The Moral Axis of Nations Text: Proverbs 14:34
Introduction: The Great Evasion
We live in an age of frantic political calculation. Our leaders and pundits and talking heads are constantly in a flurry, trying to find the right policy, the right stimulus package, the right diplomatic maneuver, the right candidate to fix our woes. They treat the nation as a complicated piece of machinery that simply needs a cleverer mechanic. They believe that our problems are technical, that they can be solved with more data, more funding, or more legislation. But our problem is not technical; it is moral. It is spiritual.
The modern secular project is a grand attempt to build a stable and prosperous society on a foundation of sand. It is a concerted effort to evade the central claim of reality, which is that God is, and that He is not mocked. A nation is not a machine. A nation is a moral organism. A people are bound together not by lines on a map or by a shared tax code, but by a shared worship. Every nation has a god. The only question is which one. Is it the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, or is it some cheap idol fashioned by the hands of men, like Demos, or Mammon, or the great god Self?
Our text today from the book of Proverbs is a sharp, two-edged sword that cuts through all the evasions and political mumbo-jumbo. It lays bare the fundamental law of political science, the spiritual reality that governs the rise and fall of every empire, kingdom, and republic. It is a statement of fact, as inexorable as the law of gravity. You can defy it for a time, but you cannot defy the consequences. You can step off the roof, but you cannot repeal the landing.
This proverb presents us with a stark antithesis, a choice that every nation must make, and indeed, is always making. There is no neutral ground. A nation is either being exalted or it is being disgraced. It is on one path or the other. And the pivot point, the great moral axis upon which all of history turns, is its relationship to righteousness and sin.
The Text
Righteousness exalts a nation,
But sin is a disgrace to any people.
(Proverbs 14:34 LSB)
The Foundation of Exaltation (v. 34a)
Let us first consider the positive side of this divine equation.
"Righteousness exalts a nation..." (Proverbs 14:34a)
The word for righteousness here is tzedaqah. It is not a flimsy, sentimental niceness. This is not a call for a nation to be "generally spiritual" or to have a vague "moral compass." This is a robust, covenantal righteousness. It means conformity to a standard, and the standard is the character and law of God Himself. It means doing what is right in God's eyes. It is a public, corporate reality. It involves justice in the courts, honesty in business, integrity among rulers, faithfulness in families, and the true worship of the true God.
When a nation is characterized by such righteousness, it is "exalted." This means it is lifted up. It is made high, prosperous, stable, and respected. This is not a promise of a sinless utopia. We are talking about the basic orientation of the people. When the laws of a nation are broadly aligned with the law of God, when the people honor their commitments, when the poor are not oppressed, when life is protected, and when the name of Christ is honored, that nation will be blessed. God will lift it up. The rains will fall, the crops will grow, the enemies will be kept at bay, and there will be peace in the land. This is the simple, straightforward promise of covenant faithfulness that we see throughout the Scriptures, particularly in places like Deuteronomy 28.
Now, our secularist friends will scoff at this. They will say this is primitive superstition. They want the fruit of righteousness, things like a stable economy and civil order, without the root of righteousness, which is submission to God. They want the exaltation without the righteousness. They are like a man who wants to have a strong, healthy body while eating a diet of poison and gasoline. It cannot be done. A nation that abandons God's definition of justice, marriage, and life cannot expect to enjoy the blessings that flow from honoring them.
This righteousness is not something a nation can generate on its own. It is not the product of a better education system or a more robust constitution. A constitution is just paper. True righteousness is a gift of God, worked in the hearts of a people by the gospel of Jesus Christ. When men and women are regenerated by the Holy Spirit, they begin to love righteousness and hate wickedness. They become better fathers, better neighbors, better merchants, and better magistrates. A widespread revival of true religion is therefore the only real engine of lasting political and cultural reform. Righteousness exalts a nation because a righteous people, transformed by the gospel, build righteous institutions.
The Certainty of Disgrace (v. 34b)
The other side of the coin is just as certain, and it is a grim and sober warning.
"...But sin is a disgrace to any people." (Proverbs 14:34b)
The antithesis is absolute. If righteousness lifts up, sin brings down. The word for sin here is chesed, but in this context, it carries the sense of reproach, shame, or disgrace. When a people collectively turn their back on God's law and embrace sin as their public policy and private practice, the result is disgrace. It is a reproach.
What does this disgrace look like? It looks like our evening news. It is the breakdown of the family. It is the murder of the unborn, celebrated as a right. It is sexual confusion paraded in the streets as a virtue. It is rampant debt, dishonest scales in the marketplace, and corruption in the halls of power. It is the loss of national purpose, the rise of cynicism, and the decay of social trust. A nation given over to sin becomes contemptible. It loses its honor, its strength, and its coherence. It becomes a reproach among the nations.
Notice the text says this applies to "any people." This is a universal principle. It does not matter if the nation has a glorious history, a powerful military, or a booming stock market. Sin is a corrosive acid that eats away at the foundations of any society, regardless of its external glories. The Romans had magnificent aqueducts and a formidable army, but their moral rot hollowed them out from the inside until the whole corrupt structure collapsed.
We must understand that this is not an arbitrary punishment from God. It is the natural, organic consequence of rebellion against the way the world is actually wired. God created the world to run on righteousness. When you pour sin into the gears, the machine breaks down. When you plant thorns, you do not get a harvest of figs. When a people sows the wind of rebellion, they will reap the whirlwind of disgrace. This is simply the law of the harvest applied to nations.
Our Public Task
So what does this mean for us, as Christians living in a nation that seems to have chosen the path of disgrace? It means we have a public and prophetic task. We are not to retreat into our private spiritual ghettos and wait for the rapture. We are to be salt and light in the midst of the decay.
First, it means we must call sin by its right name. We cannot be mealy-mouthed about it. Abortion is not "choice," it is murder. Homosexual marriage is not "love," it is a perversion of God's created order. We must speak the truth, plainly and without apology, because sin cannot be dealt with until it is first identified. We must call our nation to repentance.
Second, we must live out the alternative. Our families, our churches, and our businesses must be outposts of the kingdom of righteousness. In a world of rampant divorce, our marriages must be faithful. In a world of greed, our dealings must be honest. In a world of confusion, our churches must be pillars and buttresses of the truth. We must demonstrate what a society built on righteousness actually looks like, even on a small scale.
Finally, and most importantly, we must proclaim the only source of true righteousness, which is the gospel of Jesus Christ. A nation is not made righteous by legislation alone, but by regeneration. The only hope for our nation, or any nation, is a radical turning to Christ. He is the one who bore our sin and our disgrace on the cross, so that we might be clothed in His righteousness. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:21 that "He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."
This is the great exchange. Our personal disgrace for His perfect righteousness. This is the only foundation upon which a person can be exalted, and it is the only foundation upon which a nation can be truly exalted. Our task is to preach this gospel with courage and joy, praying that God would be pleased to grant our people repentance, that He might heal our land. For the Scripture is plain: righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people. Let us therefore choose righteousness, that we and our children might live.