Proverbs 30:14,  There is a generation, whose teeth are as swords, and their jaw teeth as knives, to devour the poor from off the earth, and the needy from among men.

David was well acquainted with this generation whose teeth are as swords and jaw teeth as knives.

He fled to the wilderness to escape the teeth of Saul.

He wrote in Psalm 57:4,  My soul is among lions: and I lie even among them that are set on fire, even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword.

In Psalm 35:15,16,  he wrote of those who witnessed falsely against him and he felt the sharpness of their teeth.

David prayed that they be disabled when he said in:

Psalm 58:6,  Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth: break out the great teeth of the young lions, O LORD.

And he rejoiced in the LORD when he was delivered from their teeth.

As he wrote in Psalm 124:6,  Blessed be the LORD, who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth.

Micah also knew this generation when he wrote in:

Micah 3:1-5,  And I said, Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob, and ye princes of the house of Israel; Is it not for you to know judgment? Who hate the good, and love the evil; who pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones; Who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them; and they break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron. Then shall they cry unto the LORD, but he will not hear them: he will even hide his face from them at that time, as they have behaved themselves ill in their doings. Thus saith the LORD concerning the prophets that make my people err, that bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace; and he that putteth not into their mouths, they even prepare war against him.

Stephen, the church's first martyr, in his last living seconds felt the swords and knives of the mouths of those who stoned him as Luke relates to us in:

Acts 7:54,  When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth.

Those that gnashed upon Stephen are of the same generation whose Father is the Father of the fourth beast of Daniel:

The grouping of these particular four generations in this passage was not done by chance.

God in his word does everything for a purpose.

Note the chronology of these generations.

Note the steps it takes to get to be a stoner of Stephen, a devour-er of the poor and the needy.

It starts with lack of honor to parents. It starts in the home.

It starts with a father not commanding his children and his household.

Hence disobedient children!

The result is children that are a curse to their Father and who do not bless their Mother.

Fathers, do you love your wife. Command your children!

Don't you want your children to bless her?

Are you prepared to have children who are a curse to you?

God has plainly told us that those who are disobedient to their Father are a curse.

A curser of his Father is one who by his life brings his Father to shame and dispair.

He is a curse to him by his life.

He has disobeyed him and therefore the fruit of that disobedience is a curse to him.

Our society abounds in parents who despair of their children, who are cursed by the life of their children.

They are such a curse to them they wish their children had never been born!

The next step on the way to devouring the poor and the needy is to join the generation of those who are self righteous those who are pure in their own inaccurate eyes.

Those who are proud and arrogant, those with uplifted eyes.

This is the outcome of disobedient children.

This is the result of a Father who refuses to command his household.

Disobedient children, self righteous and proud of being proud.

He leads the orchestra that builds to the crescendo that God describes in our verse for today.

A crescendo that describes a generation of men whose faces can only be seen as the faces of monsters.

Hollywood pay attention! Imagine men with swords protruding from their mouths.

Imagine men whose jaw teeth are sharp knives.

This picture of a monster is given to communicate the terror that men can be to those who are weak and defenseless.

This is a picture of cowards whose victims present no defense to their murderous assaults.

Notice who the victims of these cowards are.

They are not the strong! They are not the prepared and equipped.

But they are the weak, they are the feeble, the frail the helpless folk of the world.

Solomon describes these cowards with teeth as weapons ready to consume and carve, and dissect and slash.

These are they who are filled with greed for the little that the poor and the needy have.

They wish to devour what they have and in so doing rid the earth of their presence.

When Jesus Christ looked at the scribes and the Pharisees he saw their mouths filled with teeth as though they were swords and knives.

He said in Matthew 23:14,  Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses.

Cowards are you who take from those who have no defense against you!

The scribes and the Pharisees used the widows for their own benefit!

GOD employed Amos, a shepherd, a herdsman, to reprove and warn the people of those whose mouths were filled with swords and knives.

In Amos 4:1 he preached to the fat cats (fat cattle) of Samaria.

He said in: Amos 8:4-7,  Hear this, O ye that swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of the land to fail, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit? That we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes; yea, and sell the refuse of the wheat? The LORD hath sworn by the excellency of Jacob, Surely I will never forget any of their works.

That is the pronouncement of a Holy God who hates those who devour the poor.

These are they who use the poor for their own advancement, their own benefit.

This is modern, this is today!

This is happening all around us as so called leaders of the downtrodden pretend to lead the poor out of poverty but appear to benefit no one except themselves.

Jesus said in :Mark 14:7,  For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good: but me ye have not always.

Doesn't God love the poor?

It doesn't appear that God has a war on poverty but it does appear that God allows the poor to be with us always.

Why? Jesus answered in this verse.

whensoever ye will ye may do them good.

It is for our benefit to minister to the poor.

The poor are with us always that we may do them good.

Those that are given to give are to give!

Those that are given to give are given the opportunity to give because God says that the poor you will have with you always.

But those with swords and knives for teeth wish to feed off the poor.

These are they who make their living off the poor.

These are they of the fourth generation who are forever with us to demonstrate to us the perversity of the heart.