd never thought about before, that Adam and Eve hid

before they were ever judged. They hid before they were ever judged. That means the conscience existed before they even sinned, before they ever did anything that would require judgment later on. And so I'd never considered that before. I always saw that the conscience came when God judged it. But it had to exist before they actually committed the sin. So that means that God created their consciences before they ever sinned.

And so what this is telling us, though, Rick, is that this application has to run in both directions. To the person that's currently fleeing without a pursuer, the running's not going to stop through changed circumstances. It's not going to stop through better concealment. It's not going to stop with the passage of time because the pursuit is internal. The running is inside, it's not outside. It stops only through the confession of that verse 13 of the same chapter that we're going to address later on. At verse 13, it says,

He that covereth his sin shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. So to the believer whose conscience has been cleansed, the lion's boldness is not arrogance. and should not be surrendered out of some sort of false humility. You can be bold as a lion because you have a clear conscience before God. So a believer walking in a confessed, forgiven relationship with God has genuine ground for that kind of composure.

And scripture commends rather than rebukes that settled confidence. You can be confident. And God will say, you be confident. You be confident in that clear conscience because you, You are forgiven. My son paid the price for you, and you have repented. You've confessed. You're forgiven.

It's done. Let's say a look at the Greek Septuagint for verse 1, chapter 28. King James says, the wicked flee when no man pursueth, but the righteous are bold as a lion. The Septuagin says the ungodly man flees when no one pursues, but the righteous is confident as a lion. obviously the King James and Septuagin are almost identical. I will, however, draw your attention to the Greek word for the righteous man's confidence. The Greek word is at poithot. Take poithos.

Say it right, Doc. Is that right? Pretty close. We're going to say it's right. Okay. All right. So we'll hear from our Greek audience. It is derived from another Greek word that means to be persuaded, to have been convinced,

and therefore to rest confidently in what one has been persuaded of. That's the meaning of it. The perfect tense is of this word. It's significant. It describes a settled state resulting from a completed action. It's a state of mind, a settled state that is the result of a completed action. The righteous man's boldness is not a mood he generates every morning, but a condition resulting from something that has already happened to this man or woman.

He has been persuaded of something, and the confidence flows from that settled, persuasion rather than from present circumstances. That's right. In that same word and the verb family appears all throughout the New Testament for confidence grounded in God's character and promises. So an example of this, the same root word, you can look at Philippine 216, very familiar verse, being confident of this very thing. that he which has begun a good work and you will perform it.

It uses that same root word. And so the lion's composure in Proverbs 281 is the Apostle Paul's confidence in to the Philippians, and it rests on that same foundation. Persuasion about God rather than assessment of the circumstances. And so the Septuagint's vocabulary teaches us that a confidence that fluctuate with circumstances is not the boldness that we're talking about here. It's not the boldness that this proverb is describing.

The lion's composure is that fruit of settled persuasion. And where that is absent, Prick, the question to ask is not, what circumstances have changed around me, but we really need to ask, what have I actually been persuaded of? What has my, what perception inside of me has changed about my circumstances? God certainly hasn't changed. His promises haven't changed. The circumstances may have changed.

So the only thing that could have changed was me and my perception of the circumstances. Instead of looking at the circumstances and fearing them, instead of relying on the promises of God and his nature and his character, Rick. So, Doc, is that what happened to the cowardly line and the Wizard of Oz? And you know what? In that story, you know, at the end, it said, you always had the courage. You know why? He didn't need a piece of paper to tell him that.

He had the courage instilled within him. He just had to access it. And we do too. We do too. We're only cowards because we perceive the circumstances around us. We have to remember, we're lying. And we've been persuaded of something that's not true, and the person who persuades is Satan.

So stop listening to Satan and only believe what God says. Because God will never call you a coward. He'll say you're as bold as a lion. The devil will say, you're a coward. You don't have any courage. You should flee. First two. For the transgression of a land, many are the princes thereof,

but by a man of understanding and knowledge, the state thereof shall be prolonged. Wow, this has a lot of political applications to our modern world. in the transgression of a land, many are its princes. The Hebrew word, Hasha, it is a very strong word for rebellion, revolt, the willful breach of covenant and trust. It doesn't refer to a casual wrongdoing, but to deliberate transgression against the established, political order. This does not describe a land that has drifted. It describes a land that has

rebelled. And so the consequence named for this rebellion is a multiplication of rulers, a rapid turnover, competing claimants for political power, fractional leadership, the inability or the instability, of the political establishment. The establishment is not stable, and that's a contradiction in terms. Yeah. To be an establishment, it should be stable. But when the land is full of transgression against God,

even the establishment is disestablished. Nations in moral crisis produce political churn because no leadership can establish durable legitimacy in a population that has abandoned its moral consensus on which the legitimacy depends. The best example I can think of right now, Doc, is the United Kingdom. It's not united anymore. The UK has had seven prime ministers in the last 10 years. Yes. Modern UK is an example of this proverb.

Matthew Henry noted that the multiplication of rulers is presented as judgment. It's not an accident. It's not politics. It's judgment. And the political instability is frequently the visible symptom of the moral conditions beneath the surface of that country. We can look at, I mentioned modern-day Great Britain, United Kingdom, but you can look at ancient times, ancient Israel.

Ancient Israel's history illustrates this principle and very vivid terms. The Northern Kingdom, following its break with covenant faithfulness, cycled through 19 kings across nine separate dynasties and throw in a couple assassinations. So the southern kingdom, which retained a greater covenant authority, or continuity, I should say, maintained a single dynastic line across its entire history. And so the correlation between moral condition and political stability was visible in real time to anyone watching it at those at that time. But by a man of understanding and knowledge, the state thereof shall be prolonged. Many princes on one side, a man singular on the other side.

Transgression multiplies rulers and produces nothing. Understanding concentrated in one faithful person extends a nation's life. A nation in moral crisis is not automatically doomed to the churn its transgression has earned. A single person possessing genuine understanding and knowledge positioned where God has placed at Manoram. can prolong what would otherwise collapse. In other words, become salt. And that man or woman becomes a political leader who has understanding and knowledge and his position where God has placed that person. That person can act as salt and prolong the decay of the nation. Yes.

Adam Clark observed that the true source of national instability, he said that this proverb identifies the true source of national instability as moral rather than structure or political, and that political reforms that address the machinery of government while ignoring the moral condition, treating the symptoms, and allowing the disease to continue. Yes.

And that's what's happening here in America. Every election, we've got politicians talking about, what's wrong with our country? We're going to take our country back. The city is going to take it back. That implies somebody took it. Yes. Right?

So who took it? everybody wants to take it back all right will tell me who took it if you identify who took it you might be able to straighten out the mess but according to the Bible I'll tell you who took it wicked men and women

yes and the only way to take it back is for righteous men and women to leave that's right and so the theological framework here beneath the second verse is the biblical

doctrine of national accountability. Now, we haven't touched on this much in Proverbs. We have a few times we have, but we're really now starting to get into a deep dive here in chapter 28 where we're talking about national accountability before God. And nations are accountable before God. There is a consistent scriptural teaching that God deals with nations as distinct moral entities, Rick, and that the collective moral condition of a people produces genuine consequences in its corporate life.

Proverbs chapter 14, if you recall, back in verse 34, stated the principle in its most compact form. Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is reproached to any people. So that word any is very significant. So this is not a promise restricted to Israel under covenant,

but a general principle governing God's dealings with all nations. such. You know, people don't do enough study in the books of the prophets, but really when you get into, especially the minor prophets, the Bible's books of prophets states this principle extensively. You get it started in Isaiah chapter three describes precisely the condition, verse two names. Now in verses 1 through 5, he talks about judgment upon the southern kingdom. of Judah. God removes the mighty man and the man of war, the judge, and the prophet. So even Judah wandered from God and replaces them with children and babes as princes. We talked about this, producing a society in which the people shall be oppressed everyone by another. How many nations does that describe in our modern? So this leadership vacuum is itself the judgment. Think about

that. That's the judgment on the nation. Wicked or corrupt leaders are the judgment of a wicked and corrupt nation. But the hopeful half of verse two also has substantial biblical illustration. So you have Joseph in Egypt. Okay. One man saved not just a nation, but if you really dig in the story of Joseph, Joseph saved the world. He saved the world from starving to death. You have Daniel in Babylon. Daniel, a righteous man that served under four different kings, including one that thought he was a cowl.

You have Nehemiah in Jerusalem, who received the authority from a pagan king to go and rebuild not just the city of Jerusalem, but to rebuild the temple. You have Esther. The amazing story of Esther and her ordeal in Persia, each one of these individuals had an understanding and knowledge about God and whose presence in a position of influence preserved or prolonged

what would have otherwise have collapsed or been destroyed. God's looking for a man. God's looking for a woman. the righteous man, the righteous woman, the one who understands the principles of God. And so it appears that God's ordinary method of preserving nations is to involve placing individual faithful people in positions where their understanding can operate. Now, this is neither a guarantee that such placement always occurs, nor a promise that it always succeeds.

But in the scriptures, we see it's consistent enough of a pattern to shape individuals believers, Christ followers, and their understanding of their own placement. God has a role for you. He has a righteous role for you. He has placed you as light and darkness where you're at, wherever you are. So 1st, Timothy, chapter 2, verses 1 and 2, Paul gives the corresponding instruction for every believer

regardless of their position. Even though he addressed this to young Timothy, it's forever believer. I exhort, therefore, that first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, giving thanks be made for all men, for kings, and for all that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceful life

in all godliness and honesty. So Paul is, making the case here that the prayers of ordinary individuals, Rick, ordinary believers, for those in authority. And notice that Paul didn't distinguish, oh, the righteous or the wicked ruler. He just said rulers for kings. But praying for those in authority is itself one of the means by which the stability of verse two has sought and at times granted. I'll say this, Rick, a nation will never vote for righteousness. They'll never or vote for it, they'll never demand righteousness, but the prayer of one individual can bring

righteousness to a nation. Good point. You don't vote for righteousness. Righteousness is never on the ballot. Never. Never. And if it was, it would lose. That's right. Let's take a look at the Greeks of tooigent interpretation of verse two. The King James Version says, the transgression of a land, many are the princes thereof, but by a man of understanding and knowledge, the state thereof shall be prolonged. The situages by reason of the sins of ungodly men, quarrels arise, but a wise man will quarrel them. So there's a substantial departure from the King James in the Septuagin translation. It replaces the political image of multiplied princes

with a social image. The sins of the ungodly produce quarrels, fights, arguments. The Greek word is Chrysus, disputes, contentions, litigations. But a wise man extinguishes them. Are we a nation of lawsuits? And we are. People will sue somebody for just about any reason.

Have you ever connected that, Doc, that all of the lawsuits, all the lawyers that we have, and all the lawsuits, that is connected to the moral condition of the nation? Do you know why we have so many lawyers? because we have so many liars. I'm not calling lawyers, liars. But the lawyers are necessary to deal with the liars.

You have people who sign contracts and they lie. They have no intention of honoring the contract. This is why you have, we have a nation of covenant breakers, contract breakers, and that requires lawyers. Did you ever connect this to the moral condition of your nation? So now with the situogen, the shift moves from national governance to community, to community conflict. The underlying logic is identical in both translations.

What is saying is that moral transgression produces instability, and a single person of wisdom can restore, what the transgression has disordered. So the Greek word in a Septuagint translation, it is Katas Baisai. It is rendered as quell. It literally means to extinguish, to quench. It's used in talking about putting out fires.

So the image is connecting directly to Proverbs 26, which we studied a month or two ago, versus 2021, where strife was pictured as a far requiring fuel. And so the wise man in the Septuagint translation of Proverbs 28, verse 2, is the one who cuts the fuel line. unless the fire die out. Wow. Never thought about that before, Rick. That's a vivid picture there. You know, the subterigence version is in some aspects, Rick,

more immediately applicable to our daily lives in the King James translation. Because most believers will never hold national office, but nearly all will find themselves in, communities in congregations and families where quarrels rise from moral disorder. The subtergent locates the wise man's stabilizing work exactly where most believers actually live. And together, really, the two traditions here describe the same function but operating at two different scales.

So the King James man of understanding prolongs a nation. The Septuagent's wise man quenches the community's quarrels. and really righteousness starts at the local level, doesn't it? I mean, it has to start there. Both testify that a single person genuinely governed by wisdom exercises a stabilizing influence, entirely disproportionate to his formal authority. I mean, you know, a righteous person, a godly man, has greater influence than elected officials.

He really does. And that is a word of considerable encouragement, I think, to any believer who has concluded that his own faithfulness is too small to matter to anyone beyond himself. And I just have everyone recall once again Joseph and Daniel and Esther, you know, all these individuals who serves God in the midst of tremendously trying circumstances and yet did not deny God. sometimes saved nations, nations that they were strangers in. They saved them. And it's really amazing. One individual, one righteous individual, Rick,

can make a difference. And I know sometimes when we look at the news, we look at all the churn and politics and the world and everything that's going on, and it's seen and appears as, if nothing ever changes. But every once in a while, Rick, a voice rises up, a righteous voice rises up and says, no more, no more, no more. We're going to believe for a godly nation, a godly state. He may be rejected, but that means the nation itself has to reject him, Rick.

and he preaches with his life. You know, in our Faith Friday sessions, a couple Fridays ago, we talked about Noah. And the Bible says that Noah preached righteousness as he was building the ark. Now, I don't think he had constructed a pulpit out of gopher wood or anything like that, but his altar was the ark that he was constructing. Every time he pounded a nail, he was preaching a sermon. Why? It was counted as righteousness. He obeyed God. That's all that's required of us. That's all that's required of us. Not to be deceived by those that try to sell some sort of political stick to us

that says if we vote this guy in, you know, everything's going to be fixed. No, the problem is inside of us as a nation in our hearts and until we change individual hearts we will never change a nation brick you're absolutely right um think about every time somebody passed by noah's place and ask him what are you building he preached righteousness he told them what he was building and why it was needed he preached righteousness well this uh this includes our first lesson in chapter 28, but there are many more lessons to go. And tomorrow, our second lesson in chapter 28 will be verses 3 and 4. A poor man that oppresseth the poor is like a sweeping rain that leaveth no food.

And then verse 4, they that forsake the law praise the wicked, but such as keep the law contend with them. The next time you hear somebody saying great things about people that closely associated with Jeffrey Epstein, you think about this proverb, they then forsake the law, praise the wicked. The next time you hear somebody defending someone who was hanging out with Jeffrey Epstein, making excuses for them, that is a person who forsakes the law of God. And for those that are standing in the gap covering up for those that were involved, they're also in the same boat, Rick. That's right. You're praising the wicked. So think about what you're doing because when you praise the wicked,

you are identifying yourself as somebody who forsakes the law of God. I'll just let that where it is. And you can chew on that overnight until we meet again tomorrow. and we'll talk about it in depth on tomorrow's edition of Morning Manor. God bless us. See it tomorrow. God bless you. Thank you for watching Morning Manor.

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