"Since...they spurned my rebuke"

Continuing to read Proverbs 1:29-33
"Since...they spurned my rebuke..."

Knowledge...advice...rebuke. There is a progression here, from the general to the personal, from teaching to direction to correction. Rebuke is the last stop before the consequences of our actions must finally take effect. For this reason rebuke is a gracious action, a generous intervention. I have been stung by God's rebuke but I am so thankful that it arrested me before the full fruit of my foolish choices were realized. If we push aside the rebuke we are going over the edge, no doubt about it. In Romans chapter one Paul shows that pushing God away in our choices takes us through a series of downward steps: "Therefore God gave them over... (v24) ... Because of this, God gave them over to ... (v26) since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to ... (v28)."

The person of "self-control" learns how to avoid rejecting God's rebuke.

No one likes to be told. We become offended at being corrected. We aren't going to take it. Rebuke is another serious blow to our pride. Usually, by the time we are rebuked, it means that we have seriously stepped out of line. To accept the rebuke, then, forces a radical change upon us. But I don't want to change, I'm still enjoying my rebellious ways and I have all kinds of reasons to justify them. The rebuke hangs in the air while I go on and on until... Until the "since...then" process has come to its end point. Can I repent at this point and stop the process? This is a very good 'theoretical question.' But here is a better 'non-theoretical' question: When I let myself go to the point where I am fully engaged in my behaviors will I want to repent and give them up? The first question assumes that the further along I go the more free I will be to give up the behaviors. Just the opposite is true, I become more and more trapped by my own choices.

"Do not be deceived...whatever a man sows, that will he also reap." Galatians 6:7