God’s plan. Man sees only what lies behind him. God sees what lies ahead.”
                    –Elmer Kelton  (After the Bugles)

Whenever feelings and truth come into conflict, truth must win. Otherwise, folks won’t even know what’s real anymore, and the whole world will fall apart.”
                    –John Deacon  (Kip)

       “He who keeps his command will experience nothing harmful; And a wise man’s heart discerns both time and judgment.”
                    –Ecclesiastes 8:5 (NKJV)
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          .20 — Wisdom call aloud outside; she raises her voice in the open squares. — NKJV
                   Wisdom shouts in the street, she lifts her voice in the square. — NASB
                   Wisdom cries aloud in the street, in the markets she raises her voice. — ESV
          .21 — She cries out in the chief concourses, at the openings of the gates in the city she speaks her words. –NKJV
                   At the head of the noisy streets she cries out; at the entrance of the gates in the city she utters her sayings.  –NASB
          .22 — “How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity?  For scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge.  –NKJV
                   “How long, O naive ones, will you love being simple-minded?  And scoffers delight themselves in scoffing and fools hate knowledge?  –NASB
                   “How long will you simple ones love your simple ways?  How long will mockers delight in mockery and fools hate knowledge?  –NIV
          .23 — Turn at my rebuke; surely I will pour out my spirit on you; I will make my words known to you.  –NKJV
                   Turn to my reproof, behold, I will pour out my spirit on you; I will make my words known to you.  –NASB
                   If you turn at my reproof, behold, I will pour out my spirit to you; I will make my words known to you.  –ESV
                   If you had responded to my rebuke, I would have poured out my heart to you and made my thoughts known to you.  –NIV

Wisdom, as Bob Beasley puts it is “the very voice of the God of creation.”  It is up to each individual to heed this call, to listen to His voice, but sadly many choose not to hear.    Paul tells us in Romans 1:20, that because they do not listen to the voice of God, this voice of wisdom, “they are without excuse.”  “The words of God make people wise unto salvation, but even the knowledge of this higher level of revelation is despised by fools.” (Beasley)
     “Simplicity is stupidity” (J. Vernon McGee)  In other words the question is, “How long will you be stupid?”  You can’t live in a fool’s paradise for the day is coming when there will be a reckoning.  Warren Wiersbe says, “Fools enjoy their foolishness but don’t know how foolish they are!”  Listen!  Wisdom is calling; it is shouting.  There is the opportunity to turn and God’s words will become known and real.  The warning is clear:  Listen to wisdom!  Get rid of your stupid, simple ways.  Someone has rightly said, “You can fix ignorance, but stupidity is fatal.”  At the end of chapter 1 we read, “For the turning [lit. waywardness] away of the simple will slay them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them.” (NKJV)  As J. Verson McGee says, “It is spiritual suicide to turn from Christ.”
     The voice of wisdom cries when the child races into the street without looking.  “Danger!  Stop!” shouts the words of a frightened parent for they know the child is not trained, but is foolish.  The child doesn’t listen, the consequences…  As a parent will cry out in warning, so did/do the prophets.  “Say to them:  ‘As I live,’ says the Lord GOD, ‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live.  Turn, turn from your evil ways!  For why should you die, O house of Israel?'” (Ezekiel 33:11, NKJV)
     Wisdom cries out to the simple, those unwary and easily misled.  This person has no foundation, no experience, no training.  Wisdom cries out to the scorner; the one who is indifferent to the parent’s love and mocks them openly.  The scorner is active against good.  William Arnot writes, “Scorners love scorning.  The habit grows by indulgence.”  The voice of wisdom cries out to the fool.  This is the one who would rather stay in their sinful state.  They love moral darkness rather than light.  These people should heed the following:  “Life is tough, but it’s tougher if you’re stupid.” (John Wayne)
     It is wisdom we listen to as we walk through the streets.  It is what guides us in this journey of life.  Sin is trying to get in, but we see wisdom trying to reach out–and if need be, shouting at us.  Listen to the voice of wisdom, not that of impertinence, arrogance, hatred, and lies.  There is no excuse for not hearing the voice of wisdom.  Note the story of the ten virgins, five were foolish and were not prepared and were not invited into the marriage supper.  Don’t be unprepared, “for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23, NKJV).

Morals are your compass for the direction of your life—if you know something is not good or right, you avoid it. But that which is good, you always seek to do what’s right.”
                     –B. N. Rundell  (The Road to Retaliation)

       “And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.”
                      –Jeremiah 29:13 (NKJV)
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          (NKJV)
          5.4 — For thus says the LORD to the house of Israel:  “Seek Me and live;
          5.5 — But do not seek Bethel, nor enter Gilgal, nor pass over to Beersheba; for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nothing.
          5.6 — Seek the LORD and live, lest He break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it, with no one to quench it in Bethel–
          5.7 — You who turn justice to wormwood, and lay righteousness to rest in the earth!”  
          (NASB)
          5.4 — For thus says the LORD to the house of Israel, “Seek Me that you may live.
          5.5 — But do not resort to Bethel and do not come to Gilgal, nor cross over to Beersheba; for Gilgal will certainly go into captivity and Bethel will come to trouble.
          5.6 — Seek the LORD that you may live, or He will break forth like a fire, O house of Joseph, and it will consume with none to quench it for Bethel,
          5.7 — For those who turn justice into wormwood and cast righteousness down to the earth.”

Whooee, I wonder what Amos would be saying if he were alive and standing in the austere room of the Supreme Court or in front of a joint session of Congress.  Listen, this season is a good time of year to stop, get still, and ponder your fate and whom you serve.  Take inventory of your life and see if you are not serving the Baals of greed, materialism, globalism, wokeism, and so many other -isms.  It cannot be to dead idols no matter what name they go by.
            “Seek Me and live.”
       The prophet points the nation to the supreme truth that her following the one true God and seeking after His presence, laws, and true worship was the one way she still could preserve her national spiritual life.  Look, if you dare, at the spiritual life of America starting at the top down.  What kind of spiritual life does a nation have when they have drag queens reading to elementary students; when satanic figures parade down the streets masquerading as the spirit of Christmas?  We’ve come a long ways from “A Miracle on 34th Street.”  What kind of spiritual life does the nation have when the gay crowd is promoted as a legitimate way of life?  Perhaps the reading of Romans 1-2 is in order.  H.A. Ironside said, “Scripture must ever be the guide–not human rules and assumption of authority.”  It is not wokeism, cross culture, progressive socialism, or globalism; it is God’s Word that is the ultimate guide and truth.  God tells the people not to go to these false places of worship for He is not there.
           “Seek Me and live.”
     Righteousness has been forgotten, or at least the Biblical form of righteousness.  The words of Gary G. Cohen tell us, “The nations crime was so great in God’s sight that He portrays it as one who perverts justice into wormwood; a bitter tasting and poisonous root.  Those who lit sacrificial fires in the calves at Bethel would soon discover they had ignited a fire of punishment that would burn them with judgment.  Ultimately, such a fire will never go out.”  These altars, these gods were idols portraying falsity and futility.  We must remember that “our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:29).  “Righteousness and justice should be the pillars that hold up society” (Warren Wiersbe) not something that causes bitterness and infection and death.
     Israel “had become corrupt, morally and ethically, and roots of bitterness had grown up in them against righteousness, they had cast righteousness under their feet…  They dethroned righteousness from their lives though it was the vicegerent and representative of God on earth.” (Albert Garner)  It would do us well to recall the words of Isaiah, “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil…” (5:20)
          (NKJV)
          5.8 — He made the Pleiades and Orion; He turns the shadow of death into morning and makes the day dark as night; He calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out on the face of the earth; the LORD is His name.
          5.9 — He rains ruin upon the strong, so that fury comes upon the fortress.
          (NASB)            
          5.8 — He who made the Pleiades and Orion and changes deep darkness into morning, who also darkens day into night, who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out on the surface of the earth, the LORD is His name.
          5.9 — It is He who flashes forth with destruction upon the strong so that destruction comes upon the fortress.

     By offering sacrifice to the false gods of the day they are in reality mocking the holy God–the Creator of heaven and earth.  Offering children upon the altars of Baal; do they not think that God does not hear the cry of the innocents?  Using the name of God in their syncretistic worship was a slap in His face.  God reminds us Who He is!   It is God, not some other deity that created and keeps the laws of nature in operation.  All ways do not lead to God; the only is way is His Son, Jesus Christ; therefore, do not be delusioned like the people of Israel were.  He is the I AM; He can vanquish the strong person and army, as well as a mighty man-made fortress.  “He it is who flings ruin in the face of the strong, and rains destruction upon the fortress.” (vs 9, J.B. Phillips) [Mock Me], I in turn will laugh when disaster strikes you; I will mock when calamity overtakes you—” (Proverbs 1:26, NIV).
               Seek Me and live!