Solomon warned his son:
My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding: (Proverbs 5:1 KJV)
We would be a lot better off if we all listened to his advice throughout the entire book of Proverbs.
Hear me now therefore, O ye children, and depart not from the words of my mouth. (Proverbs 5:7 KJV)
As he wrote in Ecclesiastes, he set out to learn and he had the God-given wisdom to pass along what he had learned. He had some good teachers. For all of his errors, his father taught him to love and respect God. For spiritual growth he had the prophet Nathan, who was bold enough to make David face his own sins.
And thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed, And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof; And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me! I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly. (Proverbs 5:11-14 KJV)
When I think of wasted lives, I don’t know which is the most painful of the memories that come to mind, the teens or the adults.
The teenaged driver drove a fairly new 4x4 four-door pickup. I don’t know if he had a curfew, but two of the girls in the truck did. They had lied to their parents as to where they would be that night. Instead of spending the night at a friend’s house, they were with the young man in the early morning hours, out of alcohol to drink and on their way for more. Three teens died, two live with life-long injuries. They hated instruction and despised reproof.
The man drunk (yes – correct word) his way out of the Navy with a dishonorable discharge. Incapable of maintaining a job for very long, he spent more time away than at home. Eventually leaving a wife and several children, traveling with a woman who left a husband and four of her own, they wandered for years. Again, they did not obey the voice of their teachers nor inclined their ears to their instructors.
I know the teens who survived the wreck set out to instruct others about what happened. I know that the adults eventually found the Lord, changed their lives and set out to instruct others. You see, even though verses 11-14 applied, lessons ignored, lives changed, improved.
Except, when death intervenes. When will that happen? Some of us have more clues than others, but all any of us have is right now.
I could quote Isaiah 49:8 or:
(For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.) (2 Corinthians 6:2 KJV)
Both are true. Now, not tomorrow.
It seems like so many adults are turning back trying to regain some teenage years. They are making so many of the same mistakes that teenagers are. I have a sister who is just this way. She is 52 and has no home of her own, drinking and living place to place off of men. She too would not hear instruction when she left her good husband, the father of her children.
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