TRUNEWS with Rick Wiles - Date: September 22, 2026. Lesson 187-2026. Where There Is No Vision: What It Really Means

Episode Date: September 22, 2026

In this edition of Morning Manna, Rick Wiles and Doc Burkhart examine Proverbs 29:18–20, beginning with one of the Bible’s most frequently misunderstood verses: “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” Solomon was not teaching the importance of mission statements, strategic plans, or ambitious dreams. The “vision” is God’s revealed Word, and when that Word is absent or rejected, people cast off restraint. The lesson then turns to the difference between understanding and obedience, and Solomon’s startling warning that there is “more hope for a fool” than for someone hasty with his words. Together, these verses confront three spiritual dangers: living without the restraint of God’s Word, hearing truth without obeying it, and speaking before wisdom has been given time to govern the tongue. Lesson 187-2026 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 Well, good morning to all our morning, Manor classmates worldwide. Welcome to this global Bible study. If today is your first day, we welcome you. And we hope you come back every Monday through Sunday through Friday for an in-depth study of the Word of God. Our lessons are archived at manna nation.com.

We have a full lesson for today. And if you're watching on Faith TV, you'll need to go to manna nation.com to see the entire lesson. So I'm eager to get started. We've got a lot to teach today. Let's pray and invite the Holy Spirit. and Dr. Raymond Burckhart will read today's scripture study verses. Let's pray.

Almighty God, our Father in heaven. Father, we come in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, our king, our Savior, your son, and we give you glory and honor of praise and Thanksgiving. Father, we invite the precious Holy Spirit to lead this Bible study. inspire Doc Burke heart in me to teach your word correctly. I pray for your anointing to be upon the people to receive the word of God. And I pray that this lesson would be distributed worldwide and that many people would share this lesson with their friends and loved ones.

In the name of Jesus, amen. Amen. Let's get started with today's lesson by looking at Proverbs chapter 29. verses 18 through 20. Proverbs chapter 29 versus 18 through 20. I'm going to begin our lesson today by reading the King James and the Septuagint. And we do that because we want to compare two Bible translation traditions out there. And we find that using these two help us get a complete picture of the meaning of the scriptures.

And so Proverbs chapter 29, let's start with verse 18, reading from the King James. For there is no vision. The people perish, but he that keepeth the law, happy is he. A servant will not be corrected by words, for though he understand, he will not answer. If you see a man hasty in his words, there is more hope for a fool than for him. And the Septuagint, thou shall be no interpreter to a sinful nation. But he that observes the law is blessed. A stubborn servant will not be reproved.

by words, for even if he understands, still he will not obey. If thou see a man hasty in his words, know that the fool has hope rather than he. I'm interested to see how we get started here with probably one of the most quoted verses in Proverbs, Rick, and that's Proverbs 2918. Yes, and one of the most quoted verses in Proverbs and one of the most misinterpreted Proverbs in the book of Proverbs. We're going to bring this out in a few minutes here in the lesson. This proverb is misinterpreted.

It is taught the wrong way in many churches today. And I have to admit, years ago, I was there with others. I had a misunderstanding of this proverb because I taught what I had been taught. And that's a danger. You have to study the word of God yourself to make sure you understand precisely what the Bible says. So we'll get into this in just a moment. Verse 18, where there is no vision, the people perish. But he to keep with the law, happy is he. Okay, so another way of saying this would be in the absence of vision, a people is let loose. Two words deserve and require careful tension

because both are commonly misunderstood, and together they account for nearly every misuse of this problem. The first Hebrew word is Kazon. which is interpreted vision. In biblical Hebrew, the word does not mean goals, strategic planning, ambition,

a picture of the future. That's not what it means. That's how it's taught today. But that's not what it means. It is a term for prophetic revelation. the word of God delivered through the mouth of a God-ordained prophet. The word appears in the opening line of Isaiah, the vision of Isaiah, the son of Amos, and in Obadiah, and in Neum, in Habakkah. It always describes divine communication rather than human imagination.

So in 1 Samuel, chapter 3, verse 1, the word of the Lord was precious in those days. There was no open vision. I've heard this verse misinterpret it. Me too. I've heard creatures say, the people at that time had no vision for the future. They had no dreams, no ambitions, no goals. And the word of the Lord was not heard very much because the people weren't dream builders. They weren't goal seekers.

That's not what they've heard those same messages. Have you, Doc? And that's how I was taught. That's the way I was taught. And it's wrong. The identical word describes a period when God was not speaking. through the prophets. It had nothing to do with the Israelites lacking goals.

The second word is Yipah Rion, and it is rendered parish in the King James. The Hebrew root word of para means to loosen, to let go, to uncover, to cast off the restraint. It's the same word used in Exodus 32, verse 25, where Moses came down from the mountain and saw that the people were naked, where Aaron had made them naked unto their shame. The sense of the word is that people were unrestrained.

They were out of control. They were running wild. Moses was up on the mountain talking to God, and the Israelites were down the bottom of the mountain, dancing naked around a gold taff. They had no restraint. In the World English Bible, I think it's a good, accurate interpretation of the verse,

where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint. It means that the people do not simply die out. They run wild because the word of God that governed them has fallen silent. The second half of this verse, I think it confirms it decisively, he that keepeth the law, happy as he. So the contrast is between the people with no revelation from God's word and a person who keeps the law, keeps the commandments, which establishes that the vision in view is God's revealed word, not human plans.

So the verse's actual meaning, I think, is this. Where God's word is absent or unheeded, the people cast off restraint and they run wild in society. But the man or woman who keeps the word of God is blessed. Matthew Henry served that where prophecy fails, religion and manners decline together. since the restraint that governs a people is not their capacity for self-control,

but the Word of God that's standing over them. And then Charles Spurgeon, he observed that Amos 811, the famine of hearing the Word of God, is the severest judgment aimed in Scripture short of hell itself, since a people may survive, the loss of bread in a famine, but cannot survive the loss of the Word of God that restrains them

from their human passions. Yes. You know, Rick, I feel compelled to address a common misuse of this verse, and you touched on it here in your opening. Verse 18, and I've heard it ever since I became a believer, it's frequently quoted to argue that, let's say, organizations and churches and individuals need a compelling vision. And the way it's interpreted in modern churches, it's a strategic plan, a mission statement, an inspiring picture of the future, a lofty goal. If they don't have that, they're going to fail.

Okay, so the verse is, you know, really made to serve a subject. that it never addressed. Had nothing to do with this. We've taken modern principles and we've overlaid it on this text. And I hope today we can correct some of that. So strategic planning, first of all, there's nothing wrong with it.

I mean, you should plan. You should strategically plan. And scripture commends foresight and planning. Proverbs 215, if you recall, commends the thoughts of the diligent. Luke 1428, Jesus uses the illustration of a man counting the cost before building. I mean, planning is okay. There's nothing wrong.

The problem is not planning. The problem is using this verse to reinforce it and authorize it. So what is lost in the misreading here is significant and it's unfortunate. it. So a verse about the necessity of God's revealed word becomes a verse about the necessity of human ambition. Isn't that what it boils down to, Rick, that this verse is used to promote human ambition over God's ambition. And this inverts its meaning precisely since the original contrast divine revelation with human self-direction in the first place. In Amos chapter 8, at verse 11, it describes the judgment that verse 18 here anticipates.

It says, talking about that perishing, I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but a hearing the words of the Lord. They shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and they shall not find it. Now, listen carefully. running to and fro there, note that the same unrestrained motion verse that verse 18's Para describes. A people, and this is so evident, Rick, a people without God's word, they don't just settle into quiet ignorance. They run.

They seek, and they can't find anything. Now, if you recall back in the book of judges, probably one of the most, neglected books in the Bible. Lots of good stuff from the book of judges. The book of judges records this condition in its recurring refrain. Judges 215 says, In those days, there was no king in Israel.

Every man did that which was right in his own eyes. And so the absence of governing authority produced, you would think when people say, well, I don't want authority, I want my freedom. No, that is where it's just the opposite. The absence of governing authority produced not freedom, but chaos. The chaos that the entire book of judges chronicles.

Now, here in verse 18, the positive half, we don't need to neglect it because it supplies the remedy. He that keepeth the law, happy as he. Isn't an interesting, Rick, though, quote the first half of this verse, but not the second half, right? So in the Hebrew, the word ashre, that the blessedness of the word that opens the Psalms, restrained under God's word is presented not as a burden, but as the condition of genuine flourishing and freedom.

And so for our students here in our morning man in class, the application is therefore two full. First, we need to guard the verse for misuse. It concerns God's word, not human planning. It concerns God's word, not human planning. Second, we need to take its actual warning seriously. Where scripture is not heard, where scripture is not taught, or is scripture is not obeyed, what happens? Restraint fails, and the failure is a judgment. rather than merely a misfortune, Rick.

Doc, I want to get back to your comments about Amos, chapter 8, verse 11 and 12. God said through Amos, I will send a famine in the land, not of famine of bread nor thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord and shall not find it.

I want to zoom in on the last phrase, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord and shall not find it. Dr. Stans out to me is that these are religious people. These aren't pagans. These are religious people. How do we know that? They are running to and fro seeking the word of the Lord.

But God would not allow them to find it. He would not allow the Israelites to find the word of the Lord, meaning he withdrew the prophets who were speaking the word. But the people, the religious people, were running to and fro seeking to hear a prophet. So, Doc, how do we explain this that you've got religious people seeking the word of God? in God, withdrawing the word, hiding the word.

What's your explanation for this? Well, the way I look at it, Rick, is that you've neglected God's word, and then God's going to make it hard for you to find it because you neglected it. You know, you have not honored it. You've not honored it because you're not really seeking it. When you get desperate for His Word, but it's not from the heart. It's like, you know, I've got to find a solution to this. I've got to find an answer to it.

But it's not because you love the Lord or because you love His Word. It's because it's just desperation at that point. And desperation is not faith, Rick. It's not faith. Hebrews 4-2, for unto us was the gospel preached as well as unto them. But the word preached did not profit them. not being mixed with faith in them that hurt. That's why faith is required with the word.

And so when there's a famine, you know, I've seen people eat mud, Rick, in desperation, you know. But, you know, that because they're desperate. They have no faith in the mud. They're just desperate to have something to fill their bellies. And I think that's the same kind of principle that we have here. people get to a point where they finally say,

well, maybe if we go after God's word, maybe that'll work. But there's no faith mixed with it. And that's just my thoughts on immediately. No, no, I'm in agreement, Doc, because I think what we have here is that the Israelites were seeking prophets. Hey, prophesied to us. Speak, thus say, a Lord. Give us a good word.

Give us a good word for today. We need our Bible verse for today, but they were not seeking obedience. They wanted to hear the word, but they didn't desire to obey the word. And Jesus said, if you love me, keep my commandments. And so I think what Amos 8, 11, and 12 tells us that when God discerns that his people, again, these were religious people, these were the Israelites at the time, when he discerns that his people are basically playing religious games with it, hey, we're going to run around from church to church and revival to revival,

and conference to conference. We want to hear, brother so-and-so and sisters. We want to hear the prophets of today, and the prophets is we want to hear what they've got to say. We're not interested in obeying the word of God. I think that's when God is. You know what? I'm going to withdraw the real prophets. I'm going to withdraw the real men and women who are truly speaking my word. And you will only have the phonies and you'll be hungry. You'll have a famine. Well, let's see how the Septuagint looks at verse 18. The King James translation is where there is no vision, the people perish, but he that keepeth the law happy as he. The Greek Septuagint translation is, there shall be no interpreter to a sinful nation. But he that observes the law is blessed.

So in the Septuagint, the vision becomes an interpreter. Yes. An expounder. One who explains or sets forth. It's the one, it's the person who teaches the word. teaches the word accurately. Yes. So the Greek Septuagint

understands division not merely as revelation, but revelation delivered in a way that it's explained, that there's someone present to set forth God's word to the people in clear, understandable terms.

So the reading, I think it closes off the misinterpretation that we talked about earlier. Whatever else an interpreter may be, he or she is plainly not a strategic plan, a goal. The Septuagint translators understood verse 18, as concerning, the presence or the absence of inspired men and women who declare and explain the word of God to the people. If we're going to reflect from the New Testament, how should they hear without a preacher, Rick? How shall they hear without a creature? So another thing, the Septuagin also reverses that casual direction in an instructive way, too. whereas the King James reads as though the absence of vision produces people's unrestrained.

The Septuagint reads as though the sinfulness of the nation results in the removal of the interpreter. Think about that. There shall be no interpreter to a sinful nation. In other words, you continue in your sin, I'm going to remove the ones who reveal the Word of God to you, and you're going to be worse off than your word before. And really, when you consider both the King James and the Septuagint, both are biblical sound.

They complement one another. People without God's word runs while. And people running while has God's word withdrawn from them. Going back to Amos 8, verse 11, talking about famine. The famine of hearing the word of God is exactly the Septuagin's judgment here. a nation's sin producing the withdrawal of the very thing that would have corrected it.

And so the second half of the Septuagint tracks along with the same idea with King James and it preserves the blessedness of the law keeper. I'll say it again. People will quote this verse a hundred times

and never quote the second half about keeping the law. That there's a preservation and a blessedness in keeping the law and it actually confirms in both the King James and the Septuagint, when you read the verse, even though there might be contrasting revelation, but it's confirmed here it says that lawlessness rather than planning with aimlessness. And so I'm really glad that we focus some time here on this

because this verse needed some major correction in the minds of a lot of people, Rick. I know it was drilled into my mind for 20 plus years before I saw it. No, same way here, Doc. And you said, you know, how can they hear without a preacher? I think we could add, how can they understand without a teacher? Right. So the two go together. This verse is talking about being able to teach the word.

That's what Doc and I are doing here five days a week. that's why we spend so much time going verse by verse one year in the book of proverbs and if to be honest with you we could have stretched it out two years there's a lot that we left out yeah a lot we probably could have done three years in the book of proverbs um there's just so much so much to teach that's what we're we're doing. We are explaining the Word of God to you. So did you have a better understanding? Now, there are people that can teach the word better than us. Okay, that's, I'm not claiming to be the greatest Bible teacher. I'm doing the best I can with what I've got to help you understand

the Word of God better than you understood it yesterday. And in preparation for these classes, I end up being taught by the Holy Spirit. I end up knowing more about each verse than I knew the day before. So even the teachers are taught by the Holy Spirit. All right. Let's get at verse 19. A servant will not be corrected by words for though he understand, he will not answer. I have a lot of employers and supervisors will be nodding on this one saying,

I already understand this verse. The observation that the proverb makes is that with some people, in some conditions, verbal correction alone does not produce change. The crucial phrase here is, though he understand he will not answer, the problem is not understanding. We're talking about somebody who understands what you're saying. but they won't answer what won't they answer they won't say yes I will do that I will

I will implement your instruction I will follow your your guidance that's what they won't say they understand what you said this isn't about somebody that didn't understand what you were talking about this is the way you understood what you're talking about and inside they're going now not going see you're getting to heart of a rebel, a fool. This servant, which we today would be an employee. This employee comprehends the instruction perfectly, but he or she simply does not respond to it.

The failure is not cognitive in the head. It's volitional in the heart. This employee is not confused. He or she is unethical. Unwilling. And words addressed to confusion are useless when the problem is unwillingness. A problem is not confusion. It's unwillingness.

It's rebellion. It's stubbornness. Every parent, employer, supervisor, leader encounters this. And often we misdiagnosis. We assume the problem is a lack of understanding. And so we bring the employee in and we explain it again. Or we set the child down and we explain it again. And we say, what am I doing that I'm not getting this across to this man or woman as boy or girl?

How am I failing to get this across to them? And we think, well, if I'm just more patient, if I take more time to, explain what I'm saying. They're going to get it. But repeated explanations accomplish nothing because it addresses the wrong deficiency. We encountered this attitude back in Proverbs 26, verse 3, a whip for the horse, a bridle for the ass, and a rod for the fools. The verse prescribed the instrument

fitted to the nature of the beast. And verse 19 in Proverbs 29 explains why the fitting matters. Now this is not a license for harshness. This is a diagnostic observation.

When repeated explanations produce no change, the situation has been this read and to continue to explain is not patience, but it's avoidance of the real issue. People who cast off restraint have reached the same condition as this survey.

We'll remember back one verse. The people without restraint, running wild, they are the same as the person who, as like this servant. They hear, but they don't understand. Remember the people running to and fro searching for the Word of God? And we said, well, this sounds,

these are religious people running around from meeting to meeting trying to hear the Word of God and nothing's happening because they don't want to obey. So the same situation is here. The servant, the employee, here's what he or she is supposed to do, but they have no heart to obey.

So the word, the instruction is available and understood, but it does not govern them. Adam Clark observed that the hardest lesson for a patient teacher is that his or her patients may be the wrong instrument. And that the man or woman who explains a fourth time, what was understood the first time. has mistaken his own comfort for the other man's good. And so, Rick, the foundation here beneath verse 19 concerns that gap between knowledge and obedience. And it's a gap that the scripture treats as a central feature of the human condition rather than as an occasional failure. It's part of who we are. James chapter 1, verse 22 addresses it directly. He says,

Be doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving your own self. So you can hear it and be deceived. Think about that. You can hear it and be deceived. But if you do it, you avoid deception. So that self-deception James names is precisely the assumption that hearing constitutes doing. Then later on in James chapter 4 verse 17, it says to him that knoweth to do good

and doeth it not to him it is sin so knowledge information and even biblical knowledge does not diminish responsibility it establishes you have a greater responsibility to it in Matthew chapter 21 you had the story of the two sons and starting in verse 28 it illustrates the same distinction.

One said, I go, sir, and did not go. And the other refused and then went. So Christ's question whether the two did the will of his father and it locates the answer entirely in the one that actually did it, not the one that said, I'll go and do it and never showed. And then over in Romans chapter 7, the Apostle Paul gives an honest account of the gap operating in a believer's life. For what I would, that I do not, but what I hate, that do I.

And so this is important because it establishes that the knowledge and obedience gap that we're talking about is not confined to just the heathen and to the rebellious, but that's part of, it's in the church, too. It's in the pew where people know the word, but don't do the word. So, and so the distinction between Paul's struggle and the servant's refusal deserves careful drawing here because conflating them produces two big errors or two big mistakes. The servant of verse 19 understands and will not respond. It's not that he doesn't understand. No, he understands complete. It's just a settled unwillingness. He's volitionally not responding. to instruction.

Paul, the Apostle Paul in Romans 7, desires to obey and finds itself failing. It's a struggle against remaining sin and a heart that genuinely wants otherwise. Whereas the

gentleman here in verse 19, he didn't care. So the struggling believer needs encouragement. And you probably know someone right now, someone that's struggling in their walk with God struggling in, you know, certain areas of their life, they need encouragement. They need a means of grace. They need patience.

They're moving in the right direction. The unwilling servant, though, needs something else entirely. And treating the second as though he were the first actually prolongs the problem indefinitely. There are two very different individuals. And so the remedy that scripture ultimately supplies for the unwilling isn't more information or better instruction, but a changed heart. Ezekiel chapter 36 beginning at verse 26 says, A new heart also will I give you,

and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statue. Cause you to walk in my statutes. And so the gap between understanding and obeying is close, How? By regeneration, rather than more information or explanation, Rick. Hey, Doc, I'm going to tell a true story. I know you've heard it. I don't think I've told this story on Morning Manor in the past year or two.

So it may be new to a number of people. This truly happened. Many years ago, as you were talking, Doc, I had this flashback to this event. I preached in a church, and this is a long, long time ago. And the message was on the subject of total surrender to Christ. Total complete surrender to the will of God. And Doc, as church service was over and I was walking through the lobby to leave the church building, the chief deacon of the church,

the good man. Harris had been the founders of that church, among the founders, a group of families. They founded that church, I think back in the 40s or 50s, you know. And he stopped me and he commended me. He said, Rick, that was an excellent sermon

on surrender. And I said, well, thank you. And he said, and what you said is exactly why I have never surrendered to Christ. I just stopped. I'm like, excuse me? What do you mean by that?

I've tried not to look shocked. Because this guy is a leader in the church. He's the senior deacon, you know, like president of a deacon board. I said, what do you mean by that? He said, well, everything you said is true. And that's why I'm never surrendered. I said, well, can you explain that to me?

And he said, yes, Rick. There are some things that if God asked me to do, I'm just not going to do it. Chuck, I was stunned. I was stunned. I said, well, give me an example. He said, well, if he called me, be a missionary to a foreign country, I'm not going. I'm not leaving. He said, I'm not going to sin.

by surrendering to Christ and then not going. He saw that as the way I'm avoiding a sin is not to surrender. There are people like this in churches. And I think that is an epidemic in churches, actually. You stop and like God. I do too. I think there are a lot of people. You see, what are they doing?

They're running to and fro to hear the word of the Lord, but they're not interested in obeying. That's right. Teach me about obedience, but I don't want to do it. Teach me about surrender, but I ain't going to do it. I want to hear it. Bring it along, preacher. Tell me about it, but I'm not going to do it.

That's what this proverbs. These proverbs are teaching us today. All right, let's take a look at the Septuagint Translation of 19. The King James says, A servant will not be corrected by words, where though he understand he will not answer, the Septuagin says, a stubborn, ha ha, here it is, a stubborn servant will not be reproved by words,

for even if he understands, still he will not obey. Septuagin's got it. There are two clarifying additions in the Septuagin translation. First, the servant is identified as stubborn. The Greek word is scleros, hard, harsh, unyielding, not obedient. The King James has an unqualified servant, all right? But the Septuagint gives that servant a very clear disposition. stubborn.

The proverb does not teach that servants as a class, and this is, again, it's an old language calling people servants today we would say employees, it's not teaching that generally that they are unresponsive to reason. It's describing the stubborn ones, the man or woman whose hardness produces his failure. that Greek word scleros is the same word used by Jesus in Mark 10, verse 5, when he talked about the hardness of the heart. So the Septuagint connects the servant's condition to the hardened heart. We've talked about a heart and heart in other proverbs.

Second, the Septuagint replaces the king's. James will not answer, the Septuagent says, will not obey. This is really the heart of it. This person will not obey. And it comes from a Greek word that means to listen submissively. So the King James' answer is ambiguous. The Septuagint removes the ambiguity. The failure is not silence but disobedience. This man or woman hears. This man or woman understands. And this man or woman does not do it

because they're stubborn. So a hardened disposition produces a settled refusal in a man or woman for whom comprehension, understanding was never the issue, never the obstacle. It was always in their heart,

they had already decided before you finished your instruction. I'm not doing it. And that's rebellion and stubbornness. All right, let's hear you, verse 20. If you see a man hasty in his words,

there is more hope for a fool than for him. The Hebrew word here is for hasty, urgent, We used the same word back in Proverbs 28, verse 20, for the man who makes haste to be rich. So Solomon uses it here for a settled disposition of hurryness rather than an occasional lapse. This is not somebody that just occasionally is in a hurry.

This is a person that's their state of mind. if you see a man hates he in his words okay um what would we say today uh somebody is quick to shoot off their mouth right i don't know doc should i ever do a bible translation rick's bible translation all right see i would use things like if you see someone is there a hurry to shoot off his mouth that person's worse than a fool all right where's a fool all right where's they're an idiot, okay? We saw this in Proverbs 26,

verse 12. See us out a man wise in his own conceit. There is more of hope of a fool than of him. So Solomon uses the same construction for conditions

worse than ordinary foolishness. And he names two, self-conceit and hasty speech. And both are place beneath the fool in the scale of hope that they can ever be changed. Doc, somebody with self-conceit and somebody with hasty speech is worse off than a fool. You wouldn't think so, but that's the impact of it.

Yes. The reason hasty speech ranks so low is because a fool's problem is a deficiency of understanding. and deficiencies can be fixed. Instruction is available. And a fool has the opportunity to become less foolish. But a hasty man or hasty woman is a different kind of animal. That man or woman possesses understanding. They know what you're talking about.

What they lack is the, interval in which understanding could be applied. His words or her words are out of their mouth before their minds have even thought about what they should say. They shoot off their mouth. And what Solomon is saying is, you cannot instruct a man or woman out of the habit of speaking before thinking because the instruction would have been recalled during the very interval he does not take.

So there's no hope that you can reform this person. We saw this in Proverbs 29-11 in this chapter, where the wise man keepeth it until afterwards. Verse 20 describes the man or woman who has no afterwards. Remember, keepeth it into after. it didn't say that they remain silent it just they they don't speak until the right time but the person in verse 20 doesn't have a right time they just speak there's no gap between impulse and utterance in which anything might be weighed as whether it should be said or not

The damage is because hasty words can't be recalled. Once they come out flying out of your mouth, we've all done it. You know what it's like. Once words come out of your mouth, you can't retrieve them. They're gone. They're out there. Back in Proverbs 26,

the firebrand, once thrown, cannot be caught. hasty speech operates identically the apology follows but the words remain the image has been done

Charles Bridges he observed that the hasty man and woman frequently regrets his or her words within moments of speaking them which proves the problem is not his or her judgment but his or her sequence.

This man or woman possessed the right assessment and released it too late to govern anything. So is you regret your words quickly after you said it, you knew better. You knew better than to say those words. You were hasty in your speech. Perhaps you were angry. We've all been there.

We've all done this. but this is talking about a person, this is their way of life. This is the way they are every day, not just once in a year or so. We all make mistakes. But this is a person who does it every day. Yeah.

You know, Rick, I'm going to say something here that's probably going to shock a lot of people, or maybe you've never considered it before, but the doctrinal lesson underneath verse 20 here is how the Bible treats speech as a primary index of spiritual maturity. That's the way it is, folks. And every idle word? Yeah, every idle word you'll give account of. And goodness, I hate to think of all the idle words.

Oh, my word. James 119 supplies the remedy to this, though. It says, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to speak, slow to wrath, slow to wrath. Note the ordering of the speeds here. The one thing prescribed as swift is hearing. Swift, hearing. speech and anger are both assigned slow slow it down and later on in james chapter three verse two it makes speech the test case for the whole man it says if any man offend not in word

listen if any man offend not in word the same as a perfect man and also able to bridle the whole body so a man who governs his tongue has demonstrated the capacity to govern just about everything else ouch ouch so the image that james chooses to illustrate this is a bridle i realize there's a segment of our audience that has never even seen a bridle knows what it does but you use a bridle to help control a thousand to two thousand to two thousand pound animal. That otherwise would just be out of control.

What's interesting about the bridle is that the bridle does not eliminate the horse's power. No, not at all. On the contrary, it introduces the interval in which the rider's direction can be applied. And that interval

is precisely what the hasty man lacks. He has no bridle. He has no bridle. And so, So going back to the Old Testament, Ecclesiase, Ecclesiastes chapter 5, verse 2, from Solomon's own pen, applies the principle to prayer, specific. Now, listen to this.

This is in your prayers, folks. Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God. For God is in heaven, and thou upon the earth, therefore let thy words be few. Now, I know I've heard teaching just the opposite, Rick. You tell God everything. You pour it all out before them.

You say everything. Solomon's saying something different here, isn't he? So, now, Christ horn in Matthew chapter 12, verse 36, says, every idle word that men should speak, they should give account thereof them the day of judgment. And so the words that are spoken most carelessly are precisely, the word specified for accounting. And so the remedy that Scripture implies is the deliberate construction of a gap or an interval that the hasty man lacks.

The hasty man cannot be taught to think faster, but he can be trained to speak later and to speak slower. Now, the verse says there is more hope for a fool. And you emphasize this, Rick. Not that there is no hope, but there's more hope for a fool, but there is still hope. And the remedy is unusually concrete. A man who cannot change his instincts can still change his practices in behavior. And the practice of delay, especially when it comes to speech, accomplishes what that instinct would have.

Rick, I just can't help with feel like we're speaking to quite a few people in our audience today that need to hear this word from the Lord. I agree, Doc. And, you know, our tongues dig our grave. Be careful. You might be digging your grave with your tongue. You may be building your gallows with your tongue. Be careful what you say. Take control of your words.

All right, let's see how the Septuagint looks at verse 20. King James says, If you see a man hasty in his words, there is more hope for a fool than for him. Septuagint, if thou see a man hasty in his words, know that the fool has hope rather than he, almost identical. So the Septuagin tracks very closely to King James. Not a lot that we can say here.

One notable addition is the imperative no, the word no, K-N-O-W. The King James presents the comparison as a statement. the Septuagic commands the observer to recognize it. I know this is a big, picky here. This is a very small difference. It transforms the verse from an observation into an instruction. The reader is not told, but hasty men and women are in a worse condition than fools.

The reader is told to identify such people and understand what he is seeing. That's the message in the Septuagin. So the practical value that we have here, Rick, is that a man of hasty speech frequently appears more capable than a fool. Isn't that, you know, someone with a quick answer. Well, it looks like he, you know, he's a really got handling things. He's quick. He's articulate. He's confident.

and quickness sometimes is easily mistaken for competence. But the Septuagint instructs the observer not to be deceived by speed. Don't be deceived by a quick answer. And the Septuagint's imperative also implies a use for the recognition. Knowing a man is hasty in speech should shape what is entrusted to him. which counsel is weighed, which confidences are shared, which decisions are placed in his hands. And together, the King James and the Septuagint's supply both the assessment and also the application. The hasty man is in a worse condition than the fool, and the observer is charged to recognize it rather than to be impressed by what looks like.

A lot of lessons to be pulled from these three verses today, Rick. Yes, we learned a lot today. I hope it's been a blessing to everybody. Thank you for being with us for this one-hour-plus lesson. And as always, we appreciate your prayers and your financial support, which keeps us going and growing. More than is worldwide through the Internet and through television. We're on national television in the United States, in Greek Britain, and in about 40 African nations.

And God did that for us last year, too. At the beginning of this year, the beginning of this year, Christ God is Faith TV. So we're blessed, but it requires the presence of the Lord's blessing on this ministry. So that's why we ask for your prayers and your financial support so that we can. can keep teaching the Word of God to more people. We have no idea, especially with television. We have no idea how many people are watching this program on television. We're the first time hearing the Word of God talk. And they may not be responding to us and communicating with us, but they're showing up five days a week to hear the Word of God. And eventually God's going to get down

inside of them. And His word is going to start changing them. And some of them are going to be led to Christ. Others who are already Christians are going to become strong witnesses for the Lord in their community. Maybe some of them are the problems are going to be solved. The word works in many ways. All that's happening because we're able to go out there.

And we're able to go out there and to the world because you support us. you're doing an awesome service for the kingdom of God. Thank you so much. We'll see it tomorrow. God bless 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 Manor Nation.com and kindly send a gift of appreciation and encouragement for our work for Christ and His kingdom, manoration.com, where souls are nourished. Goodbye. Please return for more soul food.

We love you.