“Whoever despises the word brings destruction on himself, but he who reveres the commandment will be rewarded.” (Proverbs 13:13 ESV)
God as a God of holiness will not be trifled with. As a God of grace, none “serve him for nought.” The presumptuous despiser of his word cannot escape. The world before the flood was the object of his long-suffering. “A preacher of righteousness” warned them of their danger. But the despisers provoked their own ruin. (1 Peter 3:20. 2 Peter 2:5.) Pharaoh, often reproved, sometimes half-resolved, yet at length despising the word, was destroyed. (Exodus 5:2; 10:16, 17; 14:28.) Jehoiakim’s daring rebellion met with its righteous recompense. (Jeremiah 36:23-32.) The warnings of Sinai are as a voice of thunder — “If every transgression of the word spoken by angels received its just recompense of reward; how shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation, spoken by the Lord? If they escaped not, that refused him that spake on earth; much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven. See that ye refuse not him that speaketh.” (Hebrews 12:25.)
