Rods That Fail

“He that soweth iniquity shall reap vanity, and the rod of his anger shall fail.”* (Proverbs 22:8)

When you sow iniquity and you give yourself to things that are wrong, they not only cause trouble, there’s also an emptiness in them, a profitlessness, because deep down, we know we were made to do right. But it’s not only that you are sowing the direct effects of what you are doing, you are sowing habits. I remember different people when I was young who were somewhat stirred spiritually, but didn’t really want to pay the price. They had their ideas of the excitement and the joys and the adventures and the plans they wanted in their lives. They kind of thought in this way: “I have a life ahead—when I get older I’ll turn to God. I’ll have a good time now; I’ll turn to religion later.” Well, besides the fact that we don’t know when we are going to die, there is something else at work—you sow a habit of procrastinating, of putting off God’s dealings with you, and that habit bears fruit. It grows deeper, it grows stronger, and there are few people in old age who turn to God. It’s not because God’s not willing, it’s not because God’s mercy is not reaching to the uttermost, it is because few people who have gone that far, putting off the dealings of God, are going to press hard enough to overcome the habit, and really humble down and get right with God.

It says, “the rod of his anger shall fail.” There are people I know who are reaping their own bitterness and their own wickedness, their own ways of not trusting God. Some of them whom I know and am acquainted with get frustrated and mad. They say and think things like “the world’s not treating me right”; “people aren’t fair to me”; “people are mean to me.” And they have this angry frustration, the “rod of their anger,” so to speak. But you know what? All their angry frustration at what they are reaping, won’t stop the reaping. The rod of their anger will fail. If you sow iniquity, the only way to stop reaping iniquity is to stop sowing iniquity.