TRUNEWS with Rick Wiles - Date: Feb. 4, 2026 - Lesson 23-2026. Title: Unequal Scales and Ordered Steps

Episode Date: February 4, 2026

Proverbs 20:23–24 joins two powerful truths about God’s authority over life. Dishonest weights and measures are an abomination to the Lord, revealing His deep concern for integrity in everyday dealings. At the same time, a person’s steps are ordered by the Lord, reminding us that human understanding is limited and dependent on divine direction. In today’s Morning Manna, Rick Wiles and Doc Burkhart explore how honesty reflects reverence for God, why fairness matters in small things, and how trusting the Lord’s guidance brings humility and confidence in an ordered life. Lesson 23-2026 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 nurture nourishment. Your teachers, Rec Wales and Dr. Burkla, get your body before. Good morning, everybody. Welcome to Morning Manor.

We are very honored that you are here today to go through the Bible with us. We have been in the Book of Proverbs for over a year. And it's because we take her time. Like on yesterday's lesson, we only made it through the one verse. We were planning to do verses 22, 23, and 24, but we only made it to 22.

And it's because there's so much there. And there was a lot that we left out. So if you're okay with this kind of Bible study where we're not rushing, you know, there's no place that we have to be at a certain time, folks. I know some people don't like a Bible study this in depth. That's okay. there are other places you can go.

They'll rush you through the Bible, okay? We're taking our time. We're learning things about every verse that we can possibly learn. And like I said, there's actually a lot more, but for the sake of time, we omit many of the points that we would like to bring out. So we're going to go back into this today, Proverbs chapter 20, and we're going to look at verses 23 and 24.

I'm going to pray and invite the Holy Spirit. Spirit, and then Dr. Raymond Burkhart is going to read these two verses. Hopefully we can get both verses done today, and not just one, as the Holy Spirit leads. So, Father, our Father, we give you glory and praise and Thanksgiving. We humbly request the presence of the Holy Spirit to take charge of this Bible study and enlighten us, educate us, teach us about your kingdom, and, and, and our king, Jesus Christ, for His glory in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Welcome to morning, man. I'm so glad to have you here with us today. We're continuing our journey through the book of Proverbs. And today, our focus is on verses 23 and 24 in chapter 20.

And I encourage you, get your Bibles, read along with me. Now, verse 23 is going to sound vaguely familiar. And there's a reason for that. We'll be talking about that as we get into our study here today. Welcome to everyone around the world. Anywhere from up to two dozen nations, generally two men to morning manna on a regular basis, and we're so grateful for that. This ministry is having a worldwide impact across the globe, and we're so thankful that you are here today. Let's read together, shall we? Proverbs chapter 20 verses 23 and 24, Divers' weights are an abomination unto the Lord, and a false balance is not good. In verse 24, man's going, sir, of the Lord, how can a man then understand his own way?

It's going to be a fascinating study today, Rick. Amen. I want to point out to our faith TV audience around the world that you can watch the rest of this lesson at manna nation.com. And this is lesson number 23, 23-26. 23-226, go to manna nation.com. You can find this lesson and a lot of other lessons that are archived there. So we're going to start with verse 23. Divers' weights are an abomination unto the Lord and a false balance is not good.

The Septuagin says a double weight is an abomination to the Lord and a deceitful balance is not good in his sight. We've talked about this before in this chapter. Divers weights refer to merchants deliberately keeping two standards, one for buying, another for selling. The practice is intentional deceit. It's not an accidental error. Oh, the machine misweighed. I'm sorry, we'll do this again. No, it's intentional deceit. The offense is intensified. because it is calculated, it's hidden, it's built into the transaction. The deceit is built into the transaction. So God hates this deceit because he hates all deceit,

because deceit contradicts his nature, his character, which is truthfulness. So the word of God treats dishonest measurement as a moral offense, It's a sin. It's not just a business mistake. It's not just bad ethics. God calls it an abomination. The world would call it unethical. God calls it an abomination, which means it's detestable.

If the Lord could vomit, he would throw up. That's how bad it is, okay? It's repulsive to him. Why? Because, well, first of all, as I said, It contradicts his nature. He's truth. He is truth.

He's not just truthful. He's truth. And it also turns, the weights, dishonest weights turn everyday commerce into oppression. The sin lies in exploiting power, knowledge, advantage over other people. And so God sees this economic injustice. And he sees it as spiritual rebellion. Yes.

God always comes out on the side of the underdog. Right? Yes. If you think you're going to mistreat people because they're weak or they're poor or they're uneducated, you are really foolish because the Lord is going to be on their side. So, Doc, we mentioned that it seems like we just covered this not too long ago about unjust weight. unfair balances. Where did we see this? Well, we just saw it recently up in verse 10 of chapter 20. It wasn't that long ago. We were talking about this very same thing. So Solomon's repeating

this teaching. Almost word for word, not quite, but almost word for word. So why say it twice? Why was it necessary to say it twice? You could make the argument that the sin was so common. and it was so tempting in his day, and really in ours too, that the human heart needed that double reminder, that constant reminder to remain honest, especially when it comes to money. And isn't that true? I mean, just based on your human experience, Rick, isn't that true?

Yes. So now, if you think about it in an agricultural-based society, which what Israel was at that time. King Solomon was king over an agricultural nation. Two things were the center of life, bread and the scale. The scale was the center of daily life. If the scales corrupt, the entire community is poisoned. So God is repeating this command through King Solomon

because he cares about justice in the marketplace. That's really not taught. I know I was never taught it at Bible College. I guarantee you, I never heard a single lesson on justice in the marketplace, but God makes a big deal about it here in Proverbs. He places as much emphasis on holiness in the marketplace as holiness in the temple. Seriously, G. Campbell Morgan said the inclusion of the proverb twice in one chapter is significant. It reveals the divine interest in commercial morality.

God is concerned about the affairs of man and the business of man. Charles Bridges said, line upon line is needed. The repetition of the warning shows the prevalence of the sin and the tendency of the heart to excuse it. Now, you know, I often quote line upon line precept upon precept. But the Lord corrected me today in preparing for this lesson. He said, look at that verse up. And that is actually in Isaiah chapter 28, verse 13. It says, but the word of the Lord was unto them, precept upon precept, precept, precept upon precept, says it twice, line upon line, line upon line,

hear a little there alone that they might go and fall backward and be broken and snared and taken. actually what that line upon line and precept upon precept means lyric is that this is a warning. It's not an endorsement of some gradual systemic teaching. What the priests were doing in Isaiah chapter 28 is they were mocking the Lord. And so this same principle is being applied here as well. Now, we talked in the past about divers weights.

and depending on how you pronounce it, some say divers weights, some say diverse weights. It's unjust weights. Basically what it means is stone and stone. You've got a couple of different rocks. Two different sets of weights used on scales for the purpose

to deceive buying and selling. And so this is an accidental fraud. This is deliberate fraud. You're using one weight over here. giving less and another to sell, receiving more, exploiting others for profit. And you touched on this as you were teaching, Rick, that this is built into the system. This is built in dishonesty. The system itself is crooked so that every transaction is quietly stealing a little from the neighbor.

it's an abomination into the Lord. The Hebrew word there is Ta'aba. It's the strongest word we could possibly God's angry? Well, there's something beyond anger. There's the abomination of God. Something detestable,

loathsome, morally repulsive to His Holy Nature. And so this image here, this picture of the merchant, secretly switching the stones of the scale, just know that God sees it. God sees that hidden cheating. And he calls it an abomination.

It makes him want to throw up, Rick. Doc, when we were, when we taught chapter or verse 10, we used examples about, you told your story about your grandmother and the crooked grocery store merchant. I had the same thing. My grandmother didn't trust it. get a grocery store merchant. This is a long time ago. You know, I was a child, you know.

And but I'm just thinking, you know, in those ancient times, and not sure doesn't have to be ancient. What other type of examples? How do, how does this work? Okay, so think of somebody selling cloth. Okay, they've got cloth on a big roller. And you go in and you say, I want to buy, 10 feet of cloth.

And they roll it out and they measure it. And you're watching them measure it. But they short you by one inch. Right. Now you bought 10 feet. Can you tell that you're short by one inch? No. Okay.

But every 12th customer, the merchant is ahead by one foot. Right. Now, in his mind, he's ahead. Hey, I've got a number. extra foot of cloth that is pure profit. That's the way the crooked merchants thinking. It's pure profit because I've taken an inch from 12 customers and I've got now one foot that's been paid for by other customers. That's pure profit. Rxy, you reminded me of a story. I hate to go off on a rabbit trail, but this fits perfectly. I just brought, Lord brought it back to our remembrance.

I served my missionary internship in Jamaica. I lived in Jamaica for six months and worked closely with a pastor there, a Jamaican pastor. And he went out one day to buy some tin to put on the church building, right? In a lot of these Caribbean countries and stuff, there's 10 on the roof and everything. And so Pastor Williams, he took me with him. I was right, and we went to the place where the man sold 10. And so we needed, I forget how many, but we needed 10-foot sections of this 10.

And it came in longer sections. That's, they had to be cut. And so the man had a tape measure. I remember this. The Lord just brought it back. The man had a tape measure and measured out 10 to the metal. And by all indications, since he measured out 10 foot, right?

He had a tape measure. He had a ruler. He was measuring out 10 foot. And so he started cutting it. Pastor Wade said, hold on, hold on. I brought my own tape measure. And so they laid out Brother Williams' tape measure, and it was six inches.

He was cheating us by six inches. on each cut. There was a reason. There's a reason that that came into my mind. I had no idea you were going to tell this story. And I had no idea either,

but I was just remembering that and I thought, oh my goodness, and I had never made that connection with this verse before. But that was an unjust scale that the 10 man had. He had a heart. He didn't have a green either.

Crooked tape measure. I never, in my entire life, Doc, I have never thought about somebody having a crook tape measure. I've never thought about that. See, if you're not a crook, you don't think about these things until you catch a crook doing something. That's right.

But who would ever think that the tape measure was short by six inches? That's the unjust scale that we're talking about here, right? Yes. I brought my own tape measure. Oh, Brother Whips, he was quite the character. I love that man. Right.

There you go. So, Doc, I've got some more things I want to say about this verse. God does not view dishonest business practices as just a minor thing. He calls it detestable. And again, there may be some people watching right now. And you're actually committing these kinds of sins against people. You're doing things in your business that you've been justifying it. And I believe the Holy Spirit is bringing conviction on people saying,

no, what you're doing? God says, that is a major sin. You're cheating people. Right. Yeah. The Lord is put in cheating in business in the same moral category as sins that we often consider far worse, like witchcraft and idolatry and all these things. So the Lord himself, Rick, is the standard of justice, not us, not our opinion, not our thoughts.

So when a person is using a crooked measure, he's lying about God by acting as if God's character doesn't matter. Right? Isn't that the case? I'm not going to get caught by this, not by the person or by God. Doug, you used a phrase earlier in the lesson, I don't think I've ever heard, commercial morality. Yes. And I can tell you right now, in my entire lifetime,

I've never heard a sermon on commercial morality. Because the board members might have to resign. But God cares. about economic integrity. How we handle money in pricing and billing and contracts is part of our worship. Just understand that. It's part of our worship to God, how we handle money, how we conduct business with people. God's standard is absolute.

No small cheating exists. He makes no room for even small cheats. nothing. All form of deception in dealing are equally hateful to him, repugnant. He does not make any room for any kind of cheating. Right. So let's bring this up to the 21st century, Rick. In modern terms, divers weights can include rigged numbers, false interest rates, cooked books, deceptive advertising, hidden features. or any practice that misleads buyers or employers. Anything like that. And so really any dishonest practice in a commercial environment falls under this abomination.

Any falls there. So false advertising, abomination. Shortchanging people, abomination. Padding your work hours. Hello. abomination or, and this is something you and I have observed people doing, misreporting expenses. Abomination. They're all ways of using divers weights in our favor.

Yes. So the reason God abhors all dishonesty in trade, commerce, business is because it violates justice. it violates the law of love for your neighbor. It contradicts his own character as truth and righteousness. And it profanes his name. He himself is the standard of justice. The Lord himself is the standard of justice. And so when a person uses crooked measures,

he lies about God by acting as if God's character does not matter. So integrity in every transaction is non-negotiable. God sees the scales of the heart, and he makes no room for dishonest business practices. Again, I said this before. I have seen, I've met, I've known Christians who are adamant about certain sins.

I would never, ever do that sin. It'll be a cold day you know where if I ever did that sin. And they mean it. They absolutely mean it. They have no problem with the temptation. They have, it's not going to happen to them. And yet I've seen those same people who are super righteous about certain sins. And yet I've seen those same people be greedy and covet.

And do all kinds of. of sins regarding money. And they can't understand. They don't even see it. They got a blind spot. Yeah. You know, in this phrase, here we have that phrase,

diver's weights, okay, double weights. Not just a false weight, but double weights that are false, right? So ultimately, those double weights, that reveals the character of that individual. It's not just, well,

occasionally, I put my thumb on the scale. No, he's getting you coming and going there. They're an abomination unto the Lord because they exploit the weak and defy his justice. Christ, hallelujah. He's the true measure.

And he paid the full price for our deceptions. He paid it. He paid it, Rick. Doc, you hit it. The meaning of the double weights. These people get you coming and going. Right. It's down in them deep. Yeah. It's in them. It's just, it's who, it's who they are. It's

what they are. Okay. And then this first says, and a false balance is not good. There's not much more we can say about false balances and what we've already said about double weights. The principles are the same. A false balance, talking about rigged scales, dishonest measurement, a crooked tape measure, is the tool used to perpetrate the fraud of double weights. Right. Balances and double weights are two parts of one scheme to defraud innocent, unsuspecting customers. So while the first line of this verse focuses on the weights,

the second line highlights the whole system. If the mechanism is false, every result that flows in that is deceptive and wrong. Now, instead of going deep into, again, the false balance, we've covered this in depth so far, I want to concentrate, I want to focus on the last three words. He said, is not good. In other words, he said, this ain't good. I'm going to tell you right now, this is not good.

Yeah. When God says something is not good, it means it's terrible. It's destructive. It's evil. It bothers God. Where else have we seen the words not good in the Bible? Genesis 218, it was not good for man to be alone.

Proverbs 25, 27, it is not good to eat too much honey. And so here in this one, a false balance is not good. it's a moral disaster. Why? Because a false balance defrauds the buyer and corrupts the seller. Yes, the buyer loses money, but the seller, the corrupt merchant, loses his soul. Yes. But don't think that just because this sounds like a milder, you know, perturbation by God, You know, it's not an abomination.

He just said it's not good. But in reality, it's just the way to express this, it's milder than an abomination, but it's still a condemnation. Okay, I'm a strong one at that. It's morally wrong. It's unrighteous. It offends God. It offends its nature. It offends its character.

And so this really is that double emphasis, once again. Not only the weights themselves, the diver's weights, coming and going. the entire system is condemned. And so even though the phrase is not good, it's kind of a gentler wording for this serious reality, what is not good before men is already condemned before God. All right? It may not be classified as an abomination, but it's still wrong.

Okay? Together, the two halves condemn both the overt forms of dishonesty and the subtle forms of dishonesty, whether it's obviously wrong, figures, or quietly slanting the process. You know, a life that tolerates or uses false balances in business, relationships, spiritual matters, reveals a heart out of alignment with God. And God measures not only actions, but he's measuring the intentions behind. them. He's measuring to see if there's a deceitful heart with it. The Lord weighs all things fully. You can't fool God. He cannot be deceived. What man manipulates, God exposes. And what may appear

profitable in the moment becomes judgment in the end. I'll repeat the phrase. It is not good. Yeah. Judgment has never been good. Doug. So let's consider the integrity of our Lord Jesus Christ. He embodies perfect justice and truth. In him, there is no imbalance or deceit. There's no guile. One of these days, we need to do an entire lesson on guile. That's another word. I've never heard a sermon on guile. But in Jesus, there is no guile. Right. And in Jesus, he exposes those false weights in religion. He exposes those false weights in power. The cross itself reveals God's hatred of injustice and his love of righteousness. Brothers and sisters in Christ, you need to keep in mind that His kingdom, Christ's kingdom,

rest on truth, not manipulation. Doc, I'm glad that when he takes his seat on a great white throne, he will judge with righteous scales. Amen. Those united to Christ are called to walk in this corrupt world uprightly. The gospel of Christ restores integrity where sin corrupted it. And so, Doug, Christ is our true measure. He is our true measure of righteousness.

That's right, Rick. And in him, justice and mercy meet without any compromise. And so when you get right down to it, Rick, you know, there's a fascination in many modern evangelical churches with worship. They have an idea of what worship is. It's music. It's lifting hands. And those are all great things. I'm not minimizing those at all.

But you know what is a pure form of worship? Integrity. Integrity. Integrity is, I would say, one of the purest forms of worship before the Lord. And that's taking place 24-7, not just when you're in a church building. Let's look at what the great church leaders centuries ago said about this verse. I'll start with William R. Not here. He said God loves truth and the inward parts.

A false balance is a practical lie. It is a constant mechanical sin. Alexander McLaren. God's eye is on the counter. A false balance is not good. That is a way, that is a mild way of saying it is damnable. That's right. John Gill had this to say,

a false balance is not good. It is very bad. It is wicked and sinful, and the end of it will be distinct ruin. And that's not good. All right, we're going to get our next verse, Proverbs 20, verse 24. And by the way, if you're watching on Faith TV, you can go to manna nation.com and watch the rest of this lesson and find all the archives there, manonation.com. Proverbs 20, verse 24, King James says, man's goings are of the Lord. How can a man then understand his own way?

The Septuagin translation, a man's goings are from the Lord. How then can a mortal understand his ways? Let's break it into several parts. In the first segment, a man's goings are. from the Lord. So the proverb begins with an unqualified declaration of divine sovereignty. Our goings. That word refers to more than just movement.

It refers to life's paths, your decisions, the outcomes, the direction, the course of your life, a daily journey of your existence. It's your goings. not just hey i went to town i went to the store it's the way you live life and so it says a man's goings are from the lord so are of the lord it means it originates from or directed by and ultimately governed by God. It means that human steps are under sovereign, divine control. God orders not only our life's destination, but our steps. Let me, I'll give you a picture. When we walk along an ocean beach, if we look back, if we turn around and look back, we can see our footprints. We see where we have

been where we have come from. God, however, sees our footprints in the sand in front of us. He knows where we're going. That's the difference. Now, this does not deny human choice. It does not deny human free will, but it places it under divine governance. Once again, as we've said in other lessons. There's no conflict between predestination and human free will. God knows where we're going. He allows us to make choices. But he's maneuvering us along the way. He's using us. He even uses the goings of the wicked for his glory. Yes. It'll mess up your mind. It's like, how could that be? but he'll actually use the goings of the wicked for his own purposes. Doesn't mean it's right.

Doesn't mean God told them to do it. It just means they didn't do anything that he didn't know about. Okay. So divine providence, and I'm talking about the protective care of God, it's not occasional, it's continuous. God's providence has been in your life. since you've been born, before you were born. God rules over our successes,

he rules over our failures, he rules over our delays, and he rules over our detours. Yes. The message of this proverb, life is not random. It is governed. It's under the watchful eye

of the creator of the universe. Amen. You know, Rick, I'm still learning this lesson myself that God is fully in charge in my life. I had recently a major financial decision that was coming up. You know about it and everything. And I had prayed to the Lord, you know, Lord, when is the right time to work with this individual, work with that individual, what's the right time? And I just never had peace about moving forward.

and then my wife and I, we had the flu for a week and a half, and so we couldn't move forward on our financial decision. And the day I was making the decision to move ahead and enter into an agreement with an individual to help me resolve this financial situation, the Lord brought someone to my door, to my front door, that resolved the situation in minutes.

And I can literally say save to me tens of thousands of dollars. And I was just rest, it was this the whole process that happened with it, is I just rested in the Lord. I wasn't fretting about it. I just simply said, Lord, I am giving this to you unless you tell me otherwise,

I will move forward on this. particular path unless, you know, you've got some other way to do it. And the day I was going to move forward with that, he brought someone to my door to resolve the situation. And I'm just really in the spirit. I'm just happy as a clam about it. Because the Lord knew all about it. He knew the perfect timing, the perfect day, the perfect person, and brought him out of the blue. And one of the He'll be able to share the whole story, but just suffice it to say, I have just recently experienced this. A man's goings are from the Lord. And this is a profound declaration of providence by Solomon here.

Do you really understand that God ordains the path of every individual, even when it seems random or self-chosen? Rick, I don't get upset about delays anymore. more. That was a big deal for me. No. Flights being delayed, getting stuck in traffic. I've just learned in the past few months, God uses these delays. Yes. He knows more about the situation than I ever will.

He may be preventing you from being in an accident that's up ahead. Absolutely. But what it's even more compelling in this is even the plans of the wicked. are overruled for God's purposes. Thousands of years of history, thousands of years of human history have unfolded under God's invisible hand. And this verse is teaching that no step is truly autonomous, not a single one behind every single human decision stands the unseen hand of God.

He's there. I'll tell you two stories. both of them, you know, or, you know, happened long ago. But in this one case, this is so am I probably around 1990. And I was still living in our hometown where we grew up. Okay. And the church that we were attending, the pastor whom, my wife, Susan and I and our children, and we loved him.

He was just the greatest pastor you could ever have. And we couldn't say enough good things about him. And he made a decision that he was moving on and he moved to Arizona. And he felt the Lord was calling him to go there and plant a church in Tucson, Arizona. Well, there was a man in our church, Doc, who was a deacon.

And I would say at that time, he was probably about 60 years old or maybe 65. I think he'd already retired. And the town that we grew up in, nobody moved away. I mean, it was like nobody ever moved away. It's like if you, I think people had the attitude that if they went too far, they'd fall off the edge of the earth. There'd be dinosaurs waiting. Nobody moved away.

And the reason I'm telling you this is because the decision this man made to move away was big. It was really big. He had lived in that hometown his whole life. His family was there, his children, grandchildren and everything. And so anyhow, he told me the story. He came to me and he said, Rick, I'm going to move to Tucson, Arizona. And I was just shocked. He said, I've been praying about it.

And he goes, I felt like the Lord wanted me to go there and help our pastor plant that church. And I was stunned that he, I said, well, what made you make this decision? He said, oh, it was easy, Rick. He said, I was praying. I was upstairs in the second floor of our house. I was in the bedroom and I was praying. and I said, God, if you will bring someone to buy my house, I will go to Tucson, Arizona and help the pastor plant a church.

And I said, okay, what happened? He said, I ended the prayer. I walked down the steps, walked outside, and there was a man, a stranger in my front yard. In his front yard. In his front yard. And he said, can I help you? and he says, do you own his house? And he goes, yes, I do.

And he said, would you like to sell it? A true story. It's true story. He said, Ricky, said, the Lord changed my life. He changed the direction of my life. He couldn't get out of it, goody. He couldn't get out of it. He knew.

He knew he was going to Tucson, Arizona. Now, I'll tell another story. This involves me. So in my lifetime, I've worked for three national television networks, two of them Christian. I worked for CBN back in the 80s. I worked for TBN in the 90s. I also worked for a secular commercial television network. And what I want to say, what happened with the first one? This was in the mid-80s, Doc, and I was working, I had been working with a cable television company in our hometown.

And I felt God releasing me from that role. And I was in this position like, I actually left the company. I left the job. I was so certain. It's like God's let. See, a lot of people said, why would you do this? I felt the Lord telling me to step out of that job. And I didn't have another job.

Now, some people say, well, that wasn't very smart. I'm just telling you what I felt like the Lord was telling me to do. Well, what happened? And this is why I made the decision. I had met a businessman who owned several radio stations in Oklahoma. And I met him at a business conference. And he offered me the job of being the general manager of one of his radio stations in Oklahoma. So I felt like this is a done deal.

I've got this. I mean, this is done. He offered the job. So I turned in my resignation to my company. I'm trying to remember the story how it went. It's been a long time ago, back in the mid-80s. And so he asked me to meet him in the Memphis, Tennessee airport. So I flew to Memphis, Tennessee, and he met me when I got off the plane.

And he said, okay, we're going to fly out to, such and such city and I'll show you my radio station and I said okay so what gate do we go to what's our flight he goes no I have my own plane and had his own plane yeah so I don't recall

whether it was a beach or it was a twin engine plane a six-seater twin engine planeed up you know pretty nice plane today that plane would you know knew would be

five six seven million So he had a twin-engine six-seater private aircraft. And he was the pilot. So I'm impressed, okay, because I like planes. So I'm seated in the co-pilot seat. This prospective new employer is flying a plane. Man, I'm freaking, man, this is great. Hot dog.

I'm going to love working with this guy. I'm going to love working with this guy. So we take off from Memphis and we're flying to Oklahoma. And on the way, there is this huge thunderstorm ahead. And he's talking to me about it. He goes, look at the storm. He goes, this is really big. He goes, we're going to go north and then come around.

And so we made this adjustment. And he looked at me and he said, I can't get through it. He goes, I'm going to take another. another, I'm going to take another direction. So he tried another direction. And minutes later, he says, I can't, I can't penetrate this. I can't get around it. Then he tried a third time. Another direction. Doc, finally, I'll never forget this moment. I can still see his face. I can, I can still hear his voice. We're in the plane. I'm in the co-police. He's in the pilot seat. Big old twin engine, private aircraft.

are looking good, right? Except we can't get past a storm. Right. Doc, he looked at me, and it was loud inside the cockpit. Okay. He's shouting. He goes, he puts his hand up like this.

He puts his hand up. He goes, Rick, it's like there's a giant hand in the sky that won't let us go there. Wow. God was my witness, Doc, because those were his words. He held his hand up.

He said, There's like a giant hand in the sky that's blocking us. We can't go there. He says, I'm going to go back. We're going back to Memphis. So we landed in Memphis, and he said, what do you want to do? He said, we could stay here a day or you can go home and come back out another time. I said, I think I'll go home.

I knew the moment he said, there's a giant hand. I knew. I knew whose hand it was. Yeah. That be Jesus's hand. Now, he didn't know it. I'm like, that's Jesus's hand. Jesus is saying, you're not going to Oklahoma, son.

I don't want you working at a radio station. Nothing against Oklahoma and love Oklahoma. But he was saying, my plan for you is not to manage a radio station in Oklahoma. So I'll go back. I went back to Maryland. Now, the part of the story I didn't tell you, I had two job offers when I turned in my resignation. See, I was, I was cocky and confident. I got two job offers, okay?

I'm going to, Ricky's going to be able to pick one of them, okay? I was 30-some years old in my early 30s, dog. I'm thinking, I'm going to pick the best. You were hot. I was hot, okay? I had two employers trying to hire me at the same time. Right. And I'm thinking, I'll choose which one, okay?

The other one was CBN. It was Christian Broadcasting Network. And I had met at the same, Doc, at the same business conference, I had met a CBN executive. Wow. I came out of that business meeting with two job offers. Praise God. okay and so I'm like I got another job

so now I'm back I'm back in my home and I've got this hand up going you can't go there and I'm praying I was on my knees praying this two-story house I remember this praying and I said Lord CBN has not

called me now this is like several weeks later doc several weeks later I was starting to get a little nervous now. I had just walked away from the job in Oklahoma, and I'm officially unemployed, and I'm waiting, and CBN's not calling me. And yet they had said,

we desire you to come to Virginia Beach and do an interview. All right. So I was praying, and I said, Lord, if I don't hear from CBN really soon, I've got to call that guy in Oklahoma again. And yet in my spirit, I know that was your hand. I don't understand this. I'm waiting and I'm waiting for CBN.

But the man in Oklahoma will hire me today. Yes. Doc, as I said amen. My wife Susan was on the first floor. And she called up the stairs steps and said, hey, Rick, you got a phone call. Look, this is the 80s. We didn't have cell phones.

We actually have a big old phone, okay? She goes, you got a phone call. And I'm calling down the steps and I said, who is it? She goes, it's CBN. That's a true story. As I said to God, if CBN doesn't call me soon, I've got to go back to Oklahoma. Right.

And they called me as I was praying. Okay. And then it got hard. and moved to Virginia Beach. But see, God was directing my path. Right. And that fits in with Psalm 37, Rick. Psalm 37 verses 23 and 24 saying,

The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and he delighteth in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down. For the Lord upholdeth him with his hand. But on the reverse side of that coin, the wicked man is also directed by the Lord. This is going to rock some people's doctrine and theology here, but in Jeremiah chapter 10, verse 23, it says,

O Lord, this Jeremiah crying out, I know that the way of man is not in himself. It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps. And so, Rick, it works both ways. God is directing our lives as we are in obedience to him. And God, I don't understand how this works, but God is also directing those that are rebellion against him. Yes, and he uses the rebellion for his glory.

Hallelujah. My little brain can't understand it. I just know it's true. So confusion about life's direction often traces back to just us simply forgetting that God holds that compass in our lives, right? God governs the means and the ends. Humans act freely and responsibly, maybe yet their freedom operates within God's ordering will.

And understanding that your life requires revelation, God revealing things you like what Rick just shared in his story, and submission, those two ingredients are necessary there. It's not just self-analysis, right? So this verse is denying human self-sovereignty and self-sufficiency in understanding life's course. I certainly wouldn't have planned out my lives the way it has worked out.

No way would I have done it. So true understanding begins by acknowledging that one's way is given. It's not generated, it's given. And, you know, for the past 12 years, I've had the privilege of working alongside Rick. And how I ended up working with Rick and everything is a miracle in itself. I was happy as a clam working as a missionary in the Philippines, had no intention of doing anything else the rest of my life. And I came to the U.S. on a visit.

And the next thing I know, I'm talking to Rick Wiles. And so, and that was 12 years ago this month, 12 years ago this month. 12 years ago this one. Because somebody, I had an... The Lord ordered that. The Lord ordered that. There's no doubt in my mind about it. The Lord ordered that. Because we had advertised a position available in our ministry

and a friend of yours saw the ad and told you, said, Doc, this ad has your name on it. Right. And I said, forget about it the first time. I heard it. The second time, and he called me back a second time, he said, Doc, I don't know why I'm calling you. Now I know why he was calling me.

I don't know why I'm calling, but you really need to check this out. And the next thing I know, I'm talking to you, and that's how this whole adventure started. I'm so grateful to the Lord, because in this ministry, the Lord has allowed me to basically fulfill everything. thing he's ever called me to do. Everything, preaching, writing, teaching, missionary work, you know, you name it and being creative in it too. And so the Lord knew exactly where I needed to

be, just like he knew where you needed to be, Rick, at CBN and then later TBN, and then launching out in obedience to him. And so, you know, that's, this should comfort people's hearts today. I mean, really, Rick and I are examples where God orders our steps. Was it perfect? Was every step right on target every single time? No, but God used it, right? Every single time. You know, the way I see it, the picture I have in my mind,

are trying to explain the harmony between predestination and free will. Again, they are not contrary doctrine. No. They are together. There's God's predestination and there's human free will and they go together. The way I can see this is if, you know, let's say this is this is where you begin, you all right, and this is God's destination for you. Okay. Straight line. How, how, what was the distance between? Egypt and the promised land, Canaan land. I mean, it could have been there. About a four-day walk.

Yeah, about a four-day walk. And it took them 40 years. Okay. See, that's a straight line as the crow flies. You're going from point A to point B. God's saying, okay, you're going to start here, and you're going to end up here. Straight line. But that's not how life goes.

And if you were, if you could look down from the sky, and see your footprints in life sand, you would see that you zigzagged. You did circles. You did figure eights. You went over here, you went over here. And Rick,

there were probably some places where I see where the Lord had to drag me. Exactly. And then he's dragging us, and then we're going backwards, and we're walking backwards, and sometimes we're on our hands. All right, but God's got these bumper rails up.

Yes. And so he, you know, it's like when you go to the carnival and you ride bumper cars, okay? They got those rubber walls or you can only go so far. You can't go past it. It prevents you. God has these bumper rails in life for you. And yeah, we go way over here. He lets us with free will to make some decisions.

But then he stops us and says, now I'm going to move you back over here. And then we go all through the left. And there's another rail. and he brings us back to the middle. Then he lets us do some figure A's, right? And yet, he patiently lovingly gets us to point B. All right. It's how you finish, not how you start.

It's how you finish. That's what's important. And that's what we're teaching here. So this sentence, this proverb, harmonizes with Proverbs 16. verse 9 A man's heart devises his ways but the Lord

directs his steps and again we see the doctrines of predestination and free will not as opposing viewpoints but they harmoniously blend together in faith

God decrees or should say God's decree and his providence governs human paths without destroying free will and responsibility. Our choices are true choices, but God's hand is over them and through them and under them. He's a loving father who is working us way to the way he wants us to go.

So he leads us, he invites us, he assists us, sometimes he blocks us, he does all kinds of things. But he doesn't coerce us. He doesn't pressure us. Grace prepares the way as we respond with faith and trust and obedience. Right. If you're watching or listening to this lesson today, this should comfort your heart as a believer, as a follower of Christ.

Friends, our lives are not random. Our lives are not random. Even those perplexing turns, and we've all had them, those detours, those seeming setbacks, those delays are under God's wise ordering. And our salvation is included in that. The very act of coming to Christ by faith, walking in truth and holiness, and persevering in good works, is of the Lord by His grace and spirit. So followers of Christ, disciples of Christ are challenged in this to acknowledge God's sovereignty over their own path.

we must submit our plans to him who directs our goings. And ultimately, at the end of it all, man's goings are of Lord, and they point to Christ, whose steps were perfectly ordered by the Father, even to the cross, even to the cross. The cross looked like a failure to the world, but it was the purpose of the Father. He directed it for our redemption. Amen.

The second part of this proverb says, how can a man then understand his own way? The question flows from the first truth. If the all-seeing, all-knowing creator ultimately orders our steps, how can a limited, finite human made by him fully comprehend the course and the outcome of his or her own path. It's a good question. It points to human limitation.

We rarely see more than a short stretch of the road. We do not grasp all the reasons, the connections, the ends of God's dealing. We have to walk by faith. This does not forbid wise planning. And, Doc, I've heard that taught this way. In my early days as a Christian, I don't know, I attended some churches and was affected by some ministries that thought planning was wrong. It was like, oh, you've got to let the Holy Spirit do it.

If you get in there with planning, that's human flesh. No, that's not true. It's not true at all. God is in the planning. He is a very organized God. He's a well-planned, organized God. Okay, he's got, he likes order. But there are churches that, like disorder.

Okay. So this does not forbid planning. Right. But it warns against the illusion that we are masters of our plan. Right. Okay. God may turn or delay or even overrule our design. we have to go with his plan.

We can have a plan, but you have to say your will, father. That's right. Your plans. Not my. So the question is, how can a man then understand his own way? So this invites trust

when the way is baffling. Not understanding is normal. It's normal for creatures whose steps are ordered by an infinite creator, it's okay to not understand. I've been through a lot of my life. I didn't understand. I just had to trust.

So what this proverb is doing, it is a call to dependence on God by faith. Yes. Since we cannot fully understand, we must cling to His Word and to the Holy Spirit as the lamp onto our feet that the Holy Spirit is guiding us

even when we can't see where we're going when we don't understand we trust our Father and it's really what it comes down to trusting your father once you know he is your father and he's a good father and he has a good plan for you

then it's easier to trust him you can just lay back and go wait I'm I'm with you I trust you father you know, that question, how can a man then understand his own way? It's a rhetorical question. The obvious answer is he cannot. There's no way because, now think about this. The author of the story is different than the character in the story.

We're characters in the story. We're not the authors. Okay. And just like in a book that you're reading, the character is often surprised by the plot twist, but the author's not surprised by it. Why? He wrote him. He wrote the plot twist.

So we see the step immediately before us. But God is seeing the destination that we're headed to. We're judging the road by its comfort. Is it smooth? Is it bumpy? Do we make a left turn, right turn? What do we do? God is judging the road by its destination.

Is it holy? Because our criteria, criteria for the journey differ from his. Sometimes his leading seemingly baffles us. So this proverb answers the mystery of the why here. Why did I lose my job? Why did my friend walk away? Why did I lead a life in this difficult community?

One question I could ask is my wife and I, when we had our first baby, our first baby passed away before it was born. Why? Why? Those are the kind of questions that you have. But if God is ordering the steps, the human intellect will frequently hit a wall of confusion. And that's okay. We're not called to understand the map. We're called to trust the guide who published the map. So faith begins. That's why this is a life of faith. Faith begins where understanding ends. If we understood it all, Rick, we wouldn't have, need faith. If we demand to understand every turn before we take it, we're walking by sight, not by faith, right? So the wise man accepts that his life is a mystery to himself, but a clear plan to God. Doc, you know, I often say that life is just a big, long-running, ongoing theatrical play. And this show has been going on for thousands of years.

And our job is just to go on the stage and read our lines and do our part and then exit. Because that's what death is. You exit. You leave the stage. You read your lines. You read your lines. you play your part and then you exit and another person comes on stage. That's what life is. And once you understand that God has a plan for you, he's got a part for you. He's got lines for you to read.

He's got things for you to do. Just flow with it. Yes. Just get in the flow of it and enjoy it. And there'll be a day you exit the stage. Get on your mark and say your lines. That's right. But understand this. All of us, I don't care how big you are, how famous you are, how gifted you are. We are all just supporting actors. There's one star in this play. Yes. One star. There's nobody else that can take his limelight. The spotlight doesn't go on to anybody else but Jesus Christ.

Amen. This play has been going on for thousands of years. people have coming on. Great men and women have common gone. But the play continues. But there's one star. His name is Jesus Christ. Praise God. So from a human perspective,

what we see is fragmentary and it's temporal. Man sees moments, but God sees the whole. And it's easy for us as humans to misinterpret the circumstances. I give you an example, the plight of Joseph.

He was sold into slavery by his brothers. Yes. However, it was God's plan. Because years later, Joseph became the second most powerful man in Egypt next to Pharaoh. And by the way, selling him into slavery was the backup plan. The first plan was to kill him. Well, yes.

I mean, that was their plan. Yes. But I'm saying God's plan was to get him to Egypt. That's right. And he ended up saving the lives of his own brothers who wanted to kill him. That's right. Okay. And they ended up battling down to him, which is the whole reason that they got angry because he had a dream about them bowing down, you know?

That's right. That's cool. God fulfilled the plan. And that's a piece of advice I'll give you. If God gives you a vision, a dream, I don't mean just necessarily. I had a vision last night. I'm talking about it. It gives you a vision of something to do with your life.

Be careful who you tell about it. Yeah. Don't blab it to everybody. Right. Because not everybody will receive it the same way. And not everybody will respect it. Not everybody will like it. And there's some people who will say,

well, I'm going to make sure you don't do it. Right. I don't think Joseph did anything wrong by sharing it, but there is wisdom and who you share it with. That's true. That's right. And that was family. He shared it with family, and they turned on him.

Okay? So faith is required because understanding is incomplete. God calls for us to have faith and trust in him, not control over our destiny. If we have control over our destiny, why would we need faith in him? You wouldn't. All right, so I'll go back to this question of predestination versus free will. I thought for years, that they were two competing doctrines. No. You know,

you get to Calvinists and you have the Amenians. Oh, they're always at each other. No, shooting arrows at each other. And you have it today in denominations. But I've come to see that God's will operates through human choices without coercion. Yes.

Man is accountable, even though God directs his steps. Wait a minute. God directed my steps, but I held accountable? Yes. How does that be? Because God requires us to live righteously no matter what situation we find ourselves in

as God leads us through life. Right. So divine governance does not negate moral responsibility. Therefore, wisdom walks obediently, without demanding explanations. Planning is permitted, but submission is required. That inner peace comes from trusting your Heavenly Father's wise plan. Yes.

And in that same thought, Rick, disciples of Christ, followers of Jesus, are challenged to stop trying to figure out everything alone. Quit doing it. You're just going to get frustrated. trust the Lord who directs your steps and understands your way perfectly. So this question, coming back to the question again, how can a man then understand his own way leads to crying out to God? Just like King David did in Psalm 25, 4.

What did he cry out, Rick? Lord, show me your ways. Oh, Lord, teach me your past. David didn't know what was going on up ahead. he had to trust the Lord for that. So ultimately, how can humans understand their own way? We find our answer in Christ. Christ, now think about this, is the way.

He's the path, right? The way, the truth of the life. He knows our path perfectly and leads us home. Praise God. David's young man was anointed by the prophet as the king of Israel. But the problem was the existing reigning king wanted to kill him.

Yeah. Okay, we got a problem here, Lord. Your prophet poured an oil down my head. I got completely soaked in oil. And he said I'm a king. He said, I'm a king. But this guy that's sitting on the throne right now is angry and jealous, and he wants to kill me.

And I'm hiding. His father-in-law, too. He was his father. He's my father-in-law, and I'm hiding in a cave to get away from my father-in-law, who's crazy, I've got to play the fiddle that calm him down. Did any of that make sense? No, it didn't make sense. I guess some final words about this verse before we end this lesson.

Our goings, that's where we started, our goings, the goings of a man, goings of a woman, point to the whole ordering of our lifetime journey path. Where we live, where we go, the doors that open, the doors that close, the people that we meet along the way, the challenges that confront us, these are the goings. All of these are ways that God shapes our lives. So God's sovereign providence super intense even the ordinary steps of human life. the most important things you do in life are the small things.

There are very few big things that happen in life, Doc. If you think about it, there are very few things that happen in life. There's marriage. There's marriage. There's a birth of a child. There's career. But really, over the course of things, really, there's only maybe 10 to 15 major events across your lifetime. Everything else of your life is just little mundane things.

That's right. okay and god is directing all those things jeremiah 10 verse 23 oh lord i know that the way of man is not in himself it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps see we do the walking but god does the steering we provide the motion but god provides the direction that's this interplay of predestination and free will.

We're walking, God's steering. We're moving, but God's choosing the direction. They're not conflicting concepts. Right. You know, it's not just the big picture that is of the Lord. But like you said, it's the goings, small step-by-step movements. Just that chance meeting,

the delayed flight, the unexpected door closing. These are fingerprints of God in our life. You know, Rick and I, when we travel, we always pray, Lord, give us divine conversations and divine meetings. When I pray that, I believe that God is going to bring people into our lives, that we're going to have conversations that we need to be a part of, We're going to meet people that we need to meet. And now, you know, every time we're going on a trip, I'm looking.

What is God doing here? What's the opportunity? What's the small thing that God is doing? And so for the believer, this is like a pillow that you could rest your anxious head on. If my steps are of the Lord, then I'm not drifting on a sea of chance. Praise God. I'm not just looking around, bobbing around out there in the water. I am being led by the benevolent admiral of the Lord's Navy,

even when the sailing orders seem unusual or difficult or challenging to understand he is still in charge. Yes. The word says that he orders our steps. Yes. We should pray every day at the beginning of our day. Lord, order my steps.

Order my steps. Let me walk in the steps that you're ordering. I just thought about something. I forgot about this. This happened, oh, I would say, Doc, around 2008. I was in another country. And I needed to meet a particular person. And I was given this person's address.

And I went to where this person lived. And it was a complex full of, of buildings, like apartment buildings. And I'm like, how am I ever going to find the right apartment? I mean, I was, I was just like staring, looking at all these apartment buildings. And I'm like, I've got to figure this out. We're, you know, and I'm looking at my watch. I'm like, now this was, you know, back 2008, we didn't have GPS on her phones.

We didn't have, didn't even have smartphones. That was, smartphones were invented 2008. And so you know what I did? I prayed. I said, Lord, I've got to find this person's house, and I've got to get there on time. Doc, I'll never forget this. God showed me something. I walked it by faith.

I went through a maze of apartment buildings. Sidewalk after sidewalk. And I would go down this sidewalk, and I'd hear, not audible, I'd just hear the Holy Spirit say, turn right and I would walk. Yes. And I'm like, where am I going? I don't know where I'm going. And then I get to another street and the Holy Spirit would say, turn left.

I did this. And Doc, he led me directly to this person's house. I heard the Lord's voice telling me which directions to go. Yeah. Now, he did that to show me. son I desire to direct every step you're taking I desire you to lean on me and trust me in everything you're doing

I wish I could say that I have but I haven't but I am now I'm back to where I was where that childlike faith Lord direct my steps I desire to walk in this morrow miraculous path that you're directing everything, everywhere I go. You're ordering my day.

William R. Not, free church of Scotland, back in the 1800s. He said, the soldier in the ranks does not know the plan of the campaign. It is enough for him to know and obey his immediate orders. So it is with man and God. Praise God. Alexander McLaren said, we are like people in a ship. We do not know the chart. We don't know the port. We only know the captain. Praise God for that. And wait to you hear this quotation from Charles Spurgeon.

God is the great mystery writer. We are often puzzled by the chapters of our own lives. But the last page will make it all clear. Yes. Rick, if I could just share something real quick here. I know where at the end of our lesson. But I am an avid reader of anything related to George Pat, General World War II, who life tragically ended.

I don't believe that he was a Christian. He had Christian values, but he believed in reincarnation, those things. That's aside. Yes. But he was a man of great character, okay? But he was also a leader. and I recall in one of the books I read about him that one of his aides was encouraging him to make a speech before the troops

and tell them what outlined what the plan is as they're moving forward here because everyone's lives would be in danger. I think this was right before the Battle of the Bulge in World War II, if I recall correctly. And Patton, and he put this in his memoirs, his own memoirs, told the aide to shut up. He said, you cannot tell the troops what the plan is, because if you do, they'll make decisions contrary to what the plan is,

because they know what the plan is. You know, there are people that are, you know, God's in that position, if you will. God has a plan, a sovereign plan. the cook, the mess cook, doesn't need to know the whole plan. The guy loading artillery shells in the tanks don't need to know the whole plan. They only need to know their task in the entire plan. If they knew the entire plan, they'd be second. They'd have second thoughts.

Well, should I load this artillery faster? Should I give an extra help them to these guys because they're going into battle? No. That's not it at all. Pat said, you can't tell the whole plan to everybody. You can't because then they will contradict your plan. Human nature is that way, Rick. If we knew everything.

To try to add to the plan, modify it, change it, thinking that they know something better. They can improve the plan. And so God doesn't tell us the whole plan because we'd mess it up. Right. So brothers and sisters, you don't know the whole plan. That's why I'm trying to get across it. You don't know the whole plan. And you're not going to. You're like you do.

And you know what else? You're not going to know the plan. That's right. At one point in the picture, you can look back and say, you know what? Worked that out pretty good. Right. Praise God. Great lesson.

Great lesson. Doc, there were soldiers in World War II. who served under Patton, and they told that man, I'd march into hell for you. Yes. They were so loyal to him that they said,

General, if you give the command, we'll march into hell. Okay. We have to have a loyalty even greater to Jesus Christ. Amen. King Jesus, wherever you go, whatever you,

whatever command you give us, we're there with you. we're right behind you. We don't need to know the plan. We just need to know you. If we can see you up ahead, we're following you. See, this is, you've got to see Jesus. You've got to have him.

You've got to see him with your faith. He's our king, and he's leading us. He's leading a great army. Not just you and me, he's leading a great army, and he's got a plan. And it's a plan of victory. And it's a plan that is going to culminate in the resurrection of every believer that's ever lived.

And he's going to accomplish this plan. And not one is going to be lost. No, not one. Not one sheep is going to be lost. I'll get excited, Doc. We'll do another lesson. Hey, let's wrap up. Thank you.

Thank you for being here with Morning Manana. Hey, invite some people to Morning Manna. Send them to manana nation.com or over to YouTube at Rick Wiles today. get them introduced to this Bible study. Just tell them, tell them what morning manna has done for you. All right. That's the best thing you can do. Tell them what morning manna has done for you.

That's right. And, hey, if they desire God working in their life, they'll go. If they don't desire God working in their life, they won't go. We're all just a bunch of beggars telling one another word of fine bread. That's right. Thank you so much. We appreciate your prayers and your financial support. We'll see you tomorrow. God bless. God bless. We love you.

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