17 Rejoice
not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when he
stumbleth: 18 Lest the LORD see it, and it displease him, and he turn away
his wrath from him. 19 Fret not thyself because of evil men, neither be
thou envious at the wicked; 20 For there shall be no reward to the evil
man; the candle of the wicked shall be put out. 21 My son, fear thou the
LORD and the king: and meddle not with them that are given to change: 22 For
their calamity shall rise suddenly; and who knoweth the ruin of them both? 23 These
things also belong to the wise. It is not good to have respect of persons in
judgment. 24 He that saith unto the wicked, Thou art righteous; him shall
the people curse, nations shall abhor him: 25 But to them that rebuke him
shall be delight, and a good blessing shall come upon them. 26 Every man
shall kiss his lips that giveth a right answer. 27 Prepare thy work
without, and make it fit for thyself in the field; and afterwards build thine
house. 28 Be not a witness against thy neighbour without cause; and
deceive not with thy lips. 29 Say not, I will do so to him as he hath done
to me: I will render to the man according to his work. 30 I went by the
field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding; 31 And,
lo, it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles had covered the face
thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken down. 32 Then I saw, and
considered it well: I looked upon it, and received instruction. 33 Yet a
little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep: 34 So
shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth; and thy want as an armed man.
(Proverbs 24:17-34)
We should take no pleasure in the demise of our enemy. Once he has fallen, or
perished, there is no longer hope to make a friend of him. God, also, will not
forgive a sinner who dies in his sins. We must care for every soul and even if
opposed in battle, we must pray that God will convict and convert them. On
the afternoon of the day that the English fleet sailed forth to meet the
Spanish (Invincible) Armada, The Admiral of the Fleet, Sir Francis Drake,
offered this prayer up to God for his men and himself. Note the tenor and
charity of it:
“Most merciful and loving Father, we beseech thee most
humbly, even with all our hearts, to pour out upon our enemies with a bountiful
hand whatsoever things thou knowest may do them good; and chiefly a sound and
uncorrupt mind, wherethrough they may know thee and seek thee in true charity,
with their whole hearts, and love us thy children, for thy sake.+ Let not their
hating of us turn to their harm, neither let us in any wise hurt them.+ Seeing
that we cannot do them good for want of ability, Lord, we desire their
amendment, and not their punishment. + Separate them not from us by punishing
them, but join and knit them to us by thy favourable dealing with them.+ And
seeing we be all ordained to be citizens of the one everlasting city, let us
begin to enter in that way here already by mutual love, which may bring us
right forth hither; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.’
17 "Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine
heart be glad when he stumbleth: 18 Lest the LORD see it, and it
displease him, and he turn away his wrath from him." We often
act out of revenge when an enemy has wronged us. There is a difference between
revenge and vengeance - revenge is an act of passion while vengeance (which
belongs to the Lord) is an act of justice. The Lord will repay our losses and
damages in His time and in His Way. If we take revenge, the Lord is no longer
inclined to enforce vengeance on the enemy, but to us.
19"Fret not thyself because of evil men, neither be thou envious
at the wicked; 20 For there shall be no reward to the evil man; the
candle of the wicked shall be put out." Why do we worry so
about the end times - when shall there be great persecution, when shall the
horrors of Revelations be fully consummated, or when will Christ return? Do you
worry about the drowning snakes while you are safe in the Ark? We look too
intensely on the 'here-and-now' believing, secretly perhaps, that this is all
there is. God has promised, and God will fulfill the promise, to care for us in
the most pleasing way for His purposes. That is enough for us. The candle of
the Lord is life. He gives life to all who are born of women. But the candle
cannot burn in Hell - it is the ONLY thing that will NOT burn in Hell. When God
extinguishes the candle of a dreadful sinner, it is extinguished forever.
"For thou wilt light my candle: the LORD my God will enlighten my
darkness." (Psalms 18:28) You will note the parallels between the
Proverbs of Solomon and the Psalms of his father, David.
21"My son, fear thou the LORD and the king: and meddle not with
them that are given to change: 22 For their calamity shall rise suddenly;
and who knoweth the ruin of them both?" One of the salient
characteristics of God is that He is unchanging. The more we
become like our Maker, the less vacillating we are. We sail a steady course
with our compass set on the North Star. If we pay due allegiance to God and His
Laws, we shall not deal with the duplicitous and unsteady characters of the
world. Smooth waters do not necessarily result in the desired
destination. Sailing vessels would have preferred to sail the smooth waters of
the tropics than the stormy seas of the North Atlantic, but the Pilgrims would
never had landed at the Rock had they done so. Those who are of an incontinent
nature need to be avoided. Their behaviors cannot be depended upon. They change
as easily as the wind currents. Sooner or later, they will be found on the
shoals with their vessels battered and their sails in tatters.
23 "These things also belong to the wise. It is not good to
have respect of persons in judgment. 24 He that saith unto the
wicked, Thou art righteous; him shall the people curse, nations shall abhor him:
25 But to them that rebuke him shall be delight, and a good blessing
shall come upon them. 26 Every man shall kiss his lips that giveth
a right answer." Since God is no respecter of persons, neither
should we be. The meaning here is that we should not judge others by the
externals - poverty, wealth, beauty of appearance, etc. Judge with righteous
judgment. Verse 24 is a contemporary sin of the higher officials of our present
government in America. When we tell men, for example, in direct contradiction
of the Word of God, that homosexual fornication is of the same distinction as
God-honoring marriage, we are offending God. We are not to accept the lie
of 'toleration" as righteous - we must stand up against the lies
propagated by governments, religion, and society. Abortion is MURDER!
Homosexuality is a filthy and abominable sin. If we ever say anything else, we,
too, are liars of the most egregious form, before God. We should love to hear
the answers to every problem given out of knowledge of God's Word and Wisdom.
Verse 25 clearly tells us that we have a DUTY before God to rebuke the wicked -
the wicked at work, the wicked at school, the wicked in government, the wicked
in society - the wicked every place and at every time.
27 "Prepare thy work without, and make it fit for thyself in
the field; and afterwards build thine house." God places a
high premium on proper preparation. He is One who prepares all things prior to
the event itself. His great Mind conceived all that He Created from the First
Day. The decision, made in the Councils of Heaven, to prepare a Redeemer, did
not happen as an afterthought; but was decided and prepared in Eternity Past
before there was a Sun, or a Moon, or an Earth. Our lives, too, must be
prepared for. We should not live haphazardly, but according to a plan laid out
by God. Not only must we prepare to live in this temporary vessel of clay, but
to live in that glorified body that we shall receive at the coming of Christ.
28 "Be not a witness against thy neighbour without cause;
and deceive not with thy lips. 29 Say not, I will do so to him as
he hath done to me: I will render to the man according to his work."
We should never allow a lie to serve an evil thought about others. It has
already been said - "Vengeance is mine saith the Lord." "Vengeance
is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord." (Romans 12:19) God will
render judgment to the wicked.
30 "I went by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard
of the man void of understanding; 31 And, lo, it was all grown over with
thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof
was broken down. 32 Then I saw, and considered it well: I looked upon it,
and received instruction. 33 Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little
folding of the hands to sleep: 34 So shall thy poverty come as one that
travelleth; and thy want as an armed man." This is as true to
the spiritual, as the physical, life. Weeds grow in our garden without planting
or cultivation. We must be constantly weeding the sins from our soul, and
cultivating the good fruits. When we let our guard down by failing to pray, to
worship, to read God's Word, then suddenly we wake up to learn that our bark
has drifted far from shore and approaching the rapids. It is so much simpler to
address problems as they arise rather than delaying their remedy. A young man
once asked Rev Lehman Strauss how he might arrange to come to Christ at the
11th hour and enjoy more of his life before that time? Dr. Strauss told the
young man the same that God has told us - "(For he saith, I
have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I
succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of
salvation.) (2 Cor 6:2) Are you gambling against time? How much time
have you left?
