Proverbs 30: 29-31. "Respect the Walk"

Proverbs 30: 29     There are three things which are majestic in pace.  Yes, four which are stately in walk:

30     A lion, which is mighty among beasts and does not turn away from any;

31     A greyhound,
A male goat also,
And a king whose troops are with him.

Proverbs 30: 29-31.   Buford Graves told me, “Walk with purpose, even if you don’t know where you’re going.”

The author of Proverbs chapter 30 kinda endorsed my father’s advice.    Proverbs 30 tells us that whether creatures of instinct or leaders at the pinnacle of their power, you gotta respect the walk.

The list in verses 29-31 marks four creatures whose strides are majestic and stately. 

First, there’s the lion whose strut says, “I’m at the top of the food chain,” and whose teeth, claws, muscles say, “He’s right.”

Thirdly (We’ll come back to number 2.), there’s the he-goat who prances with his head high.  Rib shattering horns and mountain climbing hooves make the walk more than just talk.

The last one on the list is a king whose swagger (not swag) is turned up to high.  And his majesty has reason to strut because the wording in the original language means “A king, against whom there is no rising up.”  This king’s army wins.  All they do is win, win, win no matter what.

The name of the second strutting creature is literally “one that is girt about the loins.”  Some translators say greyhound, but others have named the rooster, the war horse, and the human soldier.  Honestly, scholars don’t know what or who this is.

It think it’s us---- you and me.  As Christians we are supposed to  go out into the world confident that our Christian walk is back up by real power. 

No arrogance.  You don’t have to try so hard to look like you’re all that.  Just take one step at a time knowing the you are accompanied by God who is all mighty.

You may feel as majestic as a lion  or as ridiculous as a strutting rooster, but if Jesus Christ is your Savior, then you are marked with the special dignity of a temple filled with the Shekinah glory of the Holy Spirit.

What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?  (1 Corinthians 6:19)

As a child of the king you ought to have a swagger on the inside because you know that the troops who are with you are greater than the enemies that come against you. 

And Elisha prayed, and said, “Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.” Then the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. (2 Kings 6: 17)

 You are a child of God, destined for eternal glory.

So, when you go out today, walk with purpose because you know where you’re going.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church in Montgomery, Alabama.

Call  334-288-0577
Email atgravestwo2@aol.com
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PURPOSE, FOCUS, LIONS, & PROPHETS

God gives purpose, but focus has to come from you.

1 Kings chapter 13 records the story of an unnamed man of God from Judah.  This man of God had a mission.  He had a message from God to deliver to the king who was defiling the altar in Bethel.   The man of God delivered that message with courage and integrity.  The man of God spoke truth to power and God confirmed His word with signs that stayed the king’s order to arrest the man of God.  The man of God fulfilled his Divinely appointed purpose in the face of corruption and personal attacks.

But then things got easy.

The king invited the man of God to rest, refresh himself, and enjoy a reward from the royal treasury.   The man of God replied, “If you were to give me half your house, I would not go in with you; nor would I eat bread nor drink water in this place.   For so it was commanded me by the word of the Lord, saying, ‘You shall not eat bread, nor drink water, nor return by the same way you came.’ ” 

So he went another way and did not return by the way he came to Bethel (1 Kings 13:8-11).

Having kept to his purpose, the man of God was on his way home, but he stopped to rest near where all this had happened.  While he was resting, doing nothing, just chillin’, an old prophet from Bethel caught up to him.  The old prophet invited the man of God to come back to his house in Bethel to rest and have a meal.    

The man of God replied, I cannot return with you nor go in with you; neither can I eat bread nor drink water with you in this place. For I have been told by the word of the Lord, ‘You shall not eat bread nor drink water there, nor return by going the way you came.’ ” (1 Kings 13:16-17).

But the old prophet said, “I too am a prophet as you are, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the Lord, saying, ‘Bring him back with you to your house, that he may eat bread and drink water.’ ” (1 Kings 13:18).

Well, the man of God was tired, and hungry, and thirsty after his long journey, and he still had a long journey ahead of him.  It was a sweet offer, and it came from an old saint, a prophet.  No, it wasn't the what God had said before, but it would be so nice to  take the old prophet at his word and enjoy a home-cooked meal.

The man of God lost his focus.  He went home with the old prophet.  They ate.  They drank.   They talked. They chilled. 

Problem is that the end of verse 18 says that the old prophet was lying to him.

He wasn’t lying about being a prophet; he was lying about having a new message from God.

(Now why would a genuine prophet lie, especially to another man of God?   Perhaps the od prophet just really, really wanted to talk to the man who’d stood up to the king.  He didn’t mean any harm to the man of God.  The prophet probably figured that a little lie was O.K. as long as he said “I decree and I declare” before he told the lie.)

Funny thing is that when you lose focus, it’s often the people who distracted you who are the first to call you out for getting off track.

^Now it happened, as they sat at the table, that the word of the Lord came to the prophet who had brought him back; ^ and he cried out to the man of God who came from Judah, saying, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Because you have disobeyed the word of the Lord, and have not kept the commandment which the Lord your God commanded you, ^ but you came back, ate bread, and drank water in the place of which the Lord said to you, “Eat no bread and drink no water,” your corpse shall not come to the tomb of your fathers.’ “ (1 Kings 13: 20-22)

Of course at this point the man of God hops on his own donkey and hits the road, but a lion snatches him off and kills him. 

Only, the lion doesn’t harm the donkey, and the donkey doesn’t try to run away, and the lion doesn’t eat the man he killed.  The lion and the donkey just stand there over the body on the side of the road so everybody passing by can see that “It is the man of God who was disobedient to the word of the Lord. Therefore the Lord has delivered him to the lion, which has torn him and killed him….” (1 Kings 13:26).

The man of God had a purpose; he had an anointing; and he had the power of the Holy Ghost.  But he lost focus.

In a moment of rest and reverie, he let somebody convince him to do what God had told him not to do.

God gives each of us a purpose but when we’re tired, when we’re just chillin’, or  when we feel all good about a particular success we tend to lose focus.  We tend to drop our guard and get a little slack.  We become susceptible to the temptation to compromise on the fine points of God’s directions.  We get enticed by the offer of a slight and understandable deviation from the Lord’s commands. 

It’s not like we denounce our calling.  It’s not like we’re following the idolatrous king into sin.  We’re just taking a little break with some good people and hanging out when we should be humping it down the road in the direction God already told us to go.

We have to stay focused.

We have to keep on the grind.

We have to keep going and going until we get to the point where God says we can rest and be refreshed.

You should hear the counsel of godly men and women, but the weight of the decision is yours alone to bear.

In the end, no body----- and I mean NO body------ should convince you to deviate from the purpose and plan God has given you.

Remember that the lion didn’t kill the lying old prophet. 

The lion killed the man of God who lost his focus and deviated from God’s plan.

God will give you purpose, but you have to provide the focus.

 

That said, though I stayed up late last night, but you'll have to excuse me while I go exercise for 30 minutes and knock some things off my to-do list.

I’ll chill when I’m done.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a pastor, writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Call me at 334-288-0577
Email me at atgravestwo2@aol.com
Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

To hear sermons, read devotions, and learn more about the ministry at Hall Memorial CME Church, visit www.hallmemorialcme@blogspotcom.