TRUNEWS with Rick Wiles - Date: Feb.10, 2026 - Lesson 27-2026. Title: Mercy, Strength, and the Pain That Corrects

Episode Date: February 10, 2026

Proverbs 20:28–30 draws together themes of leadership, maturity, and discipline. Mercy and truth preserve a king, and his throne is upheld not by force but by steadfast love and faithfulness. Strength marks the glory of the young, while gray hair reflects the honor of age. The passage concludes with a sobering reminder that correction is often painful—stripes and wounds cleanse away evil and reach the depths of the heart. In today’s Morning Manna, Rick Wiles and Doc Burkhart explore how mercy stabilizes authority, how God values both youthful vigor and seasoned wisdom, and how discipline, though uncomfortable, is often the tool God uses to bring lasting moral healing. Lesson 27-2026 Teachers: Rick Wiles and Doc Burkhart You can partner with us by visiting MannaNation.com, calling 1-888-519-4935, or by mail at PO Box 399 Vero Beach, FL 32961. MEGA FIRE reveals the ancient recurring cycles of war and economic collapse that have shaped history for 600 years. These patterns predict America is now entering its most dangerous period since World War II. Get your copy today! www.megafire.world Get high-quality emergency preparedness food today from American Reserves! www.AmericanReserves.com It’s the Final Day! The day Jesus Christ bursts into our dimension of time, space, and matter. Now available in eBook and audio formats! Order Final Day from Amazon today! www.Amazon.com/Final-Day Apple users, you can download the audio version on Apple Books! www.books.apple.com/final-day Purchase the 4-part DVD set or start streaming Sacrificing Liberty today. www.Sacrificingliberty.com

Welcome to Morning Manor. Welcome to Morning Manor. Your teachers, Rick Wiles and Dr. Burckhardt. Get your Bible and notebook and get ready to here before. Good morning, my friends. Welcome to Morning Manna. I'm Rick Wiles. With me is Dr. Raymond Burkart.

And we are here to teach the Word of God to you. Morning Manna is a weekday biobiles. Bible study program, and our home on the internet is manna nation.com. You can find the archives to our lessons there. We take our time. We work our way through the scriptures. We're not in a rush. We're not trying to do the entire Bible in one year. In fact, we've been in the book of Proverbs for over a year. So today, we're going to be finishing up chapter 20, Proverbs, chapter 20. Proverbs chapter 20 and then tomorrow we'll begin chapter 21 let's invite the holy spirit without him what are we doing the holy spirit has to be part of everything that we do mighty god our father in

heaven father we praise you we come in the name of your son jesus christ who is our king and we humbly ask for the presence of the holy spirit to preside over this bible study Father, teach us, all of us. Teachers and students, teach us your word, illuminate us, enlighten us, and make us stronger witnesses for your son in the name of Jesus. We pray. Amen. Amen. And we do welcome you to morning manna today, no matter where you are in the world, because we do have people checking in with us from usually about two dozen different countries every single day. We do our live Bible study, and we welcome you to participate at manna nation.com. That's manna nation.com.

Today we're looking at Proverbs chapter 20, verses 28 through 30. We'll be finishing up chapter 20 today. And so we'll be digging deep into this. Read together with me, I'm reading from the King James today. Verse 28, mercy and truth preserve the king, and his throne is upholded by mercy. The glory of young men is their strength, and the beauty of old men is the gray head.

Verse 30, the blueness of a wound cliseth away evil. So do stripes the inward parts of the belly. God bless the reading of his word today, Rick. Amen. If you're new, and this is your first time at Morning Matter, the way that we teach is that we take each first, we break it into segments, and then we drill down into each segment, then we put it all together.

The other thing is when we're in the old covenant scriptures, we lean heavily towards the Septuagint translation. We read both the King James and the English translation of the Greek Septuagint. So that's what we'll do here. We'll start with verse 28, chapter 20, verse 28. The King James says, mercy and truth preserve the king, and by loving kindness, his throne is upholded. Slightly different slant in the Septuagint, mercy and truth are a guard to a king,

and will surround his throne with righteousness. So usually, and we'll start with this first segment, mercy and truth preserve the king, or a guard to a king in the subduigent. Usually a king, a powerful national leader, a president of prime minister, is preserved by soldiers, Walls, intelligence agents. Solomon, a king himself, he makes the argument that a monarch's true security lies in his character and in specifically two virtues, mercy and truth. So what is mercy?

Mercy is covenant loyalty, it is steadfast love, it is kindness rooted in faithfulness. It's not just emotion, but it's committed enduring grace. Truth is faithfulness, reliability, integrity, speaking and acting in accordance with reality and in alignment with God's moral order. So these two virtues exist in a state of tension. Truth without mercy becomes tyranny and cruelty.

It crushes people under the letter of the law. Mercy without truth becomes weakness and anarchy. It allows crime to flourish without consequences. So together, mercy and truth form a perfect government. Truth ensures justice is done. Mercy ensures that justice is tempered with humanity. Together, truth and mercy will preserve the king. Protect, sustain, keep secure.

Mercy and truth are the twin guardians that maintain a rulers thrown and his or her life. Right. So if you can picture this, you've got a palace with two pillars out front. Imagine a king sitting on his throne and two pillars, mercy on one side and truth on the other, holding him steady.

They're the solid. They're not going anywhere. What does this mean? Well, a king without mercy becomes a tyrant. A king without truth becomes a deceiver. both of them destroy their own kingship, their own rule. So leaders should reflect God's character. They should be full of mercy and truth.

Those who do are established by the Lord. That's the promise of the scripture. Now, the Lord introduced himself to Moses back in Exodus chapter 34, verse 6, proclaiming his virtues. What were the virtues of the God on high? And the Lord passed by before him and proclaimed. The Lord, the Lord God, merciful, gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth. And so this proverb is teaching that righteous leadership, Rick, is not about power. It's not about force.

It's about embodying mercy and truth. We're talking about the ideal king here, the ideal leader. Sadly, modern Christianity fails to emphasize how much God expects us to live each day, displaying mercy and truth and dealing with people. So this isn't limited just to a king here. It applies to us too. We need to have the pillars of mercy and truth in our own lives functioning on a day-to-day basis. I agree.

Doc, mercy in this context is clemency towards offenders and generous care for the poor and needy. Truth is strict honesty in judgment and keeping your promises. These qualities preserve the king in two directions. They bring God's protecting favor on the reign, the ruling, the leadership of the king or the president, whoever this official is.

But they also win the confidence and the affection of the people. So wise king has mercy and mercy and truth. So when a ruler deals in mercy and truth, the people who live under him or her are more ready to defend them, more willing to forgive that person's failings, and are willing to endure hardship under his or her leadership. So when leaders mirror God's mercy and truth, God delights in preserving them. And when they abandon these virtues, which are God's virtues, they invite the Lord's judgment.

Right. And that judgment that we're talking about is the severe justice of verse 26, where it talks about scattering the wicked. I remember that from our lesson previously. So it's balanced here. We're talking about with tender government now. Authority detached from mercy becomes tyranny. The word he detached from truth becomes corruption. Wisdom insists that power without virtue is completely unstable.

Rick King survives not because they're feared, but because they're trusted in the long term. A leader who lacks mercy and truth, no matter what position of leadership that find themselves in, cannot endure. Their throne is going to crumble. And whenever human leaders are really, mirroring the mercy and truth of God. God smiles on that. God delights to preserve them. Whenever they abandon these virtues, they invite his judgment. So we see in this proverb reflection of God's own throne in heaven. Psalm 8414 says, Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne. Mercy and truth shall go before thy face.

So ultimately, Rick, mercy and truth preserve the king and points to Christ, the king of kings, whose throne is upheld forever by his perfect mercy and his perfect truth, Rick. Now you're going to start talking about my hero, Jesus. That's right. I can talk all day about him. The second part of this verse,

King James Version is, and by loving kindness, his throne is upholding. The Septuagint says, and will surround his throne with righteousness. I'm going to throw in a third translation. I ordinarily never used this verse or this translation, but the Berean Bible translation says, by these he maintains his throne. Right.

In this case, I prefer the Berean Bible translation. I think it conveys the meaning of the ancient Hebrew words, by these. By these means referring to mercy and truth. By these. By mercy and truth, he maintains his throne. The righteous leader's position is maintained and protected by his or her display of mercy and truth. Have you ever seen a,

cruel tyrant who is loved by the people? Never. They always end up in a disaster. And it's usually their own people turn on them and execute them. So the second segment of this proverb repeats mercy, which is in the King James' loving kindness.

It's the same thing. To emphasize that gracious, patient love is a primary pillar supporting a ruler's throne. Doc talked about the two pillars. Right. So mercy is one of those pillars. Truth is the other pillar.

They should be the pillars of our life. Mercy and truth. If your life is upheld by mercy and truth, God is going to take care of you. Look at it this way. Well, mercy is the frame. excuse me, while truth is the frame, mercy is the foundation. Right.

Why does mercy uphold? Well, number one, I mentioned this. It wins the hearts of the people. A ruler who shows kindness to the poor and forgiveness to the repentant builds a reservoir of goodwill. When a crisis comes, the people will fight for him, not against him. The second is that it mirrors grace. We're all sitters.

A government that demands absolute perfection from its citizens will eventually collapse because everyone fails. Mercy allows society to function despite human frailty. So, Doc, this applies, not just to kings and presidents, prime ministers, and emperors. whether you're a parent, a supervisor, a company manager, a CEO, school administrator, a pastor, your authority is not sustained by how loudly you bark orders to people, but by how much you care for the people.

A leader without mercy will eventually find himself without followers. you have to show mercy to the people around you. And that applies in the home. If you are a strict disciplinarian as a parent, you know, it's my way or the highway. I'm going to beat you until you submit. If that's the way you lead your family, you're going to lose your children someday.

They might wait until they're 18, but they're going to open a door and say, I'm out of here, I'm gone. That's not the way to lead a family. When your children make mistakes as they grow older as teenage, when they make mistakes, you show mercy. It doesn't mean approval, but you show mercy. You can take a young teenager, a boy or girl,

has done something wrong, very wrong, and you can lovingly say that you will get on your knees with them and pray. And go to the throne and let God bring about forgiveness and restoration. You can show them the way God treats you. Treat others the way you desire God to treat you. Right. Okay. Now, Doc, I'll let you talk about upholding.

Yes. So the King James translation there, Rick, says his throne is upholding. And what that means is it's established, it's made secure, it's sustained over the long term. So it's saying here that loving kindness is the foundation that keeps a king's rule, stable, and enduring. Now, we're not talking about some sort of sentimentality here. We're talking about loving kindness in the sense of it being strong and faithful and just,

it includes true loving kindness, includes discipline, and correction when necessary. And so the phrase is teaching that a throne built on love will endure. I'll say it again, a throne built on love will endure. And tyranny and oppression collapse. They'll all be held accountable at some point, but loving kindness creates loyalty and stability. You know, earthly rulers are blessed when their governmental leadership

reflects God's virtues. However, a ruler who rules without loving kindness will see rebellion and collapse. Doc, this points ultimately to the throne of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Isaiah 16.5 says, talking about the Messiah, in mercy shall the throne be established. Right. And you're talking about these two pillars. In John 114, it really mentions those two pillars.

It says that Jesus himself is full of grace or mercy and truth. He is those two pillars, Rick. And he's our king. Yes. He's our just king, who is full of grace and truth. Amen. Our king, Jesus Christ, reigns with loving kindness. His throne is eternal because his love never fails.

Right. And something else to think about here. Jesus isn't reigning. just because he's all powerful. Okay? He's not sitting on the throne because he has all power. I mean, he does have all power, but that's not why he's sitting on that throne.

He's sitting on that throne because he's the lamb who was slain. Why? By love. Love put him on that throne. His authority is upheld by his sacrificial love, Rick. His throne is, is upheld eternally because his mercy is perfect and its truth is absolute.

Perfect, perfect mercy, absolute truth. Yes, and his kingdom cannot collapse, right? Because the foundation, the loving kindness, God's eternal, Jesus is eternal loving kindness, will never erode, will never fade away. It's a sure foundation that we have for the kingdom. So, Dr. earlier, I said that a king's, a king who shows mercy will win the love, the affection, the loyalty of his people. Based on those words, based on those rules, okay, how can we not be eternally loyal to King Jesus?

Amen. He has forgiven my sins. He has shown me mercy when I did not deserve mercy, Doc. He has shown me kindness and loving goodness when I didn't deserve it. When he had every right to be firm with me, but he showed me mercy and kindness. And he taught me how to love other people, how to show the same kind of mercy to others. Not to be mean, not to be judgmental, not to, not to, you know, when somebody mistakes, when somebody makes a mistake, when somebody falls into, not to be judgmental, not to be cruel, not to be revengeful, but to be merciful.

But to be merciful. And because of that, Doc, I, I'm willing to do. anything my king asked me to do. My loyalty to him is absolute. I owe him. I owe him a debt I cannot pay. Yes.

If my king asked me to do something, I will do it to the best of my human ability because of my devotion to him because of his kindness towards me. Yes. Amen. So that's the way we should treat people. And then people will have that kind of loyalty towards us and devotion.

Let's take a look at what the old Bible scholars from centuries ago said about this verse. Yes, I'll start off with Adam Clark here. And this is a message for anybody in any kind of leadership position today. Listen to this. He said that the king who is merciful, and faithful is the vice regent of God, and God is the defense of that king. William are not. Free Church of Scotland in the 1800s. He said, these two, mercy and truth, are the attributes of God. A government is strong only when it is righteous and kind.

Yes. Alexander McLaren said, the throne that is built on bayonets rocks, the throne that is built on mercy stands firm. G. Campbell Morgan, congregationalist pastor in Great Britain back in the late 1800s, early 1900s. He said, the strength of a ruler is never the strength of his iron hand. The throne is upheld by mercy. It is the quality of the heart that makes the authority of the scepter secure. Charles Spurgeon said this. God's throne is established in righteousness, but it is upheld by mercy.

If God were only just, where would his throne be? It would be a throne of judgment and not of salvation. One more. Charles Bridges, Methodist. He said not armies, nor treasures, but mercy and truth preserve the king. They are the fences of his throne. Praise God. I like that.

Every leader today needs to hear it. We need more mercy and more truth. From the highest levels of government down to the home, Doc, we need mercy and truth. A lot of problems could be solved with just an extra dose of mercy and truth. Amen. Okay, we'll go to the next verse. This is verse 29. The King James says, the glory of young men is their strength.

strength. And the beauty of old men is the gray head. The Septuagin says, wisdom is an ornament to young men and gray hairs are the glory of old men. Praise God. Well, here's a verse we could both write to, Rick. There we go. I didn't know. I was beautiful, Doc. It says, the beauty of old men is their gray head. All right. So we'll start with the first segment. The glory of young men is their strength. Septuagint is wisdom is an ornament to young men. So the subtuagent changes strength to wisdom. The subtuagint is focusing on moral strength,

but the King James is contrasting physical power with age dignity. So Solomon acknowledges that every season of life has its distinct advantages. For the young, it is their physical strength. It's physical vigor, athletic ability, the capacity for hard labor. It is the energy to raise families, build houses, build a business, a career, fight battles and wars and plow the fields for food. That's what we rely on the young to do. That's right. Now, while some older people may flound on young men and women for being restless, too aggressive,

Solomon calls their physical and mental strength their glory. Amen. It is a God-given resource necessary for the advancement of society. The world needs to zeal in the fire of the young. However, physical strength must be hardest for noble purposes. Without direction toward good goals, the young person's strength can become destructive. In Lamentations chapter 3, verse 27, Solomon said, A young man must bear the yoke in his youth,

meaning young people must harness their energy for good purposes. Now, he implies a warning. Enjoy and use your strength now because it is only the glory of young men. It will fade. Do not rest your identity solely on your physical performance, for that glory is temporary. That's right. So what is the glory of young men, Rick? What is it that brings them honor and admiration?

It's their strength and their ability. to endure, right? And so God's invested that in the young, although there are some older people that seem to have some strength and endurance too. But generally, we're talking about the young. They have that. What do older men have? They have wisdom. So young men, when we're talking about then, their strength is the raw capacity, the engine for action, for labor, for endurance, and for achievement. And when we're talking about strength here, we're not just talking about muscle strength. It includes mental alertness, courage, drive, the ability to bear burdens for their family,

for a community, for a kingdom, let's say. Now, before you say, well, it's wasted on the end, this is God's created order. God set this up. Youth is a time of peak physical strength. It is a gift from God, a divine gift to be used for. His glory and for the good of others. And so this proverb teaches that young men should embrace and steward their strength responsibly, and in his glory when used rightly, but shame when it's wasted, squandered,

and misused through laziness, rebellion, or through some sort of sinful vice that they participate in. John, in one of his letters, had this verse. 1 John chapter 2 verses 13 and 14 He said, I write unto you fathers because you have known him that is from the beginning. I write unto you young men because you have overcome the wicked one. I write unto you little children because you've known the father. It goes on to say in verse 14,

I have written unto you fathers because you've known him that is from the beginning. And so, you know, there's an order that's in place. There's an order that's in place. Strength for the young, wisdom for the old. But that doesn't mean that the young can't find wisdom on their own, Rick. That's right. So let's talk about our beauty, Doc.

All right. The second part of this verse says, and the beauty of old men is the gray head. All right. So, hey, I don't use dye and I don't use makeup when I do videos. I am what I am. I'm not trying to do anything. You know, that's, this is me. Okay. There's a, there's a minor difference between the Septuagint and the King James translations. The King James says gray hair is the beauty of old men. The Septuagint describes gray hair as the

glory of older men. Basically the same. They mean the same thing. As, as, as, as, physical strength wanes, a new form of glory emerges. Beauty implies ornament, honor, splendor. The gray head represents the accumulation of wisdom, experience, and survival. So for the young, the glory is their strength. For the old, the glory is their gray hair, which represents maturity and wisdom. It should. So God, our creator, does not,

God does not desire old people trying to look young, you know, dyeing their hair, wearing clothing designed for young people, pretending to have physical strength that they have lost. At the same time, God doesn't want young people pretending to be older than their age. Right. In other words, enjoy who you are at the stage of life that you're in.

Yes. Enjoy it. As you grow older, don't make yourself depressed thinking, I wish I were young again. Walk in the season that you're in and be the person. person that you are, you know, act your age. That's literally what it comes down to. Right. This means act your age. That's the easiest way to say it. Okay. The sunrise and the sunset have their own unique beauty. Amen. Enjoy and celebrate both the rising and the setting of the sun in your life. Young people have physical strength that the old cannot regain.

And the old have wisdom that the youth cannot buy. God desires each of us to embrace the season of our life. Amen. At your age. The young provide the power to move things in life. The old provide the pilot to steer things in life. Yes. You need both.

Right. You can't have both. You know, that phrase there, the beauty of old men. Like you said, We can clean that verse today, Rick. What does that mean? We're talking about honor, dignity. There's an admiration to age, to getting older.

You know, in a way, gray hair is a crown. It's a crowning mark of a long life well-lived. You made it this far, and you've got some gray hair, which means you've learned some things. That gray hair, it's the visible sign of longevity, of experience, of wisdom, and faithfulness through the years. And gray hair testifies to endurance, to lessons learned, and to the life preserved by God. And so this proverb here, Rick, is teaching that true beauty in old age, older age.

I'm older. I don't want to be old. I'm older. In older age is not physical youthfulness, but moral and spiritual maturity. You've learned something along the way. The gray hint shines when it's earned through righteous living. And once again, we talk about this a lot. This is God's created, divine order. Old age is the season for wisdom, reflection, and legacy. Gray hair is that natural badge of honor.

Now, what are the alternatives? You could dye your hair dark or an old fool with gray hair and no wisdom, right? So God promises long life as a blessing to the right. Right here is evidence of God's faithfulness to those who love and obey him. Back, now it's been nearly a year ago since we studied this passage, back in Proverbs chapter 3, verse 2, it says, My son, forget not my law, but let thine heart keep my commandments for length of days and long life and peace shall they add to the three things are promised in that verse. Psalm 91, verses 15 and 16 says, He shall call upon me,

and I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him and honor him. With long life, will I satisfy him and show him my salvation. Your gray here, if you're a believer, is a mark of the salvation of Jesus Christ being made real in your life.

Amen. Praise God. To be young, or I should say, to the young, be proud of your strength and vigor. To the old, show off your gray head. We're proudly. Be who you are in the season of life that you're in. Young and old need each other.

The old needs the young man's strength. The young need the old man's wisdom. I'm ashamed of them with young women and older women. Ultimately, the beauty of old people is that their gray heads point to Jesus Christ. Amen. The ancient of days. He describes himself as the ancient of days. He's not ashamed.

And what kind of hair did he have, Rick? What kind of hair does the ancient day? His hair is white like wool. You can read about in Daniel chapter 7 and Revelation chapter 1, hair white like wool. Amen. He is the eternal one who gives lasting beauty to his people. So, Rick, are you saying that our gray hair points to Christ? Obviously, it does because his hair is white like wool.

Amen. And he calls himself ancient of days. Praise God. He wears it proudly, Doc. Yeah, he embraces his hair. is his age, doesn't he? I'm the ancient of days. But he's ageless.

That's right. He's ageless. Rick, Alexander McLaren, said that the text of this verse suggests a beautiful harmony of the different stages of life. Each age has his own peculiar excellence. Do not try to force the fruit of autumn

in the spring. Boy, that's a good word there, Rick. And too many people are trying to do exactly that in this day and age. Well, the beauty industry makes billions of dollars trying to persuade older people that they can look young again. Right. Okay. Gee, Campbell Morgan said there is a glory of the morning and a glory of the evening. The strength of the young is for action.

The gray head of the old is for counsel. Amen. And Matthew Henry said, young men are fit for service at the fatigue of business and war. let them not be proud of it, nor use it for mischief, but use it for the service of God and their country. Praise the Lord. That's a good word. Okay. We have one more verse.

Verse 30, Proverbs chapter 20, verse 30. The King James says, now this one's going to be an interesting one. The King James says, the blueness of a wound cleanseth away evil. So do stripes the inward parts of the belly. The Septuagint translation says bruises and contusions befall bad men and plagues shall come in the inward parts of their belly. You ready to dive in, Doc? I'm ready. All right, let's go.

So we'll begin with the blueness of a wound cleanses away evil. That's the King James translation. So Solomon is closing the 20th chapter. of Proverbs. This is the last verse in chapter 20. He closes this chapter with reflections on justice, authority, discipline, moral order, moving from public governance to internal moral formation. Yes. The verse does not address instruction of the willing learner, but correction of the entrenched wrongdoer, where persuasion and counsel have already failed. Right.

And he's not talking to a wise person in this verse. The proverb acknowledges the stubbornness of evil lodged within the human heart. That includes you and that includes me. Right. Don't think you're above all this. None of us are. None. The heart is deceitfully wicked.

The scripture here is very descriptive. It's not sadistic. It's descriptive. It explains how moral purification often occurs, not how eagerly punishment should be applied. Right. The verse assumes that human beings resist correction and sadly often require a painful interruption

to awaken their conscience. This text must be read alongside broader biblical teachings on discipline, mercy, restoration. Do not read this in isolation. You have to put all these other biblical terms in context with this. The tone of this verse is sobering, but it's not vindictive. It emphasizes necessity rather than cruelty. Yes. A Bible teacher that we both know, Rick, would say that pain is the only teacher some people will respond to, right?

Yes. So with that blueness that we're talking about here, it's talking about that internal bruising, right? Deep bruising beneath the surface of the skin. What it's doing, it's indicating an injury that, you know, you can't just gloss over, can't be ignored or trivialized, unlike something on the surface here. This is something that's happened deep down. And so the picture here presupposes that evil is not merely an ideal, an idea, but it's an active contaminant in this individual's life. And it's embedded so deeply that it requires a disruptive force pain in one form or another to dislodge it. And so pain functions here as that moral interrupter that you were talking about, Rick.

it halts the self-justifying narratives that allow wrongdoing to persist in challenge. In other words, pain is a corrected force in your life. That wound there exposes reality. It removes the illusion that one can sin without consequence or correction. Once again, we see that this aligns with the biblical pattern of which God, in his mercy, mind you, allows painful consequences. is to awaken, if you will, moral awareness when gentler warnings are ignored. So the proverb assumes that unchecked evil becomes habitual, and habit requires a shock to break.

Anyone that's tried to break a habit in their life, you know, sometimes the best way to do it is cold turkey, right? The pain, you've got to just deal with the pain to break the habit. But this cleansing here isn't automatic. pain creates opportunity for repentance, but it doesn't guarantee reform, Rick. So even though the pain is administered doesn't mean that it does correct,

but it's an attempt to correct. So that wound is corrected. God's not doing it to be in retribution of some kind. The purpose of the pain is purification, not vengeance. So scripture continuing and consistently treats consequence as a teacher when instruction has failed. Dr. King James phrase says blueness of a wound. It's referring to a bruise, a welt, a stripe, left by a rod or a hand,

some firm object that strikes a person. It's not a gentle tap. It's a mark that remains outwardly visible. It leaves the person black and blue. So Solomon's using strong medical imagery. He's saying that sometimes a wound must be severe to draw out the infection. anytime you have a wound on your body

on your thigh, your arm, your side, where it's visible. And people will ask, how did you get that bruise? What happened to you? I see your bruise. I see you're black and blue. That's what he's talking about. This is a corrective action

that leaves the person black and blue. Now, this is God administering this correction to you. It doesn't mean you're physically black and blue, but spiritually you're black and blue. That, hey, you're aware. When you got a giant bruise on your body, you see it until it goes away. Right.

And everyone else can see it too. And you're very aware, of how you got it. And that's what this is saying. If you persist in sin, if you will not listen to the Lord, you risk the Lord bruising you to get your attention.

This ought to be a wake-up call right now to a lot of people. Are you engaging in activity or attitude, behavior, the way you think, the way you talk, where you go, are you doing anything that God is displeased with and you are not responding to his calls for repentance? If so, at some point you're at risk of being wounded, bruised, and if people will say, what happened? I see you're black and blue.

So the proverb implies the scouring, the rubbing of the wound, that scours away the evil. So just as a surgeon cuts deep to remove a tumor, sometimes godly discipline must be painful to remove rebellion and sinful desires and sinful behavior. Yes. It's not God, he's taking strong action because he loves you. Not because he hates you, because he loves you. Amen. You know, we often think that sparing pain is the mercy.

But Solomon is arguing that allowing evil to continue and to fester is cruel. So the blueness, which is the severity of the punishment, the blueness, the severity of the punishment, is the very thing that saves the soul from deeper corruption that results in lasting pain, even ruination, the destruction of the person. So this verse applies to believers. In the book of Hebrews, chapter 12, verse 6, the Bible says, for whom the Lord loveth, he chastenedeth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. When God disciplines you, it means he loves you.

Yes. It means he's saying, you are my son, you are my daughter, and because you are my family, I am compelled to discipline you. It should actually make you feel good to know that your father loves you. Yes. Yes, it hurts. The discipline hurts, but it means my heavenly father loves me. So when God allows us to be bruised, he is not venting his anger.

He is applying discipline. Medical, it's like a medical procedure to scour away our pride, our foolishness, our rebellion, our sinful behavior, our sinful attitudes. Some forms of folly and rebellion are so entrenched inside of us that only strong, corrective measures will reach them and remove them. There's a difference between minor corrections expressed through words and severe corrections, which is expressed in painful consequences. This verse is focusing on the latter, the painful consequences. Pain in this context is portrayed as lancing an infection,

cauterizing a wound. It's unpleasant, but it's necessary for healing. So when people experience serious, painful results of their actions, those stripes can reach the heart in a way that mere talk often cannot do the job, Doc.

Yeah, Rick, you write harsh and sometimes even painful correction, can sometimes accomplish what nothing else can do. That's driving out moral evil and reaching the deepest parts of a person's character. You know, a life without corrected pain often retains embedded evil. True cleansing requires wounds that heal. So when we're talking about that blueness of a wound here,

it's that visible evidence of painful corrective discipline. And as you mentioned, Rick, this is an abuse. This isn't a vengeance. There's a purpose to it. It's purposeful. It's measured. It's a correction that causes temporary pain for permanent good. And so this phrase here is teaching that evil, be it sin, rebellion, general foolishness,

sometimes can't be removed by gentle words. Sometimes strong, painful disciplines needed to uprooted. So do not discipline. spies the bruise if it removes a cancer. A temporary strike was better than eternal loss. And I'm reminded that Jesus himself took on the wounds and bruises for us, Rick. He himself did. Isaiah 53-5 says,

But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him with his stripes were healed. you know, if you are aware of a corrective action that you need in your life, understand, Christ already paid that price for you. He paid that price for you. Repent, turn from your wicked ways and come to him. Don't deal with the pain anymore.

Don't deal with that corrective action. Throw at the mercy of Christ on his throne to the payment he's already paid. Amen. You know, when Isaiah described Jesus as wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, the wounds are the things that we suffer on the outside of life, the external wounds. But the bruises are the things that happen to us on the inside. People can do things to us that hurt us on the outside, but there are other things that people do

that wound us, bruise us on the inside that causes great emotional pain. Jesus was wounded and bruised for us. Yes. And the chastisement, the beating, the whipping.

The stripes. The stripes were applied to him, the punishment was applied to him for what reason, so that we would be healed of our external wounds and our internal emotional bruises. There you go, talking about my buddy again, my hero, my role model, my savior, my elder brother, my king, my Lord, my master, Jesus Christ, you get me started talking about him. I can't stop, Doc.

He's everything. the second part of this verse is so do stripes the inward parts of the belly. The Septuagin says, and plagues shall come in the inward part of their belly. Plagues. So stripes or plagues refers to blows, lashes, corrected punishment, physical or emotional pain of discipline. The inward part of the belly refers to the deep. deepest recesses of our being, heart, mind, and soul.

It specifically is talking about the hidden motives, the secret desires, the corruption that's within us. Don't point to somebody else and say, well, they've got corruption inside of them. You have corruption and you too. Every one of us, we have these secret parts of our life that have. to be dealt with by the Holy Spirit. Discipline reaches where words cannot go. Discipline penetrates to the core.

Discipline, I'm talking about godly discipline, cleanses the inner man of secret sins, a foolishness, of forbidden desires. God has to get down deep inside of you. He will cleanse you from the inside. So the proverb is teaching that external correction has an internal effect. Pain reaches the heart, purging evil from its hidden chambers. So God may use external punishment, discipline, that delivers internal pain. You know why it happened.

Yes. You're aware of it. You know why it happened. There's no guessing in your mind. God is disciplining you. So persistent inner evil often requires external stripes to be removed. So again, the image that we see here is a scourging that reaches deep inside the body. Outward blows, cleansing inward sins. Yes. You know, the King James uses that word stripes, and it's interesting that the Septuagint uses the word plagues there.

And most of the time in the Old Testament, the Hebrew word that's used here is translated as plagues without many references in the Old Testament. So I tend to lean toward it being plagued. So imagine a plague in your belly, okay? But Stripes work too. Stripes indicate those repeated blows. It indicates sustained correction rather than just a single rebuke.

So in ancient Israel, in Old Testament times, the belly is not just a physical, you know, it's not just your gut. but it's the seat where they put their appetites and decision-making impulses. Not the mind, but the belly. That's where they felt like the soul resided. So it represents the deepest regions of human interior, their will, their desire, their conscience, their moral intention. And the Septuagint deals more into this, speaking about the chambers of the belly,

suggesting that there's hidden recesses of the soul that aren't accessible by just simple surface level correction. You have to go deep, in other words. The proverb here is asserting that the true moral reform has to reach below behavior into the motivation of the behavior. It sounds like we're talking about psychology here. The external discipline becomes an, instrument for that internal reckoning when conscience has been dulled.

And so the text here is insisting that some inner corruption, sometimes it resists persuasion and requires a direct confrontation with pain, Rick. Yes. The mercy of God, and we learned in previous proverb, that when God is dealing with sinners, and we're all sinners, that he looks at the heart, not just the behavior. He considers, why did you commit that sin? Why are you going in this direction?

He doesn't focus on just the outward behavior that's wrong. God looks at the inner motivation. What is it that's causing? you to behave this way. Right. I'll give you an example. Drug abuse, alcohol, various addictive behaviors,

pornography, gambling, whatever. Often, Doc, these vices are actually the outward sign of internal pain. And so God knows that the person is doing these sins because they have an internal pain that hasn't been healed. Right.

And so God, obviously, he desires that you stop the external action that he disproves up. But as a wise, kind, loving father, he desires to get down deep inside of you and locate the place that's causing you to behave that way. Right. See, often people that are, you know, drinking liquor heavily, again, using pornography, you know, whatever, are using drugs, they are self-medicating. They're using these things to medicate, and they can do it with sexual behavior. They're using the behaviors to medicate themselves, medicate their soul. They're hurting. they're trying to deal with the pain. And what God does, he steps in at some point and says,

okay, the behavior has gone on too long. I've got to apply some very strong medicine, some very strong actions. I'm going to go down deep inside of you and pull these things out, okay? And so what Solomon is saying here is that eventually, if you don't let God deal with these things, at some point, God will apply enough pain that you will let him deal with it.

Right. As you usually say, hey, this hurts too much. Can we fix this? Can we do something? And I'm saying this to, I know that there are people watching or listening right now. And you've either, you're either going through it right now

or you just recently went through it or you're on the verge of it, all right? And you need to understand that your Heavenly Father loves you. And he's not trying to destroy your life. He's trying to get the thing out of you that causes us the pain and causes you to misbehave and causes you to go contrary to his divine order. Yes. He is a loving father.

And so don't push him to the place that he has to take these extreme actions. But even when he does, he'll do it with gentleness and mercy and kindness. Amen. And that's how we learn to treat others, including our children, our friends, family members, our coworkers. We treat them with the same love and mercy and kindness that God treats us. Hey, we did it, though. we just finished chapter 20. Yes.

The book of Proverbs, and we now, tomorrow we'll start chapter 21. I hope this has been a blessing to people. We learned a lot in chapter 20. Amen. We sure have, Rick. And this last verse here really tops off chapter 20 in a big way. And probably answers a lot of questions that people may have about discipline and suffering in the lives of people. And so I hope this answers some questions for it.

Rick. Yes. That's right. So chapter 20 gave us 10 lessons. Yes. We had 10 morning manna lessons just in chapter 20. Right. And we'll have 10 or more in chapter 21. It starts tomorrow. Thank you so much. We appreciate you being here, spending this time with us. And we sincerely appreciate your prayers and your financial support.

We love what we're doing. This is the most rewarding thing I've ever done in my life. Yes. And God has allowed me to do a lot of things. I've been around the world many times. I'm telling you right now, teaching morning manna is absolutely, it's the icing on the cake off. I love it. And there's nothing else I desire to do for him than to teach the word every day. And to have this growing audience worldwide that's coming for breakfast every day saying, Feed us. We're hungry. We desire to work. We love you so much. We'll see you tomorrow. God. God bless you. We love you.

Thank you for watching Morning Manor. We hope your soul has been nourished today. We welcome and appreciate your prayers and financial support for our international Bible teaching ministry. Visit manoration.com and kindly send a gift of appreciation and encouragement for our work for Christ and His Kingdom. manor nation.com where souls are nourished. Goodbye. Please return for more soul food. We love you.