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The following maxims are almost completely disconnected from one another. Like the proverbs in the Book of Proverbs, they constitute a series of sententious sayings that should be mulled over.
10:1, "¶ Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savour: so doth a little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honour."
From this verse comes the proverbial "fly in the ointment," which means "It's botched up" or not what it appears to be on the surface. Here, the fly lands in the ointment and dies, so the body rots there corrupting the ointment. Reminds one of "...a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump." (I Corinthians 5:6; Galatians 5:9) The fly might be in a jar or alabaster box big enough to hold a quart of ointment, and make it all stink.
Cases of "a little folly" causing a someone's reputation to stink are so numerous they couldn't be listed. However, any man with a good reputation, who lived after 1945, would have less to worry about than a man living before 1900. JFK and Martin Luther King, Jr. (really Michael King, Jr) were two of the most notorious fornicating adulterers who ever lived.; it didn't hurt either of their reputations. Both men went into the news media history books as great men and great Americans. The "fly" didn't have any effect on their good press. Bill Clinton is a liar and a fornicator, yet he really had to go to extremes before the news media turned against him.
Degenerates like Madonna, Ellen DeGeneris and Michael Jackson thrive on folly. It boosts their income.
Regardless of what one thinks of Jerry Falwell's now bankrupt "Moral Majority" (1980-87), he did accomplish one thing that no other Christian leader in America was able to accomplish since 1933, including all Catholic bishops, priests and nuns, cardinals and archbishops. Jerry Falwell forced the press, senators and congressmen to pretend they had moral convictions, when they obviously had none. The news media's treatment of JFK and M.L. King, Jr. showed their own moral standards were those of an alley cat. Jerry forced them to start blackening the reputations of their fellow politicians by digging into their past.
There are congressmen in the legislative halls of America today who are well know practicing sex perverts (Barney Frank comes to mind). That "folly" doesn't hurt their "ointment" at all. They may pretend that adultery is a sin to them (Bill Clinton), but then sex perversion is a lifestyle. They stink! The thing is, filthy, maggot infested stink is socially acceptable if it is in line with the news media's ever changing moral standards. As someone so aptly put it: "Any publicity is good publicity."
David's "folly" (II Samuel 11:3) is remembered long after his death (I Kings 15:5). The "dead fly" in Abraham's "ointment" (Genesis 12:13)was his lack of faith and trust which led him to lie. The "dead fly" in Daniel's "ointment" was allowing a pagan king to worship him (Daniel 2:46).
10:2, "A wise man's heart is at his right hand; but a fool's heart at his left."
10:3, "Yea also, when he that is a fool walketh by the way, his wisdom faileth him, and he saith to every one that he is a fool."
10:4, "¶ If the spirit of the ruler rise up against thee, leave not thy place; for yielding pacifieth great offences."
10:5, "There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, as an error which proceedeth from the ruler:"
10:6, "Folly is set in great dignity, and the rich sit in low place."
10:7, "I have seen servants upon horses, and princes walking as servants upon the earth."
10:8, "He that diggeth a pit shall fall into it; and whoso breaketh an hedge, a serpent shall bite him."
10:9, "Whoso removeth stones shall be hurt therewith; and he that cleaveth wood shall be endangered thereby."
10:10, "If the iron be blunt, and he do not whet the edge, then must he put to more strength: but wisdom is profitable to direct."
10:11, "Surely the serpent will bite without enchantment; and a babbler is no better."
10:12, "¶ The words of a wise man's mouth are gracious; but the lips of a fool will swallow up himself."
10:13, "The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness: and the end of his talk is mischievous madness."
10:14, "A fool also is full of words: a man cannot tell what shall be; and what shall be after him, who can tell him?"
10:15, "The labour of the foolish wearieth every one of them, because he knoweth not how to go to the city."
10:16, "¶ Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child, and thy princes eat in the morning!"
10:17, "Blessed art thou, O land, when thy king is the son of nobles, and thy princes eat in due season, for strength, and not for drunkenness!"
10:18, "By much slothfulness the building decayeth; and through idleness of the hands the house droppeth through."
10:19, "A feast is made for laughter, and wine maketh merry: but money answereth all things."
10:20, "Curse not the king, no not in thy thought; and curse not the rich in thy bedchamber: for a bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter."
Those "birds of the air" are invisible like radio frequencies. Now, you can't pick them up. You have to have a radio set or TV set to pick them up. But they are not coming through the electrical cord. You can have a battery operated TV right here and pick the whole thing up because it is in this room. Right now. The Bible takes that for granted. The Bible takes for granted that there is in this room or any place a vast host of unclean spirits. And they are likened in the passage to birds. "...a bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter." So, when a woman hears something, somebody says, "Where did you get that?" She says, "A little bird told me."
"Well, how do you know this soup is bad?" "A little swallow told me."
Turn to II Kings 6:12. Here is an example of mind reading going on without somebody knowing about it. The Bible says in Matthew 12:36, "But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment." Then there must be somebody recording it. I think sometimes it goes into rocks. It keeps saying the rocks shall cry out and these rocks should speak and this rock is a witness. I think sometimes the sound waves go out of your mouth and become embedded and preserved in rock. I don't know that. I don't teach that as doctrine. I just think that, you know. Might be something to that.
If the Lord wants to call everything back, you know, "And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb;" Revelation 6:16. Well, when they call the whole thing back, maybe He just plays it back like a magnetic recorder.
II Kings 6:8, "Then the king of Syria warred against Israel, and took counsel with his servants, saying, In such and such a place shall be my camp. And the man of God sent unto the king of Israel, saying, Beware that thou pass not such a place; for thither the Syrians are come down. And the king of Israel sent to the place which the man of God told him and warned him of, and saved himself there, not once nor twice. Therefore the heart of the king of Syria was sore troubled for this thing; and he called his servants, and said unto them, Will ye not shew me which of us is for the king of Israel?..." Thinks he has a spy in there. "And one of his servants said, None, my lord, O king: but Elisha, the prophet that is in Israel, telleth the king of Israel the words that thou speakest in thy bedchamber." There is the place. In that place, what is happening is when the king is making plans to attack Israel, the Lord hears it all and the Lord just passes it on to the prophet.
"Curse not the king, no not in thy thought; and curse not the rich in they bedchamber:..." Why the rich? Well, you enjoy cussing them out. It's partly jealousy. You wish you had the money and it is partly their injustices. James 2:6-7 says, "But ye have despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgment seats? Do not they blaspheme that worthy name by the which ye are called?"
Sam Jones said you can tell what God thought of money by the people he gave it to. Now, that is a pretty harsh statement, see. I don't resent anybody being rich. I hope you all get rich. I hope before the Lord comes that all of you wind up millionaires. Really, really, I wish the Lord would give everybody one million dollars in cold cash. I hope you win the lottery. And just have all the money to blow.
I want God's people to be richer than what they are. They know how to handle the money, most of them. But the trouble is, most rich Christians that I know, the rich ones that really get rich, don't know how to handle the money either. Strange thing. There is something about getting money and hanging on to it. It does something to your mind. Something peculiar about it. I don't know what it is.
"Curse not the king, no not in thy thought; and curse not the rich in thy bedchamber: for a bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter." That means that these spirits, whatever they are in the air, are like birds and it means they have wings. If anything is clearly established in the scripture, it is that. I'll show you.
Turn to the Book of Mark. There is no guess work in this one. This is just as solid as the virgin birth. Mark chapter four, beginning at verse three. Whatever those devils and demons are, they have wings and they are likened to birds. No question about it at all. No way of opinion one way or the other, according to Jesus Christ.
Mark 4:3, Hearken; Behold, there went out a sower to sow:" Now, watch it. Verse four, "And it came to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the way side, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up." Verse fifteen, "And these are they by the way side, where the word is sown; but when they have heard, Satan cometh..." Satan is likened to fowls, plural. That is it. That is Bible doctrine. Matthew chapter thirteen, hits it again.
Matthew 13:3, "And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow; And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up:" Interpretation: Verse nineteen, "When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one,..." Fowls. Turn to Luke chapter eight. You would think if He said something three times that somebody would get it.
Luke chapter eight, beginning with verse four, "And when much people were gathered together, and were come to him out of every city, he spake a parable: A sower went out to sow his seed: and as he sowed, some fell by the way side; and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it." Interpretation: Verse twelve, "Those by the way side are they that hear; then cometh the devil, and taketh away..." The devil is likened to birds, likened to fowls. That is it. And it is even stronger than that.
Turn back to Matthew chapter twelve. So, whatever these things are, they are like birds and they have wings. Matthew 12:23, "And all the people were amazed, and said, Is not this the son of David? But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of devils." Who is Beelzebub? He is the lord of the flies. He is the god of filth. That's who that Persian god is - Beelzebub, the god of flies. Filthy, wings. A fly is a picture of a demon. That means something else. That means a mosquito is bound to be one because they are blood suckers and disease carriers.
Now, turn to Revelation chapter eighteen. We're not through yet. This is just as clear as anything in the scriptures. The thing is somebody read Pember one time where demons were fallen angels and all that junk, and they just got full of baloney up to their ears. Mary Magdalene had seven devils in her. How are they fallen angels? How do you get seven fallen angels into somebody? She had seven of them, whatever they were. Whatever they were, they couldn't have been much bigger than a bird.
Revelation 18:2, "And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen,..." Watch it. "...and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird." Those are devils and spirits. They are birds. They are called unclean birds. Back in the Book of Leviticus you find that there is a list of birds and a bunch of them are said to be unclean birds.
Birds of a feather flock together. He has "bats" in the belfry. His problem is that he is a "birdbrain". So, you have the Birdman of Alcatraz and then you have "Strictly for the birds". See all that stuff. That stuff that is woven in the English language comes from King James Bible doctrine that no Hebrew scholar can even find. There is not a Greek or Hebrew scholar who ever lived that picked up what you just read right then. What you just read was an English Bible. Amen. Amen.
Genesis chapter eight, beginning at verse six. The trouble with this doctrine is that it has racial implications before you get through. Now listen, when the Holy Spirit descended upon Christ, He descended in the form of a what? Dove. Birds are spirits. You would think that anybody could get that. The Holy Spirit is likened unto a clean bird. But, the problem is that it is white. The Song of Solomon says, My beloved is white and ruddy,..."
Do you know what is given as an unclean bird in Leviticus? God bless your heart, people, you can't believe that Book without running afoul of the whole system. God has fixed it so that if you are going to believe the Book you are not at home in this world, and if you are at home in this world you are not at home in that Book.
All right Genesis eight, beginning at verse six, "And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made: And he sent forth a raven,..." It's a black bird and it is an unclean bird in Leviticus. And what happened? It never came back to the ark. "Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground; But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him..." The dove came back. Type of the Holy Spirit. Why didn't that black bird come back? Because God said to Cain in Genesis 4:12, "...a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth." So, that raven just wandered and never came back. But those implications, those are bad. Let me show you one more.
Isaiah thirty-four. This thing is clear. Isaiah thirty-four, here is a passage on hell in the millennium. Isaiah 34:9, "And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch. It shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up for ever: from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it for ever and ever. But the cormorant..." That is an unclean bird in Leviticus. "...and the bittern..." That is an unclean bird in Leviticus. "...shall possess it;..." What? A bird in a lake of fire? What kind of home is a lake of fire for a bird? "...the owl also..." Unclean bird in Leviticus. "...and the raven..." There it is. They are unclean birds. Unclean birds then are types of unclean spirits.
"Curse not the king, no not in thy thought; and curse not the rich in thy bedchamber: for a bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter."