THE EYE THAT MOCKS & SCORNS

Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on April 24, 2022 under 2022 |

Bethany Bible Church Sunday message; April 24, 2022 from Proverbs 30:17

Theme: An attitude of contempt for God-appointed authority leads to dreadful judgment.

(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).

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There are many portions of God’s word that are beautiful and poetic. But then, there are also a few passages that we find in the Bible that are shocking and unpleasant. And while not all things that the Bible has to tell us are positive and pretty, we can be sure that everything that it tells us is absolutely true.

This morning, we come to a single verse that is one of those shocking and unpleasant portions of the Bible. But the Holy Spirit included it in the Scriptures as something that speaks the truth to us—and that is very necessary for us to hear.

It’s found in Proverbs 30. But before I read this single verse to you, I very much feel the need to back up just a bit in Proverbs 30 to gain a little bit of context.

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We’ve been making our way through Proverbs 30 over the past few months, and learning from the sayings of a wise man named Agur. God used this man to speak profound spiritual and practical truth to us in some very plain and straightforward ways. One of the things that we had studied a few weeks ago was from verses 11-14; where he said,

There is a generation that curses its father,
And does not bless its mother.
There is a generation that is pure in its own eyes,
Yet is not washed from its filthiness.
There is a generation—oh, how lofty are their eyes!
And their eyelids are lifted up.
There is a generation whose teeth are like swords,
And whose fangs are like knives,
To devour the poor from off the earth,
And the needy from among men (Proverbs 30:11-14).

And perhaps you’ll remember that, when we studied this passage back then, we saw that there is a downward moral spiral being represented in it. It speaks of a ‘generation’—not a particular ‘age group’ that was born in a certain decade, but rather a prevailing way that a group of ungodly people will think as they are found at any point of time in history. And at the end of this downward spiral, Agur speaks of a ‘generation’ that is very lawless in nature, and very brutal in its words and actions. In verse 14, he said that it’s a generation that takes advantage of helpless and needy people, and that devours them for personal gain, and that is inhumane in its greediness and self-centeredness. And as Agur’s words show us, this generation gets to that inhumane condition through being prideful and arrogant, and through thinking that it is ‘pure’ in its own eyes. It’s a generation that doesn’t listen to or respect the commandments of God, and that doesn’t feel the guilt of sin and wrongdoing. (It almost sounds like the kind of times in which we’re living today; doesn’t it?)

And I ask you to notice especially how that ‘downward spiral’ began. You see it in verse 11. It began with this generation having a prevailing attitude toward parental authority—a generation that ‘curses’ father, and that ‘does not ‘bless’ mother. That downward moral slide into inhumane greediness and cruelty began with a disregard and disrespect for the most fundamental source of human authority that we ever encounter in life—that is, our own mother and father. If someone cannot and will not learn to submit to that very first line of authority that God places over our lives, then they will not learn to submit to God’s patterns of authority in all the rest of life. It’s a basic and fundamental principle in God’s moral universe. It’s a principle that’s communicated to us in a positive way in the fifth commandment; in which God says,

“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you” (Exodus 20:12).

If we will humbly learn, early on, to honor the authority figures that God establishes over us in life—starting with mother and father—then we will learn to honor God’s authority in our lives going forward; and our lives will experience His blessing as a result. But if we disregard and dishonor the authority figures that God has established over us—beginning with a disregard for the authority of father and mother—then it will become very hard for us to honor His authority later on in our lives; and our lives will be characterized by moral decline and loss as a result.

And that brings us to this shocking and unpleasant verse. It shows us—in very plain language—that a continual pattern of disrespect for God’s authority through our parents will ultimately lead to God’s judgment. We find it in Proverbs 30:17. It says;

The eye that mocks his father,
And scorns obedience to his mother,
The ravens of the valley will pick it out,
And the young eagles will eat it (Proverbs 30:17).

Very ugly words. But very necessary ones. Oh, how we need to hear them in our day!

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I’m going to make a personal admission to you. I didn’t understand this important principle of life when I was young. I would say that I was submitted to my parents’ authority. But I didn’t understand at the time who God is; and so, my submission to my parents was mostly motivated by fear. I obeyed because I knew what would happen if I didn’t.

And do you know what happened as a result? Any time that I was convinced that my parents weren’t looking, or that I thought they couldn’t know about it, I disobeyed and did whatever I wanted. I thought I was pretty clever. But I must not have been very clever; because I always got caught. It wasn’t until my late teenage years—when I heard the good news of the gospel, and placed my faith in Jesus—that I really began to understand God’s authority in my life. And it was also then that I began to understand how God had placed my parents in my life as the first line of His authority over me. I may not have agreed with everything that they told me to do. But I learned to submit to their authority and respect them anyway; because I now understood that they were representatives of God’s authority in my life. I’m sure that the change wasn’t instantaneous. But more and more, I was proving to be trustworthy to their wishes—even when they weren’t there to supervise me. They even told me that they could trust me.

Now, one of the things I learned, as I grew into the early stages of adulthood, is that you can’t get away from the reality of authority figures in your life. You may step out from under the direct authority of your mother and father; but you find that there are lots of other lines of authority that take their place. I sure found plenty of others as I went along—whether at church, or at school, or at work, or in everyday civil life. But also I found that what I had learned from submitting to God through my parents developed in me respect for God’s authority over me through others that He placed over me. Again, I wouldn’t say that I was perfect. But this broad principle was indeed definitely getting established in me.

I think that a very important step forward in my understanding of this came about from reading the Bible—and particularly from reading Romans 13. That was a passage that really helped me to understand how this all works. That passage says;

Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. For he is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. Therefore you must be subject, not only because of wrath but also for conscience’ sake (Romans 13:1-5).

The way it worked out for me was something like this: My parents—or my teacher—or my boss—would tell me to do something; but I didn’t want to do it. And then, I just couldn’t help it; I would begin to enter into a conversation with God about it. “Heavenly Father,” I would say, “I don’t want to do that.” And the Father would—as it were—say to me, “Well; you love Me and respect My authority; don’t you?” And I would say that I did. “Then do what they tell you,” He would seem to say; “because there is no authority except from Me … and I put them over you.” I love how Paul said at the end of that passage that we do this “not only because of wrath but also for conscience’ sake”. When I’m respecting God’s authority, my submission is no longer primarily a ‘fear-based’ thing, but rather a matter of conscience before Him.

Now; almost right away, I can think of how many of us had some bad experiences with our mother or father. Some of us had parents whose authority it was very hard to submit to and respect. And of course, as we grow up in life, we encounter many other authority figures whose authority is hard to submit to and respect. Some of them have even told us to do what God has told us not to do—or not to do what God told us to do. And in those cases, the principle of Acts 5:29 comes into play—“We ought to obey God rather than men.” That would be true of all authority figures that God places in our lives—whether parents, or teachers, or employers, or civil and governmental leaders, and even church. We must always place God’s authority first.

But it’s because of the very fact that we place God’s authority first that we must submit, as much as we can, to all those that He places over us—even if they don’t behave in a way that seems worthy of that authority. As Paul put it in Romans 13:2, “Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves.”

And that really points us back to those very shocking and unpleasant words in Proverbs 30:17;

The eye that mocks his father,
And scorns obedience to his mother,
The ravens of the valley will pick it out,
And the young eagles will eat it.

You can plainly see that these words have something to say to all of us—even if we are long past the days of being under the direct authority of our mothers and fathers. They teach us a fundamental and inviolable principle in God’s moral universe: An attitude of contempt for God-appointed authority leads to dreadful judgment.

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Now; let’s look at these words and notice first …

1. THE SIN THAT IS BEING DESCRIBED

Agur speaks of “the eye” that mocks his father; and that scorns obedience to his mother. And since eyes don’t talk, it’s obvious that “the eye” is meant to be symbolic of something else. And what it’s meant to be symbolic of is an attitude of heart or a frame of mind—one that is often expressed very clearly through the look of the eye.

Do you remember back in the Old Testament, when God commanded the people of Israel to go to war with the surrounding enemy nations? God was going to hand those enemy nations over to Israel; and He warned them not to make any treaties or negotiations of peace with them, because they would lead Israel down the path into sin. Instead, He said, “your eye shall have no pity on them” (Deuteronomy 7:16). Clearly, God wasn’t simply speaking of ‘pity’ from the physical organ of the eye. He was speaking of an attitude of heart that expressed itself through the look of the eye. And that’s what Agur was speaking of here. He is speaking of an attitude of heart in which someone mocks their father and scorns obedience to their mother. It’s an attitude of disrespect that would show itself in the look of the eye.

Eyes may not speak audibly; but they can nevertheless be very expressive, can’t they? I remember when my mother would tell me to do something; and I would reveal the attitude of my heart through my eyes. “Don’t you roll your eyes at me, young man!” she would say. I may have tried to come back with, “What? I didn’t say anything!” But the truth is, I did. Sometimes the look of the eye may be very subtle and relatively insignificant. But the attitude of heart behind it may be dreadfully sinful and rebellious.

Consider the kind of ‘look of the eye’ Agur speaks of. He speaks of the look that “mocks” one’s own father. The father may justly and rightly exercise authority over his son or daughter; but the child’s reaction can be one of mocking their father’s authority. The look in their eye may reveal an attitude of deep rebellion in the heart. Or the look may show “scorn” or “contempt” for obedience toward one’s own mother. The mother may rightly command obedience; but the child’s reaction can be one of contempt for the whole idea of obedience to the mother’s authority—as if to say, “I’m not going to do what you tell me—and you can’t make me.” The look in their eye may reveal an attitude of rebellion or contempt in the heart.

And that’s no small thing; because behind the look of the eye is a mocking and scorn for the authority of God in our lives through the authority figures He places over us. Think of it. You may not have mocked or scorned your father or mother lately; but have you harbored an attitude of mocking and scorn toward an employer? Young person—have you sneered at and mocked a teacher? Or older person—have you rolled your eyes and scoffed at the governor? Or the mayor? Or the president? That’s really a very serious thing to do. It’s not a question of whether or not the authority figures He places over us are worthy of their role. And it certainly doesn’t mean that we can never rightly and justly criticize the actions of authority figures when they do wrong. But how we respond to the authority figures God places over us reveals the truth about our inner attitude toward God’s own authority over us. God has placed the two things together in Exodus 22:28; when He said to Israel;

“You shall not revile God, nor curse a ruler of your people” (Exodus 22:28).

So then; we absolutely must make sure that we are honoring God’s authority over us, through those delegated human authorities, by the way that we cast the eye upon them. It may not even be through a single word that is uttered. It all may be just through the eye. But God sees the attitude of heart that is behind it all.

* * * * * * * * * *

So; that’s the sin that is being described. It’s basically the sin of rebellion. The eye that mocks father and scorns obedience to mother—or any other God-given authority figure—is ultimately revealing an attitude of mocking and scorn toward obedience to God.

And that leads us next to notice …

2. THE CURSE THAT RESULTS FROM THE SIN.

Agur says, with regard to that rebellious eye, “the ravens of the valley will pick it out,

And the young eagles will eat it.” In these words, the eye is still being used as a symbolic representation of something else. In this case, he’s speaking very graphically of the destiny of the whole person—rebellious eye and all—who continually rebels against God’s authority.

In the thinking of the Jewish people in ancient times, there was no greater dishonor that a person could suffer than to be cast away after death without a burial—and to then be consumed by the birds and beasts. It’s not a very pleasant thing to think about; but it’s a kind of judgment from God that is described in a surprising number of places in the Bible. God warned His people Israel, for example, that such would be the kind of fate they would suffer if they consistently rebelled against Him. In Deuteronomy 28:26, He told them;

“Your carcasses shall be food for all the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and no one shall frighten them away” (Deuteronomy 28:26).

In a very horrible passage in Ezekiel 39 with regard to the end times, God spoke of the destiny of all the armies of the world that would one day rise up to attack Israel. God commanded Ezekiel to speak to the birds of the air and say;

“Assemble yourselves and come;
Gather together from all sides to My sacrificial meal
Which I am sacrificing for you,
A great sacrificial meal on the mountains of Israel,
That you may eat flesh and drink blood.
You shall eat the flesh of the mighty,
Drink the blood of the princes of the earth,
Of rams and lambs,
Of goats and bulls,
All of them fatlings of Bashan.
You shall eat fat till you are full,
And drink blood till you are drunk,
At My sacrificial meal
Which I am sacrificing for you.
You shall be filled at My table
With horses and riders,
With mighty men
And with all the men of war,” says the Lord God (Ezekiel 39:17-20).

I know that these are horrible words to read. But they describe to us the kind of severe judgment that will one day fall on those who persist in rebellion against God’s authority in life. It starts with the eye that mocks father and that scorns obedience to mother. I read the other day what one old preacher said; that in ‘many a confession at the scaffold’—just before being ushered into eternity—many a criminal has admitted that it was a refusal to honor the authority of mother and father that eventually put them at the end of a rope. That rebellious eye ends up being picked out by the ravens of the valley—and eaten by the young eagles.

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What a horrible passage to have to read. Horrible—but necessary. But now, let’s consider …

3. THE LESSON THAT IS TO BE LEARNED.

And I suggest to you that the lesson is best learned by looking carefully at the One who lived a life of perfect obedience to His Father. He is the perfect example for us to follow.

Do you remember the story of when Jesus was a boy? His mother and adopted father took Him to Jerusalem to the temple, to celebrate the Feast of Passover. When they left to go home, they couldn’t find Him. And when they came back a few days later, they found Him in the temple talking with the scholars and rabbis. They were amazed at His wisdom. He said that He must be about His Father’s business. If there was anyone who would have been qualified to exempt Himself from being under fallen, fallible, imperfect parental authority, it would have been Him. And yet, we read in Luke 2:51-52;

Then He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was subject to them, but His mother kept all these things in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men (Luke 2:51-52).

He—even He—was submitted to the authority figures that were placed over Him by His heavenly Father. And why? It was because He was submitted with all His being to the Father Himself first. As He Himself once said;

“I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me” (John 5:30).

He was so completely submitted to the authority of the Father, in fact, that He willingly yielded His life and died on the cross for your sins and mine. He prayed in the garden and said;

“O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will” (Matthew 26:39).

And if we love Him who gave Himself for us, then we will remember what He has told us;

“As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love” (John 15:9-10).

So, dear brothers and sisters; let’s let the Holy Spirit search our hearts thoroughly; and let Him cleanse us of any trace of rebellion against our heavenly Father’s authority over our lives. Let’s make absolutely sure that we do not have an eye that mocks those He places over us, or scorns obedience to the authority figures He gives us.

Let’s obey … just as our Lord and Master obeyed.

AE