"Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the Lord she shall be praised."
The clear instructions of priority is listed here at the close of this chapter. A woman, as also for a man is to fear the Lord. Favor is deceitful - the delight when flattery, gifts blind the eye; I have seen it many a time in my life. An older person compliments a younger person, giving 'favor' to them for the sole purpose of drawing them for an ally. I've seen parents bestow gifts to children to win their hearts. It was commanded in the Scriptures that the judge should not take a gift lest it spoil his decision to do right. Call it what you might, it is simply a bribe, for their own selfish interests. It blinds the eyes of the leaders, it destroys the teaching and application of right and wrong. It spoils the young and teaches them favor can manipulate, distort and malign for seflish gain. There are numerous examples in the Bible when favor was deceitful. Its end is sin and destruction soon follows. I think of one that would do us well to look at quickly before we move on. In the end of the book of I Kings, Ahab and Jehoshaphat hath joined forces to go fight the enemy, the king of Syria.
Prophets everywhere before the king prophesied victory was sure and all was well. These prophets sought Ahabs favor for prominence, the presence of the king, no doubt - money, food and notriety. What good does any of this do when men's souls hang in the balance of eternity? It was one man alone, who did not care for the favor of the king, MIcaiah only sought to be obedient unto the Lord. He spoke the truth to Ahab and Jehoshaphat, that Ahab was going to die in this battle. These false prophets occassioned the death of a man, because favor is deceitful. Oh, the high costs of vanity for our pride. And beauty is vain - vanity is the besetting sin in our society; Never has there been such a waste of time, money and effort to look like someone else or something else. If God gives beauty to a man or a woman, simply look unto the Lord and give thanks. For all of it shall soon fade away. Ah, but not so in this generation. For with the right amount of money, you can look eternally young. Surgery, meds, all kinds of creams, pills and other nonsense to preserve vanity. I would hate to know the amount of dollars wsted for vanity. But know this, we will answer for it. We let a world go to hell, for the sake of the color of our hair, the diets pills, subscritpions and other waste of money. These things should not interest us. OH, how scewed are our priorities with favor and vanity. the root of all this ,is love of self over the love of the Savior.
Be the first to react on this!
