TRUNEWS with Rick Wiles - Date: September 14, 2026. Lesson 181-2026. When the Stiff-Necked Come to Power

Episode Date: September 14, 2026

In today’s Morning Manna, Rick Wiles begins Proverbs 29 with a sobering warning about what happens when repeated correction is continually refused. Solomon describes the person who is “often reproved” yet hardens his neck until destruction comes suddenly and without remedy. Like an ox resisting the yoke, the stiff-necked person becomes increasingly unwilling to listen, change, or respond to conviction. Rick examines how this hardening develops gradually, why every rejected reproof makes the next easier to refuse, and how resistance to God can eventually leave a person unable to receive the very correction meant to save them. The lesson then connects private character with public leadership: uncorrected people who gain authority can become oppressive rulers, causing the people beneath them to groan. Proverbs 29 also reveals that a society’s condition can be measured by what it honors—when righteousness is praised, people rejoice; when the ungodly rule, people mourn. Lesson 181-2026 Teachers: Rick Wiles and Doc Burkhart You can partner with us by visiting MannaNation.com, calling 1-888-519-4935, or by mail at PO Box 399 Vero Beach, FL 32961 MEGA FIRE reveals the ancient recurring cycles of war and economic collapse that have shaped history for 600 years. These patterns predict America is now entering its most dangerous period since World War II. Get your copy today! www.megafire.world Get high-quality emergency preparedness food today from American Reserves! www.AmericanReserves.com It’s the Final Day! The day Jesus Christ bursts into our dimension of time, space, and matter. Now available in eBook and audio formats! Order Final Day from Amazon today! www.Amazon.com/Final-Day Apple users, you can download the audio version on Apple Books! www.books.apple.com/final-day Purchase the 4-part DVD set or start streaming Sacrificing Liberty today. www.Sacrificingliberty.com

Welcome to morning, my north. Welcome to morning, my new ritual north. Your teachers, Rick Wiles and Dr. Burkla. Get your Bible and notebook and get ready to here before. Good morning. I'm Rick Wals. I've got a question for you. Do you sincerely desire to better understand the Holy Bible?

And to discover God's principles for successful living. Would you like to know how to get through life just a little bit better than you are right now? Well, if you answered yes to those questions, you've come to the right place. This is Morning Manor, and we are a weekday Bible study group that meets online and on television worldwide. We're all just like you. There's nobody special here. We all have our issues. We all have our problems. we have our challenges, but we know that the answers, the solutions are in Christ, and he will point us to His Word. And so that's why we study the Word of God.

I can hopefully make this promise to you. If you watch Morning Manah faithfully every weekday for one month and apply the principles of wisdom that you will hear in our lessons, the Word of God will begin to change the way you think and speak and act and your relationships with others and your finances, your life in general will improve. I can make that problem. I know it. So get your Bible, whether you get your Bible in a physical book or a phone app, open up your Bible to the book of Proverbs. My Dr. Raymond Burckhardt, my co-teacher, is not here today, and he's away traveling.

He's attending a conference, and he will be back with us sometime late next week. So you've got me by myself for the next week or so. And the lessons may be a little bit shorter with four lessons that we post online since I'm teaching by myself. maybe 40, 45 minutes instead of 60, 70 minutes as is normal when the two of us are together. We have been methodically working our way through the Book of Proverbs for one year, and I'm happy that today we began our study of Chapter 29. Our full lessons are archived at manna nation.com. Manana Nation.com, also my YouTube channel.

Rick Wiles today. And our lesson number today is 181-2026. So go to mannanation.com and look for 181-2026 and you'll see the full lesson that you're unable to watch it today. People that are watching on TV only get to see 28 minutes. So you have to go to manana nation.com to get the full lesson. Let's begin. I'm eager to see what beautiful gems of wisdom are inside. chapter 29. This is like opening up a new treasure box. It's like the book of Proverbs is like a big treasure chest. And inside of inside are 31 more boxes each chapter. And so now we're taking out this box labeled chapter 29 and then we're taking the lid up now. We're going to look into chapter 29 and see what kind of gold nuggets the Lord has in chapter 29. Let's pray.

invite the Holy Spirit, then I will read the scriptures and get the lesson started. Almighty God, our Father, our Father in heaven, Father, we love you and we praise you. Father, we adore you and we love your son, Jesus Christ. We love your Spirit, the Holy Spirit. And we invite the Holy Spirit to lead this Bible study class and to teach all of us the treasures that are in your word so that your son, Jesus would be glorified, his church would be edified, and each saint would be strengthened and become brighter lights in this dark world to give witness of your love and your goodness to those who are lost. In the name of Jesus Christ,

we pray, amen. All right, let's look at Proverbs 29. We're only going to do two verses, verses 1 and 2, Proverbs 29, verses 1 and 2. I'll read to King James, then from the Greeks of Tuagint. King James says, he, that being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy. When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice. But when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.

How does the Greek Septuagin read this? Well, the English translation of the Greek says, A reprover is better than a stiff-necked man. But when the latter is suddenly set on fire, there shall be no remedy. When the righteous are praised, that people will rejoice. But when the ungodly rule, men mourn.

Do you recall, It's been several months ago when we were in chapter 25. And we talked about Hezekiah's men, his scribes, that they compiled a collection of Solomon's proverbs that had been lost over time several hundred years. Do you recall that? The men of Hezekiah? Proverbs 25, we're in 29, but Proverbs 25, verse 1 said,

these are also proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah, King of Judah, copied out. Well, what does that have to do with our study today? Because we are now at Chapter 29, and Chapter 29 brings us to the conclusion of those Solomonic Proverbs

gathered by Hezekiah's scribes. So it's from Proverbs 25 to Proverbs 29. Those were the Proverbs that the men of Hezekiah recover, restore, and brought them back to life to Israel. Now, the chapter's themes are discipline, correction, and the training of our will in children, in Bible talks of servants, we would say employees in nations and obviously in ourselves. Where chapter 28 examined law and justice at the level of a land's moral condition, this chapter, chapter 29, examines what actually shapes a person or a people, reproof received or reproof refused.

verses 1 and 2 announced both recurring themes of the chapter. Verse 1 states that the man who is often reproved and hardens his neck will be destroyed suddenly without remedy. Verse 2 says that when the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice. But when the wicked bear rule, the people will mourn. This picks up directly from Proverbs 2828 at the end of the last chapter, which we studied last Thursday. And Proverbs 2828 said,

When the wicked rise, men hide themselves, but when they perish, the righteous increase. So now we're picking up the same theme. Again, Solomon didn't write in chapters. He wrote that proverb, which we call it, Proverbs 2828. He didn't call it. Overs 2828.

When the wicked rise, men hide themselves, but when they perish, the righteous increase. And then he went right into the next proverb, which we call Proverbs 291. He that being often reproved, hardened his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy. So the two verses, verses one and two that were studied here today,

they're connected. The man or woman who hardens his or her neck against repeated corrections is precisely the person who, when given authority, produces the mourning, the grieving that is in verse two. Uncorrected people

when they come to power become oppressive rule. They can't correct themselves, let alone anybody else. They rule with tyrannical power. And the failure that begins in a private conscience eventually ends up in a public condition. Let's go into the two verses. Verse one, he, that being often reproved,

pardon if his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy. A man of reproofs. Obviously, this can be a woman of reproofs. It's not gender specific. This is not a person who has been corrected once or twice and the correction didn't hold. That's not what we're talking about.

This is a person who is characterized by reproofs. They have been the reproof. the corrections have been a recurring feature of this man and woman's life, delivered repeatedly by multiple people and circumstances over time. The image of a hardening neck is from agriculture. Ancient times, people would have understood this phrase. An ox stiffens its neck against the yoke because it's refusing direction. It will not turn where the driver intends it to go.

We would say it's the animal's bullheaded, stubborn. This is what Solomon is talking about. A man or woman who is bullheaded, stubborn, will not learn. He's determined to go his or her way, even when that way is disastrous. So the stiff-necked animal, the oxen, is not weak, not incapable. not handicapped, it is unwilling. And its unwillingness is expressed by a physical rigidity that resists guidance.

The animal stiffens its neck and just refuses to obey the driver, the farmer. We see the pattern of stiff-neckedness throughout ancient Israel's history. God repeatedly called Israel a stiff-necked people. You see it in Exodus 32, Deuteronomy 9. In the New Covenant Scripture, Stephen used the identical charge in his final sermon. He said, ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost. It's in Acts 7.

What happened to Stephen? They killed him. As soon as he called them stiff-necked, they killed it. As a matter of fact, Stephen, you're right. We don't like coercion, and we're going to kill you. They had killed their ancestors had killed the prophets. and had a history of killing God's servants. So each reproof refused makes the next one easier to refuse.

It's like divorces. I've never been divorced. I've been married over 52 years, huh? The first divorce is hard. The second divorce is easier. The third divorce is a lot easier. The fourth divorce is divorced than to it, right? Right?

Because you're hardening your heart. You're hardening your heart. That's why. That's why those divorces become so easy after the second or third one. The man or woman does not become hardened in a single decisive moment of rebellion. They just don't wake up one day with a stiff neck. He or she becomes hardened by repetition. And the repetition is what the phrase often refueling.

identified. And what happens to this person? He or she shall suddenly be destroyed. The rebel shall suddenly be broken, shattered. The suddenness is the proverb's second sobering feature. The hardening of their heart. Because it talks about stiff neck, but it's the heart that's hard. heart that's hard. That took place gradually, overtime, incrementally, but the breaking is instantaneous.

When the judgment comes, it's sudden, it's swift. A process that took years to complete resolves itself in a moment, and the stiff-necked man or woman, having grown accustomed to the process of being reproved, meaning corrected and resisting the correction. They got used to it. Their conscience was seared. They weren't convicted anymore. It was easy to resist the Holy Spirit. Is the least person prepared for the destruction?

And that without remedy, without help. remedy. The Hebrew word is Marpe. There is no healing. There's no cure. There's no restoration. This is the Proverbs third and heaviest feature. It does not say the breaking will be painful or costly. It says no remedy exists. The verse describes a point past which the ordinary means of restoration are no longer available. It does not mean the person dies. It does mean that their lives come to a level of brokenness and they can't get out of. And they live out the rest of their lives in that broken state. Matthew Henry, good old Mr. Henry, he observed that God's patience in sending repeated reproofs is itself the mercy that the hardened man despises, and that the man who has exhausted

the patience has not encountered a limit in God's kindness, but has finally worn out his own capacity to receive it. The doctrine, the doctrine of progressive hardening is throughout the Bible. The sacred scriptures teach that resistance to conviction has a cumulative effect and that the effect eventually becomes irreversible. Weeks ago, we studied Proverbs 28, verse 14. He that hardeneth, his heart shall fall into mischief. And the mischief doesn't mean like boys being bad. The word translated is mischief is evil. They fall into evil. Now in chapter 29, verse 1 states that the hardening can proceed to the point where no remedy remains.

Back in 28, chapter 28, you still had a chance. Now by the time you're in chapter 21, there's no way out. There's no exodus. Hebrews chapter 3, verses 7 and 13. quote, Psalm 95, which says, today if he will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. The urgency of today is deliberate. Delay is itself part of the hardening process. Hebrews 313 says, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. But hardening is not perceived by the person undergoing it.

They're not aware that their hearts are being hardened. He or she does not experience himself or herself as becoming unreachable. Unteachable. Do you ask them? They go, no, I'm not unteachable. They experience themselves as increasingly certain that their critics are wrong. In the book of Exodus, Pharaoh is a prime, of the hardening from both directions.

Pharaoh, Fero hardened his own heart. Chapter 8, we'll go back to this. And God hardened Pharaoh's heart. They each hardened Fahra's heart. Pharaoh hardened his own heart, and then God double harden his heart. He said, hey, you like it that way? We're going to keep it that way.

Do you like to be hard-hearted? I better make you hard-hearted. What was it, Lord Earth? I said, Lord, I'm going to put you in a situation. You can't get out of. You've chosen to be hard-hearted, and I'm going to lock the door, and you're going to stay in that state. So the sequence in the text places Pharaoh's action first.

Pharaoh hardened his heart, and God hardened it some more. So, hey, you like that? I'll give you some more. This is the danger in resisting God. And I believe I'm talking to somebody right now, watching me on television. I don't think it's online. I think you're watching me on television. And the Lord is speaking to you right now, saying you have been resisting God's correction for a long time,

and you're reaching a danger zone. And you better snap out of it. You better turn around. You already know what it is. I don't have to call it. God's speaking to you about it right now. This could be your final re-truth before he seals you inside your state of hard-heartedness.

How does the Greek Septuagint look at verse 1, chapter 29? The King James, he that being often reproved hardenedeth his neck shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy. The Greek Septuagint says a reprover is better than a stiff-necked man, for when the latter is suddenly set on fire, there shall be no remedy. So the Septuagint restructures the verse and introduces a figure that the King James leaves implicit, the reprover, where the King James, describes only the man who refuses the correction,

the Septuagint sets him beside the man who delivers it. The King James reproofs arrive without a named agent. The Septuagin puts a person in the picture, someone who took the risk of speaking repeatedly to a man or woman who would not listen. So the Septuagint also changes the manner of destruction, that the King James says the stiff-necked man or woman shall be broken, shattered. But the Septuagin has him suddenly set on fire, burning, blazing.

The fire image adds a dimension that the breaking does not carry. A broken vessel might conceivably be mended. A burning vessel is being consumed while. it burns. And now the no remedy follows naturally from the nature of the destruction rather than merely being asserted alongside of it. If you're broken as possible, you can be put back together. But if you're set on fire, you're going to be consumed. And there's no remedy. There's no solution. So together, the King James and the Septuagint supplied both sides of the encounter. A man or woman who would not been, would not listen, would not change, and a man who kept speaking to him or her,

with the situagent honoring the second of both translations weren't the first. Okay, now let's go to verse 2, chapter 29. When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice, but when the wicked beareth rule the people. Another way of saying that is, in the increasing of the righteous, the people rejoice. This is similar to verse one's connection to Proverbs 28, 28. Verse 2 is linked to the last proverb in the preceding chapter, which says, when they perish, the righteous increase. Remember, that was from our lesson last Thursday.

The identical vocabulary appears in Chapter 29 opens by describing what that increase produces, which is public rejoicing. The Hebrew verb, rava, means to become many, to increase. So the translations divide between art and authority and are increased, but both are defensible. It's not a matter of when it's right. the other one's wrong.

Righteous men and women multiply in a community or a nation. And righteous men and women, owning its offices, produce the same result. But when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn. In the ruling of the wicked man, the people groan, the Hebrew word that's used here, anna to groan to sigh deeply, It's more visceral than the English word mourn.

It describes the involuntary sound of a person under sustained weight and pressure. Interestingly, it's the same word used in Exodus II for Israel's groaning under Pharaoh's bondage. They mourned. So the proverb reflects what ordinary people feel. It says nothing about the policies, the politics, the economics, the governance of the land. It reports the emotional condition of a population. They are rejoicing or they are groaning. And this is the most reliable indicator of what kind of authority they are living under.

When you are living under a righteous government, the people rejoice. When you are living under a wicked government, the people moaned and groan and mourn. It's available to everyone. Ordinary people may not be able to evaluate a policy, but they know without instruction whether they are happy or groaning. So the proverb implies something about the reach of government authority.

A ruler's character does not remain his private business. This is really important because people will say about politicians, well, I know his morals are really bad. I know that's that guy running for such and such offense. He's not a church choir boy. We know that. but he's got good policies. Well, that contradicts what this Bible verse is saying.

That a ruler, a politician's character, does not remain as private business. It becomes the atmosphere everyone under him or reaves. What he is determines what the people feel. Adam Clark observed that a nation's actual condition, is more accurately read in the faces of the common people than in the reports, in the news, the reports of the government and the news papers and media, because the groan is involuntary.

But the report is composed. It's been written by someone. So what Clark was saying is, if you desire to know the condition of a nation, Don't rely on government documents. Look at the faces of the common people. Are they happy or are they depressed? And that will tell you the kind of people that are in power.

All right. How did the Septuagint translate verse two? The King James version is when the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice, but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn. The Septuagin says, when the righteous are praised, the people will rejoice, but when they unguidly rule men. The Septuagin's most notable change is in the first half. The righteous are not in authority or increased but praised.

See, the King James says, when the righteous are in authority, Septuagin says when the righteous are praised, they're being commended, they're being celebrated. They're well spoken of. This shift, this shifts the focus from who holds government office to what a society honors. The Septuages condition for public rejoicing is not primarily the righteous men and women governing, but that righteous men and women are praised, that the community, the nation, that it's admiration is directed towards the right people. So this connects directly to Proverbs 28, verse 4 from the last chapter. They that forsake the law, praise the wicked.

That verse identified misdirected praise as the mark of a society that had abandoned God's law. And the Septuagint now in verse 2 identifies rightly placed praise as the condition of a society that rejoices. That makes sense. Hope so. Well, that's the end for today. I appreciate you being with me on this

somewhat abbreviated version. A little bit shorter than normal as I don't have to work hard here with me today. But I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you learned something. I'll be back tomorrow. I'll be teaching all this week and going into what we have.

Next week, I'll be teaching by myself here. I hope it's a blessing to you. Love you very much. Tell people about Morning Manna, invite some friends to come over to manna Nation.com. My channel on YouTube, we're about today, and introduce them to this Bible stuff. Hey, take care. See you tomorrow. Thank you for watching Morning Manor.

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