Saying 26
“Eat honey, my son, for it is good, and the honeycomb is sweet to your taste.
Know therefore that wisdom is sweet to your soul. If you find it, there is a future for you, and your hope will never be cut off.
Saying 27
Do not lie in wait, O wicked man, near the dwelling of the righteous;
do not destroy his resting place. For though a righteous man may fall seven times, he still gets up; but the wicked stumble in bad times.
Saying 28
Do not gloat when your enemy falls, and do not let your heart rejoice when he stumbles, for the LORD will see and disapprove, and turn His wrath away from him.
Saying 29
Do not fret over evildoers, and do not be envious of the wicked. For the evil man has no future; the lamp of the wicked will be extinguished.
Saying 30
My son, fear the LORD and the king, and do not associate with the rebellious. For those two will bring sudden destruction; who knows what ruin they can bring?”
Saying 26 “Eat honey, my son, for it is good, and the honeycomb is sweet to your taste. Know therefore that wisdom is sweet to your soul. If you find it, there is a future for you, and your hope will never be cut off.” There is a long Jewish tradition of valuing wisdom. In some places, children learning their alphabet even had sweets dropped on their books while teachers would say those things came from angels who approved of their learning. If we spend time with someone who is extremely wise, it’s refreshing and we feel uplifted. My late stepmother Mary had a special gift for such wisdom. Mary had raised five great kids under difficult circumstances and had worked her way up to a career as an award-winning farm editor; she had seen lots of problems and had triumphed over great adversity. No matter how many health challenges Mary was facing herself, she always had sage advice. I would call her several times a month from Ghana just to hear her calm voice.
“Saying 27
Do not lie in wait, O wicked man, near the dwelling of the righteous; do not destroy his resting place. For though a righteous man may fall seven times, he still gets up; but the wicked stumble in bad times.
Saying 28
Do not gloat when your enemy falls, and do not let your heart rejoice when he stumbles, for the LORD will see and disapprove, and turn His wrath away from him.”
Saying 29
“Do not fret over evildoers, and do not be envious of the wicked. For the evil man has no future; the lamp of the wicked will be extinguished.”
Many times, we feel that righteousness isn’t really worth it. We see wicked people prospering and wonder why God doesn’t simply dispatch a lightning bolt and zap them. But God wants us to focus more on Him and not on the wicked; in fact, all God wants us to do about the wicked is to pray for them and then follow His Will for our lives. God tells us specifically not to gloat because we can bring God’s punishment on ourselves when we do so. Bottom line: Only God knows the human heart and only God can truly judge righteously.
By the same token, God is warning people to refuse to engage in wicked behavior, lest God allow their wickedness to destroy them. Right now we are on the edge of a difficult situation. One of our sponsored students who is pursuing a course as a physician assistant recently had her room invaded; she lost her laptop, her cell phone, and her purse. The main suspect is one of the other tenants in her hostel. When the landlord convened a meeting about the theft, this young man absented himself and quickly moved to a different building. Our constant prayer is that God will so convict this young man that he will restore the stolen items. We suspect that somehow this fellow learned that we were helping this young woman and he used that as an excuse, telling himself that the white people had unlimited funds and would replace whatever he stole. Unfortunately, our funds are not unlimited, and replacing all those things is not possible at this time.
Saying 30
“My son, fear the LORD and the king, and do not associate with the rebellious. For those two will bring sudden destruction; who knows what ruin they can bring?” 1 Samuel 15:23 tells us, “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.”Rebellion and control are the two sides of the witchcraft coin. All witchcraft is aimed at controlling events, people, the weather, etc. in flagrant acts of rebellion against God. Those practicing witchcraft want to be their own gods. Given these facts, it is little wonder that God and leaders regard rebels as people to be removed when necessary.
Rebellion can be incredibly destructive. Years ago, we had a great working relationship with one medical school in the U.S. Each June, medical students would come to our hospital for two weeks and rotate through all our various departments. Each student would bring a large suitcase full of wonderful medical consumables, things that were scarce in Ghana. One year, a few individuals chose to stage a strike during the visit from the medical students. That rebellious action destroyed the hospital’s relationship with the medical school, depriving us of thousands of dollars’ worth of supplies, not to mention fracturing the relationships we had built through the years. Even sadder is the fact that one of the ring leaders left the nursing profession a few years later to become a pastor. This individual never recognized the damage his actions had created.
APPLICATION: Gloating over the fall of enemies, laying traps for others, and rebellion-what do all these actions have in common? Those engaging in such actions are refusing to acknowledge God or to trust God. Only God knows the human heart and only God knows the true circumstances of someone’s situation. When we sit outside the life of another and attempt to judge, we will always make mistakes. The title of this study is “Don’t look at the rocks; look at the river.” When navigating white water rivers, you must focus on the best path to take to avoid winding up on the rocks. Your canoe or kayak will go wherever you focus. If you focus on the acts of the wicked, sooner or later you too will become wicked. But if you focus on God and His righteousness, you will be safe. Don’t look at the rocks; look at the river!
PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and for caring for us. Lord, help us to remember that You are the only One qualified to judge and that You are the One who knows the human heart best. Help us to trust all our problems to You. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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