By James Baker

You would think that after seeing bad things happen to others, that such actions would cause those who come along later to have a change of course. But no, there is no change of course! Young men continue to get locked up! Young men continue to be gunned down! Young girls continue to get pregnant! Famous and non famous people continue to get caught having affairs, dying from the use of illegal drugs or prescription pills! Politicians continue to get caught doing unethical things. And church people continue to get caught in wrong doing, etc, etc. etc.

We have people failing miserably all over America with each decade, bringing fresh faces to fill the void left by those already disgraced in jail or dead. Lessons are given each time a person is forced from office, or his name exposed on television, or at the sound of the jail door being locked. Lessons are there when a woman claims she has had sex with someone or even the sight of a 16-year-old girl pushing a stroller while trying to attend high school, etc. Talking about people being pathetic, they most certainly are. So where is intelligent thinking? Where is the fear of consequences? All this and more, is enough to cause a sober minded person to say, “there is no way that I am going to go down that road!”

Solomon said in Proverbs 22;3, “A prudent man will see the danger and stay away, but the stupid will pass through and be punished.”

Apostle Paul wrote about the need for the current generations to lean from the mistakes of the past in 1 Corinthians 10:6-11, “Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand. Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents. Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer. Now all these things happened unto them for examples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.”

Again, Solomon writes about the pleading of Wisdom in Proverbs 1:20-33:

Wisdom cries without; she shouts her voice in the streets: She cries in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates: in the city she speaks her words saying, How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge? Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you. Because I have called, and you refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; But you have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD: They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof. Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices. For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. But whoever listens to me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.

Men and women could save themselves a lot of grief if they would simply obey what the word of the Lord said. But alas, they will not do so. Therefore, look for more shameful apologies on TV, and families ruined because people will not do the right thing. It is indeed pathetic, because the way of the transgressor is hard (Prov. 13:15).