SPEAKER_00: Proverbs 31.
SPEAKER_00: The words of King Lemuel, an oracle that his mother taught him.
SPEAKER_00: What are you doing, my son?
SPEAKER_00: What are you doing, son of my womb?
SPEAKER_00: What are you doing, son of my vows?
SPEAKER_00: Do you not give your strength to women, or your ways to those who destroy kings?
SPEAKER_00: It's not for kings, O Lemuel, it's not for kings to drink wine, or for rulers to take strong drink, lest they drink and forget what's been decreed, and pervert the rights of all the afflicted.
SPEAKER_00: Give strong drink to the one who's perishing, and wine to those in bitter distress.
SPEAKER_00: Let them drink and forget their poverty and remember their misery no more.
SPEAKER_00: Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of those who are destitute.
SPEAKER_00: Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and the needy.
SPEAKER_00: This is the word of God, and I pray that he would seal it in your heart.
SPEAKER_00: I wonder if you would recognize the perfect king.
SPEAKER_00: Many historians and British citizens, but I repeat myself, view King Edward III as the perfect king.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, King Edward III, his nickname was the perfect king.
SPEAKER_00: And it was not one that he gave himself.
SPEAKER_00: It's not even one that his mom gave him.
SPEAKER_00: And you'll understand why for a second.
SPEAKER_00: He became king when he was 14 years old.
SPEAKER_00: The year was 1327.
SPEAKER_00: When he was 17 years old, he saw that his mom's lover, his mom's boyfriend, was taking the kingdom in a bad direction, starting unnecessary wars and such.
SPEAKER_00: And so he basically dug a tunnel from his room into that guy's room inside their castle and beheaded him when he was 17.
SPEAKER_00: Took over the kingdom himself, and he was loved by his subjects.
SPEAKER_00: He spent a lot of time among the people.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, whenever you see in movies like the undercover king who goes and spends time with the peasants, that's probably predicated on Edward III.
SPEAKER_00: He would fight with his men, he would sail with their navy, and they had a lot of naval battles in his time, and he would go out on the boats and fight with the people.
SPEAKER_00: He led a period of prosperity in England.
SPEAKER_00: He developed what people refer to as common law, and we still cite British common law.
SPEAKER_00: That comes from Edward's reign.
SPEAKER_00: He made it his goal to make English the world language, and world to him at the time was France, Belgium, Netherlands, and Scotland.
SPEAKER_00: He had it as goal that the Scots one day would speak English.
SPEAKER_00: If you know much about Edward's life, that is only kind of a joke.
SPEAKER_00: He the Scottish bugged him so much.
SPEAKER_00: He developed a taxation base.
SPEAKER_00: He started to expand England into France, made peace with France, and then war with France.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, he started what would become loan later is the Hundred Years' War.
SPEAKER_00: Despite that, he was loved by everybody until the end of his life.
SPEAKER_00: At the end of his life, his wife died and he married another woman, I don't know, officially married, but he took another woman, and she was somewhat wicked and undid a lot of the reforms he had made.
SPEAKER_00: And so that when he died, the kingdom was arguably in the same spot it was when he became king, despite him reigning for 30 plus years, which in those days was a very long life.
SPEAKER_00: He was known as the perfect king, and yet by not following Proverbs 31, his reign was undone.
SPEAKER_00: Proverbs 31 is speaking of a mother, advice from a mother to her son who is going to be the actual king.
SPEAKER_00: That's not metaphorical for you know a fictional king, or we're all royalty and Jesus' army kind of thing.
SPEAKER_00: No, this is the queen mother who is raising her son to be a godly king.
SPEAKER_00: And now he's becoming godly king, and she is giving him advice and counsel about how to reign.
SPEAKER_00: When you understand how this fits in the book of Proverbs as a whole, you see its function.
SPEAKER_00: You remember Proverbs 1 was the invitation from a parent to a probably teenage boy, 13, 14, 15, 16 years old, asking him, Would you listen to wisdom?
SPEAKER_00: Would you marry wisdom?
SPEAKER_00: And so much of Proverbs is targeting that kind of teenage boy.
SPEAKER_00: There's, of course, wisdom in Proverbs for every age, but so much of it is targeting that teenage life.
SPEAKER_00: You have to be a little bit older than 11 or 12 to understand what's happening here.
SPEAKER_00: But once you're 18, 19, 20, the horses kind of left the barn, so to speak.
SPEAKER_00: So that's the target audience of Proverbs.
SPEAKER_00: And so Proverbs 1 starts by telling these teenagers, come and live for wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: Proverbs 2 describes the beauty of wisdom, the wonders of wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: It is a life spent well when you live with wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: Proverbs 3, wisdom is so beautiful you should marry her.
SPEAKER_00: And Proverbs 4 is the wedding speech.
SPEAKER_00: Proverbs 5, 6, and 7 then become warnings against adultery.
SPEAKER_00: Now that you're married to wisdom, don't mess it up.
SPEAKER_00: You want to tank your marriage?
SPEAKER_00: Adultery.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing tanks a marriage faster than adultery.
SPEAKER_00: That's true in real-life marriages, but it is also true when it comes to wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: Proverbs 8, wisdom is actually God.
SPEAKER_00: So you made a good choice.
SPEAKER_00: You fell in love with wisdom, you thought she was beautiful, you married her.
SPEAKER_00: Turns out you're in a lifelong relationship with God because wisdom is God incarnate.
SPEAKER_00: Proverbs 9, then there's two paths to live the life spent in wisdom or the life spent in folly.
SPEAKER_00: Proverbs 10 through basically 29, then is practical wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: 10 through 22 is very elementary wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: You know, the wisdom in speech and in money and in work.
SPEAKER_00: Proverbs 23 through 29, more advanced wisdom, forgiving people of their sins, when to confront, when to cover, friendships, integrity, how to be a good king.
SPEAKER_00: That's Proverbs 29.
SPEAKER_00: Proverbs 30 then is the limits of wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: You can spend your whole life growing in wisdom and you still won't figure everything out.
SPEAKER_00: Like you still don't get how a snake works, for example.
SPEAKER_00: Good luck with that.
SPEAKER_00: How do boats even float?
SPEAKER_00: Nobody knows.
SPEAKER_00: That's Proverbs 30.
SPEAKER_00: Now Proverbs 31.
SPEAKER_00: Looking back on the life that is spent pursuing wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: The wise son in Proverbs 31 becomes king.
SPEAKER_00: Now what kind of king should he be?
SPEAKER_00: And next week we'll look at what kind of wife should he have.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not abstract.
SPEAKER_00: It's really, you're going to commit your life to living for wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: The rubber meets the road at some points here.
SPEAKER_00: What kind of king are you actually going to be, and what kind of person are you actually going to marry?
SPEAKER_00: We'll look at the marry part next week, the king part this week.
SPEAKER_00: How would you recognize the perfect king when you saw him?
SPEAKER_00: And that'll be your outline: how to recognize the perfect king.
SPEAKER_00: These are the words of King Lemuel.
SPEAKER_00: It's not Solomon.
SPEAKER_00: Lemul's not code for Solomon.
SPEAKER_00: Lemuel is an Arab king from Masa, which is a province that is outside of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: They're not Jewish.
SPEAKER_00: They do not descend from Abraham.
SPEAKER_00: But they're under Solomon's influence.
SPEAKER_00: The Israelite kingdom has kind of enveloped them.
SPEAKER_00: He's learned Hebrew.
SPEAKER_00: He's a governor of his own people in his own land, possibly even under Solomon's authority.
SPEAKER_00: We might call him governor.
SPEAKER_00: They would call themselves kings.
SPEAKER_00: That's Solomon.
SPEAKER_00: Masa, by the way, is described in Genesis chapter 25.
SPEAKER_00: Solomon is kind of overseeing it now.
SPEAKER_00: They have their own king, Lemuel.
SPEAKER_00: Lemel is a God-fearing man.
SPEAKER_00: Lemuel just means called of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: That's what the word means.
SPEAKER_00: So he's a God-fearing man reigning over some people that are adjacent to Israel.
SPEAKER_00: And his mother, also God-fearing, has presented him with the book of Proverbs, so to speak.
SPEAKER_00: Like live wisely.
SPEAKER_00: And if you've done it, this is what that should look like.
SPEAKER_00: You'll look like the perfect king.
SPEAKER_00: She starts this way.
SPEAKER_00: The king is the son, verse 2.
SPEAKER_00: What are you doing, oh my son?
SPEAKER_00: What are you doing, son of my womb?
SPEAKER_00: Now this expression, I'm not going to bore you with the details of the Hebrew through all nine of these verses.
SPEAKER_00: I did first hour, and I regret that choice.
SPEAKER_00: But know this.
SPEAKER_00: There are people that argue that this is actually Solomon in chapter 31, just using a code name because he married so many foreign women, so to speak.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm telling you, the Hebrew of these verses is just different.
SPEAKER_00: It reads, there are words that are Aramaic.
SPEAKER_00: There are words that it's written like somebody who's learned Hebrew as a second language.
SPEAKER_00: It reads very, very differently.
SPEAKER_00: It's a lot of Gentile words, so to speak, including these, uh the word for son here.
SPEAKER_00: It's not the normal Hebrew word for son.
SPEAKER_00: There's so many of those.
SPEAKER_00: I won't draw attention to all of them, but I just want you to know it is written differently than the rest of Proverbs.
SPEAKER_00: But this expression is a biblical expression.
SPEAKER_00: What have you done?
SPEAKER_00: There's a Hebrew way of saying, what are you doing?
SPEAKER_00: That's not this way.
SPEAKER_00: This is the way we might say in English, the are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_00: expression.
SPEAKER_00: If you're a parent, you know how that goes, right?
SPEAKER_00: The what have you done with that ton of voice?
SPEAKER_00: Like you walk inside and your kids are warming up the pizza in the oven in the cardboard pizza box.
SPEAKER_00: Like you got the scene?
SPEAKER_00: You know, and you have an expression that comes out of your mouth, like, not like what are you doing today, but what are you doing?
SPEAKER_00: Question mark.
SPEAKER_00: That's this expression.
SPEAKER_00: What are you doing, my son?
SPEAKER_00: Now it is used a handful of other places in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: The first time this expression is used, by the way, is from God.
SPEAKER_00: It's God addressing Cain, where he tells Cain, I told you how to worship.
SPEAKER_00: And what have you done?
SPEAKER_00: You murdered Abel.
SPEAKER_00: That's what you've done.
SPEAKER_00: Are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_00: That's this expression from the mother.
SPEAKER_00: What are you doing, my son?
SPEAKER_00: And then she adds, What are you doing?
SPEAKER_00: Son of my womb.
SPEAKER_00: Like, I made you, and I'm having a hard time processing what I'm seeing right now.
SPEAKER_00: What are you doing?
SPEAKER_00: Son of my vows.
SPEAKER_00: That expression vows means this son is from her marriage.
SPEAKER_00: She lived out Proverbs.
SPEAKER_00: She faithfully married a guy.
SPEAKER_00: She made a wedding vow.
SPEAKER_00: She has kept her wedding vow and brought her son into the world.
SPEAKER_00: And now she's encouraging her son to likewise, in the rest of Proverbs 31, make a similar wedding vow himself.
SPEAKER_00: He is king in light of his sonship.
SPEAKER_00: He is son in light of the vow.
SPEAKER_00: She made a vow, and now he's king.
SPEAKER_00: Her whole life has been spent preparing him to be king, and now he is king because he is the son.
SPEAKER_00: And the way she's speaking to him is reminding him, you are still my son.
SPEAKER_00: You have not arrived.
SPEAKER_00: Don't be too big for your britches, so to speak.
SPEAKER_00: Mom still has some things to teach you.
SPEAKER_00: And I would back up a second and make an appeal to, I know our high school group is right now, and so most high schoolers are in the gym, but I would make an appeal to any high school students that are here.
SPEAKER_00: Man, you are you need to listen to your mom.
SPEAKER_00: Do you understand that there is nobody else in this world other than your parents?
SPEAKER_00: Like that's the whole list.
SPEAKER_00: There's nobody else in this world other than your parents whose job is to look out for you.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody else has an angle.
SPEAKER_00: But not your parents.
SPEAKER_00: Your parents' function is to protect you and teach you wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: And last time I said that, I had some people come to me and say, you need to also tell kids that there are some bad parents out there, and you know, if you're gonna have a bad parent, you need to get help.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, if you have a bad parent, you need to get help.
SPEAKER_00: But your kids are all in the high school group.
SPEAKER_00: You're the good parents right now.
SPEAKER_00: No, in all seriousness, if your parents love the Lord, they're working for what's best in your life.
SPEAKER_00: They want what's best for you.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody else does.
SPEAKER_00: So listen to your parents.
SPEAKER_00: Proverbs has that theme through it time and time again, including how the book starts.
SPEAKER_00: My son, choose wisdom, learn wisdom, follow wisdom, and your life will go well.
SPEAKER_00: Ignore this, and your life will go poorly.
SPEAKER_00: And now the book ends with mom saying, Man, I sure hope you choose wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: So, first of all, choose wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: The wise king is recognizable because he's sons.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, the wise king is recognizable because he's faithful.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 3, do not give your strength to women.
SPEAKER_00: Their way is to destroy kings.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what this means here, it's an appeal to don't leave the confines of your marriage.
SPEAKER_00: And I can say that because this is not unique in the book of Proverbs.
SPEAKER_00: This appeal has been made over and over again throughout Proverbs.
SPEAKER_00: Stay faithful to your spouse.
SPEAKER_00: You want to take your marriage, commit adultery, marry other women.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this is a unique temptation for kings.
SPEAKER_00: Because kings can sometimes bring peace through marriage.
SPEAKER_00: This is what this is where Solomon's life went off the rails, is that he married Pharaoh's daughter, the Egyptian ruler, Solomon married his daughter.
SPEAKER_00: Why would he do that?
SPEAKER_00: And the answer is because it brings peace between Israel and Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: You think Egypt's gonna think the king is gonna invade you when you're married to his daughter?
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna have Thanksgiving together, but not a war together.
SPEAKER_00: David did that.
SPEAKER_00: David married these daughters of kings that they were taking over.
SPEAKER_00: It was a way of making peace, but it is not smart.
SPEAKER_00: You can see why it would be tempting.
SPEAKER_00: We read like our own American version of lust back into it, and that's probably not it.
SPEAKER_00: It's probably political alliances for the sake of peace.
SPEAKER_00: You can understand.
SPEAKER_00: You take this marriage, you save a thousand soldiers' lives.
SPEAKER_00: That kind of logic.
SPEAKER_00: Deuteronomy 17 says it's the logic that kings will fall for.
SPEAKER_00: Kings will do it because they want peace.
SPEAKER_00: Good kings will do it.
SPEAKER_00: Deuteronomy 17, 17 says good kings will do it, but it will end up turning their heart away from Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: You almost want to tell David, you don't need to grow your kingdom, man.
SPEAKER_00: Let the Lord do it.
SPEAKER_00: Solomon, you don't need to marry Pharaoh's daughter.
SPEAKER_00: See what the Lord will do to protect you from Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: Just test him in that sense.
SPEAKER_00: Lemuel, ruling over Massa, a province that's been taken over by Israel.
SPEAKER_00: You could see his temptation.
SPEAKER_00: But his mom says, you don't need to worry about it.
SPEAKER_00: Just trust the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Stay faithful to your wife.
SPEAKER_00: Trust the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: He wants to grow Masah, great.
SPEAKER_00: If he doesn't, he won't.
SPEAKER_00: That's fine.
SPEAKER_00: Trust the Lord, though, before you start trying to manipulate him with these other marriages.
SPEAKER_00: Do not give your strength to women.
SPEAKER_00: That word, the word that's used here for strength, it's not the word for muscles, like we have in English, like I go to the gym to increase my strength.
SPEAKER_00: Not that word, but we have a different word.
SPEAKER_00: It's the same one in English, but we'll say, you know, what gives me my strength in these dark days, or something like that.
SPEAKER_00: It's like an inner resolve, is what we mean.
SPEAKER_00: But we use the word strength for it.
SPEAKER_00: That's this word here in the Hebrew.
SPEAKER_00: It's an inner resolve.
SPEAKER_00: So do not give what motivates your life to strange women.
SPEAKER_00: You do it, it'll destroy you.
SPEAKER_00: Your ways, your strength gets dissipated.
SPEAKER_00: Ways is plural.
SPEAKER_00: It comes across in the SV as plural.
SPEAKER_00: Some other translations make it singular, but it's this idea that it's your strength is dissipated.
SPEAKER_00: You're a hundred-gallon tank.
SPEAKER_00: That'll run a hose all day long, but you dump it in the parking lot, it all dissipates.
SPEAKER_00: Marry lots of women, your strength is dissipated.
SPEAKER_00: That's the warning.
SPEAKER_00: And basically, stay faithful.
SPEAKER_00: The reason the wife, uh the reason his mom wants him to stay faithful is because the Lord calls him to.
SPEAKER_00: He's named after faithfulness to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: His mom is telling him to choose wisdom, follow the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, stay faithful.
SPEAKER_00: And not just to marriage, of course.
SPEAKER_00: It's expansive.
SPEAKER_00: Stay faithful to God's commands.
SPEAKER_00: Third.
SPEAKER_00: A perfect king is the son.
SPEAKER_00: He is faithful.
SPEAKER_00: He's also sober.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 4.
SPEAKER_00: It's not for kings, though, Lemuel, to drink wine.
SPEAKER_00: And it's repeated, it's not for kings, it's not for kings.
SPEAKER_00: Or for rulers to take strong drink.
SPEAKER_00: There's actually three Hebrew words here for alcohol.
SPEAKER_00: It's only two is translated into the English, but there's three.
SPEAKER_00: It's wine, the word for beer, and the word for strong for liquor.
SPEAKER_00: Like the flight attendant says beer, wine, and alcohol kind of thing.
SPEAKER_00: That's this, it's expansive.
SPEAKER_00: It's not for kings to drink.
SPEAKER_00: It's not for kings.
SPEAKER_00: Because what happens?
SPEAKER_00: They drink verse 5 and they forget what's been decreed.
SPEAKER_00: They pervert the rights of all the afflicted.
SPEAKER_00: They forget what God told them to do because they're drunk.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine a king making a verdict and not remembering what verdict he said, making an alliance, meeting with some important meeting, and then the meeting is over and he doesn't remember what he agreed to.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't a prohibition against drinking any alcohol together, of course, any more than the earlier verse was a command of celibacy.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a command of celibacy, it's a command to be faithful in marriage.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a command to be a teetotaler, it's a command to stay in control of your thoughts and your memory.
SPEAKER_00: You can see how people will drink to quote unquote take the edge off or to unwind or whatever.
SPEAKER_00: It's not for kings to do that.
SPEAKER_00: It's not for kings to act like that.
SPEAKER_00: Kings have power.
SPEAKER_00: They don't need to take the edge off, they need to do what's right.
SPEAKER_00: They don't need to unwind.
SPEAKER_00: They need to be in command.
SPEAKER_00: And so the mom is asking him basically, which kind of king do you want to be?
SPEAKER_00: Do you want to be a king that's not sober, that doesn't remember things, or do you want to be a king who's in command of your decisions at all times?
SPEAKER_00: That's your choice.
SPEAKER_00: A king who drinks at death.
SPEAKER_00: Verse six becomes somewhat sarcastic.
SPEAKER_00: Why don't you give strong drinks to the one who's perishing and wine to the one in bitter distress?
SPEAKER_00: Let them drink and forget their poverty and remember their misery no more.
SPEAKER_00: You know, you know what she's being sarcastic to hear to him to him.
SPEAKER_00: You know, you want to drink to unwind?
SPEAKER_00: You're the king.
SPEAKER_00: You're in charge.
SPEAKER_00: Why don't you go find somebody with a miserable life and let him drink, if that's your strategy?
SPEAKER_00: And again, it's sarcastic.
SPEAKER_00: She's not actually proposing a national program where you find people with lame lives and give them alcohol.
SPEAKER_00: She's saying the kind of person that needs to drink is the kind of person with a terrible life.
SPEAKER_00: Is that yours?
SPEAKER_00: It better not be.
SPEAKER_00: If you're king.
SPEAKER_00: It better not be.
SPEAKER_00: Clearly, this is sarcasm.
SPEAKER_00: The word in Hebrew literally means bitter of soul.
SPEAKER_00: Find somebody who doesn't like their life.
SPEAKER_00: Find somebody who's bitter in their soul.
SPEAKER_00: ESB translates it in verse 6, bitter distress, but it literally means their soul is bitter.
SPEAKER_00: The kind of person that just doesn't like life.
SPEAKER_00: They can forget their life.
SPEAKER_00: It's not appropriate for kings to think like that.
SPEAKER_00: And here, obviously, the application for the Christian should be so evident.
SPEAKER_00: You know, do you hate your life?
SPEAKER_00: Are you bitter about things?
SPEAKER_00: It's not for Christians to think like that.
SPEAKER_00: Christians have confidence in the sovereignty and the goodness of God.
SPEAKER_00: Be in command of your thoughts.
SPEAKER_00: Don't drink to take the edge off of your life.
SPEAKER_00: What kind of life do you have?
SPEAKER_00: Trust the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And the New Testament makes this point time and time again.
SPEAKER_00: The New Testament makes the point that the lives of believers should be different than the lives of unbelievers.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Corinthians 5, the lives of those in the church should not match the lives of those outside the church.
SPEAKER_00: There's kinds of sins that people outside of the church do all the time.
SPEAKER_00: Let them live their lives like that, but not you.
SPEAKER_00: You walk in the light, not the darkness.
SPEAKER_00: The household of God has called it to a higher standard than that of the world.
SPEAKER_00: People in the world can say, eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.
SPEAKER_00: You better not say that.
SPEAKER_00: How sad it would be if a Christian thought like that.
SPEAKER_00: Man, my life is so pathetic.
SPEAKER_00: She tells him at death you can drink like that.
SPEAKER_00: At death you can think that.
SPEAKER_00: You know, when you're on your deathbed, you're done making verdicts.
SPEAKER_00: Who cares if you can't remember what you say on your deathbed?
SPEAKER_00: But not in your life, man.
SPEAKER_00: Not in your life.
SPEAKER_00: The perfect king is son, the perfect king is faithful, the perfect king is sober, the perfect king drinks at death.
SPEAKER_00: Finally, the perfect king gives justice.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 8, open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all those who are destitute.
SPEAKER_00: Open your mouth and judge righteously.
SPEAKER_00: Defend the rights of the poor and needy.
SPEAKER_00: Now there's a word play here.
SPEAKER_00: The don't drink is literally close your mouth, and now she switches it.
SPEAKER_00: You want to open your mouth about something?
SPEAKER_00: Open your mouth for people who are afflicted.
SPEAKER_00: Open your mouth for the poor and for the oppressed.
SPEAKER_00: Open your mouth for those who are lacerated by society.
SPEAKER_00: Open your mouth for them.
SPEAKER_00: The socially disenfranchised who have no advocate, who are exploited.
SPEAKER_00: And rulers don't speak up for those people because they don't get anything from them.
SPEAKER_00: It's so easy.
SPEAKER_00: We don't have A monarchy, so some of this is dissent and foreign to us, but you can kind of throw in our American government on it.
SPEAKER_00: You would think when those are in political power, of course they would speak up for the poor and the needy.
SPEAKER_00: It's easier if you're in power, but that's not true because the poor and the needy, they're not donating to your campaign.
SPEAKER_00: They're not the poor and needy don't represent a movement that's going to keep you in power.
SPEAKER_00: And so it's so easy for those in power to close their mouths and their hearts to those who are exploited.
SPEAKER_00: But the godly king doesn't do that.
SPEAKER_00: The godly king speaks up for the oppressed.
SPEAKER_00: And this is another thing that has been running through Proverbs probably a dozen times in Proverbs.
SPEAKER_00: It condemns the miscarriage of justice.
SPEAKER_00: It condemns judges that have balances that are uneven.
SPEAKER_00: The rich people get the pound for rich people, the pound of sliced beef for a rich person is more than the pound for a poor person, so to speak.
SPEAKER_00: It's unjust.
SPEAKER_00: Judges who look at campaign donations before they render their verdicts.
SPEAKER_00: That's what this is talking about here.
SPEAKER_00: And the godly king better not be that way.
SPEAKER_00: He better open his mouth for those who are suffering, for those who are in their poverty, verse 7 says.
SPEAKER_00: For those who don't, and mute doesn't mean actually mute.
SPEAKER_00: It means that they don't have a voice in society.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 8 again, they're destitute.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 9, judge their rights, defend them, their poor and their needy, defend them.
SPEAKER_00: You take all this together, the perfect king's reign should be characterized by faithfulness, holiness, sobriety, and compassion.
SPEAKER_00: Now, when you look at these, obviously this maps on to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I'm sure you were a Christian church, you know where this is going.
SPEAKER_00: That phrase maps onto is a phrase theologians use often when you find patterns in the Old Testament and you sketch out those patterns and you lay them on top of Jesus and you realize, oh, this maps onto Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It actually traces out Jesus' life very well.
SPEAKER_00: And the flow of Proverbs 31 maps onto Jesus ideally.
SPEAKER_00: And that's because Jesus is the true Son.
SPEAKER_00: And you see this throughout Jesus' life.
SPEAKER_00: He is the perfect king, and he is the perfect king because he's the son.
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember this is what is declared time and time again.
SPEAKER_00: He is the son of the living God.
SPEAKER_00: For God so loved the world, he gave his only son.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus walks on the water, and the people in the boat say, Behold, this is the Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: Peter declares him to be the Christ, the Son of the Living God.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the true King of the world because he is the true Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: He's the only begotten Son of God, which means he is the only true King who can reign over the nations.
SPEAKER_00: Because he comes from the Father's side, or he's in the Father's bosom, John 1 says, He is the true Son.
SPEAKER_00: This is language from Proverbs chapter 8, of course, that wisdom was with the Father at creation.
SPEAKER_00: John 1, Jesus was with the Father at creation.
SPEAKER_00: Proverbs 8, through wisdom, God created the world.
SPEAKER_00: John 1, through the Son, God created the world.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the Son, so he is the true King.
SPEAKER_00: And in Proverbs 31, he is the Son by covenant, is the language in Proverbs 31, verse 2.
SPEAKER_00: In Luke, Jesus uses the same phrase.
SPEAKER_00: At communion, at the Last Supper, Jesus takes the bread and says, As the Father covenanted me a kingdom, so I'm giving my kingdom to you.
SPEAKER_00: God made a vow to the Son that he would be the king through the cross, and Jesus says, I'm bringing you with me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm the true Son from the true God.
SPEAKER_00: That makes me the true King, Jesus says.
SPEAKER_00: The Father made a vow with me.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm the King.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, of course, you see, Jesus is faithful.
SPEAKER_00: He never sinned.
SPEAKER_00: Throughout his entire life, he walked in obedience.
SPEAKER_00: To borrow the language of Hebrews chapter 7, he was undefiled, unstained, unhindered, completely holy.
SPEAKER_00: He was undistracted.
SPEAKER_00: The language of 1 Corinthians 7 says something that's obviously true, axiomatic.
SPEAKER_00: The person who marries has divided interests.
SPEAKER_00: They want to serve the Lord and they want to serve their family, and both are good.
SPEAKER_00: When you're married, they're both good.
SPEAKER_00: And you understand that 1 Corinthians 7 kind of language.
SPEAKER_00: You want to go on a short-term mission trip, but you know it'll be bad for your marriage.
SPEAKER_00: Then don't go on the trip.
SPEAKER_00: That's the decision that people make when they're married.
SPEAKER_00: And they're tough decisions to make to navigate through that balance.
SPEAKER_00: That's 1 Corinthians 7 is all about that.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus never had to make those kind of decisions.
SPEAKER_00: He was single, he was faithful, he was entirely devoted to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: That doesn't mean only single people can have that kind of faithfulness.
SPEAKER_00: Married people obviously can in Proverbs 31 get married and be faithful to your spouse.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus here is undivided in every way.
SPEAKER_00: He can only do the will of his father, he says.
SPEAKER_00: He was completely sinless, completely faithful, completely unhindered to what his father sent him to do.
SPEAKER_00: And then, of course, Jesus was sober.
SPEAKER_00: Never drunk.
SPEAKER_00: But I want you to look at a very interesting exchange.
SPEAKER_00: You can leave Proverbs 31 behind.
SPEAKER_00: Jump to Mark chapter 15.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to go to a couple more passages before we take communion, but Mark 15 first.
SPEAKER_00: Mark 15, verse 22.
SPEAKER_00: This is describing the crucifixion.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus has been humiliated all through the account in Mark's gospel.
SPEAKER_00: They're mocking him at every turn.
SPEAKER_00: Releasing Barabbas instead of him, calling him the so-called king of the Jews, etc.
SPEAKER_00: Giving the purple coat in Mark 15, verse 17, they give him a purple cloth coat.
SPEAKER_00: They put a crown of thorns on his head.
SPEAKER_00: They're mocking him.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 19, they're hitting him with a reed and spitting on him, kneeling down to pay homage to him.
SPEAKER_00: They're mocking him.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 21, they asked somebody else to carry his cross.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 22, they bring him to Golgotha.
SPEAKER_00: And verse 23, they offered him wine mixed with myrrh.
SPEAKER_00: But he didn't take it.
SPEAKER_00: The myrrh there, that's it's a sedative.
SPEAKER_00: It's wine that they're giving him to ease the pain of his suffering on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: It's considered a mercy.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, there are some accounts that there's ladies that they would stay by where the Romans are doing executions to offer people this wine.
SPEAKER_00: It was a way of deadening their pain.
SPEAKER_00: And the American idiom might be like the guy's about to be executed, you offer him a cigarette.
SPEAKER_00: I don't think that happens in her life, but in all the movies it seems to happen.
SPEAKER_00: That's that image here.
SPEAKER_00: You're about to be crucified.
SPEAKER_00: Here's some wine to deaden the pain.
SPEAKER_00: Wine mixed with myrrh.
SPEAKER_00: It was done as a mockery to him.
SPEAKER_00: It was on a rod.
SPEAKER_00: That word for rod is an unusual word.
SPEAKER_00: It's the Latin word, xylospungium.
SPEAKER_00: It's a word for a rod that's used for cleaning the latrines, for cleaning the toilets.
SPEAKER_00: And they had a sponge at the end of it for, you know, wiping the walls down in the bathrooms.
SPEAKER_00: That appears to be the sponge they dipped in the wine mix with myrrh.
SPEAKER_00: So it was designed to mock Jesus, and it was designed to deaden his pain.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus refused it.
SPEAKER_00: Wouldn't take it.
SPEAKER_00: Why not?
SPEAKER_00: Why wouldn't he take it?
SPEAKER_00: The mockery certainly is part of it.
SPEAKER_00: But he's not trying to deaden his pain.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't want the wine of man.
SPEAKER_00: He wants to drink the cup of the wrath of God.
SPEAKER_00: That's the point.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine had he gone to the cross intoxicated or with some kind of sedative to deaden his pain.
SPEAKER_00: You would wonder about his willingness in making atonement.
SPEAKER_00: He had decreed that he would die on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: He said it the night before.
SPEAKER_00: Peter tried to stop him, remember, and he said, Get behind me, Satan.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is determined to go to the cross, and nothing's going to stop him.
SPEAKER_00: He's not trying to deaden the pain.
SPEAKER_00: He's fixated, is Mark's language.
SPEAKER_00: He set his face towards the cross.
SPEAKER_00: And nothing would deter him.
SPEAKER_00: He's not going to deaden the pain.
SPEAKER_00: But then the next phrase from Proverbs 31 is he drinks at death.
SPEAKER_00: And you can flip over from here to John chapter 19.
SPEAKER_00: So go write a couple pages.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to see the actual encounter of John chapter 19.
SPEAKER_00: This is after the earlier wine is offered to him on the rod from the with the sponge from the latrine and the mixed with myrrh.
SPEAKER_00: This is a different event.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 28, after Jesus, knowing now everything is finished.
SPEAKER_00: So now he's crucified.
SPEAKER_00: This is probably a couple hours after the first offer of wine, a couple hours later.
SPEAKER_00: Knowing it's all finished, it says in verse 28.
SPEAKER_00: To fulfill scripture, he says, I thirst.
SPEAKER_00: A jar of full of sour wine stood there.
SPEAKER_00: This is a different kind of wine.
SPEAKER_00: This is the wine called pasca.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a wine the Jews drank.
SPEAKER_00: This is abhorrent wine.
SPEAKER_00: The Jews hated it.
SPEAKER_00: Roman soldiers drank it.
SPEAKER_00: Roman soldiers and slaves drank it.
SPEAKER_00: That's it.
SPEAKER_00: It's appalling.
SPEAKER_00: It's made from like this paste.
SPEAKER_00: They basically ferment wine, dilute it down to a paste.
SPEAKER_00: They add water and they add vinegar to it.
SPEAKER_00: Lots of vinegar.
SPEAKER_00: I went down the rabbit hole this week.
SPEAKER_00: I found one recipe that was like 12 parts vinegar to one part wine.
SPEAKER_00: You can imagine what this stuff tastes like.
SPEAKER_00: It's horrendous.
SPEAKER_00: It's the opposite of a sedative.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't put you to sleep.
SPEAKER_00: It wakes you, it's smelling salts.
SPEAKER_00: One commentator called it Roman Gatorade.
SPEAKER_00: Soldiers carried it with them.
SPEAKER_00: And you don't want your soldiers fighting drunk, of course.
SPEAKER_00: You don't get drunk on this wine.
SPEAKER_00: You put all, you add vinegar to it, you dilute it, and you add all kinds of stuff to it.
SPEAKER_00: The most common recipe had celery sitting in it.
SPEAKER_00: You'd put licorice in it, coriander, pepper, salt.
SPEAKER_00: If you tasted it and it was impossible, you just dump salt into it.
SPEAKER_00: They put honey in it.
SPEAKER_00: The soldiers had honey in it.
SPEAKER_00: A little sugar.
SPEAKER_00: That's where the Roman Gatorade line came from.
SPEAKER_00: It's not palatable to dump honey in it.
SPEAKER_00: That's this wine.
SPEAKER_00: So now Jesus is on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: It's all done.
SPEAKER_00: It's finished.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus asks to drink wine to fulfill scripture.
SPEAKER_00: This is not to deaden the pain.
SPEAKER_00: This would waken him up.
SPEAKER_00: And somebody grabs, it says in verse 29, a hyssop branch.
SPEAKER_00: And puts the sour wine on a sponge.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe even the hyssop itself was a sponge.
SPEAKER_00: A hyssop branch is not a rod.
SPEAKER_00: It's not the rod earlier.
SPEAKER_00: It's not the rod he was beaten with.
SPEAKER_00: It's not the rod from the latrina.
SPEAKER_00: Hyssop branches, they're like this long.
SPEAKER_00: They're the smallest things.
SPEAKER_00: It's like a bouquet of roses.
SPEAKER_00: I took that.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe the hyssop itself was the uh sponge, or maybe they put an actual sponge in it.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: But the hip-you could see how the hyssop could be moppy like a sponge, and they dipped that in the Gatorade and put that on his mouth.
SPEAKER_00: And he takes that.
SPEAKER_00: It would smell rancid.
SPEAKER_00: Why would he drink that?
SPEAKER_00: Well, he says it's to fulfill scripture.
SPEAKER_00: It's probably a reference to Psalm 69.
SPEAKER_00: In Psalm 69, the one dying says, They're gonna give me poison for food, and for my thirst, they're gonna give me sour wine.
SPEAKER_00: But this has echoes of Proverbs 31 as well.
SPEAKER_00: Drink wine at death.
SPEAKER_00: Awakens him up so he can give his last cry, Tatalesti, verse 30.
SPEAKER_00: It is finished, is how it's translated into English.
SPEAKER_00: But it's the it's the completed tense, it is over, to Telesti.
SPEAKER_00: Everything is perfect, it is complete, it is mature, it is done.
SPEAKER_00: He bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
SPEAKER_00: In doing that, he's the king that gives justice.
SPEAKER_00: He bears the sins of all those who'd ever believe.
SPEAKER_00: He takes God's punishment for sin on himself, he gives justice to those who are poor and afflicted in their sin, to those who are broken in their sin.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for they're gonna receive forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: The spiritually bankrupt will be made whole, they'll be made full.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, they're going to be fed by God.
SPEAKER_00: That's what happens on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus ministers to the poor in spirit by forgiving them of their sin.
SPEAKER_00: So he is the king who is the Son.
SPEAKER_00: He is the King who is faithful, who's sober, who drinks at death to fulfill scripture, and who gives justice to those who come in faith to him.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we're so thankful that you have extended salvation to those who put their faith in the perfect King.
SPEAKER_00: You offer forgiveness to those who believe in you.
SPEAKER_00: Who put their trust in you because you have bared their penalty for sin on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: You are the true King, you are the true Son, you are the only Savior.
SPEAKER_00: We celebrate now that down this morning.
SPEAKER_00: We give you thanks for this in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And now for a parting word for Pastor Jesse Johnson.
SPEAKER_00: If you have any questions about what you heard today, or if you want to learn more about what it means to follow Christ, please visit our church website, iBC.church.
SPEAKER_00: If you want more information about the Master's Seminary or our location here in Washington, D.C., please go to TMS.edu.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you're not a member of a local church and you live in the Washington, D.C.
SPEAKER_00: area, we'd love to have you worship with us here at Emanuel.
SPEAKER_00: I hope to personally meet you this Sunday after our service.
SPEAKER_00: But no matter where you live, it's our hope that everyone who uses this resource is involved in their own local church.
SPEAKER_00: Now may God bless you this week as you seek Jesus constantly, serve the Lord faithfully, and share the gospel boldly.