Proverbs 11:29, Home Wreckers

May 27, Proverbs 11:29

Joshua 7:24, 26; 1 Kgs. 18:17-18 “Every city or house divided against itself shall not stand” (Matt. 12:25).

Home Wreckers

The home is the first institution of God in the Garden. The devil attacked it then; he has been doing so ever since. This is a crime without boundaries.

1. A Sin so Distressful: He that troubleth his own house (cf. Pr. 11:17): The head of the house may be a loving spouse, a devoted parent, but where God is ignored a vacuum is created that nothing else can fill. Soul-sickness inevitably is at the heart of this awful troubling of our homes, because only someone blinded by sin could do such a thing. It may be an uncontrolled temper, or alcohol, or miserliness, or wastefulness, or laziness, but whatever the cause, it is not just oneself that is affected. It results in troubling his house, perhaps for generations to come. The Bible gives many examples of those who committed this sin so distressful. There was Korah (Nu. 16:32), and Achan, whose very name means troubler (Jos. 7:24-26), and the old priest Eli (1 Sa. 2:32), and wicked King Ahab (1 Kg. 21:20), and churlish Nabal (1 Sam. 25), and even King David (2 Sam. 12:10). Today, many Governments are busy doing much of the devil’s work for him. They have passed statutes that have undermined parental authority and redefined the meaning of marriage and the family. Truly, godly parents are needed as never before.

2. A Scourge so Dreadful: Inherit the wind! All the work to build a home on money and material success, will be but wind, vanity. How often Scripture reminds man of this. But he who sinfully and shamefully troubles his own house shall inherit the wind of God’s judgment. To fan a small draft in your house may end in a scourge so much more dreadful. The wind they inherit will become a blasting tornado. The wind passes over it, and it is gone, and the place thereof shall know it no more (Ps. 103:16). If you sow a little trouble in your small corner, it will sooner or later break out in a mighty tornado smashing your whole house. Note again the contrast between the blessed man and the ungodly. Whatsoever he [the blessed man] does shall prosper, but the ungodly are not so; but are like the chaff which the wind drives away (Ps. 1:3-4). This is a house without a foundation, and is therefore, unprepared to meet the storms of life. A man’s family is his first charge from Heaven, and ought to be his primary and persistent pursuit. Woe to him who makes trouble for the rest of his family! In the midst of such a wrecked home, many a man has cried: “I did it all for my family,” or “I couldn’t stop myself!”

3. A Sequel so Disgraceful: The fool be servant to the wise. Having wrecked his own house, he lost wife, children, health, and his self-respect. He sinks into a sequel so disgraceful, something like humiliating slavery. It is a vicious circle. Now he never makes enough or has enough. This applies to all who shirk their duty as providers, or make money their god and becomes its slave. It applies to the ill tempered, to the intemperate, to all those who become impassioned slaves to their lusts. Careless parents, ponder the disgraceful sequel of placing a cross instead of a crown over your house!

Prayer: “Help us, O Lord, our homes to make Thy Holy Spirit’s dwelling place;
Our hands and hearts’ devotion take to be the servants of Thy Grace.”