Once again, we have a proverb that points the way to Christ in a very simple way. Proverbs 12:3 reads:
A man cannot be established through wickedness, but the righteous cannot be uprooted.
The human race, in its natural state, is wicked. Jeremiah 17:9 (KJV) says:
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked (emphasis mine): who can know it?’
This verse draws out man’s biggest problem. We are not righteous on our own. And our wickedness will not save us.
The proverbial word “established” is the Hebrew word kun. It literally means “to be firm.” In other words, the human spirit is weakness. No matter how much we try to convince ourselves that are strong, mighty, and wise, God’s word paints a different picture of man. In the words of the 19th century hymn “The Solid Rock” by Edward Mote:
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand,
All other ground is sinking sand.
From Cain’s building of Enoch, Nimrod’s feeble attempt to reach heaven through the tower of Babel, the greatest achievements of ancient empires like Egypt, Medo-Persia, the Greeks, and the Romans, and up through today’s tallest skyscrapers and moon landings representing the vain attempts of man to conquer time and space through human achievement, all of human history can be summed up in one image: Sinking sand. Our greatest achievements, if they are great at all, are ultimate failures if they do not connect us with God. The problem is, we so often believe they will connect us with God, but human effort cannot do so. That is the nature of wickedness.
Time to Feed From the Root
The book of Isaiah prophesies of the day when a root will spring up from the stump of Jesse. A branch from that root will bear fruit. The spirit of the Lord will rest on him (the root). He will judge the poor with righteousness. He will slay the wicked with the breath of his lips. Righteousness will be the belt around his hips. He will raise a banner for the nations. And he will arise to rule over the Gentiles, who will put their hope in him.
In the genealogy of Jesus recorded in Matthew, our Lord descended from Jesse, the father of David, king of Israel. He comes from a royal line, and he is the root of Jesse. The branch that will bear fruit is the church.
What fruit? The fruit of righteousness.
Man cannot be righteous apart from Jesus Christ. Our Lord said we can do nothing apart from him. Unless we are in him and remain in him we can not bear fruit. This is why many churches die. They rely on their programs, their pastors, their prayers, their Bible studies, their Sunday school lessons, or their ministries to the poor, all of which may be good things. But if performed through human effort without reliance on the spirit of Christ dwelling with his people, they are but vain things.
If we are Christ’s and we belong to Christ, we will live by his spirit and bear the fruit of righteousness. Then we cannot be uprooted.
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