TRUNEWS with Rick Wiles - Date: September 3, 2026. Lesson 174-2026. Title: The Dangerous Appeal of the Shortcut

Episode Date: September 3, 2026

In today’s Morning Manna, Rick Wiles and Doc Burkhart examine Proverbs 28:15–17 and Scripture’s sobering warning about the abuse of power. God intends authority to protect the vulnerable, yet Solomon compares a wicked ruler to a roaring lion and a ranging bear hunting the defenseless. This lesson explores how greed and lack of understanding transform leadership into oppression, why those entrusted with authority must hate unjust gain, and why Scripture treats the shedding of innocent blood with such severity. Whether the authority is political, spiritual, professional, or within the home, every leader faces the same question: Am I protecting the people God placed under my care, or am I using my position to prey upon them? Lesson 174-2026 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, Rackwiles, and Dr. Burkla. Get your Bible and notebook and get ready to here before. Welcome to Morning Manah. Open your Bible. Get a good, fresh, hot cup of coffee or tea. Get into your favorite chair.

And let's study the last. Word of God. I promise that you will learn something today about the Holy Bible that you never knew previously. It's not that we teach anything new. We're just teaching old things in a new way. Going back hundreds of years, studying what the great theologians and preachers hundreds of years ago, we're teaching their congregations about the Word of God. And we're bringing it out today and presenting it in a fresh new way. And when people hear, they go, I never heard, never heard this before.

Well, that's because it hasn't been taught for a long, long time. So we hope you're blessed by every lesson here at Morning Manor. My name is Rick Wiles and my teaching partner is Dr. Raymond Burckhardt. I'm in Florida, sometimes San Juan, Puerto Rico. Dr. Burckhardt is in the Philippines. He's a missionary. I'm a businessnery.

Businesserary is a missionary to the business world. Doc is a missionary. And together, we teach the Word of God. And I am honored and privileged to be here with you today to do what I have a passion to do. To learn the Word and to teach the Word to share with others. Now, our lesson number today is 174-2026. 174-2026, you can find all of our lessons at manna nation.com, mananation.com,

and also on my YouTube channel, which is Rick Wiles today. And that's also at mananation.com. That's also where you can show your appreciation for this international Bible teaching ministry by giving a generous love gift to support us. That's all we're going to say about financial support. Just to let you know that we depend on the Lord to speak to people and we depend on the people God speaks to to obey his voice. That's it.

And you know what? I've been in ministry now for 27 years and it's worked. That's how it works for us. We trust God and we believe that. that the people who hear his voice will obey. And God has never failed us. So I don't expect him to fail this month or next month or next year.

And he won't fail you either. When you get into his rhythm, giving and receiving, giving and receiving all with faith. Everything has to be done with faith. When you get into that rhythm, God releases blessings in your life. And he will supply what you need. Maybe not what you want, but what you need.

It will make sure that you have what you need for today. All right. Dr. Burkhard and I are eager to get started with today's lesson. It is in Proverbs chapter 28, verses 18, 19, and 20. Let's pray and invite the Holy Spirit. Then Dr. Burckhardt will introduce today's lesson. Our Father, Father, we thank you for this beautiful day. We come to you in the name of Jesus Christ.

our Savior, and we invite the precious Holy Spirit to lead this class and open our hearts and minds, our eyes and ears, to receive knowledge and wisdom so that we would be victorious saints in this world and that we would be witnesses in this world for Jesus Christ, all for His glory and for the identification of His Church. In the name of Jesus, amen. Amen. Welcome to Morning Manna, everyone. We're so glad to have you here with us today. It's always a privilege to study the Word of God together.

And this journey through Proverbs has been a life-changing journey for many of you. I know it has for me personally. And I'm, you know, here we are in Chapter 28. What a journey it has been. It's hard to believe that we've been in Proverbs for more than a year and a half. studying verse by verse what the Word of God is saying here. And just so you know, Rick and I have taught Proverbs before. We've taught it in Bible studies and in various formats before,

but I've learned more this time than I ever had before, and it's been a blessing to me. And today's lesson is no exception. Today we're looking at Proverbs chapter 28 versus 18 through 20. I'm going to read the King James and also the first. the Septuagint. So follow on with me. Open up your Bibles. I like to read the Word of God out loud. And I encourage people to do that because one thing I like to say to people is, if you want to hear God speak to you, read the Word of God out loud. And you find amazing things happen in your

life when you read the Word of God out loud. It's not magic. It's not superstition. It's not anything like that, but the Word of God was meant to be spoken. Not just read, but spoken. And so I encourage you, read along with me if you don't mind. Here we are, Proverbs 28, verses 18 through 20. Whoso walketh uprightly shall be saved. But he that is perverse in his ways shall fall at once. He that tilleth his land shall have plenty of bread, but he that followeth after vain person shall have poverty enough. A faithful man shall abound with blessed. A faithful man shall abound with blood, but he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent. And then, looking at the Septuagint version of this,

He that walks justly is assisted, but he that walks in crooked ways shall be entangled therein. He that tills his own land shall be satisfied with bread, but he that follows idle of us shall have plenty of poverty. A man worthy of credit shall be much blessed, but the wicked shall not be unpuncted. So, Proverbs 28, verses 18 through 20 presents three verses on the same underlying contrast here. Steady faithfulness set against the appeal of a shortcut.

Oh, we love those shortcuts, don't we? Verse 18 addresses the shortcut in walking. The man who walks up rightly is preserved while the man of crooked ways fall suddenly. The crooked path appears to offer an easier, route, but ends in sudden collapse. Verse 19 addresses the shortcut in working. The man who tills his land has abundant bread, while the man who chases empty promises is filled with property.

Ordinary labor produces ordinary provision. The pursuit of something more exciting produces nothing. And then verse 20 addresses the shortcut to wealth. So we had walking, working, and wealth. Remember that today. The faithful man abounds with blessings here in verse 20, while the man hastening to be rich shall not go unpunished. Now the Proverbs target is not wealth itself,

but the haste in getting it, the impatience that simply will not wait for legitimate means. So all three verses here, sure common structure and a common insight. In each case, the slower path is the productive one, and the faster path fails not merely to deliver, but to remain innocent. It fails to remain innocent.

So the lesson's aim is to give our Morning Manna students today a scriptural account of glide patience in just plain ordinary faithfulness. I know it sounds boring. I know it sounds tedious, but plain ordinary faithfulness is not merely a virtue to be admired, but the actual mechanism by which the outcomes people want are produced. Rick Wall starts us off today with his examination of verse 18. Rick? Thank you, thank you, Doc.

That's going to be a good lesson. And, you know, Doc, you said earlier about you like to read the Bible. out loud. Well, that's biblical because the Bible says faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. So, you know, if there's nobody preaching the word to you, then you preach the word to yourself. Read the Bible out loud and your ears are hearing the word. Faith comes by hearing. And also in our modern world, we have technology that we have an abundance of audio recordings on the Word of God. All right, so instead of watching podcast all day long and listening to people who are outside the covenant,

who are unsaved, who are members of other religions, and you're watching these people on podcasts for hours, why not be listening to the Word of God? Faith cometh by hearing. All right, so let's start with verse 18. Who so walketh uprightly shall be saved. but he that is perverse in his ways shall fall at once. The one walking blamelessly shall be saved, deliver, preserved.

Notice it didn't say the one walking sinlessly because you and I can't do that. I'm just sorry you might think you're really perfect, but you're not. None of us can walk sinlessly, but we can walk blamelessly. And we do that in Christ. We walk uprightly. The Hebrew word is tamim, which means completeness, onus, integrity. It is the same root word as tune.

Tome, Tome, is pronounced Tome, spelled T-O-M. And it was in verse 6 of chapter 28. It is not sinless perfection, but consistency, the man or woman who is one person rather than several. God can deal with your imperfections. He can deal with your sins. He can deal with your failures, your setbacks. You're not going to shock him. What the Lord is looking for is somebody with an upright heart repents quickly and gets back on their feet and starts half again.

Okay. So those of you who are you're allowing guilt and shame to hold you back because made a mistake years ago. Get over. God got over it a long time ago when you repent and ask him to forgive you. He's over. Why aren't you getting over? Get back home. and get on that path and start walking again. Okay, walk up rightly. Again, it does not mean that you never fail. It means that when you do fail, you repent quickly and you get back on your feet

and start on that path of righteousness again. If other people want to point to your failure, and that's their problem, that's not your problem, that's their problem. God will deal with them. He'll deal with them. So don't worry. about it, okay?

The verb yesha, it means to be saved, delivered, rescued, okay? Whoso walketh

uprightly shall be saved. It means you will be delivered, rescued. It is the same

root word behind the name Joshua. Which is where we get Yoshia, where we get Jesus. The name Joshua means salvation. Yes. Oh, it describes preservation from the calamities that overtake the crooked. Perverse people are not perverted people, although they may be perverted, but perverse does not mean perverted.

It means twisted. It means bent away, bent away from truth. They're perverse. They're crooked. They're twisted. They're crooked and twisted away from truth. And so the word saved in this verse means that you will be preserved from the calamities that overtake the perverse, the crooked, the twisted.

The Bible says, But he that is perverse in his ways shall fall at once. One crooked of ways shall fall in one. Okay. Suddenly, at once, in a single moment, they will fall. The contrasts between the two halves, right? Whosoever walketh uprightly shall be safe. But he that is perversed in his ways,

shall fall at once. Let's look at a contrast. It's not merely a contrast between preservation and ruin, but between the manner of each, the upright man or woman's preservation is ongoing. God will preserve you through your entire life

as you walk up brightly. Again, you are going to trip. You're going to fall. There are going to be times did you mess up? But because you're upright, you get back on and you're upright again. But the perverse person falls. And when they fall, they're down, okay, because the Lord brings them down.

The crooked man's fall is instantaneous. This describes a pattern as frequently noticed but rarely understood. The crooked man or woman often appears to be doing well in life for extended periods of time. And they sustain a structure of deception and shortcuts and maneuvers that seem to hold. And righteous people look at them and go, I know that person is wicked. evil. I know that they're not living for God, but it just seems like nothing goes wrong in their lives. And then suddenly it doesn't hold. The foundation crumbles. The foundation of their life rumbles. And the collapse is total. It's immediate. It's not gradual. It's not incremental. Suddenly they're down.

And their lives are in shambles. So the reason is structural. Integrity is self-sustaining because it requires nothing beyond simply being what one is. Crookedness, perverseness requires continuous maintenance. The story has to be kept consistent. The lives have to be remembered. The various parties have to be kept separate so that they, don't compare what this person said here to what they said over here. Discrepancies have to be kept hidden.

There's a lot of work in being perverse. I mean, you know, perverse people work hard at being perverted. They have to work hard at it to be crooked, to be twisted. And any structure that requires that kind of constant maintenance, eventually fails all at once whenever the maintenance is interrupted. Notice it says ways, not way, ways. Ways of the perverse is plural.

The crooked man or woman has ways. God has a way, one way. God doesn't have alternative ways, and there are not alternative ways to God. There is one way to God, that is through his son, Jesus Christ. Anybody who says that there are many ways to God is a liar and a deceiver.

There's one way to God through Jesus Christ, and God has one way. He doesn't have a way for Doc and a way for work and a way for you. He has one way. And our obligation is to discern and understand his way and fit in, conform to it. Go with the flow. Go with his flow, his way. I talk about the divine order that he set in motion at creation, a divine order.

When you get in the flow of that divine order, your life goes well. When you get crossways with it, what does that mean, perverse? See? You get crossways with. God's divine order, your verse, because you're twisted, you're bent away from the divine order. When you get seriously and twist it bent out of shape with God's divine order, something's going to break, and it's not going to be his way. It's going to be your ways. And wise people learn this in life, okay?

the multiplication of paths is itself a vulnerability, because each additional path is another thing that requires upkeep. Amen. So if you've got multiple ways in your life, you're working extra hard. Matthew Hinder, he was a great Presbyterian theologian in the early 1700s, he observed that the upright man or the upright man, or the upright woman's safety is not the absence of trouble, but the absence of the particular trouble

that a person's all crookedness manufactures, and that this is a considerable portion of the trouble most humans actually face in life. They create their own trouble. Amen. Well, Rick, the theological framework beneath verse 18 really is talking about the relationship between integrity and preservation. It's not a transaction in which a brightness purchases safety, but a description of how God has

structured the moral reality. Once again, talking about God's order, that theme that we see throughout Proverbs in this round of teaching. Proverbs 2521 states that connection directly. it says, let integrity and a brightness preserve me, for I wait on thee. Now, note the framing here. Integrity is preserved, and the waiting is on God rather than on integrity itself. You're not waiting to get better. You're waiting for God to do it work. So Proverbs chapter 10, verse 9 gives that same contrast there.

He that walketh uprightly, walketh surely, but he that perverteth his ways, shall be known. The suddenness of the fall occurs throughout Scripture's treatment of the wicked. Psalm 73 verses 1819 tells us after Asaph's long wrestling with their prosperity, he resolves precisely here. Thou didst see them in slippery places, one of my favorite verses. How are they brought into desolation as in a moment? Thou didst set them in slippery places? God sees them. So the value is considerable for anyone watching a crooked person prosper. The proverb does not promise that the collapse is necessary imminent or visible on any timeline, but it denies that the apparent stability is real.

What looks like a sustainable structure for the wicked, for the crooked, is just a maintained one, a temperate. Now, the salvation vocabulary invites the gospel connection, a large. your gospel connection without having to force it, you know, shoo horridan it in here, the upright man of Proverts is preserved through his integrity. The center of the New Testament is saved through another's integrity. Who? Well, Titus 3-5 preserves that distinction.

It says, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us. and both are true within their own domains. Integrity genuinely protects a man from the consequences of his own crookedness that it would produce, but it saves no one from the judgment of God, which is precisely why we need the gospel. This is precisely why the gospel exists. Rick, what does the Septuagin have to say about this particular verse?

They're not major difference to this, but there are some that we need to point out. We'll look at the King James first. Whoso walketh uprightly shall be saved, but he that is perverse in his ways shall fall at once. The Greek subturgent, the English translation says, He that walks justly is assisted, but he that walks in crooked ways shall be entangled therein. There's some differences, okay? First, the upright man is assistant. The Septuagin says, assist it, not saved.

He's helped, he's aided. This is the same root word that the Septuagint used in verse 12 of this chapter, where great glory arose by reason of the help of righteous men. Same word. So the shift from saved to assist it locates the preservation outside the man or woman himself or herself. He or she does not survive by the strength of their own integrity, but is helped by God, and frequently helped by the body of Christ around them, other right, just men and women. Second, the crooked man is not merely said to fall, but to be entangled therein,

to be woven in, to become caught up, like trapped in a net, dog. You know, you get your legs and your arms, you're in a net and you can't get out of it. Or like a web and you're entangled in it. You can't get out of it. The King James has the first, you're in a net. The first, you're in a net. the wicked, you know, the perverse person falling, completely collapsed. The situagen is saying, no, they get entangled, entangled in a web that they created, a mess that they created, and they can't get out of it. I really think that this, what you're saying there, Rick, that's a more precise image than simply falling.

So when we're talking about the crooked man, the crooked man gets tangled up in his own crooked ways, like he says, like a net. He's caught in the very paths. He constructed. He constructed that net brick. He constructed that trap, and he's unable to extricate himself from what he built,

from the structure of his own making. And if you recall back, way back in Proverbs chapter 5, verse 22, his own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he should be holding with the cords of his sin. So we get the same picture back in Proverbs 522. And so together, these two renderings,

both the King James and the Septuagint, supply both sides of the equation here. The upright man is helped from outside himself, and the crooked man is bound by those things which he himself has built, Rick. That's right. Let's go to verse 19. He that tilleth his land shall have plenty of bread,

But he that followeth after vain persons shall have had poverty enough. The one who tills his land shall have plenty. Plenty of what? Bread. The one who serves, the one who works, the one who cultivates his ground, shall be satisfied with bread. Notice that you're working your ground, not your neighbor's ground. In other words, mind your own business.

Okay. Don't be trying to get yourself involved in somebody else's affairs. Work your own ground. Work your own land. There's a verb in here. The Hebrew is a bod. That's the word for work to serve. This word is used in the Bible for agricultural labor. Also, it's used for service to God. And so the connection here is not accidental in classic Hebrew thought. Ordinary work faithfully performed is itself a form of service, whether you're working in a farm field or you're working in first. So notice the modesty of the promised outcome. bread and satisfaction with it.

The proverb does not promise wealth. It doesn't promise expansion. It doesn't promise remarkable success. Now, I firmly believe God grants such things, such blessings to individual people. But in this particular proverb, he's not promising wealth. In Deuteronomy, God says, I give you the power to get wealth.

God doesn't give you wealth. He gives you the power to get wealth. In this proverb, the promise is you will have prayer. What does that mean? You will have enough. You will be sufficient. God is making a promise that if you walk up right, you will always have enough. Bread represents the necessities of life.

He's not promising all you're going to get is a loaf of bread. What does the bread represent? It's the staples of life. You have what you need for today. You will have enough bread. You will have enough milk. You will have enough meat. You will have enough food.

You will be able to pay your bills. You will have bread. Charles Spurgeon, great Reform Baptist preacher in London and the 1800s, he observed that the Bible's promise to the diligent, not to the lazy, not to the wishful, but to the diligent, that he said the promise is bread rather than riches, and that a generation which regards sufficiency as failure, listen to this, Spurgeon said,

a generation that views sufficiency as failure in life has adopted a standard that Bible nowhere endorses, leaving that generation perpetually dissatisfied with exactly what God, promised to supply do you thank God every day for what you have for what he's given you or are you perpetually dissatisfied with what he has not given you you're never going to receive more until you're satisfied with what you have now until you start giving thanks to God for what he's provided you now so God

has promised that you will have sufficient. He takes care of his children. He's a father. He's a wonderful father. He's the greatest father. And his seed do not bake for bread. That's what King Davis said. I've never seen the righteous for sake. I've never seen them begging for bread. You will never be without. You may, things may be lean at times.

you will have sufficiency because it's a promise from God. Don't fear starvation. Don't fear bankruptcy. Don't fear lack. If you are a child of God, those things are outside the covenant. And as Satan who is tormenting you with these fears of insufficiency, you will be sufficient in all things. So, but he that follows,

after vain persons shall have poverty enough. One pursuing empty ones, vain, they're empty. The person who follows empty people shall have, you will be satisfied with poverty. The Hebrew word is rachin. It means empty things, empty people, worthless vain no substance nothing behind you know inside they're empty their shells so various translations of the bible divide between vain persons which means worthless pursuits worthless

worthless companions, vain persons, worthless companion, people who add nothing to your life, and empty pursuits, fantasies, schemes, there are four kinds of people in our lives. On the positive side, there are people who add and people who multiply. On the negative side, there are people who subtract and people who divide. Here's a real simple, easy principle. Avoid the people who subtract and divide your life and seek out and maintain friendships with those who add and multiply your life. It's a real easy principle.

There are people in your life you need to dump. I'm sorry, is that shocking to you? Yeah, there are people you need to dunk. get them out of your life. They divide you. They subtract from you. They're negative. They drain your energy.

They drain your resources. They break your focus. And there are other people that add to your life. Increase your life. When you're around them, you just feel better. There are other people that when you're around them, you feel worse. This is a really easy thing to do. or shall weigh the ones who make you,

who deplete you and increase the ones who increase you. He that follows after vain person shall have poverty in them. Not just poverty. You're going to have plenty of it. You're going to have plenty of poverty. So, God, there's these various Bible translations. Some of them translate Fane as

as I said worthless companions but others are would translate it as empty pursuits meaning fantasies schemes get rich business opportunities okay

you know sign up for this business and make $10,000 a month your first month I mean the internet is full of this kind of stuff The tiller is, I want you to see the parallel structure in this verse. The tiller of his land is satisfied with the bread the land produces from his label. But the chaser of vain people and vain ideas and schemes is satisfied with poverty. Both people reach satisfaction.

They simply arrive at it holding entirely different things. Do you want sufficient bread or would you like abundant poverty? So the word pursuing, this is significant. The chaser is not idle. He or she is expending energy. running after something, trying to catch it, a chaser, pursuing. So the problem is not this man or woman's laziness, but they're misdirection. They're spending real effort, real energy, real resources, chasing things that have no substance.

And so when you catch it, when you finally catch it, you have poverty. because you wasted your time, you wasted your life, you wasted your energies, chasing empty things. I have known people like this in my life. And years later, they have nothing to show for it. They have nothing to show for all those years of chasing some vain idea or hanging around vain people. There is a distinct failure.

from the sluggard. Remember the sluggard? He shows up in a number of Proverbs. You go back to Proverbs 26, verses 13 through 16. The sluggard will not exert himself at all. But the person that's in verse 19 is not a slugger. He's not lazy.

He is exerting himself, considerably, but producing nothing, producing nothing, because empty things, vain things, vain people, vain companions, empty people, return nothing, regardless of how hard you ran after them. Adam Clark, great Methodist, theolog, he observed that ordinary labor is despised, chiefly because it is ordinary and that the man or woman who abandons his or her own ground

for something more exciting has traded a certain guaranteed small yield for an uncertain, unguaranteed large yield. A trade that usually produces the poverty that is named in this proverb. So, Doc, what do you say in this? Two things in what you said here, a few questions that popped up in my mind.

Are you a tiller or are you a chaser? Are you tilling the ground or are you chasing after something? And the other question I had to ask myself is, are you working hard at being poor? Are you working hard at being poor? Are you working hard at poverty? instead of acquiring wisdom and the knowledge that you need to break that poverty cycle, do you continue to work hard at being poor?

And so the theological framework here in verse 19 is that, first of all, there is a biblical dignity to ordinary labor. There's nothing wrong with work, and there's nothing wrong with hard work. The conviction that faithful work in an unremarkable calling is genuinely honorable, and it's honorable before God, then a lesser alternative, something more visible. So if we go back to Genesis,

Genesis chapter 2, verse 15, you know, a lot of people, when I tell people this, it's a shock to them, Rick. You know, work existed before the fall. Adam had a career before the fall, okay? It says, in Genesis 2.15, the Lord God took man and put him in the garden to dress it and to keep it.

So God gave him a job, gave him a career opportunity. And so labor is good. Work is good. Labor is part of God's created order. And, you know, labor is energy. What the fall added, okay, it didn't add work as a curse. What the fall added was toil and frustration in the work, not work itself. And then over in the New Testament, in First Testament in chapter 4, verse 11, we have this instruction.

And it's a striking instruction. It says, study to be quiet and to do your own business and to work with your own hands. And it's interesting that the word study, it literally means make it your ambition. It doesn't mean, you know, necessarily go to college and go to school and everything. It means make it your goal. make it your to-do. It assigns ambition to being quiet and assigns ambition to just ordinary work

and assigns ambition to just doing the faithful thing. And it inverts the usual direction of ambition entirely. In 2nd, Thessonians 3 versus 10 through 12, we have Paul addressing the church in Thessalonica to those who had abandoned ordinary labor in expectation of Christ's return. You see this happen in cycles throughout history. People get caught up in Christ's return and said, well, I'm going to quit farming, I'm going to quit my job, I'm going to quit all these things, I'm going to wait for the Lord.

But Paul said to those folks in Thessalonica that were waiting for the return of the Lord, it's in that same passage about those waiting for the return of the Lord, and says, Rick, if any would not work, neither should he eat. So even what Paul is saying is even genuine spiritual expectation does not excuse a man from tilling his land. Boy, that's a lesson that people really need to take to heart here. A Colossian chapter 3, verse 22, supplies, it raises the dignity of labor, a dignity of work. It says, whatsoever you do, do it heartily as to the Lord and not unto men. And so the plowman and the preacher both perform the same fundamental act when each one, Rick, works faithfully in the calling that he's given.

Whatever calling you find yourself in work diligently as unto the Lord. And so the application addresses the temptation, common. And like I said, it pops up throughout history. Really, it pops up every generation. The conviction that one's actual assignment is just too ordinary to matter. And that significance lies elsewhere. Okay. Well, God can't bless me.

I'm a carpenter. Well, Jesus was a carpenter. Well, God can't bless me because I do this or do that. I need to do this elevated thing. I need to have a vision. I have a need to have a revelation. Why don't you just work the job that you? God and be faithful there.

Verse 19 answers with, it gives an agricultural example here, that the ground a man actually possesses is the only ground that will yield him bread. I'll give you a personal example of my own life. There have been times in my life where I've been between pastoral positions or ministry positions and or in, you know, media positions, right? For whatever reason, God has blessed me with the ability to work at a hotel, especially overnight, okay? So if I find myself between opportunities, let's say, through the years,

what I could always do is I know that I, if I put enough applications in at enough low, nearby hotels, someone will hire me. And I'll do a good job. I'll do an excellent job. And when I leave, they're sad. I leave. You know, if I take a ministry position or a position at a radio station or or some other position and everything, for whatever reason, God blessed me there. That was the field he gave me at that time. And the way I looked at it, Rick, is I just worked faithfully unto the Lord. for whatever reason I had an ability and a talent in that particular area that the Lord blessed me in and it provided for my family. It gave me bread to put on the table. Now, I've had other ministry friends, Rick, that has said, well, I'm not going to take an ordinary job.

I'm going to wait for God to open up a position for me. Well, in my opinion, and this is my opinion, and my personal experience through the years, Rick, that is of grave error and great mistake. And you really don't know what the Bible is teaching. God provides you fields to word, to yield bread for you in whatever situation you might be. And it's a lesson I learned. Thankfully, I learned that, you know, God can bless me with whatever field he's assigned me to, Till, Rick. And, you know, it's been a blessing in my life.

So what are your thoughts on that? Doc, God does not promise wealth, but he does also not promise poverty. People talk about the prosperity gospel, and I'm not going to get into it right now. But I would say this, I am a proponent of the sufficiency gospel. And I think I just coined a new phrase, the sufficiency gospel.

He doesn't promise wealth, but he doesn't promise poverty. Some people who attack the prosperity gospel act like there's some kind of virtue in being poor. But I've noticed, Doc, that none of the people who attack the prosperity gospel would like to be poor. I noticed that. They all live in nice home. They all live in nice homes. They drive nice cars. They wear with nice clothes.

Okay, so let's get real. Okay, I don't want to hear any of that. Pony religious talk. Well, what I can make an argument is that God promises sufficiency. I see that God makes a promise in many scriptures that he will meet all of our needs. Now, he does give men and women the power. to get wealth, but it is given for the purpose of establishing his covenant promises in the earth. And so if God has given you the power to give wealth, it is not for you to buy a yacht, unless you're using the yacht to transport preachers of the gospel over the seas.

He gives us the power to get wealth so that the wealth is used for the gospel. Now, there is no shame in being poor, but there's no need in being poor if you are a saint in Christ. You may have been born into poverty, but you don't have to be born again into poverty. Yeah, I never said that before. It just came, I believe, from the Holy Spirit. You may be born into poverty, but you don't have to be born again into poverty. Salvation means deliverance from all of the curses. Isaiah said the Messiah would come to preach to the poor.

What do the poor want to hear? What do they desire to hear? That there's a way out of their poverty. Now, you might point out, wait a minute, Jesus said, the poor, you shall have with you always. Yes, that's a fact. But he didn't say, I'm making poor. He didn't say, it's my will that they be poor.

He just said, there's always going to be poor people. And you need to be merciful to them. And you need to be kind. You need to be generous. There's always going to be poor people. Why? Because they don't know how to get out of their poverty. They don't believe the word of God.

When you believe the word of God, you will not be poor. I didn't say you will be rich. I said you will not be poor. If you believe the Word of God, you will be sufficient in everything. And if that upsets some religious people, fine. But if that upset you, why don't you sell that nice corn you have and give it to the poor?

See, the poor need to be taught how to get in our poverty. And we need to help the poor. We need to be generous and compassion, and merciful to the poor. but the most compassionate, merciful thing you can do for a poor person is to teach them the gospel. Because if they understand the gospel, they will be sufficient in all things. Doc, I heard Pastor Young E. Cho of Korea, he's passed away. I heard him tell the true story of how he got started.

And he himself was very poor. but he was preaching to the poor in soul. And he would go door to door to share the gospel. And he went to this one house and said he had come to bring the gospel. And the woman in the house laughed at him and said, we don't need your gospel. And he was shocked. He didn't know what to do.

And he repeatedly tried to get her to come to church. And she said, we don't need your gospel. And finally, Doc, he confronted her again, and she said, look, we're poor. Look at how we're living. We don't need your religion. We need food. We need money. We need clothing.

That's what we need. And so he invited her to his church, which was a tent. And so she came to his tent and she laughed. And she said, you're more poor than me. Yes. It was a used army tent, by the way. Yes. And she said, you're more poor than me.

You have nothing I need because I have more than you and I'm poor. And you want me to believe your gospel? What has your God done for you? You're living in a tent. Okay. It challenged after Joe. And he said, he went to the Lord, and the Lord said, go back to that family and tell them, I am a God of sufficiency.

I will meet all your needs. You come to me and I'll lift you out of this poverty. And Doc, that's the way he started preaching. And he built the biggest church the world has ever seen. Because he said, when you come to Christ, you will leave your poverty. You will have eternal life. You will have riches and glory, but you will have sufficiency in this world.

And it spread throughout Seoul, South Korea. And you know it because you lived in Korea. And you know the impact he had in that city. So Jesus said, yes, you'll have a poor with you always. But he didn't say, I made him poor, and I'm keeping them poor. He just said, they're not, they either have it. heard my word or they're not believing my word. And the lack of the word of God is what's keeping them in poverty. All right, let's take a look at the Septuagint. The King James says, he that tilleth

his land shall have plenty of bread, but he that followeth after vain person shall have poverty enough. The Septuagin says, he that tills his own land shall be satisfied with bread, but he that follows idleness, shall have plenty of poverty. So the Greek subduigent adds the word own. He tills his own land. Like I said earlier, you don't till somebody else's land. Mind your own business. Take care of your own land.

And the King James possessive is present tense, but the Greek is emphatic. It identifies precisely what the chaser has failed to do. He or she has not tilled his own ground. Whatever he or she is pursuing, it is not the thing actually assigned to him or her. And the Proverbs promise attaches specifically to the cultivation of your own portion. what has God given you to do with your life? That's your ground.

What skill has he given you? That's your ground. What abilities do you have? That's your ground. To your own ground. I'm a teacher. I'm a writer. I've come pretty late in life to say, you know what?

I've been doing other things, but my real skills are teaching and writing. and I'm tilling my ground. You might be in a job that really isn't your truth. And you're down deep inside, you know what you're good at. That's what you should do. Do what you're good at. Because it's God who's put that inside of you. He gave you a skill to be successful in life so that you would have sufficient land,

sufficient bread gave you a skill a way to make a living. Maybe you're compassionate and you're a nurse. Your compassion, your mercy gives you a career in a living. Maybe you're a mechanic. You know how to fix things. That's your ground. That's what you were to till. And your ground is not better than my ground. My ground's not better than your ground. gives us each our own skills. I see people that can do things. I wish I could do. I don't know how to do that. But then there are people look at me and say,

I don't know how he does that. It's because we're each tilling our own way in. We need to respect each other and help each other. So the Septuagance says, He that waits on his own, this is in Proverbs 27, verse 18, he that waits on his own master shall be honored. There's a tradition in the Proverbs that repeatedly emphasizes faithfulness to the assignment that's actually given rather than what that is imagined or preferred.

many of us waste years of our lives pursuing an imagination or something we would prefer to do and we never become good at it while we neglected the thing that we're good at and I hope this is a helps people in their careers you may not be able to instantly stop what you're doing right now to go to what you know you're good at, but you can incrementally start being in that direction. And God will give you the grace to get there. Yeah. And one other thing I would add here to Rick is follow the calling God gave you, not what someone else gave you. And, you know, just because sometimes I've met some genuine Bible-believing Christians

who were, who would, who were pursuing a call to ministry, which is, there's nothing wrong with pursuing a call of ministry, but who obviously had talents elsewhere. Okay. You know, it just, it doesn't mean they're dumb or stupid or they have no talent or ability. It just means God's blessed them in other areas. And then there are the others that you know that they've got talent to serve God

and to pursue God, and yet they choose something else. My best friend in Bible College, Rick, I mean, one of the best preachers I have ever heard. I mean, he truly is a, he could preach

red paint off a red barn. And yet, he chose not to pursue it. And it seems like his life has been just one struggle after another trying to find peace with what he's doing. And so I would suggest

Listen to what God is speaking to you and pursue that Because, you know, the Septuagin here in the second half It talks about It takes the King James' vain person And replaces it with idleness Which can be in the Greek It can be translated as leisure or care But it can also be absence of occupation

In other words, you're pursuing something that you're not called to do. So this reading brings verse 19 closer to, you know, some of the sluggard material, Proverbs 26, then the Hebrew does, describing a man pursuing not empty schemes, but simply the absence of work, or I would even go so far as proper work. So where the Hebrews, you know, in the Hebrew language, the man, runs after nothing. The Septuagint, the man's running from something. Right? And Rick, I know over the course of our age to ages now, over our many years, Rick, we've observed those that have spent their lives running from what God has called them to do. And so both the King James and the Septuagint,

they provide diagnoses that are really worth noting and presenting because both are real things. Some men produce nothing because they chase those things that have no substance at all. Others produce nothing because they have made ease or avoiding a calling

their object. The outcome named is still it's still the same destination. The outcome is identical. You're going to find poverty. but it's just going to be arrived at by different means. So it's a tragic situation. I hope those that are watching or listening today

that are taking this to heart, pursue what God has called you to do. No matter what the obstacles may be in front of you, first of all, make sure it's God that's calling you to do it and not someone else calling you a spouse or a parent or pressure for someone else. make sure it's what God has called you to do. But if God's called you to do something,

Katie barred at the door, don't hold back. Just go all the way with it. You're going to find satisfaction. You're going to find a lack of stress. And God will provide the sufficient means for you and your family. And so I would encourage you, find that place where you belong. If you're going to chase something like, We're all chasing something, right?

Some are chasing riches. Some are chasing, you know, perceived love. I would say chase what God has called you to do and keep after it until don't let go until you find it. Just my thoughts, Rick. Amen. You know, I told you this before. When I was in my 20s and 30s, I, you know, in my early 20s, God, got placed me

my first job was in media or for a radio station and then later I quit and went into another career at the radio station I prospered when I went to the other career

I didn't prosper I ended up later getting another job in media prospered I then later quit and went to something else and I floundered. And it was only after a number of years,

I finally, the light came on in my head, Doc. You know, I'm eating better. There's more food on the table when I'm working in the media. Okay. Yeah, I got bread. It got sufficiency. Okay.

It took a long time for me to realize, wait a minute, there's a pattern here. Okay. Well, now I look back and I realize, God himself had placed me in the media. He desired me, Rick Wals, to work in the media industry because he had a plan, he had a purpose for me, not only to meet my needs as a family,

but he had a plan for his needs in the gospel. So where do you prosper? What produces bread for you? And it comes easily when you're doing it. That's where you're supposed to be. That's your ground. Okay, we got one more verse. Verse 20, a faithful man shall go down with blessings.

But he that makes haste to be rich shall not be innocent. That's the King James. Okay. The Hebrew word here is a munah, faithfulness, steadiness, reliability. Interesting, Doc, it's the same root. word behind the word amen. It's this single word. A faithful person and amen come from the same Hebrew word, faithful and amen.

Meaning, when we say amen, we're saying God is faithful to do what we just asked for. Amen. God is faithful to answer the prayer. that we just prayed. Amen. That's where this word comes from. A munah. Okay. It's also in Habaka chapter 2, verse 4, the just shall live by faith. It's describing dependability. It's sustained over many years of a person's life. Now, there's a plural form in this word that suggests that a man or woman whose reliability is demonstrated repeatedly across many occasions over many years of their lives, rather than in a single notable instance in that this character is established by accumulation.

So it says, but he that make us haste to be rich shall not be innocent, meaning you won't be guiltless. The target requires the proverbs target. What is seeking to get us to recognize and see does not condemn wealth. Nowhere does the Bible condemn wealth. It condemns wealth that's used for wrong purposes. it condemns greed and covesness, and it condemns seeking wealth,

pursuing wealth, but it never condemns wealth. You can be wealthy. It's just so that wealth doesn't have you. That's the only thing the Bible tells us, don't lay up your treasures in the world. Lay up your treasures in heaven. So there are legitimate,

blessings. The Bible does not condemn legitimate blessings, does not condemn success in careers and business. In fact, I think the Bible commends it and says a diligent, upright man and woman will be successful because it shows God's faithfulness and goodness and mercy to those who walk I don't know how anybody can claim that poverty glorifies God. Right. I don't know where you get an idea that you're glorifying God by being broke and poor. If I were not a believer and I heard a Christian saying, well, I'm poor for Jesus, I'd say, well, I ain't going to you church. I don't want any of that stuff to get on me.

What do you offering somebody by saying, hey, I'm poor for Jesus? We've got to get the right mindset about financial success. Okay. So the reason to haste, being in a hurry produces guilt is that legitimate wealth accumulate slowly through work, through diligence, through savings, through strategy, and investments. it takes time and a man or woman determined to arrive there faster must find

another mechanism another route and those alternatives often involve deception, exploitation risk taking just unsafe practices because you're in a hurry to become wealthy.

It says that that person shall not be innocent. It does not say that this person shall not be found not guilty. It says that this person will not be found guiltless. Proverbs 13, verse 11, that was a long time ago, last year. Proverbs 13 and verse 11 says, Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished, but he that gathers by labor shall increase. The speed of acquisition and the durability of possession are inversely related.

Charles Bridges observed that men and women in haste to be rich have already made a decisive moral choice. before any specific temptations arrive because that person has already determined the outcome he or she requires and has left only the means to be negotiated. But once you've set your heart that I am going to be rich, you've opened yourself up to compromise.

But when the Lord adds to you gradually over time, incrementally. You don't have to make those compromises. The Lord is the one who's adding to your net worth and your property and your possessions and your investments because you never made the determination. My end goal is wealth. When you make wealth, your goal, your end goal,

your destination, you're going to be tempted along the way to make long choices. Yes. And so, Rick, that as we're looking at this here, that theological framework that exists beneath verse 20 here is the scriptures in treatment of impatience as a spiritual condition rather than just a temperamental one, okay? It's a refusal to accept God's timing that manifests as shortcuts in life. We see this in all three verses.

Now in the New Testament, 1 Timothy chapter 6, verse 9 gives us a corresponding parallel. It says, they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into menish, foolish, and hurtful lust. Now, the apostle Paul is not saying they that are rich, but they that will be rich. Everybody's going to be rich, Rick. they're going to be rich. And that's locating the danger in the resolve rather than the possession itself. And so the resolve becomes the primary motivating factor

at these individuals' lives. Now, if you recall back in Proverbs chapter 20, verse 21, it had a similar warning. It said, an inheritance may be gotten hastily at the beginning. but the end thereof shall not be blessed. Even wealth that is obtained without personal wrongdoing can also carry the mark of haste. And so what we're really talking about here is faith.

You know, faith in God or faith in our ability to become rich, right? They will be rich. I'm making it short. I'm willing it. I will be rich. and so the connection to faith is direct. Hebrew 612 says, them who through faith and patience

inherit the promises. What promises are we talking about? Eternal life, resurrection. It couples faith with patience as jointly necessary. Impatience is at its very root of failure of trust. It's an unwillingness to believe that God's provision,

God's timeline is going to be added. In other words, God's not doing enough and he's not fast enough, Rick. God's not doing enough. God's not fast enough. And so an example that we have from the Old Testament, the story of Abraham and Hagar, and you can go back and read that in Genesis chapter 16. God had promised his son to Abraham.

The promise wasn't moving. fast enough for Abraham's taste and preference. Sarah, now she was in on the promise. God had promised Sarah too, by the way. Sarah's proposal was a means of getting there sooner, or arriving sooner. And so the child was born to Hagar. But the promise, the promise of God was not fulfilled through Ishmael,

through Hagar's son. And the consequences echoed throughout the Old Testament. Some would even say it echoes to today. But the application is really a searching question about what's the motive rather than the occupation. We need to get to a point where we ask not merely whether your means or legitimate,

but whether your timeline is a demand placed upon God. Well, you're saying, God, well, you're just not moving fast enough. And so I guess I've got to hurry you along because the man who has fixed both the outcome and the deadline has already narrowed his options to those that this very verse, Rick, is warning about. All right, Doc, let's wrap up today's lesson by looking at the Septuagint Translation of Verse 20, the King James, a faithful. faithful man shall abound with blessings, but he that makeeth haste to be rich shall not be innocent. The Septuagin puts it this way. A man worthy of credit shall be much blessed, but the wicked shall not be unpunished. Very different reading.

The faithful man in the Septuagint becomes a man worthy of credit. Meaning worthy of trust, credible, dependable. Doesn't mean he's got a credit line down at the bank. I like that idea, though. I like that idea, though. Yes. Yes. Because banks lend money to people who are worthy of credit.

Right. They don't own money to poor people who need money. They loan money to people who don't need money. Think about that. Yes. Banks are in the business of making money. And they don't give money to people who need money. They give money to people who don't need money.

So the subtergent changes to faithful man to a man worthy of credit, which means this is a man or woman who is credible. Trustworth, dependable. The, so this translates, remember that word, the Hebrew word, a moon, a, uh, all right. The faithful man's reliability has been observed by people, has been tested and has produced a reputation that others can act upon. This is a man or woman whose word is treated as sufficient security. There was a time when a handshake was all that was needed to do business. And there are still people today that others would say that that man or that woman's handshake is as good as goal, meaning they honor their word.

They have a reputation for keeping their promises. I've said many times the reason we have so many lawyers, and I'm not speaking disrespectfully of lawyers, I have a lot of respect for lawyers. But the reason we have so many lawyers is because we have so many liars. What do you mean by that? Well, people break their promises. They break contracts.

They don't keep the work. word, they lie. If you don't keep your word, you're a liar. If you don't honor a contract, you're a covenant breaker. You signed your name to a contract and then you said, I'm not going to, I'm not going to honor it. That's why you have lawyers because we have so many liars and covenant breakers. In the ancient economy, that didn't have credit systems, they didn't have banks and credit unions, said, all the things that we have to date. You had a person who was worthy of credit. That was a person whose reliability was itself an asset. And so that would extend that person's capacity far beyond what that person's own resources could support. If two people were talking about a

third person, and one said, that guy. that woman is a person who keeps their word. They were worthy of credit. They had a reputation. So this is the practical answer to the haste that's in the second half. The faithful man or the faithful woman's blessings accumulate partly because he or she

as their reliability opens doors that no shortcut can open. When you are seen as a trustworthy, reliable person doors open, people extend favor to you. So what the hasty, a hasty man tries to seize, the trustworthy man is given. because people extend to a dependable what they withhold from the eager. Can I say that again?

What the hasty man or woman tries to seize, the trustworthy man or woman is given because people extend to the dependable what they withhold from the hasty. That's that's wisdom you can take to the bank, sometimes literally. And, Doc, I'm not going to go into personal things, but you know, you know this. I mean, and you get it too. Once you're established in business and the business world knows who you are and today with big data, you know, you can't, you can't stay in business.

But every single day I get phone calls from lenders offering to lend substantial sums of money to me. Every single day, I'm not seeking a loan. I haven't applied for a loan. But people with a lot of money to loan are seeking me, asking me to borrow. And I don't like I don't want to borrow any money. Why are they doing that? Because I'm a man of credit. I have proven in my lifetime I pay my bills.

And so they look for people who have a record of paying their bills. And they say, would you like to have some money? I'm like, no, I don't want to have any money. I don't want to have any money. I don't want to have a debt. I don't want to have a, but the point I'm making is this is what happens to you. doors open. They open.

People will pursue you when they know you have a long-term history of paying your bills on time. If you have a long-time history, long-term history of not paying your bills on time, there's nobody pursuing you offering to lend you money. Why would they do that? You're not going to pay it on time. the only reason that they would do it, the only reason that they would do it is if you have some asset that they could attach and take it from you.

And Rick, I've been in the same situation my life. In my younger years, back when I, in my 20s, if I walked to a bank, you almost knew that the security guard was there ready to lock the door. Don't let him back in. He's here to ask for money again. And now, same thing. happens today with me. I get, even here in the Philippines, I get offers to lend money to me

constantly. And it's almost, I hate to say funny, you know, but it's also, you know, kind of, it's the inversion of things. There are people, when you are, when you're faithful in paying your bills and everything, there are people seeking you out to give you money. And so, but then at that point, you have learned to say no. Whereas if it had been 25, 30 years earlier, if someone would have said, here's this money, did you like it? Oh yeah, thank you. And you would have just signed up and gone with it and run with that money.

And it would have been probably the worst thing and happened in your life. But then after you've established yourself, the inverse applies. But as we're looking at this verse here in the Septuagint, Rick, that second half here broadens the King James' specific target. Rather than the one hastening to be rich, it names the wicked general. And rather than shall not be an innocent,

it says they shall not be unpunished. And so this broadening in the Septuagin, from the King James, loses the sharpness of the King James has, but it makes explicit what the King James in the Maseretic text and the Hebrew implies. It says, the man who will not be found guiltless will also not go unpunished.

Guilt established is guilt addressed in life, Rick. And Rick, you have the final word on this today? Final word is that this is the final word. It's been a good lesson. We've covered a lot of ground, and I hope it's been uplifting to our classmates because I think we've touched on some very illuminating ideas that will help you be more successful in life,

being sufficient in life, knowing that God has. has promised sufficiency. If you can just get rid of the fear of lack, you're going to be way ahead. Many of you are operating in a fear of lack. What if I don't have enough? What if I can't pay my bills?

God has promised sufficiency to you. Rest in him. He will take care of you. And those of you who are hasty to get rich, You're buying lottery tickets. You're risking what little resources you have on schemes. And you see you on the Internet. Just stop it.

God has given you a land to till. He's given you skills. Start tilling that land and be patient. And year after year, your land, which is your life, your skills, your abilities, year after year, they will produce more. And God will give you wisdom and grace to invest and to expand, and over time, you will become very prosperous. It takes time.

It just takes time. And I'll repeat what I said earlier. If you're in poverty, You might have been born into poverty, but you can be born again into sufficiency. Praise God. What a great word. He will deliver you and bring you, if you haven't been born again, there's your problem. You need to be born again.

First of all, for your soul's sake, that your sins would be forgiven. But one of the side benefits of salvation is sufficiency. in natural resources of life. It's one of the side benefits. The main thing for salvation is that your soul is saved. But some of the side benefits that come with it is sufficiency in life. That God gives you everything that you need for every day. It's a promise that he has.

All right. That's it for today. We'll be back here tomorrow. Bless. 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.

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